New Year, New Approach - 40 Pieces Challenge 2025

Nightowl · 2024-12-09T23:59:58+00:00

I began learning piano 20 November 2023, using Alfred's AIO self teaching books. Those books have served me well so far, and I appreciate their sound method...

Sophia

iternabe But I hesitate to make it a goal. It was more like a by-product for me this year, an enjoyable surprise. Now I am back following my method book, I am letting my progress dictate my study pace again.

Yes, that's exactly it... This year was hardly the norm of course. The first few months I spent just catching up with the things I already knew/learned in the past (hence the spontaneous Thompson recording which actually even surprised me how quickly that went). I also went through two and (almost) a half Alfred books... and the blues course went pretty smoothly at first. I qualified for several speeding tickets 😂

Now that the piano is becoming more of a challenge (in a good way!), that also means I just can't make that kind of commitment just yet. This is definitely entering completely new territory for me. I'm enjoying polishing pieces a lot more now that they are starting to sound like music, and it's easier to skip pieces I don't like. Which doesn't count for the challenge 😃

As for the name, my "suggestions" were firmly tongue in cheek, but any variation of 40P sounds great to me 😃

WieWaldi

Pallas Yes, I did 100 pieces this year,

Me 5 pieces, this year

hebele

WieWaldi ha... my feelings as well. I think I've averaged less than 1 hour daily practice. Not much. It is also not well structured. I will only have 1 method book finished this year. And my pieces were not as polished as the records I see/hear in this forum. A bit sad but I still count it as success. I did not give up.

I considered this challenge. But it would be too much for me. I don't think I can spare more time next year. And my method book pieces takes at least a week now.

Nightowl

WieWaldi WieWie that can't be right - what about all those blues lessons you completed, and the videos you posted? Surely each one of those blues lessons contains enough material to regard the finished play through as being one "piece" (sometimes more than one) for the purpose of this challenge? I feel you have underestimated your achievements this year.

I have not finished Alfred's book 2 yet, but some of the pieces in the second half are are such a stretch for me that they could take many hours for me to play reasonably well, so they will be works in progress, as and when I want to tackle them. I'm hoping that by playing a variety of easier pieces my sight reading and dexterity will improve, and I can just enjoy playing, rather than constantly forcing myself to push through difficult pieces which can feel like hard work. I'm looking for easy wins to keep things enjoyable, between working on stretch pieces.

Nightowl

hebele Well, the Downton Abbey recital piece you uploaded was very nicely played, so I think you're making great progress. As for method books, lots of beginners take a year to get through book 1 - that's a pretty normal rate of progress. I got through Alfred's book 1 in around 5 months, but that's only because I was practising 2 -3 hours a day back then, which is more than many beginners. Also, I skipped a handful of pieces and did not polish every piece I played.

If you feel that 40 pieces is too high a target to aim for, how about opting to play 25 pieces instead? One piece every 2 weeks is probably manageable if you average 1 hour a day, either something from your method book or from one of the many books of easy pieces that are available.

@Pallas I'm experiencing the same thing, now I'm working on pieces that are between grades 1 and 2, they take a lot more time and effort to play well. That's why I'm not likely to be using book 2 pieces for this challenge - they will be tackled as and when I can face them.

WieWaldi

Nightowl Well - I can literally count all my this year pieces on one hand:

The St. Louis Blues
Rainbow Connection
Quick Five Blues
Before You Accuse Me
Old School Blues

The rest were only exercises - and indeed they helped me to learn the pieces a bit faster.
^💨

Nightowl

WieWaldi The rest were only exercises - and indeed they helped me to learn the pieces a bit faster.

Indeed, those exercises/lessons resulted in you creating/playing lovely pieces of music, which you then shared with us. The fact that they were lesson pieces and contained some improvisation does not make them any less worthy of being deemed pieces. I rest my case. 😃

Animisha Anything quick that has benefits is a plus, when it comes to playing piano. 🙂 Do you think that using the Synthesia app has also helped?

Animisha

I already notice a benefit of my quick study!

In my regular pieces, when there are many chords, the one thing that takes me a long time to practise is to play the transitions legato. It would be so much easier non-legato! For instance, this one in G major (treble clef):

As a beginner, I played all chord transitions non-legato. But now, spending some time with a very easy piece, I make myself play interval and chord transitions legato (if suitable). I just need to focus a tiny bit more, and it feels very beneficial. 😊

Animisha

Nightowl Animisha Anything quick that has benefits is a plus, when it comes to playing piano. 🙂 Do you think that using the Synthesia app has also helped?

Not with the quick studies! At the beginners' level, it is rare to encounter more complicated harmonies, so it is very easy to hear if you make a mistake. It is when chords are called Csus2\G (C suspended second inverted on G) that I cannot hear it any more.

PS I have no idea what C suspended second inverted on G even means, and I am not very eager to find out. 🤓

lilypad

Pallas I think in 2025, I will be lucky to get 2/month.

You may be surprised. Especially if you work on more than one piece at a time.

I have a "40 piece" tab in my spreadsheet practice diary more as a record of pieces I've completed than a goal. I generally have 4 pieces at various stages:

1) Lesson book
2) RCM repertoire or etude piece
3) Non-classical piece of my choice
4) Quick study to improve my reading

The list starts off at a snails pace, but by the the end of the year, they've accumulated and I'm always amazed.

As far as learning time, I'd say 3 weeks feels like my average, although one piece took me a whopping 4 months and occasionally I'll get lucky with a quick study and get it a single sitting instead of a more typical few days to 2 weeks,

BartK

I just checked to see how many pieces I did this year and actually it was my best year so far... 80 pieces.

OK, 45 of those were Czerny etudes but even if I disregard those that still makes 35 pieces. I could have easily reached 40 if I focused on that more.

I'm not saying this to discourage anyone but just to point out that it's completely untrue that the more advanced you are the fewer pieces you can do. It's very easy for someone advanced to pick easy pieces; so easy that it's no problem at all to learn them in a few days. If you think you can't do it because your pieces are getting more difficult just pick easier pieces.

lilypad

BartK I'm not saying this to discourage anyone but just to point out that it's completely untrue that the more advanced you are the fewer pieces you can do. It's very easy for someone advanced to pick easy pieces; so easy that it's no problem at all to learn them in a few days. If you think you can't do it because your pieces are getting more difficult just pick easier pieces.

Also, from what I've seen on piano exam syllabus lists, smaller sections, such as movements of sonatas or other lengthy more advanced pieces are treated as stand-alone pieces.

ShiroKuro

Pallas I think I'm feeling discouraged at how long it's taking me to do my lesson pieces,

Don’t feel discouraged! Pieces that are at the edges of our playing ability of course take more time, but by working on them, we push those edges out.

but I don't want to do easier ones because these are beautiful and motivating

Which is a good reason to keep playing pieces like that!

WieWaldi

Pallas I'm going to trust my teacher...

That's best advice. From everything you posted at YouTube, you made great progress. I'm sure, your teacher helped at achieving this, so keep going.

Animisha

Pallas I'm feeling discouraged at how long it's taking me to do my lesson pieces

As a child, I did the first two grades in one year. For the longest time, I thought I was slow at arithmetics. I wasn't, I just had one year less of practising arithmetics compared to my classmates.
You make fast progress. That means that you haven't learned as many pieces as most students have when they get a new piece. That explains why you think it takes you such a long time to do your lesson pieces.

BartK

Pallas
It's perfectly normal for your main lesson pieces to take longer as you progress. I would say that's a sign you're no longer a beginner.

Animisha

Pallas

You can both trust your teacher, and discuss how you feel, if necessary.
If I were your teacher, I would very much like to hear about your crisis of confidence!

ShiroKuro

Pallas it sounds like you’re doing really well to me.

As for confidence? Sometimes it comes from within, sometimes from with out.

Ask your teacher if she thinks you’re doing well, if she says yes, believe her.

And (back to that video), just keep at it. 😊

iternabe

Pallas I just need to be focused and organized while polishing 3, learning 3, practicing 10 scales, and learning 2. Lots of interesting work.

That is indeed a lot of work! I can only manage practicing 1 scale, learn 1 piece, and polish 1 piece in the same day.

Nightowl

iternabe Same here, iternabe, I usually practice 2 or 3 pieces in each practice session, of which 1 is in the polishing stage and others are works in progress. I don't overload my old brain, I would find that counterproductive (not to mention gruelling).

ShiroKuro

iternabe I can only manage practicing 1 scale, learn 1 piece, and polish 1 piece in the same day.

That sounds very good!

As for me, how much I work on in a practice session depends on how much time I have, and what I have coming up. For example, when I was preparing for the recital or the concert, that determined my practice sessions, which were tightly focused on the recital pieces of course, and didn’t include new material.

But in general, in a regular practice session, I work on 1-2 pieces that are still in the early learning stage, then I have maybe 2-3 in the polishing stage, and then there are always multiple pieces I want to play for maintenance, so I rotate through those. If I don’t have much time, I just practice the learning pieces. When I have a lot of time, I go through all the pieces, taking one or two breaks (getting up from the piano, stretching my legs, getting something to drink…)

But I have been playing piano a long time, so I feel more comfortable working on a lot of things at once (or in one practice session).

Animisha

Pallas I've been meaning to find the Molly Gebrian thread and ask everyone how they're doing, because my practice habits have fallen down a bit.

Pallas, I have wondered about this also, and I have started a new thread about this!

https://forum.pianotell.com/d/1431-molly-gebrian-seven-months-later

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