Presently I am working with pieces that I can play at the lowest given tempo, without mistakes and with correct dynamics within three days. I am working with a method book (Schaum), so soon enough the pieces will need a bit more time. But it feels very good to start this challenge with pieces that are a bit too easy.
When the pieces get more difficult, I may increase to four or five days, and to play them at a bit slower tempo.
*
... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
Pallas There's a benefit to polishing pieces and also a benefit to quantity and not polishing everything
Exactly!! And there’s no reason to approach every piece the same way, and i think having some pieces that you just move through rather quickly is going to be part of the key to getting your fingers into a much larger number of pieces.
Animisha But it feels very good to start this challenge with pieces that are a bit too easy.
When the pieces get more difficult, I may increase to four or five days, and to play them at a bit slower tempo.
This also sounds like a very good approach!
Animisha Presently I am working with pieces that I can play at the lowest given tempo, without mistakes and with correct dynamics within three days. I am working with a method book (Schaum), so soon enough the pieces will need a bit more time. But it feels very good to start this challenge with pieces that are a bit too easy.
When the pieces get more difficult, I may increase to four or five days, and to play them at a bit slower tempo.
I suppose if you have 2 or 3 of such pieces going concurrently but interleaved at different stages, like a production line, your average “days between completed pieces” will be quite shorter than each individual one takes?
iternabe I suppose if you have 2 or 3 of such pieces going concurrently but interleaved at different stages, like a production line, your average “days between completed pieces” will be quite shorter than each individual one takes?
On a serious note, this is quite possible but of course you have to consider how much load you can tolerate. If each piece adds 20 mins of practice time you may quickly end up overwhelmed. But if you have lots of time and/or the pieces are easy enough that they don't require a lot of practice time then why not?
As I previously said, the target of 40 pieces equates to learning/playing one piece every 9 days. You could just choose a single piece to play for 10 or 20 mins each day, then move onto the second piece on day 10, and so on. Or you could add a new piece every 3 or 4 days, until you are working on 3 pieces every day, then each time you finish a piece you could start another, so that you constantly have 3 pieces which are in different stages of progress. This way you might find that for the first week or so you don't finish any pieces, but then you could find yourself completing a piece roughly every 3 days. It depends how much time you want to spend on this challenge. I think if the pieces are easy enough and you don't feel the need to polish them to perfection, this would be very doable, unless you are also working on complex stretch pieces for exams/recitals, in which case you might not want to commit extra practice time to this challenge.
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
BartK iternabe I suppose if you have 2 or 3 of such pieces going concurrently but interleaved at different stages, like a production line, your average “days between completed pieces” will be quite shorter than each individual one takes?
On a serious note, this is quite possible but of course you have to consider how much load you can tolerate. If each piece adds 20 mins of practice time you may quickly end up overwhelmed. But if you have lots of time and/or the pieces are easy enough that they don't require a lot of practice time then why not?
Thank you for your concern Bart!
During the morning, I practise the pieces that I am working with. But in the evening, if I am not too tired to practise, I can do whatever I like. And it is during the evening when I do my quick studies. It is very relaxed, the pieces are easy. I work on each piece for maybe ten minutes, and then I move on. So far, every piece was finished in three days. But soon the pieces will be a bit more challenging. 
*
... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
@Animisha I am so jealous! I would love to be able to have two practice sessions per day, one in the morning and one in the evening. As long as I’m working though, that seems pretty hard to implement….
Although, I wonder if I could do it on weekends… hmmm interesting, I bet doing that even just twice a week would have a very positive impact. Then the question would be, how to design the sessions when I’m planning to do two…
The other question would be, (since I don’t have a digital) how much would it drive my husband crazy? 
In 25 years, he has never once complained about my piano practice (angel that he is) …. Fortunately, he has a studio in our new home, and when the door is closed there he can hardly hear me playing, or not at all if he’s doing something that makes even the slightest sound himself.
Maybe I can try the two sessions during winter break and see how it goes.
I love this forum! I would have never thought of doing two sessions per day because I would have never thought it was possible, but now, in the space of five minutes, I went from thinking it impossible, to thinking of it as only something I could do post-retirement, to thinking that, no, I could actually probably make it work right now, even if not daily.
The power of suggestion 
I'm going to visit family for Christmas but after I come back I was planing to do more practicing for a few days as I'm on vacation. I hope it's not cheating if I start my first challenge piece a few days before New Year and count all the pieces I finish in 2025.
Animisha Good point Ani! 
Anyway BartK as you're a moderator you can just have a firm word with yourself about breaking the rules, then assure yourself that it won't happen again and let yourself off for a first offence! 
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
Oh!! I have actually a folder with pieces that are too easy! Those pieces that I discovered too late, and I was sorry not to have played them when I still was more of a beginner. I can make them into quick studies and play them.
*
... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
Animisha awesome!
I love this btw, bc I doubt very. Many of us have a folder of “too easy” pieces. I don’t, although I have several books that I’ve bought over the years with the idea of using them for sightreading. Many of those were too hard when I first got them, but now some of them seem like they will be the right level.
I still have pieces that have been on my list since forever but that I never got to playing because I was always busy with other things. These make great quick study pieces.
Looking at my list of pieces for the challenge some of them might be a bit too... challenging. 
My rule is going to be to aim for 1 week but maybe extend to 2 weeks at most. If the whole piece is too much then I'll do only part of it. There are plenty of A sections that are nice on their own even if I don't play the whole thing.
If the piece is too easy then... who am I kidding? There is no such thing! If it's so easy I can almost sight read it perfectly then I'll spend a few days to make it beautiful and count it anyway.
But most likely I will have to recalibrate to an easier level once the challenge starts. 
Nothing is too easy for 1st year beginner, I suppose
My criteria for this past year is if a piece is worthy of making a recording and post to my YouTube channel, then it counts.
BartK My rule is going to be to aim for 1 week but maybe extend to 2 weeks at most. If the whole piece is too much then I'll do only part of it. There are plenty of A sections that are nice on their own even if I don't play the whole thing.
This sounds like a great plan.
If the piece is too easy then... who am I kidding? There is no such thing! If it's so easy I can almost sight read it perfectly then I'll spend a few days to make it beautiful and count it anyway.
As does this.
My first 40P piece was one of those "too easy pieces" (I wrote about it in the Microjazz thread) but it also didn't grab my interest, so I moved on. Now the second piece is a good bit harder, so I figure it's karmic payback! 
