Week 1: Rhythm, Scales, and Leaps!
Hello Everyone, welcome to week 1 of the Practice Plan Challenge!
This week we will focus on
Optional: Sightreading
HOW TO START:
1. Take the Practice Plan Quiz if you haven't already!
2. Choose a repertoire piece that you really want to work on the next month
3. Let's focus on the above skills this week
4. Watch the appropriate level video for you from the courses above, and start working through the different concepts and apply them to your repertoire!
Optional: Download the Practice Breakdowns!
The Goals:
- The #1 goal is to improve your pieces/playing by using the tonebase Practice Plan!
- We will all focus on three abilities each week (+ sightreading because this is ALWAYS good for you!).
- The 3 new skills will be announced on Monday of each week so that we can all work on things together!
- We are all different levels, so by clicking on the course links above, you can scroll down to your appropriate leveled video. That is what YOU should watch/work on for the given week.
- Then, you will write or post a video demonstrating how you are working on the different abilities!
- You are encouraged to show how you are trying to apply the abilities in your pieces! (Ex. you watch a scales video, then write how it may have helped improve the ending of Chopin's G minor ballade!)
- With the focused work of this plan and challenge, we should all be able to improve our repertoire over the next month, and post submissions of our final performances to be watched in a "Watch Party!"
- Optional: Use the Practice Breakdowns to help guide your work!
Share which repertoire piece you have chosen, and post either writing or a video to share any progress!
-
I am working on three big projects this year, more or less simultaneously: Chopin's Mazurkas Op. 50, Szymanowski's "Métopes" Op. 29, and Liszt's Sonata in B minor. My plan for this (highly motivating!) challenge would be to pick out passages from any of these works that are particularly suited to each week's themes, practice those using the didactic lessons provided to us, and then try to share some brief recordings of sections in which I have made progress.
-
Alexander Weymann This is perfect! Can't wait to see your progress!
-
Alexander Weymann I am SO excited to hear your progress. I hope to be more like you, in a few years.
-
Gail Starr you are too kind; with your talent and dedication, you cannot fail to make beautiful progress - will you be participating in this challenge?
-
Alexander Weymann YES! I’m starting the practice challenge today. Working on Beethoven Op. 14 #2 and 2 Debussy Preludes. I’m SO impressed with the level of your repertoire!
-
Alexander Weymann What an amazing choice of repertoire for the year! I finally heard Szymanowski (Op 50 Mazurkas 1&2) today live at a masterclass! Very interesting composer- so modern but with that Polish touch. Looking forward to hearing your pieces!
-
Vidhya Bashyam I totally agree with what you say about Szymanowski. Actually, his mazurkas are some of his less accessible pieces (for the listener), in my opinion. But I am so glad to hear that you got a first impression of his work!
-
Vidhya Bashyam I need to listen to these!
-
Gail Starr Well, I’m afraid I’m quite late in starting the challenge. But, better late than never, right?
-
-
I am currently working on beethoven sonata 8 pathetique third movement and bach invention no. 8 in F major. I know for sure rhythm and scale will need a lot of work for me in those pieces. I only recently learn to use metronome to practice and it really helps my rhythm. I will watch the video first and go from there. I am level 5. I have a hard time keeping the same tempo throughout a piece. I hope i will make some progress.
-
rebecca LAM I learned that Bach last year during Magdalena’s challenge. Lovely!
-
Gail Starr Yes. I like it too. what tempo do you play it? i heard it play at very fast tempo but I am not sure I can get there. Also how do you practice the different dynamics on each hand at the same time? e.g bar 2, right hand decresendo while left hand cresendo. I found it so challenging to do that.
-
rebecca LAM I try to play it at a moderate tempo. I've heard it done quickly and it sounds rushed, I think. I haven't really worried about the left hand dynamics because I kind of get the sense that with Bach, we don't REALLY know what the dynamics were on a harpsichord. But I could be wrong about that!
-
-
I’m going to use this challenge to improve my Chopin Op. 10 No. 4. It has scales, arpeggios, leaps, etc, so every item in the practice plan series ought to help me with something! I already have it memorized, but there are a lot of technical issues that I still need to iron out…so, we’ll see how it goes!
-
Marc M this is the PERFECT piece to address every one of the topics!
-
-
I'm at the tail-end of working on several small pieces, but I'll watch the videos and see what exists in those pieces which match the topics for the week. This should be fun!
-
The quiz puts me at Level 3. One of the short-study pieces I have right now is a Haydn German Dance (I don't know the number), which I've had for about 2 weeks. It's short, sweet, and simple. On the "Leaps" video, it talks about moving during the rests - which is what the left hand has to do in the B section, moving slightly from one position to the next. It's a fun little piece, which I'll probably be finished with at tomorrow's lesson. Thanks!
-
Michelle R What a charming piece!
-
-
-
Letizia These are REALLY challenging leaps, Letizia! Can't wait to hear you.
-
-
Thank you Dominic for this interesting challenge, I'm going to use it with different passages of the Chopin First Ballade and Rachmaninoff Prelude op3 n2...; pieces that I would like to play more comfortably than I do.
-
Hi there!
I thought it would be interesting to post some videos here showing my progress during this challenge. In addition to improving the pieces I also hope to improve my technological ability!
This is my starting point.
https://youtu.be/-7DYa-YNUIk?si=0ovbau5uRIndvSkB
I can't wait to show to the future me how far I can go!
-
Letizia
what a wonderful start!
-
Letizia Such a beautiful start! I enjoyed listening.
-
-
One of Ben Laude's teaching modules on rhythm - on polyrhythms, specifically - did inspire me to dig out a piece with lots of polyrhythms (3 against 4, 3 against 5, and 4 against 5): the Étude in F# minor Op. 8 No. 2 by Alexander Scriabin. Ben's suggestion to think of the two different rhythms moving against each other as flowing independently and not obsessively try to somehow mathematically make them fit into each other really helped me play this. Also, there are lots of leaps in the left hand which make this piece appropriate for this week's set of themes.
