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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    • Dagmar
    • always curious
    • Dagmar
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Ok, my goals for this year. Many and lots of work, but I think I can do it if I stay consistent and break it down monthly. Plus some tasks can check several items on this list. (Last year I achieved almost everything I wanted):

    • Include transposition to my practise (just a few bars in each new piece, but to get a small start with that concept)
    • Get the pianomarvel major scales triplets done up to 4#/b (CGF, Bb Eb Ab, DAE in one exercise plus cgf and aed if possible). And b minor seperate. 
    • Add ii-V-Is to my scale practise and the blues scale and pentatonic version each.
    • maaaybe learn all 3 octatonic scales and noodle/improvise with them
    • Do all the ABRSM scales as requested up to grade 4. (It's scales and arpeggios up to 5 accidentals plus some contrary motion scales and chromatic, some of that is covered by my other scale goals, these are additional):

    -  B, Db, a, d, e, g, b, g, c, f, c#, g#, 2 octaves

    - Broken chords ascending and descending in inversions (triads and octave)  C G F a d e

    - Arpeggios 2 octaves: d g b c, f, c#, g#

    - C, E, A, F, Eb, a, c, d h.m. contrary motion unison 2 octaves, starting on tonic (plus see how many of them I can do in grand form, plus C, G, F in thirds and sixths)

    - chromatic scale, start D, Ab, C (any key in grade 4) hands seperate 

    •  Master/record two older pieces I had put aside/wasn't fully happy with (e.g. Shostakovich waltz, Leaf Rag, Chopin 34.2, Moonlight Sonata 1st mvt, At the Ivy Gate, River flows in you, Sonata facile 1st mvt)
    • Learn a new Grieg piece, perhaps Arietta
    • Learn a Bach invention (most likely no. 8)
    • Learn to play one of my own compositions
    • Have 10 secure pieces in my repertoire plus 2 current temporary ones (I have 8 now the are at +-70% with ups and downs...)
    • Pianomarvel SASR aim for 700, at least finally get solid 650! (Am at a stable 630+, with several 650+ and one 706 and no clue how that happened haha)
    • Get 40 new 100% stars in the pianomarvel technique/method section, especially those on ear training! (Might adjust the number, I haven't had a closer look yet)
    • Compose 6 pieces
    • 40x challenge grade 2+, with more 3 and 4s. (Playlist here
    • Do the Musora full 30 days Blues course again and the 30 days Jazz
    • Work on my technique (Zhdanov course, need to set specific goal here how many videos I want to do. Maybe 10 thoroughly, slow, mindful, no rushing)
    • Do ear training more often (play by ear, think of a tone and then play it/try to find it, hear melody in advance)
    • If possible, play at least once in front of an audience/recital situation
    • Learn one Jazz standard from Leadsheet, including a sheet improvisation part (Fly me to the moon?)

    I think that's it... I am sure this will help me improve a lot! I just need to make sure that I don't get bored by all that technique stuff...

    Like 4
      • Gail Starr
      • Retired MBA
      • Gail_Starr
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

      Dagmar I can tell you must be an amazing person at your job.  Planning this way is the key to success!

      Like
      • Dagmar
      • always curious
      • Dagmar
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

      Gail Starr Freelancer + ADHD. It's a survival technique 😂

      Like 1
  • 🎶 My Musical Resolutions for 2025 🎹

    As I step into 2025, I'm setting some exciting goals for my piano journey. Here are my resolutions:

    1. Practice at least 30 minutes a day (1000 minutes per month) – Consistency is key, and I’ll commit to building a steady practice routine.
    2. Progressive Overload – I’ll challenge myself to gradually increase difficulty in pieces and techniques to push my skills to the next level.
    3. Focus on Methods and Techniques – Whether it's mastering scales, arpeggios, or other technical exercises, I’ll work on improving my foundational skills.
    4. Self-Examine My Performances – I plan to critically evaluate my own playing, identifying areas where I struggle and finding ways to overcome them.
    5. Chopin’s Op. 64 No. 2 – This is my dream piece! I will work on it diligently throughout the year with the goal of mastering it by year-end.

    Looking forward to a year of growth and musical achievement! Let’s make 2025 our most musical year yet. 🎵

    Like 5
    • Peter Golemme
    • Piano Player with Day Job (for now)
    • Peter_G
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    In 2025 I am stepping down to a limited part-time, semi-retired status at work, and I hope to have a lot more time for music.  Here are my 2025 goals, resolutions & aspirations for piano and other musical endeavors:
    1.    Improve and refine my technique
    My main approach to technique in the past has been to try to play pieces that are too difficult for me. This year, I’ve signed up for Tonebase’s Technique Tune Up, and can’t wait to get started on it later this month.  
    2.    Approach my practicing systematically.

    3.    Continue my odyssey through The Well Tempered Clavier, learning as many of the Preludes and Fugues as I can.
    Right now I'm just finishing F# Minor Bk2 and working on G Major Bk1, and re-learning C Minor Bk1, and B Major Bk2 so I can record and post them in our Tonebase thread. C Major Bk1 and B Minor Bk2 are done & ready to post.
    4.    Continue to explore other classical repertoire.
    Some ongoing wish-list pieces and projects:
    •    Relearn and record all the Rachmaninoff Preludes (I have previously performed all of them, albeit rather sloppily, in a series of Adult Ed classes at New England Conservatory, about 25 years ago).
    •    Dvorak Humoresques 
    •    Dohnanyi Ruralia Hungarica.
    •    Various Beethoven Sonatas.
    5.    Continue to develop my understanding of jazz harmony and rhythm, and modernize my sound.

    6.    In improvising, to make my left hand parts more interesting, moving beyond basic timekeeping and harmonic support. (see also next resolution)
    7.   Incorporate Baroque thoroughbass and voice leading techniques and counterpoint into my improvisations.
    I believe that thoroughbass and partimento offer an untapped gold mine of techniques for modern improvisers. I’ve been slowly working on this for a couple of years, aided greatly by Derek Remesc’s Tonebase courses, including “Reverse Engineering Bach”, as well as his books The Art of Preluding and his Compendium of Voice Leading Patterns. 
    8.    Record an ‘album’ (or two) of jazz & pop standards and other music. 

    I recorded a self-produced Christmas album several years ago entitled 'A Modal Christmas', and I still get lots of positive feedback on it. Technology now allows us to do this almost entirely in-house -- i.e. at home!--and I'd like to add some more to my catalogue.
    9.    Record my classical pieces.
    After polishing and finishing each piece as best I can, I want to create a permanent record of them through recordings.
     

    Like 5
      • Gail Starr
      • Retired MBA
      • Gail_Starr
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

      Peter Golemme I can't wait to watch your musical odyssey progress!  

      Like
      • Peter Golemme
      • Piano Player with Day Job (for now)
      • Peter_G
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

      Gail Starr Thank you Gail.  I'll be looking forward to your always-interesting musical explorations in 2025 also.  I noticed on your YouTube page that you played a nice version of 'How High the Moon' some time ago. Are there more standards coming soon? if you ever want to trade notes on such tunes, let me know.

      Maybe this will be the year that I make better use of the TB Practice Diary to post progress notes, significant & non.   -but not ready to add that as another resolution quite yet!

      Like 1
      • Gail Starr
      • Retired MBA
      • Gail_Starr
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

      Peter Golemme Hi Peter!  I was playing around with standards a few years ago, and I REALLY want to do more but our family life is a bit stressful at the moment.  Once things resolve in a couple of months, I'd love to chat more.  

      Like
  • My word of the year is Virtuoso. My intention is to develop good habits, practice at least 5 days a week, refresh all my scales and then tackle some dream pieces- Fur Elise, Bach Prelude in C, and gradually work through the Well Tempered Clavier.

    Like 1
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