Week 3: Seeing the Big Picture
Hello and welcome to the WEEK THREE Main Thread for this challenge! 
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between August 14th-21th I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Here is this week's assignment!
I am sure that you have been busy at work on your pieces, fixing fingerings, dynamics, articulation, and so-on!
But this week I want us to focus on big picture work (outlined below) as a lot of us may be gearing up to play in the "back to school" recital OR use recorded videos from this challenge in a Watch Party! (Watch Parties are "pre-recorded" video celebrations, Community Concerts are LIVE performances of pieces).
Assignments:
1. Try and focus on playing larger chunks of your piece this week. Focus on broader strokes.
2. Record yourself in "run-throughs" of the piece, share with all of us! :)
3. Why? because we always need to remember to strike a balance between working on fine tuning the piece, and making sure the gestures and larger picture remain in focus, not becoming to "granular".
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I squeezed in a playthru/recording yesterday after hiking & before dinner
Confession that the Grand Polonaise hasn't been somewhat missing on my repertoire practice list this week, and in the couple of run-thrus I did do, I conveniently skipped the Tutti intro 
... But it was helpful to give it a rest and see what I retained from last week's practice sessions.Here's the video: https://youtu.be/Ramr3PBZ6EI
Endurance is clearly an issue for this one, and I empathize with what everyone else is saying about hands tightening up after a certain point in their pieces.
I think I tend to pick up the pace for the recap (because I'm more warmed up and settled in by this point), but then that pace is not sustainable for all the RH passagework in the coda - both physically and also how fast my brain can work mentally to remember the LH harmony. This is also usually where things break down when I'm performing this piece for others, since my perception of time changes due to nerves and I play faster than in practice settings.
I'm definitely not ready to perform this piece anytime soon, but I definitely feel like I know it better than before the challenge began - especially the middle portion that doesn't repeat, and also value to motivation to practice "getting myself out of trouble" - make mistakes and practice getting out of them.
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Judy Kuan Great playing, Judy! It鈥檚 a long piece, and you have it very well under your fingers :)
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Judy Kuan You are doing an incredible work with this piece, which is extraordinary demanding. Sounds really great and, of course, the challenge hasn't finished yet
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Judy Kuan Sounding great! As others have said, you have it in your fingers now and in your memory! Such a beautiful and demanding piece.
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Judy Kuan wonderful playing! Chopin definitely likes impressive endings on his pieces. It is great that you learn this Polonaise and share your learning here. That helps me to distinguish between Polonaise and Fantaisie character in my piece. Very impressed with your learning!
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Judy Kuan Brava! That really has grown since I last heard you play it. What I find most impressive is the discipline with which you maintain the polonaise rhythm throughout this very complex showpiece that has so much "stuff" going on! Your sound is beautiful, too - never harsh or shrill. And to memorize that much music! Thank you for sharing it.
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Judy Kuan this is absolutely beautiful! A very difficult piece, and done well. Thank you.
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Thank you, I really appreciate everyone who listened and shared your encouragement! It's been such a long (ongoing), somewhat lonely journey with this piece. This community and this challenge - even though it's wrapping up soon - has rekindled my confidence and interest in not just this piece but also learning more about all the lovely music you all are sharing.
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Judy Kuan Wow! You play so beautifully. Thank you for sharing with us!
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Judy Kuan that was splendid work! Beautifully played with great focus, maintained throughout the length of this piece. The pace is very steady going and you play with a wonderful, warm tone!
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Here's my run through of Chopin Nocturne Op48 No1 https://youtu.be/-3JFCvUuz_g
(Sorry for the background noise ... I forgot to close the backdoor and it was a bit windy outside).
As my aunt is here with me I decided to do the recording while performing for her
Overall it has been less good a week of practising (skip a couple of days, and less time spent when I did get to it). I definitely feel the strain in the doppio movimento section as I struggled to shake off the LH tension after the downward octave passages. Much work still to do on the dynamics. In any case I think this will be one of my forever unfinished pieces
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Priya Viseskul Beautiful playing! This piece gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. What great work in such a short time!
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Priya Viseskul You've done an amazing amount in SUCH a short time. It's so nice that aunt could listen. It always helps to have a friendly person to play for!
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Gail Starr Also, you do such a great job of really feeling the pulse/breath of the piece, especially the sensitive way you play the final chords and don't just leap of the keys at the end (the way I saw some folks do at my local piano meetup this afternoon.)
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Gail Starr Vidhya Bashyam Thank you so much
I actually played this when I was 18, though looking back I was just not ready for what the piece requires ... struggled to play the big rolled chords smoothly, and the octaves, and just powered through the tension in the last part ... well, that's 2/3 of the piece already that I struggled with hahaha but I was too stubborn in wanting to learn it.
I started to revisit it a couple of months back - now 27 years later I'm fairly happy playing the rolled chords and repeated octaves, then stopped when I got to the downward octaves. So with this challenge I continue with the rest of the piece.
With the downward octaves my LH gets tired having the pinky extended for the full bars + the in-out motions in the chromatic ... because I can only play at the edge of the white keys to avoid catching neighbour notes so more distance to travel between black and white keys (I have been practicing doing chromatics with just the thumbs/pinkies, making sure to use the elbow and not tense up the arm). I try to recover during the repeated octaves going into the last section but it doesn't always work.
Definitely still an "unfinished business" ... I will probably let it marinade for a bit before continue working on it some more
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Priya Viseskul I鈥檓 sure your aunt has loved your playing as much as we do! WoW! Amazing!
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Ursina Boehm thank you
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Priya Viseskul I love your approach! I agree: let it marinate a bit more. Then, in a few months, we'll do "unfinished business", volume 2.
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Gail Starr that's a wonderful idea!
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Priya Viseskul I especially adore the beginning, i.e. the entire opening section. Getting the mood and character of the main theme right, in my opinion, is what makes or breaks the piece. And you shape it with so much vocal phrasing, expressive speech, and declamation. You vary the unspeakably sad endings of those short phrases (like shakes of the head with downcast eyes) to make them sound resigned, wistful, or reminiscing... never the same. And then you manage to actually do the same thing in the reprise where the melody has to be brought out on top of all those richly layered chords! Really, really lovely.
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Priya Viseskul This is a beautiful nocturne! You are doing so well with this. Keep up the good work.
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Priya Viseskul Lovely, dramatic and cohesive! You're inspiring me to finally attempt this piece...and I think I will also be using 1-5s for the octaves
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Priya Viseskul Beautiful playing! I very much enjoyed listening to this, as I鈥檓 guessing your aunt also did :) Great achievement!
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Alexander Weymann thank you so much for your wonderful comment! I'm glad that those emotions can be perceived through my playing ... it means a lot
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And thank you ALL very much for all the lovely and wonderful comments and appreciation
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Priya Viseskul Beautifully played!
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