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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    • Peter_William
    • 6 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I tried this piece since Saturday this past week and just did 1 take on my iPad a few minutes ago.  So here is my effort 

    https://youtu.be/6caUOHOd_aY

      • Peter_William
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you Juan Carlos ! for the nice words of encouragement. It means a lot for me coming from you. Your playing of Bach I could listen to at any time ( sooo! good ).  I need to practise page 4 and page 5 a lot more -as it fell apart.  Also working on the transition with the big jump and chords in the left hand. I came back to this piece 5 days ago - the excuse was the deadline for this challenge. Had muddled through it a few years ago - did not know what rhythm was at the time - played by guessing interval subdivision. Got scolded by a Organ prof. ( friend's wife ). for trying such a difficult piece without knowing what I was doing. lol! . ( Original motivation - was hearing Maestro Uchida play  this on YT - heavenly) Now I see what the prof.  was saying.. well meaning. lol!. But will practise a lot more and post improvements as they occur. Slowly for me - for the most parts. 

    • Fionna_Zhang
    • 6 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Here’s a recording of a full run through I did of the Chopin Grande polonaise brillante! Super lucky for me that Yulianna Avdeeva’s tonebase course on this piece was released during this challenge — it was so great to hear insights from one of my favorite pianists on one of my favorite pieces.

    https://youtu.be/c0gWVPZ2xso?si=f7ZMHZU3WYMIibt8

     

    I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s progress week over week! Looking forward to the watch party :) 

     

    (if the video is too long for watch party purposes it can be started at 4:54)

      • Mark_Cooper
      • 6 days ago
      • Reported - view

       wonderful performance Fiona , you really have it under your fingers!!

      thanks for posting, it’s also one of my all time favourite Chopin pieces( to listen to, I don’t play it 😓)

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Wow, brava Fionna! You play with such refined and easy control and wonderful attention to nuances in rhythm and harmonic tension, among other things -- you make it look relatively "easy" in places even though it is difficult! This piece is on my bucket list -- if only I could play as well as you do. Thanks for posting. I guess this is "mostly finished business," for you, ha ha!

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

       What can I say, Fionna? This is a powerful and impressive performance, virtuosic, musical and thoroughly convincing. A huge bravo!

      • hot4euterpe
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Wonderful work Fionna. Such a stunning and challenging piece. You really have climbed a mountain with this one and give a very convincing and polished performance. =)

    • Pianist, composer and piano teacher
    • Sindre_Skarelven
    • 5 days ago
    • Reported - view

    It's not ready for performance yet, so it is what it is. But this challenge has been of great help to get it memorized and ready for deeper explorations during summer. Thanks Dominic and everyone for this lovely musical journey! 

      • Mark_Cooper
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Great job so far Sindre, i enjoyed listening to this , that last section appears devilishly difficult 😥,

       

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

       This is extraordinary work on this piece, Sindre! You bring out many of its beauties and its dramatic character with great expressive detail. Bravo!

      • Larry_K
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       

      What else could it be? 
      It’s a tautology. :)

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Already very good after one month, and it will be great before long for sure. I enjoyed listening to you play it!

      • Noel_Nguyen
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

        Your performances always have a meditative quality that I love. I am reminded of the lyrics of a song by Sting, "... he deals the cards like a meditation...". Lovely playing!

      • Pianist, composer and piano teacher
      • Sindre_Skarelven
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

          Thanks so much for nice comments! Looking forward to dive deeper into this ballade during summer   

    • Andrew_Smith
    • 5 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Rachmaninoff g minor prelude.
    I worked on this mostly sometime in 2024 and 2025 but never (and still don't) had it clean, and more recently I have tried to improve it. Over-practiced it in the last few days so my forearms and wrists were kind of tired and tight in places, but flubs and all, this is fairly representative of where I'm at with it. I like the idea of the "unfinished business" challenge for many reasons, especially because I have so much unfinished business! Thanks
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRKX1Zl4PCE

      • Peter_William
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       awesome playing!

      • Mark_Cooper
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       great job Andrew! I’ve had a go at this one in the past too, and I know what you mean about sore arms 😓

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

       Excellent Rachmaninoff, Andrew! Whenever I feel tension or tiredness in my arms, I try to remember that timeless piece of wisdom from the ancient sages: "Nothing in excess!".

      • Larry_K
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       What an impressive achievement! Well done. I don’t care that’s it’s not perfect when so much of it is well played. What a difficult piece.

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you very much, Larry. It's funny, to me this piece looks easier, when I see someone playing it, than it is to play (of course that's true of much music). When I see someone, it's like, "Oh, just jump your hands from here to there and go "bum -ba-ba-bum" lots of times." The fun part of practicing now is refining those jumps; this piece for me is like a carving that I have to keep chipping away at, and one can keep refining it a lot, so that's where I'm at/gotta work more on that last page. Thanks again!

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Well said by the philosopher-pianist! Thank you Juan Carlos. And congrats on your Chaconne! It's surprisingly fun to play piano with just the LH, I think (I had to do that during a right shoulder problem in 2019-2021). 

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you, Mark! Just gotta rest a bit and stay loose and then it's fine. My sister's piano (from video) is also very heavy, so that can cause a bit of fatigue. 

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Thank you very much, Peter.

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

       You're right, besides of that I think we should practice left-hand pieces because the left hand is often undertrained.

    • Grace.11
    • 5 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Oh no!  I thought the watch party was June 16 - but it’s tomorrow and the deadline is today… I’ll go home and practice now and come up with something to submit (?!) 

    • cdales
    • 5 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Debussy Prelude "La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune" is just not ready for prime time😐.  I've accomplished quite a lot in the past few weeks, but can't get a reasonably clean recording to save my life, at least not today. The biggest challenge for me is the many large chords, so I have focused, with some success,  on playing them without creating a lot of tension in my hands and forearms. Thank you for the opportunity, Domenic, and thanks to everyone whose recordings all month I have found truly inspirational!

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