Week 4: Share It
We made it.
Four weeks ago, this challenge began with A New Hope. You chose a piece, took the first steps, kept the momentum going, and stayed with it through the ups and downs.
Now it’s time for the final step:
Share it.
This week is all about recording and posting your piece. It does not need to be perfect. In fact, that was never the goal.
Maybe your piece isn’t exactly where you imagined it would be. Maybe there are still rough edges. Maybe there are passages you still wish you had another week with.
That’s okay.
The point of Unfinished Business was never perfection. It was showing up, sticking with it, and bringing something across the finish line.
So this week, post your recording! Whether it’s:
- your full piece
- an excerpt
- one section you’re proud of
- or your best take so far
Share it.
And then… get ready.
On June 6th, we’ll celebrate together during our Unfinished Business Watch Party, where we’ll enjoy and celebrate recordings from the community and look back on the journey we took together.
You’ve already done the hard part.
Now let us hear it.
You have until June 5th to share a recording with us, to be included on the concert!
254 replies
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Alright friends, I've been thinking, all this preparation, with practice videos and all, and probably my best recorded performance ever (not that this means much, but still), only to fail at the finish line, that just ain't me. And is right, I shouldn't deprive you of the fruits of my efforts. SO I will show you a preview now, while still working on fixing the video issues. Sorry for the moments of blurriness and jerkiness of the picture and the artifacts and whatnot. Many visual frames were lost forever like tears in rain. Sadly I do not possess the otherworldly videography skills of ! Thankfully the audio was recorded on a separate device and the sound quality is quite good.
I promise the submit the whole track at the next recital or challenge, whether I finish the visual repairs or not!
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Hello all. I just arrived home after an exhausting 10 days cleaning out my deceased father-in-law's home. My husband and I need a few more days still to finish (which means we'll travel back out in a couple of months - it's hard for him to get time off since he has a solo medical practice!), but it is a good deal better than it was 10 days ago. I haven't even touched a piano since May 30, so plan to see how things are this week once I'm back to practicing and hopefully can post a belated video of BWV 999. And I'll try to find time to view the watch party, as those are always such fun. Even without watching it, I'm certain it was wonderful - congratulations to all!!
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said:
I find your approach rather fascinating, and I can see how maintaining a vast repertoire can limit you in working on a specific piece for a long period of time, but how did you reach this level without conservatory training?
How many years did you work with a teacher?just to answer these questions: to reach my present level, such as it is, I followed those directions on how to get to Carnegie Hall: PRACTICE! I had a teacher for about 4 years in Jr. High-High School who taught popular playing with chords (which I had already been exploring on my own for years), although he also indulged and encouraged my interest in classical music which I was just discovering.
Then in college (Northeastern U), we had an Artist in Residence, a world class concert pianist and retired former chair of New England Conservatory piano faculty, named Miklos Schwalb. I'm sure it must have been part of his contract to accept a certain number of hackers from the NU student body as students, and I thereby had the priceless opportunity to work with him on and off, for about 4-5 years. Instead of doing what most college students do with their time, whatever that was, I spent every minute I could find, sneaking into places where I didn't belong, to work out on their pianos that were not adequately locked and secured against trespassers. Maestro Schwalb helped me clean up my technique and had me playing some pretty big repertoire by the time we were finished.
I say "on and off" because NU was on the quarterly co-op system, and I spent alternate quarters playing gigs. For 3 winters I played nightly in a ski lodge in Killington, VT, 8 hours/night (4PM - 2PM, with 2 hours off for dinner plus hourly breaks for good behavior), 7 days a week, except for 2 weekends off during the season, when they brought in a band. That's where my playing, my technique and my skills started to come together.
And virtually all my free time then and afterwards, learning, analyzing, reading and thinking about music, especially chords and harmonies.