Read Me and FAQ
WELCOME TO OUR LATEST TONEBASE PIANO COMMUNITY PRACTICE CHALLENGE:
Preparing Your Pieces For Concert - A Checklist!
Community Concerts have been a staple of tonebase's interactive environment for some time now! What is a community concert? It is a private zoom meeting (not recorded) where tonebase members can perform music that they have been working on lately for EACH OTHER! It is a judgement-free zone. One of the best ways to learn, is by DOING. Something we encourage wholeheartedly here at tonebase!
Perhaps you have played on one before, or want to play on the next one coming up! Maybe you just want to get your piece to the next level!
This challenge is for you!
During this month I will assign a different practice tip each week specifically designed as a lead up to a COMMUNITY CONCERT on January 7th, at 11am PT.
What if I can't join this concert, don't want to play on this date, or I just want to be in the audience?
That's ok! You can still get ALOT of benefit out of focusing on your pieces in new ways with performance in mind. Give these strategies a try and see where it takes you!
What are we doing?
We are aiming at taking our pieces to the next level by preparing them for concert level through a preparation checklist. Each week, a new concept/tip/focus will be posted and you should try to employ that in your practice! Post video updates of your practice to keep yourself accountable!
Our goal is to do one of the following things on January 7th:
Perform on the tonebase community concert! 
Support our friends by being in the virtual audience for the concert!
Perform privately for some friends, family or even just yourself!
Pat yourself on the back that you tried your best and practiced some new things!
When does this take place?
Challenge start: December 12
Practice days: December 12 - January 6
Community Concert: January 7th, 2023 at 11am PT
Zoom link right here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85908307717?pwd=VnFWbWd3QTYwdStjMjI0c0JITldzQT09
HOW TO START:
1. Pick a piece you want to take to the next level! (It should be a piece that you have already learned the notes for, and you want to prepare for concert level. Or it could be a piece that you feel is easy enough to learn in 4 weeks!)
2. Start following the checklist of strategies starting December 12th!
If you are comfortable with it, add a video or audio of yourself practicing the concept!
3. Practice every day and try to post 2 videos a week!
Why are we doing this?
Because we want to challenge ourselves to practice every day
Because learning together is more fun than learning alone
Because we get to share our progress with others (whether video or just text)
Because new music is wonderful and these pieces were written especially for us!
Because we want to meet our fellow tonebase community members
Because we get to hear new music which we might not play ourselves
Ask any questions you might have below!
-
Thank you, Dominic Cheli . I'm looking forward to this community challenge!
-
Is there a cap on length of piece?
-
Mary E Vanderslice No there isn't! You can play whatever you like!
-
-
Yes, I'd like to learn the strategies for preparing performance, and challenge myself.
-
This will take me right out of my comfort zone! I have never memorized a piece and am not sure this is the time/place to start. Does the piece have to be memorized? I'm not sure even how to approach that... Is it best to start from the end and learn backwards? Or memorize hands separately first, then memorize together? Any tips form those with some experience would be awesome!!
-
Gillian Many performers these days are choosing to use scores again, especially with tablets! I personally like to memorize things so I can just sit down and play when there's a piano around.
The biggest advice I would give is that it's completely normal to forget things. When I begin memorizing something, I absolutely expect that the next day it will be as if I were doing it over again from scratch. But it goes faster, and after a few days it sticks. The number one thing that will hurt memory is fear and anxiety. Everybody has memory slips, and an audience member who gives you a hard time for one is not worth your time. Forgetting just means you go re-learn it, maybe HS as you said, or analyze the chords. No big deal.
Memorizing is a joy. For Thanksgiving, my aunt asked me to play this beat up piano at the church where we had dinner, and I played for 20-30 minutes with no books. There were mistakes, of course, but two of the pieces I played for her I first learned over ten years ago: Debussy's First Arabesque and Reflets dans L'Eau. Nowadays it's tough to truly forget how they go. I can't think of anything that builds a love of music and the piano more than just being able to sit down and play for the joy of it, no searching for books, no turning pages. -
gallaghejas thank you for your supportive and encouraging reply!
-
Gillian The piece does NOT need to be memorized! I will speak on different strategies in this challenge, but they are not dependent on memorization!
-
Gillian I can give you some memory tips though as the challenge progresses!
-
Dominic Cheli that would be awesome. Thanks!!
-
-
Thank you for this opportunity- I’m really looking forward to it!
-
I'd like to learn better strategies for getting a piece ready a little faster than I usually do. I've been learning Liszt's Concert Etude No. 3 ("Un sospiro") and have it memorized but it still needs a lot of work to get it closer to performance-ready, which I'm hoping I can do by January.
-
I love this idea! I will participate in the challenge, but since I won’t have a piano for the last part of the challenge, I look forward to attending the community concert and performing the next time.
-
This is exactly what I need to stay motivated during the holidays. Thank you!
-
I'm going to try these strategies out on Clementi op36 no1, my very first piece of classical period.
-
I'm going to try to push myself to do it. I finish teaching 45 minutes before the concert, so I should be fine to join. Like Harriet, I really want to push myself to get a Liszt etude ready to go, but if not that then a Medtner Fairy Tale. Very curious to hear the tonebase checklist for preparing a performance!
-
Thank you for this opportunity. It is my first time. Do I come back here to view checklist?
-
Charlotte Yes this page will have the checklist!!
-
-
Hi Dominic,
I will participate again!
I love those concert! It’s Great to offer this chance to all of us!
I will like to replay the Beethoven Variations in G majeur, the 6 of it!
I still practice it and it will be good for me to try to play it again, but better!
thank you for all this Dominic!
Aline Valade
-
Aline Valade Awesome!!!
-
Aline Valade I am going to try again for this concert as well! Looking forward to playing alongside you again.
-
Michael that will be Great!
-
-
Dominic Cheli You are the best of the best!!
-
I am preparing to sit my Grade 8 performance exam so I think this will be really useful for me. I have got my pieces so far but as I don’t have a teacher, I have been wondering how best to take these pieces forward to get them fully performance ready.
-
Hi,
I'd like to participate with MacDowell's Concert Etude, Op.36.
