40(ish) Pieces in 2025
lilypad I have Edna Mae Burnam's Dozen A Day All Year Round technical exercises. I only got part way through level 2 of the original books. I remember the exercises as being lots of fun and never boring with a variety of challenges. I bought a compendium of all the books last year and need to figure out a way to shoehorn it in to my practice routine.
I have the Preparatory book and Book 1 in the A Dozen A Day series. I haven't done anything with them. I haven't looked online yet to see if anyone demonstrates each technique. It's nice to hear they're fun, though.
Pallas When you say polyphony, are you referring to multiple voices in counterpoint?
Yes, but in this case, it is just a second voice that sometimes plays a little melody.
For instance, here in m15-17, LH plays not just the accompaniment, but it plays a little melody of its own. This is an example of what I call for "just a bit polyphonic". If you look at the melody in m13, there are five quarter notes in a first up then down pattern (F G A G F). Then look at the accompaniment in m 15, starting with the second note, there is the same pattern but upside down (B A G A B). It is this kind of finesses that I am very much in love with.
Nightowl We are in synch - I'm also working on Memory, from the Alfred's Hits book.
Yes, that is the one! 
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... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
Re the 40P challenge… I think I posted somewhere that I was going back and forth about whether I’d do the 40P challenge or do a sightreading challenge…
Well, so far I’m having a hard time with the pieces I’ve chosen. Not because they’re too hard, but because I don’t like them enough to want to play them more than once. 
So all the pieces I’ve played have ended up as sightreading pieces that I’ve worked on in one practice session and then not returned to for the next practice session.
I’ve sort of been assuming that once I find a piece I like a little more, I’ll work on it over a few practice sessions before moving on, but I’ve yet to find that piece. 
Ah well, the sightreading practice is great though.
Right now, I’m sort of thinking maybe I’ll sightread through the book I’m using right now and then pick something different and shift to a more 40P style approach.
This Wednesday, I’ll have my first lesson after winter break, so I plan to talk to my teacher about this again.
Just finished a 3-day quick study of Michael Head's "The Quiet Wood" from "The Best of Grade 1 Piano".
I have a stack of around 14 books that I used for sight reading last year (a motley collection of graded piano exam repertoire books, Piano Adventures popular and jazz supplement books and a few books from individual composers). If I liked a piece enough when I was sight reading it, I'd flag it for later quick study. I have 60 pieces flagged, so I don't think I'll get through all of them. So I guess next year the ones I don't get to will be even quicker studies.
- Edited
No commitment yet. I'm busy practicing music with a group until the summer so my music is not limited to piano pieces.
The assumption for learning 40+ pieces is to add variety to your playing which is ok. I met people (self-learners) who learned to play a few pieces they like listening to but way above their level. They're happy repeating the same pieces over & over. The people who have a teacher would get into a new piece when piece they're working on reached a certain level.
I can easily read through 10 or 15 absolute beginner pieces out of an Alfred's or Faber 1 book but they are way below my level. Otherwise I'd be learning 1 Bach Prelude & Fugue in 3 - 4 weeks which is something I enjoy playing but slightly above my level. 1 piece a month would only add up to 12 pieces a year.
Got a second piece done now. "Stained Glass Window In A Church" by Edna Mae Burnam. It calls for playing 'Softly and sweetly'. I'm not a graceful person. More like a bull in a china shop. But I did my best to conjure up some soft, sweet notes. 
- A Canyon Deep by Edna Mae Burnam
- Stained Glass Window In A Church by Edna Mae Burnam
I also have two pieces to report!
- J.S. Bach - Arioso from cantata 156 (lesson piece)
- John Thompson - Hide and seek (quick study)
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... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
I finished my second piece. This is Oriental from Danzas Españolas by Enrique Granados.
Quick Study List for 2025
Wow Bart, a five minutes piece at that level... that's placing the bar at a completely new height 
Nice hands too - love how gracefully you turned the page! (yeah, I know, that's literally the least important aspect of this exercise, but I just couldn't help noticing 
!)
Sophia Wow Bart, a five minutes piece at that level... that's placing the bar at a completely new height
Thanks!
To be honest, there is a lot of repetition in that piece and it sounds harder than it is. Good page turning is actually important when you're playing from the notes. The last thing you want is for the page to flip back or turning two pages instead of one. 
The third piece I finished, which is about a busy shoemaker, called for a moderately fast, busy and steady pace. I feel like I got it up to a decently faced pace for me. In addition to the "medium loud" and "louder here" dynamics, there were some expressive markings on different lines, such as "using sewing machine", "hammering", "hammering and shaping shoes". I'm not ashamed to admit that the kid in me had fun with this one.
Oh, and also, it was 2 pages long, requiring a page turn. I wasn't able to turn the page gracefully, like @BartK does. I ended up putting a small sticky note on the back of the page with a portion of it sticking out for something to grab onto. It worked rather well.
- A Canyon Deep by Edna Mae Burnam
- Stained Glass Window In A Church by Edna Mae Burnam
- The Shoemaker by Edna Mae Burnam
I have the first two pieces from my list. They are not polished, but I want to move on and not spend more time on them for now. Actually, because of the red button syndrome I have probably spent more time trying to get a marginally decent recording than on learning to play the pieces And it's supposed to be a quick study project... 
Note to self: either get only one take and live with it, or somehow get used to recording.
40-P list 2025:
Gooseberry
Did you actually memorize those pieces? I think the point of the challenge is to play from the score to improve your reading.
Anyway, great playing and it's great that you made a recording. It's easy to play for yourself but as soon as you press that button the pressure goes up x 10. 
BartK Thanks! I'm going to record all those quick studies, to try and get used to that pressure...
BartK Did you actually memorize those pieces?
No, I didn't memorise them intentionally! I just can't help it - if I play this kind of short, simple piece more than three times it usually just sticks in my memory... So to improve my reading I need to read music I have never seen before, and I do it, although not consistently enough 
Though, come to think of it, I should probably force myself to look at the sheet even with pieces that I have already inadvertently memorised.
- Edited
Gooseberry Though, come to think of it, I should probably force myself to look at the sheet even with pieces that I have already inadvertently memorised.
Yes, following along the music with your eyes while you play is a very good way to improve your reading too.
Oh... I have trouble keeping ambition levels down! I want to make a nice recording of my quick studies, and I am afraid, "nice" means flawless, with good dynamics and not too slow! And the pieces I chose for my quick studies are not easy enough...
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... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
lilypad That sounds like it was a stretch piece for you, I expect you feel ready for something completely different now. 
Of course the piece counts in your yearly total, but to gain sight reading benefits it's recommended to regularly play pieces that are easily playable within your current abilities, to read a wider variety of music than if you work on stretch pieces all the time. So, now is a good time to pick some easier pieces and notch up the number.
Currently I'm working on some stretch pieces at the end of A's book 2, so this month I may struggle to finish 4 pieces, but once I finish that book I aim to work on 1 stretch piece and 3 easy pieces a month, which seems manageable for me (unless the stretch piece is Chopin). I will post my list of pieces at the end of each month.
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
