Week 4 – Play Through & Share
Welcome to Week 4 of the Romantic Music Challenge.
This week is about letting go of the microscope and trusting the arc you’ve built. You’ve worked through notes, texture, and character. Now it’s time to experience the piece as a whole.
This week, your goal is to play through your piece—or your chosen section—as a complete musical thought.
Practice Prompts
Choose one or two and explore:
- Play through without stopping, even if something goes wrong
- Decide where the emotional high point of the piece lives
- Notice where your attention drifts, and gently bring it back to the narrative
- Imagine you’re performing for one specific listener
Sharing for This Week
When you’re ready, share a recording of your full piece or selected section. Audio or video is welcome.
We’ll begin compiling submissions for our Romantic Watch Party on February 13, where we’ll listen together and celebrate everyone’s work.
Press record, play it through, and let it be what it is!
385 replies
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Here is my progress video for this final week: Chopin Prelude Op. 28 no. 7. AKA my first Chopin!! I don't learn pieces quickly, so am happy with this performance. It is memorized and I can make it through with only a couple of mistakes. Now to polish it and be more deliberate on my choices! Thanks for the challenge.
And here's an updated recording (with Thurmond's Liszt Transcendental Etude on the music stand for inspiration 😁):
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Hello Tonebase colleagues-- there are so many beautiful new posts since I last visited this page. I'm having the greatest night, sitting up late (by our standards anyway) after a wearying day, listening to every single one of them. So many beautiful pieces and performances, and such a variety of moods, emotions and images and textures are conveyed on these pages,, too many to comment on indivudally, but I Iove them all. Congratulations to everyone and hope to see you at the watch party.
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Hi all
here is my contribution to the romantic challenge
first couple of pages of Brahms intermezzo in Bflat minor op117 no2
its a great piece which I’ve really enjoyed working on
Brahms
Intermezzo op117 no2
First two pages
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Well here it is, my friends.
Pardon the painful facial expressions. Please understand that I'm out of my comfort zone when playing soft romantic pieces, even though I love them. And I just happen to find this one to be the most romantic in the entire repertoire! And also as mysterious as it is romantic. Rach never gave us a clue on its secret extra-musical meaning, if there is one. Or did he? As I said earlier, I do remember reading somewhere that it is NOT about unrequited love. Rather, it is supposed to be about closure, perhaps one last memory of what was too good to last, or something like that. But maybe I'm making this up, haha!
And please pardon my shameless truncation of the piece, jumping from the third page to the last!😆
If you're curious about what is on the monitor screen in front of me, that's the Studio One software. I always record the sound with that software and my Presonus unit with two omni microphones, for the best sound quality that I can obtain. The drawback is that I have to record the picture with another device (my phone). More work, but worth it, hopefully.
Sadly I may not be able to make it for the watch party on Friday! because I will be working, albeit from home. I wish I had more time. My time here is pretty much the only time I can relax. Well, this and playing on my Baldwin SD-10, although I don't look too relaxed here!