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. 😊

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    @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.

      BartK 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.

      Of course not! Because I guess you won't add pieces that you start in 2025 and finish in 2026!

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          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. 😊

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                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! 😃

                        ShiroKuro I doubt very. Many of us have a folder of “too easy” pieces.

                        It is such a good thing to be hoarder. Especially since the invention of computers. 😅!

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                            Animisha It is such a good thing to be hoarder. Especially since the invention of computers.

                            😆

                              Someone like myself who is at an intermediate level wouldn't be playing pieces out of an Alfred's or Faber 1 book. I can read through 10-15 absolute beginner or beginner pieces in 1 afternoon. The point of the challenge is to push yourself into playing pieces that are slightly more challenging than your current level but still manageable.

                              The last 2 pieces I played were seasonal church hymns. The first piece "What Child is This" is an easy arrangement. The other piece "The Huron Carol" is in 4 lines SATB similar to songs out of a hymn book. Took up to 3 days to learn 1 piece. Guess 1 of the harder seasonal pieces I learned before was "O Holy Night". It's an arrangement with lots of LH arpeggios. Some of the chord arpeggios are in the RH under the melody.

                              I don't play many pieces for learning techniques. Some of the pieces have become personal favorites that I'd repeat them for weeks. Learning 100 pieces a year is not my goal than repeating 20 pieces that I already learned throughout the year.

                              The last piece I came across was an arrangement of Handel "Arrival of Queen of Sheeba" played by 2 young students as a duet. Wonder how many weeks 2 people needed to learn their part and to play together at sync? Learning the notes is the first step, then counting properly, brining it up to tempo. The final step is to get the other partner to work together.

                              candela Well, depending on how many years you have left, it may be doable. Some people live to well over 100 these days, and medical science is improving all the time! 😀 So, if you have another 100 years left in you, and you play around 237 pieces a year (which equates to less than one piece a day) it's totally doable! 🙃 I think you can do it! Just ask @Animisha to send over her folder and make a start on it! 😁

                              "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

                                  Nightowl Thanks for your confidence in me! 🙃 While I like the idea of reading some new music every day I'll pass on setting a numerical lifetime goal for my playing, thank you. But I'm grateful to live in a time when sheet music is so available that finding a new piece every day for the rest of our lives is totally realistic.

                                      candela Next up: 23 734 pieces in a lifetime challenge 😁

                                      Y‘all have heard about the 10,000 hour rule, right? If each piece take an hour, 24,734 hours will guarantee you becoming a double virtuoso!