Week 2: Share your progress
WELCOME TO THE LATEST COMMUNITY CHALLENGE!
For this challenge "A Fresh Start" the goal is to pick a BRAND-NEW piece to work on this month.
This is the time to finally open that score that you have been thinking about and get to work!
WHAT ARE WE DOING IN WEEK 2?
- You should have selected your new piece by now, so this week let's start sharing our progress
- Share a video or type what you have been working on this week! It is always interesting to hear how people start the learning process!
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This is my progress so far. Still some mistakes to clean up, but I think I'm going to focuse on textures, nuances and pedaling next.
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maijahildur such a beautiful piece. You're playing it so well!
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Sindre Skarelven Vidhya Bashyam Gail Starr Alexander Weymann Randi
Thank you all so much for the lovely and encouraging comments! I'm so glad you like the piece, I think it has a lovely summery countryside feel to it. :) -
maijahildur really lovely! This piece is new to me. It has kind of an "earthy" feel to it - great music to listen to while working in the garden!
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maijahildur Great playing; very interesting piece, bucolic but mysterious too...
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Here is my week 2 progress video. I'm about 2/3 into the piece, so hopefully I can get threw the piece by next week. It's hard to know exactly how much time it takes with this last section, but I'm looking forward to start learning this end part of the ballad!
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Sindre Skarelven Bravo! I love how relaxed you look playing this not so simple piece! No tension in your posture or hands- something I need to work on a lot. So much beauty in this piece and your interpretation. Looking forward to the next part!
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Sindre Skarelven You are such a natural. This gorgeous piece is a part of you already!
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Sindre Skarelven I know I shouldn't be surprised anymore by how rapidly you learn these big pieces, but it still impresses me every time. Wow. It already has a very charming, lyrical feel to it and the right atmosphere.
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Sindre Skarelven It's truly incredible to witness your learning process / speed. I personally think this is the most difficult Chopin Ballade to memorize. You are flying through it and sounding wonderful!
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Sindre Skarelven i need to know your tricks for memorization because I can’t remember what I had for dinner just a few hours ago lol! I’ll go watch that video on memorization
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Vidhya Bashyam Gail Starr Alexander Weymann Judy Kuan Andrea LeVan Thanks so much for your kind comments everyone!!
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Judy Kuan I’m glad to learn that this is hardest to memorize :) I learned the first one many years ago, and thought I refresh it and learn the whole set. I loved your 4. ballad performance recently, very inspiring!
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Andrea LeVan I wouldn’t call it a trick, but I think of memorization as like a muscle. You have to find the perfect weight, and exercise it regularly.
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Sindre Skarelven Impressive as usual...your progress is inspiring!
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Sindre Skarelven Simply amazing, Sindre! I am in awe.
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Marc M Michelle R Thanks so much!
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Sindre Skarelven The piece is growing beautiful, natural, very poetic, week after week; Bravo, Sindre!
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Juan Carlos Olite Thanks, Juan Carlos! Looking forward to your next Élégie recording!
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It has been a rough and frustrating week getting used to this Gershwin Prelude. I probably should have pushed more to learn it when I was young.
The Peter Dugan video makes it seem a lot more easier than it really is…
Anyways, it’s down by about 30 seconds since week 1, but I have a long way to go.
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Grace You're making great progress!! Your voicing and rhythm are already sounding solid. My teacher often says that it's most important to get your ideas across, and that the notes will come along eventually. He's usually right :)
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Grace I can hear your progress and Gershwin is (in my opinion) really tough! I’ve had Rhapsody in Blue laying around for decades and haven’t gotten past page 2. Maybe a future aspiration
so Bravo! 
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Grace great work! You’ve learned all of the notes!
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Your're really getting the hang of it, Grace! And you are memorizing right away. Just be patient, over time this piece will become part of you.
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Grace Great progress! You're doing so well.
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