New Year, New Approach - 40 Pieces Challenge 2025
- Edited
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 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.
This! I started playing piano in 1999, and it was much harder to get music. For one thing, there were limited options in the town where I lived, and most of the time, whatever I was looking for wasn't there. So if we were driving up to the "big city," I would always try to make sure we had time to go to the big music store.... What fun that was!
But I much prefer the ease we have today, with so many great pieces available for immediate download!
But then, there are always those pieces for which sheet music does not exist, and then I go crazy, desperately hunting all over the internet.... Although of course, that's what led to someone so kind as @Rubens creating a transcription for me....
So yes, we are truly, truly lucky for all the ways that our modern condition makes so much more music available to us than in years past!
ShiroKuro So yes, we are truly, truly lucky for all the ways that our modern condition makes so much more music available to us than in years past!
I regret that I didn't learn to play the piano as a young adult, or as a not so young adult, or as a middle-aged adult, but I also realise that I have a lot more fun with my 23734 files than I would have had in the Pen-and-Paper Paradise Era. Just imaging copying notes by hand...!
But also, everything I play is automatically recorded, so I can always go back and listen - how did I just sound? And listen back and clap my hands, to check the rhythm. And I have learned most of my technique by scrutinising other teachers' videos and comparing to my own videos.
Plus, not to forget, this lovely café called Piano Tell, where I meet piano friends all the time.
So I am happy anyway! 
*
... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
Animisha I regret that I didn't learn to play the piano as a young adult
I used to always regret not starting earlier (I was almost 30 years old when I started piano). But truly, there's no better time than the present, and had I started piano much earlier, or as a young child, it probably wouldn't have meant as much to me as it does now.
Plus, not to forget, this lovely café called Piano Tell, where I meet piano friends all the time.
The sweetest benefit of all! 
Nightowl
My mom is 99 heading for 100 next year. Coming from a non-musical family she prefers to spend her last days in front of the TV… like every show is educational. No inclination to get into music if you give her another decade to live.
Over the last decade I acquired repertoire books & sheet music to last for many more years.
At a typical family gathering a few people took music lessons but hardly anybody would admit he/she took lessons not to be asked to play something. I’m playing everyday now. When I get to 90, I’ll keep the music going.
Is the 40 piece challenge for 2025 happening? If so, am I in the right spot to join it?