New Year's Resolutions 2025
New Year’s Resolutions 2025: Let’s Make This Year Musical! 
Happy New Year, tonebase pianists! As we kick off 2025, it’s the perfect time to reflect, dream, and set new goals for our piano journey. Whether you're aiming to master a challenging piece, tackle scales with more precision, or simply find more joy in daily practice, we’d love to hear your resolutions!
Here are some ideas to spark inspiration:
Learn a dream piece you’ve always wanted to play
Improve sight-reading or ear-training skills
Dedicate time to consistent daily practice (even 15 minutes counts!)
Record and share more of your playing with our supportive community
Share your goals in the comments below and let’s keep each other motivated throughout the year. Together, we can make 2025 our most musical year yet! 
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I am preparing a program of all 20th century music. I hope to complete that and perform it in recital sometime this year.
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Betsy Wiesendanger What pieces have you selected?
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MAYBE RESURRECT:
Ravel - Ondine
Chopin - Polonaise-Fantasie; Ballades 1 and 4; B minor Sonata, last movement; C# minor Etude Opus 10 #4
Beethoven - Sonatas, Opus 54; Opus 101
Brahms - Various Intermezzi and Capriccios
Debussy - L'isle joyeuse
FINISH LEARNING:
Gershwin arrangement of "Someone to Watch Over Me" (notated from his wild 1926 radio performance)
Oscar Peterson arrangement of "Georgia on My Mind"
Rachmaninoff transcription of Minuet from Bizet's "Arlesienne Suite"
CONTEMPLATE LEARNING:
Chopin - Etude in C major, Opus 10 #1 (impossibly difficult but I'm inspired by a couple of 11/24 NYC Tonebase sessions where two co-participants played it really well)
Debussy - Pour le piano
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JGILLSON arhhh, you just named 2 of my favorite pieces: Gaspard and L'isle joyeuse. You got a fan! ;)
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JGILLSON I should add "finally meeting Jim the next time I'm in NYC" to my list!
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No, new year resolutions, but framing it as time to embark on new adventures in my joy of learning new things. I love playing the piano for my own enjoyment, but knew it was time to refresh and challenge myself. I have taken myself out of my comfort zone and sign up for the below.
I just started the Tonebase 90 Day Technique Tune up program for piano. My coach is awesome. Even though I am only on day 3 of this process I am seeing improvement. I am working first on the fingering. I have ordered an adjustable hydraulic piano bench. It is observed I am not high enough. The piece that I am working on is Clara Schumann Four Fugitive Piece, Op. 15, No 1 Larghetto, and my coach has added Bach Prelude and Fugue No 2 in C Minor BWV 847. Not sure I will ever play the Bach piece so fast, but if I learn it enough to enjoy that is fine.
I plan on not just practicing, but to play other music just for fun!
My motto is to enjoy life as every day is a gift, and music makes it even better!
Happy New Year everyone.
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Bernice vonSaleski Fabulous new adventures ahead! Would you mind sharing the type of hydraulic bench you have ordered?
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Gail Starr the piano bench is a lumizone Height Adjustable Piano Bench Hydraulic Lifting Keyboard Bench with PU Leather Modern Leather Heavy Duty Piano Stool High Density Sponge Lining Alloy Material, Black Gloss. It is on Amazon. I will be assembling today. Have a great day, Gail.
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Bernice vonSaleski This looks comfy! I need an additional bench for 4-hand pieces because my kitchen chair just isn't fitting the bill...
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Gail Starr it is comfy. But, it is not long enough to accommodate 4 hand playing.
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Bernice vonSaleski Bernice vonSaleski Thanks! That's OK because it's a second bench in addition to my old one.
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Gail Starr good luck!
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Bernice vonSaleski I'm very interested to hear how the coaching works out. I almost signed up but I worried that my work schedule would interfere. Glad you're seeing good things come of it so early.
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Ken Locke the process starts with an intake online form with questions, e.g., what are your goals, background, and what current activities are you willing to exchange to devote time to practicing plus to send a short video. I met with my coach online for meet, greet and what I wanted to accomplish. Plus 30 minutes was spent on observing me playing. I want to focus on fingering and flow I was very impressed that he gave pointers to work on. He gave me other material that I can use, and a plan to work on. I use their Norton application to do daily notes, and at the end of the week will upload a video and complete questions for the coach. Then, this goes to the coach, and he will give me feedback to go to the next week. At the end of the month I will have another online meeting with the coach. The software is easy to use, and there are videos within the lessons to assist.
What I like is that I have someone to give me feedback. I expected I would have to dedicate time to practice. I gave up less time on social media. Well worth the trade off. I am retired and live in a retirement community, but have a very active volunteer schedule. Thus, not having the demanding work schedule is plus for me.I hope this helps!
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Happy New year to all!
My goals for 2025:
- Polish and maintain Chopin Scherzo No. 1, Chopin Etudes Op. 10 Nos. 1 and 5, and Chopin Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1
- Finish Rachmaninoff Prelude in C# minor and Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 9
- Add more Baroque and Classical works to my repertoire (or just anything that isn’t Chopin
… but that’s hard because who doesn’t like Chopin?!)- Improve technique, particularity in terms of even notes and more accurate articulations
- Set minimum practice time of two hours and have two piano lessons a week instead of just one
- Work on performance anxiety and remember that when I perform I’m not playing what I think the audience “wants” to hear, but rather what I genuinely feel like expressing
- Maybe: give a formal public recital, and, after that, learn a chamber piece (!!!)
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New Year’s Resolutions 2025.
Finish composing and recording my lo fi hiphop / Edm album.
Loose 30 pounds.
Maybe learn a piece or two.
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Mat Please send us the link once your album is complete!
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Gail Starr Will do. Until then, here are my 2 first singles.
https://linktr.ee/zulumika -
Mat These are wonderful. I've just subscribed to your Spotify channel. Can't wait to hear more!
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Master Chopin Op 27, No 2, to be as smoothly and wonderfully as Garrick. Yeah, good luck :-)
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I'm committing to starting each practice session on clarinet and piano with both major and minor scales , focusing on the scales found in the etudes and feature pieces I'm working on at that time.
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Happy New Year to all!
In 2025 I would very much like to learn a new sonata. Composer unclear yet, but very likely (his) name starts with a B. With options among them, my real dilemma is: To B or not to B? Or maybe two B? LOL. May teacher help me!
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Astrida So many lovely B choices! You can't go wrong.
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Gail Starr indeed
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Astrida I like your jokes!
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