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!

 

122 replies

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

    I had been hoping (no pun intended) for one of these Unfinished Business Challenges to come along sometime soon; they always are timely and most welcome. I’ll sign up with Alexander Scriabin, Sonata No. 3 F# minor Op. 23, IV. movement (Presto con fuoco) on which I have been working hard for a long time, but only ever intermittently, and for which I really could use this extra push to get it - and with it, finally, the whole sonata - over the finish line and ready for performance. 

      • Noel_Nguyen
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Oops I just realized it's in the UK! I guess I'll skip this one then, but thanks!

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

       I’ll be going for the first time this year, but it is MUCH bigger and significantly more intense than Adamant. From what I understand, you go to Chetham if you couldn’t care less about idyllic surroundings and natural beauty and just want to nerd out about piano playing for 16 hours a day. I don’t think I am allowed to post a link here, but if you look for “Chetham’s International Piano Summer School 2026”, it’ll come right up.

      • Noel_Nguyen
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Damn, you got me thinking. You could be the Virgil to my Dante, I suppose 😅.

      I do like the Adamant setting (visually) more for sure, but there are more aspects to consider indeed.

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

       Adamant = Paradise. There simply is no other way to say it. 😊

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

       😂 the Virgil to your Dante? Guiding you through the inferno and purgatory of various pianistic superabundances? 

      • Noel_Nguyen
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

        Well you did say that Adamant is heaven, which means Chetham is ... the 9th circle of scrumptious pianistic superabundances I guess😅.

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

       ah! Yes, from what I have heard, that just about describes it… 😁

      • Kerstin
      • 12 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Who even wants to be normal ?🤣

      • Pediatrician
      • a_weymann
      • 11 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       exactly! Only dull and boring people; not artists like us. 😆

      • Kerstin
      • 8 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      That’s great! I am in Kallmünz again. 👍

      • Akzent oder Diminuendo? • Hanon/Herz student
      • Maria_F
      • 8 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       I don't think many of us are "normal."

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

       one of these years, I will get to go to Kallmünz, but I only have enough vacation time for one week of full-time piano playing per year. 

    • Akzent oder Diminuendo? • Hanon/Herz student
    • Maria_F
    • 5 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I will either finish one of the many Chopin Mazurkas that I started a long time ago, or relearn his Nocturne in B-flat Minor (which I didn't realize I had forgotten until very recently). 

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

      Awesome. Looking forward.

      • Shivani
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I just started relearning the b-flat minor nocturne too! I played it a few years ago and hoping I can bring it back. This challenge may be the perfect thing to keep me going with it! Look forward to hearing you play it too, or whatever you decide to work on!

      • Akzent oder Diminuendo? • Hanon/Herz student
      • Maria_F
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I think I am going to finish the Mazurka (possibly multiple Mazurkas). 

      • Shivani
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

        look forward to hearing!

      • Akzent oder Diminuendo? • Hanon/Herz student
      • Maria_F
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I look forward to hearing the Nocturne!

    • Pianist, composer and piano teacher
    • Sindre_Skarelven
    • 4 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I would like to play Chopin Ballade 2 op 38 for this challenge. It's the one Chopin ballade I have not yet performed on Tonebase, so it will also mark a finishing of the set (Though I plan to revisit them all in not too long). 

    Where I'm at with this piece is that I learned the notes to it about a year ago, but it was far far away from a performance level. So the job is pretty clear - bring back the notes, and get it to speed. 

    Let's hope the force will guide me through the ballade, though I may have to use the dark side for some of these passages.  

      • Philosophy teacher and piano lover
      • Juan_Carlos
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Great choice, Sindre! I always love listening to your Chopin, and your beautiful journey through the Ballades.

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

      can’t wait to hear you get in touch with your dark side, particularly for that infernal coda! 

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Well, I DO know Sindre's dark side, because we have a nearly 1800 day streak together on DuoLingo.  The guy is a BEAST.  A quiet beast, but still...

      • Akzent oder Diminuendo? • Hanon/Herz student
      • Maria_F
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Which languages are you learning?

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

       What a wonderful challenge for you! I'm really looking forward to hearing you play...but stay away from the dark side! You don't need it to complete this quest!!

      • vbashyam
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       We love hearing your Chopin Ballades! 

Content aside

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