Read Me First and FAQ: Schubert Discovery Month
Welcome to our latest tonebase piano Community Practice Challenge: Schubert Discovery Month!
Schubert would have celebrated his 225th birthday on January 31st and we’ll show him some birthday appreciation by learning his music!Schubert’s piano music is often celebrated for its lyrical melodies, its spiritual breadth, and what Robert Schumann called its “heavenly length.” Schubert‘s music also has a fiery side: catchy dance rhythms, tumultuous dynamics, enormous range around the keyboard, and the most heartbreaking harmonies.
This month, join in Schubert Discovery Month by selecting a Schubert work (or more!) that you’d like to play. If you have a partner for piano duets, for which Schubert may be the preeminent composer from his era, go for it!
What are we doing?
We’re going to learn a Schubert piece of your choice! The aim is to practice your piece every day and post progress updates twice a week. You choose what piece you work on, but you commit to practicing it regularly. A watch party featuring your submissions will take part at the end (date below!)
When does this take place?
Challenge start: February 1
Practice days: February 1 - 22 (21 days)
Watch party: TBD! Stay Tuned! (← link coming soon!)
How to start:
1. Start by practicing a Schubert piece of your choice.
2. After 2-3 days, go to our BIWEEKLY UPDATES thread and post about one passage that you especially are especially satisfied with, one passage you find difficult to play, and one passage that reminds you of another piece.
If you are comfortable with it, add a video or audio of yourself performing it. This is optional, but it will allow you to share your progress with others!
I encourage you to post updates twice a week. No daily update expectation in this challenge! If you want to post daily though, feel free!
3. After you post an update:
Repeat steps 1-2 from above and keep practicing every day!
Why are we doing this?
Because we want to challenge ourselves to practice every day
Because learning together is more fun than learning alone
Because we get to share our progress with others (whether video or just text)
Because new music is wonderful and these pieces were written especially for us!
Because we want to meet our fellow tonebase community members
Because we get to hear new music which we might not play ourselves
How to choose your repertoire:
1. Choose something you feel you can complete in three weeks.
2. Choose something that resonates with your musical rhetoric.
The Fun Part:
At the end of our practice challenge, we will be hosting a Watch Party on tonebase LIVE! This will feature user submissions and shoutouts!
Here are the links to each week's discussion threads, where you may post your updates and reflections on the week's practice.
Week 3
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Hi, just chanced upon this post. Is it too late to join the challenge now?
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Desiree Chua Now is a GREAT time to join! Welcome!
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Desiree Chua Hi Desiree, most certainly it's not too late!
Feel free to make your way to the Week 2 thread, where you may take part!
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I have tried to memorize this trio section and thought perhaps naively that if I learned the section as chords rather than arpeggios It would work. So here it is with chords first and then arpeggios. Please forgive my crude attempts. Gerry W PS just watched. I must practice pretty bad
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geraldw Actually, I think you've hit on a great practice technique - consolidating arpeggios into chords. What happens now if you slowly start to roll the chords, before proceeding into full arpeggiation? Great that you have memorized it as well: I think it will make the physical transformations easier to accomplish.
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