Week 1: A New Hope

Starting on May 4th...

Welcome to the Unfinished Business Challenge — and the beginning of our four-week musical adventure!

Every great journey starts with a first step (and some hope!) This week is about choosing your piece: something you’ve always wanted to learn, something you started and left behind, or something unfinished that keeps calling you back.

This Week’s Mission

Choose one piece (or excerpt) to stay with throughout the challenge.

A few ideas:

  • A piece you’ve always meant to finish
  • Something abandoned years ago that deserves a second life
  • A new piece you’ve been waiting for the right moment to begin
  • A small excerpt from a larger dream piece

Big or small, all choices are welcome. What matters is that it feels like your unfinished business.

This Week, Share:

  • What piece did you choose?
  • Why this piece?
  • Is there a musical challenge or goal you hope to work through this month?

If you’d like, post a recording of where you’re starting from — even a rough first read. We’d love to hear it.

Over the next four weeks we’ll build momentum together!

 

240 replies

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    • Stephanie_Reuer
    • 8 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I am resurrecting the Barber Nocturne for my Nocturne project. I played it in my Junior recital decades ago. It’s still in my ears, but my fingers…not at all! This is a great challenge.

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Can’t wait to hear you, dear Stephanie!

    • TT2022
    • 8 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I’ll jump into the pool too, as it looks like it’s going to be quite a fun party!
     

    I’ll dust off either the Chopin opus 10/1 with the modest but achievable goal of playing it consistently through at 120 bpm+, or the Chopin Barcarolle (smoothening things out, expanding the dynamic range, and playing the bogeyman passages without stuttering).

      • Pediatrician
      • a_weymann
      • 8 days ago
      • Reported - view

       both are fabulous and exciting options! 

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Since you are an overachiever, I bet you’ll do both, LOL!

    • Noel_Nguyen
    • 8 days ago
    • Reported - view
     said:
    Chopin opus 10/1

     I apologize for not having done proper distancing nor worn a mask 😞.

      • TT2022
      • 7 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Masks would be hard for a pool party. Unless it’s a scuba mask! 

       

    • Deana_Dossey
    • 8 days ago
    • Reported - view

    so many to pick from...Mozart Sonata in C major and will see how far I get. Put in writing here so guess I better get to it. 

    • vbashyam
    • 8 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I will focus on “completing” a piece I just started- Brahms  117/2. I might also use this time to work on memorization for Rachmaninoff Prelude 23/6 (worked on it a few months ago and memorized some of the harder parts, but would like it all done and solid).

    • Noel_Nguyen
    • 7 days ago
    • Reported - view
     said:
    I apologize for not having done proper distancing nor worn a mask 😞.

     Joke fail😅. Back to the piano then.

    Oh no, back to work. That lifey work. And  you win the best new word (for me) award.

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      glad you like it, dear Noel!

    • cdales
    • 7 days ago
    • Reported - view

    There are indications in my two different editions of Debussy Preludes, Book 2, that I once worked on no. 7, "La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune". This would be at least 10 years ago, but I never did perform it. However, one might think that some previous study would let me pick it up again, quickly. That's not happening! 

    In mid-July I'm attending a week-long immersion at the local School of Music, including an intensive performing class on the life and works of Debussy. It's time to finish that piece!

      • vbashyam
      • 7 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Love this piece! It is on my unfinished shelf, but want to come back to it sometime. Looking forward to hearing you!

    • Aaron.2
    • 7 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I would like to finish learning the first movement of Rach 2. I started learning it this year. Our late beloved mother love this piece. I love this piece too. The goal for this month is to memorise this movement. 

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWmWbdTDghF/?igsh=MXBrbnM5bm0zczlwOQ==

      • Pediatrician
      • a_weymann
      • 7 days ago
      • Reported - view

       sounds lovely; looking forward to following your progress with this piece over the next four weeks! 

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 7 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Lovely playing; such a rich sound.

      • Kerstin
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       What a wonderful piece!

      • Aaron.2
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Alexander! 😊

      • Aaron.2
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Michelle! 😊

      • Aaron.2
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Thanks, Kerstin! 😊

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Can’t wait to hear you, Carol!

    • hot4euterpe
    • 7 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Wow, there are some really intense selections for a four week challenge! I'm looking forward to all the listening. =)

    Maybe I will go big as well. I have an unresolved history with Debussy's "Mouvement" from Images Bk. 1. It has been 8 years since I worked on it. Since then we have lived together but have not spoken.

      • Pediatrician
      • a_weymann
      • 7 days ago
      • Reported - view

       oooh… I love it! That piece is almost never played, and it’s so awesome! 

      • TT2022
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Your mention of "we have lived together but have not spoken" made me chuckle! Love it. So many of us have this same experience, you captured it so eloquently. 

      • Pediatrician
      • a_weymann
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       agreed; that was perfectly phrased. I do have pieces with which I eagerly seek a musical dialogue while they remain stubbornly silent; others seem to be trying to get my ear’s, brain’s, heart’s and fingers’ attention, but I either lazily ignore them or don’t know how to respond to them. 

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Or your “pesky day job” keeps you from spending every waking hour perfecting your amazing repertoire?❤️

Content aside

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