Week 1: Choose your piece!
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 1?
- Select your New piece to work on, and share it below! Let's see what everyone is choosing!
- Submit one video of your practice this week, perhaps featuring your favorite passage of the opening bars!
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I will work on Björken (The Birch) Op. 75 No. 4 by Jean Sibelius. I'm hoping to learn all of The Trees at some point and this piece is one of my favourites. It'll be fun to work on it while waiting for spring when the birches finally sprout leaves.
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Alexander Weymann Great to hear that! Sibelius wrote wonderful piano music, but I think it's maybe not as well-known or popular outside of Finland as some of his other works. Especially The Spruce from The Trees is a crowd favourite here.
I just listened to Andsnes' album and really loved it. Thanks for the tip!
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As I need to prepare a short program with Messiaen’s music for organ to be performed in May, I will use this opportunity to stay in his world of sound and attempt to learn his prelude for piano “Instants defunts”. Just four pages in my book, but the language is not yet obvious to me, so it will require quite some work.
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I will work on Scarlatti's G minor sonata. It is a beautiful piece of music and I am hoping to memorise it as well. It is short and relatively easy but has its own difficulties (thirds to be played with ornamentation for example). I will have to get advice on how to do that cleanly.
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Sedef CANKOCAK Hi! Is this the K 427?
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Ching Lee Goh Ching Lee Goh Hi, no, it is a piece discovered in the last century and is without number. It is referred to as Kk deest (IMSLP) or HN 395 #23 (Henle).
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Sedef CANKOCAK thanks will have a look.
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I am going to tackle Brahms Intermezzo in A Major Op. 118 No. 2.
I just recently watched the lesson video and just absolutely love this piece
4/7 - practice video of my progress on the first couple of pages
Video Link:-
Andrea LeVan I just realized I missed your practice video post from a few days ago. Really nice start on this beautiful Intermezzo!
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Andrea LeVan Beautiful! This piece is timeless. Did you watch the Seymour Bernstein tutorial on this? I absolutely loved his tips.
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Vidhya Bashyam hi yes I did it was fantastic and I love his style tips
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I didn't know tonebase had something like this and only stumbled upon it this evening. But yesterday I spoke to someone from the Reddit Piano Jam about a three month project and I suggested Brahms Op. 117. And I tore my hairs to think of another "mini cycle" with three pieces - and all of a sudden Schumann's Op.28 made it into my mind. Never played a single note from any of these, so yesterday was a real fresh start, coinciding with the Tonebase project.
So: Schumann's Romance in b-flat minor Op.28 No.1 is the piece of my choice for this wonderful project.
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Schubert Moments Musicaux D.780 no.3
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Unless something changes tomorrow (i.e. I am given another piece by my teacher), I'll be working on a little Prelude & Gigue by Keith Snell. Here is my blocking of the Prelude, and the first 4 measures of the Gigue (hands separate).
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Michelle R Beautiful chords! And you bring out that bass-line quite nicely.
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Michelle R Sounds beautiful, Michelle! I like very much how you press the chord keys: slow, relax..., and obtaining a rich and warm sound.
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Sindre Skarelven Juan Carlos Olite Thank you so much, Sindre and Juan Carlos. Next video will have me unfolding everything in the Prelude and playing the Gigue in full.
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Michelle R What a lovely start! I agree with the others- your chords are so crisp but warm too. Looking forward to your next video!
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I decide to settle on Debussy's Golliwogg's Cake Walk from the Children's Corner - should be a fun little piece I can learn and polish in 4 weeks
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Priya Viseskul I love that piece! So much fun
Overall also a great suite!
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This is a very well-defined step to start for anyone!
New Piece: Greig Piano Concerto
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Wow, that’s awesome!
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Given my slow pace of learning and limited time this month I'm planning to learn a short piece, the Scherzando from the Haydn C# minor Sonata. Since Haydn has been neglected in my piano training this will be a brand new experience for me.
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I would like to do the 3rd Novelette of the Trois Novelettes by Poulenc. I'm already quite familiar with playing the 1st two, but haven't started on the 3rd one yet. It has a lovely languid feel with a theme inspired by Falla's opera El Amor Brujo.
As this is a 4- rather than 3 week challenge, I'd like to try learn another piece - Rachmaninov's Etude Tableau op 33 no 4 in D minor. I've fingered it through once or twice, but now would really like to put my mind to learning it. This is my 1st encounter of a Rach work outside of his Preludes, and I think would be a nice companion to the Preludes in D minor Op 23, and G# minor in Op 32.
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Ching Lee Goh each piece is about 4-5 pgs, so 1 page per week to learn!
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Ching Lee Goh Great choices! Looking forward to hearing you- always enjoy your playing!
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