Week Three: Record your Tchaikovsky!
Hello and welcome to the WEEK THREE Main Thread for this challenge! 
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between May 1st - 7th I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Here is this week's assignment!
1. Submit a practice video or recording of your piece!
We are gearing up for a Tchaikovsky Celebratory Watch party on his Birthday May 7th at 9am Pacific TIME, so make sure to post your video so it can be shared!
Please note this different start time (9am PT!)
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Posting an excerpt of my practice from Tchaikovsky’s Romance in F Minor. It was composed in 1868 and dedicated to soprano Désirée Artôt. I underestimated the length/complexity of the piece and overestimated how much practice time I had. It’s a beautiful piece and I look forward to spending many more hours with it.
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Michelle R Thank you Michelle!
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Vidhya Bashyam oh, this is a lovely piece, and it sounds great already. What is the opus #? I'd really like to play that myself one day.
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Alexander Weymann Thanks! It’s opus 5.
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Vidhya Bashyam What a beautifully played, Vidhya! Very gentle and sensitive. As Natalie says, play it for us again when you have it complete.
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Juan Carlos Olite Thank you Juan Carlos! Will definitely keep working on it and share when complete.
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Vidhya Bashyam What a lovely piece- yet another one I did not know. Lovely playing as well! Thank you for posting!
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Here's October. There are a few oopsies in there, but it's way past my bedtime, so I'll have to leave it at this for now and maybe do better some other day. :)
If for some reason you're interested in the old video, here is the link: https://youtu.be/2dHBqWMY3HQ
EDIT: Recording updated on 5/10/2023. See note in my reply below.
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Marc M I'm thrilled you chose this piece! This challenge made me listen to all 12 months from "The Seasons" for the first time, and October definitely is my favorite. You play it beautifully and manage to create the appropriate pensive and melancholy atmosphere.
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Marc M Very beautiful! October is my favorite from “The Seasons” as well.
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Marc M October is also one of my favorites from the Seasons. I know how long it can take to get a perfect recording, but I think this one is nicely done! Your emotions came through and it's very touching.
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Marc M Great playing Marc, you create that beautiful sadness so personal in Tchaikovsky music.
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Thanks everyone! You all are very kind.
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Marc M yes very lovely- thank you!
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Thank you, Alexander Weymann, Vidhya Bashyam, AJ, Juan Carlos Olite, and Angela Fogg for the warm comments! Here's an updated recording. I used different mic placement and a different phone. (The other recording made me realize my normal phone has non-optional, aggressive noise cancelling and normalizing.) It would be cool to have a tonebase video on piano recording techniques, for home recording, and recommendations about what to do about things like equalizer settings.
I'm feeling better about this recording, but it's not quite where I want it to be, and the viewing angle is weird, so I'll probably record it again later this month after my piano gets tuned.
The scariest part of this piece to play is the last note. It's marked "pppp" at the end of a morendo. Once I had a fabulous recording going (or so I thought) until that last note, which refused to sound after two or three tries.
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Marc M that was lovely; I'm glad you took the time to record it again. The ascending triplets in the right hand come out much more expressively, more declamatory, more "cantabile". And you have some beautiful dialogues going on between the right hand and left hand when they take turns with the melodic material.
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Alexander Weymann Thank you! This was my first ToneBase challenge...it was great fun, and I appreciate the comments.
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Dominic Cheli I'm a bit confused about the time for the watch party. Here you have 11am PT, but just received an email saying that it's gonna be 9am PT.
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AJ Apologies it is indeed at 9am PT!
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Dominic Cheli Thank you for confirming! Look forward to the watch party!
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AJ I hope I can make it at 9 AM (12 EST). I will try.
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Well I couldn’t make the party but have just listened to the recording. Really great! See you all in the next one!
