Week 4 Beethoven Challenge – Recordings Watch Party 🎥🎶

Week 4 is here, and it's time to share!

For this final week of the Beethoven Challenge, your goal is simple:
record your piece and submit it for our community Watch Party.

It doesn’t have to be “finished” or perfect. In fact, it’s more useful if it isn’t. Record where you are right now with your Beethoven and let that be your snapshot of growth from Week 1 to Week 4.

How to participate:

  1. Record your Beethoven selection (phone video is totally fine).

  2. Upload it to Youtube!

  3. Post the link in the Week 4 thread below with:

    • Piece and movement

    • One sentence: “The thing I worked on most in this piece was…”

We’ll collect submissions and feature as many as we can in the Watch Party, with live commentary, encouragement, and a chance to hear how everyone has grown over the month.

This week’s challenge:
Don’t wait until you “deserve” to record. Hit record, share your current best, and join us for the Watch Party!!

119 replies

null
    • Sachi
    • 3 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi everyone. This is my recording of Bagatelle op.119-11. I found difficult: playing trill while holding one note, and articulating legato and staccato clearly. 

    https://youtu.be/o-otiOcJg2E?si=ns4r-VSmhTVhBLp3

      • Sachi
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Thanks!

      • Victoria_Macdonald
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       You have such a beautiful relaxed touch, especially fitting in bringing out the melodic nature.

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Nice job Sachi!

      • Sachi
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks!

      • vbashyam
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Well done!

      • Sachi
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

      Thank you ☺️ 

    • Victoria_Macdonald
    • 3 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi Fellow Beethoven Challengers,

    I had the opportunity earlier this week to attend a lecture on Beethoven by the wonderful pianist and Beethoven scholar, Jonathan Biss. Afterwards, there was a post-lecture meet & greet with the artist and I told him about our Beethoven Challenge group. He was gracious enough to agree to making a short inspirational video for our group. He speaks about his own relationship to Beethoven's music and the satisfaction that can come from the struggle. I hope you find this as encouraging as I did. 

    I promised to share this only with our group and not on any social media platforms. Please honor that promise with me.

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

      THank you for sharing that, Victoria.

      • Philosophy teacher and piano lover
      • Juan_Carlos
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you, Victoria!

    • Andrew_Smith
    • 3 days ago
    • Reported - view

    An edited comment here (I forgot to write what I was working on most with this piece) -- one area of focus was choosing different fingering options in the scale passages and some other fingering. I'm using the Schnabel edition, which has great but some counterintuitive fingering options. The other main thing is staying calm even though the music is intense . . . Like --I am supposing-- many of us, I really, really could have used another week! I felt like my nervous system was rather fried today; but this at least gives a sense of the 2nd movement. Way better on a real piano!

    https://youtu.be/DrPRJsAWWlc

      • Rui
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       this was pretty good. I would like to learn this sonata one day, but it may take me 10 years.

      • Philosophy teacher and piano lover
      • Juan_Carlos
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Very powerful and expressive! Bravo, Andrew!

      • Victoria_Macdonald
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Very impressive playing!

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you Rui. It is a great sonata and luckily the first two movements are pretty short!

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you Juan Carlos!

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

      THank you Victoria!

      • Kerstin
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Thanks for playing this piece. I like it. 

      • Mark_Cooper
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

      really nice rendition Andrew , I think you caught the spirit of the piece well

      btw not a bad sound from that keyboard, is it a Kawai?

      • Andrew_Smith
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       THanks, Kerstin.

      • Andrew_Smith
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       THanks Mark. Digital keyboard is Yamaha P-525. The sound is OK; however I don't like to play for extended time on it because there is no trampoline effect/cushion rebound from the keys like on a real piano, so it can cause a bit of soreness in tendons or wherever. It's kind of like playing on a countertop (or walking barefoot on a sidewalk).

    • Rui
    • 3 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I do have to play the Pathetique Sonata Rondo movement at a recital on Sunday.  I wish I didn’t have a day job and I could work on this a bit more.

     

    https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B2O5CmvASRJQvU

      • Philosophy teacher and piano lover
      • Juan_Carlos
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

      Well done, Rui!

      • Rui
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

      thanks!

    • claudiadm73
    • 3 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi everyone, today I'm sending you my work on the Bagatella 
    op. 119 n. 1. 
    I'm sorry it's still late, but I wanted to focus on the phrasing and color of the various sections. I'm restructuring my technique because I've had pain issues, so I'm proceeding with caution and patience with my studies.
    I thank everyone and extend my deepest respect to the Tonebase staff.

    https://youtu.be/cpcD03RNaeI

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Beautifully played. I love your clarity of sound.

Content aside

  • 5 Likes
  • 1 hr agoLast active
  • 119Replies
  • 138Views
  • 23 Following