Week 1: A New Hope

Dominic_Cheli
3 wk ago
346replies

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!

- Sachi
- 2 wk ago
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Thank you Dominic and Tonebase for providing us such great opportunity and encouragement.

I have two pieces in mind: either Liszt: Liebestraum no.3 the last section «dolce armonioso» or the last page of Chopin prelude op.28-13.

I have chosen the Chopin prelude because this one is dear to me. I just love this one.
I wanted to learn the prelude during Chopin challenge, but time was running short. I need to work with the last half.
- Koshka
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  I’ve also chosen the Chopin prelude no. 13! ❤️
- Sachi
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  Hi Koshka. It's really nice to read that you've chosen the same prelude: op.28-13. I truly hope that I can play through this prelude (one day), but honestly I'm not sure how far I will manage during this given period. I'm an amateur piano lover. I'm aiming to post one or two practice/progress videos for accountability (well, I heard Dominic saying so at the webinar and it's a powerful word).
- TT2022
- 2 wk ago
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Well, I just tried out the coda of the Barcarolle after learning the notes for the first time a few months ago. (I had to put it in cold storage over the past few months due to other commitments taking precedence.) I just tried it out today and cold recorded myself and it’s patchy and I’m hunting around for notes here and there. So I’m debating whether to share a shambolic Week 1 video as a baseline or not 😅

Will see if others do the same! Nothing like solidarity in collective week 1 beginnings…!
- Pediatrician
  
  a_weymann
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  that depends! What I produced in tonight’s practice session was too atrocious a horror show to record even as a draft. But by the end of the week, this movement could have mellowed from an R-rated slasher flick into a PG-13 rated horror comedy. So, if you’re talking about recording the baseline status on the weekend (late, very late on the weekend 😉),, I could be persuaded to join you.
- TT2022
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  Ha! yes, current status is semi slasher flick zone! This is actually a good idea — recording on the weekend after we’ve had the chance to spend a few more days with our pieces. And then we can do this every weekend for the next few weeks of this challenge.
- Pediatrician
  
  a_weymann
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  deal! I’m in.
- Pianist, composer and piano teacher
  
  Sindre_Skarelven
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  Yes! This is how we used to do these challenges before (as you may remember), actually making a recording each week! I find it much more useful and interesting, and will try to join in :)
- vbashyam
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  I agree with Sindre. The old challenges where everyone posted weekly videos were great! I will do it for this challenge as well.
- Pediatrician
- a_weymann
- 2 wk ago
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I’m going to pick a hope-themed motto for each week. This week, it shall be: “Hope is no strategy”. 😆 Although I guess Dominic will give different titles to subsequent weeks…? 🤔
- Pianist, composer and piano teacher
  
  Sindre_Skarelven
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  I’ll be very curious to see what you will come up with for the coming weeks! ☺️
- Noel_Nguyen
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  I suggest "abandon all hope, ye who enter here".
- Pediatrician
  
  a_weymann
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  😂most certainly not! We will all remain relentlessly positive and optimistic, won’t we? 😀
- vbashyam
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  Or more like-
  
  “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”
- Pediatrician
  
  a_weymann
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  brilliant! 😂
- Pianist, composer and piano teacher
  
  Sindre_Skarelven
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  Aragorn: “This is a good piano, Haleth son of Hama (enter own name)…There is always hope!”
- Pediatrician
  
  a_weymann
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  inspired mixing of pop culture universes!
- Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
  
  Michelle_Russell
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  "Hopelessly devoted"?
- Pediatrician
  
  a_weymann
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  that’s very fitting; I certainly am “hopelessly devoted” to my piece, as I imagine many of us are. 😊
- Pianist, composer and piano teacher
  
  Sindre_Skarelven
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  Yes, now there’s nowhere to hide..
- Vanessa_Ellermann
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  I will not be Dante’ed by your Purgatory references.
- Noel_Nguyen
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  Ah, Dante you! God Dante you (all) to hell!
- Astrida_Gobina
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  I go with “Delusion as a resource” 😆
- Pediatrician
  
  a_weymann
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  In my pianistic identity, delusion is my lifeblood, my superpower, and the air I breathe. 90% of the energy required to tackle and doggedly work through a new big piece is derived purely from it. 😂
- Noel_Nguyen
- 2 wk ago
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Did somebody say something about horror shows? I'm in!

Here, a very short excerpt from a practice session, just enough to ruin your appetite. As a bonus you can sort of see the sequelae of a self-surgery I did on my upper left calf, as a med student many years ago (removed a small lipoma, ended up with a bigger scar😁):
- Pediatrician
  
  a_weymann
  
  2 wk ago
  
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  a delightful miniature amuse-bouche that demands a satisfying entrée-sized section to follow in short order. Sounds great!