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.

  1. A Canyon Deep by Edna Mae Burnam
  2. Stained Glass Window In A Church by Edna Mae Burnam
  3. 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:

  1. Allegretto - Cornelius Gurlitt
  2. Wild Horses - Martha Mier

    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.

              • BBartK

              • Post #35
              • 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... 😅

                *
                ... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...

                lilypad Just finished a 3-day quick study of Michael Head's "The Quiet Wood" from "The Best of Grade 1 Piano".

                Finally finished a piece I've been working on since November 25th. Not a quick study, but still counts.

                1. Joanne Bender's "Ripple Effect" from RCM grade 3 etude book.

                    lilypad Not a quick study, but still counts.

                    No, it is 40(ish) pieces, not a quick study thread!

                    *
                    ... 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)

                        Gooseberry I just listened to those pieces and I liked both of them very much. Those pieces seem ideal for this exercise and I thought you played both pieces very fluently, which was no mean feat considering the rapid tempo of the Wild Horses piece. By the way, I love the horse props you displayed - nice touch! 😀

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

                            Nightowl I just listened to those pieces

                            Oh wow @Gooseberry, I completely missed that wasn't just an itemized list, but actually links to the pieces themselves! Very well played and I too loved the galloping horses - I believe one got away at some point but you managed to catch up and reigned it in pretty quickly afterwards. And I agree, the horses display was a nice touch, I would have completely missed that if Nightowl hadn't mentioned it 😊

                              Nightowl The 40 Piece Challenge has been around for a few years, as a way to improve sight reading skills - here is a link to an article which outlines how the concept began:
                              https://elissamilne.com/2015/02/04/where-did-the-40-piece-challenge-begin/

                              On a previous thread people discussed their ideas and approaches to tackle this challenge - link attached:
                              https://forum.pianotell.com/d/1418-new-year-new-approach-40-pieces-challenge-2025

                              I think that the challenge is manageable provided that the pieces are at a level which aligns closely with a player's existing skill set (or one grade lower). The target number of pieces seems feasible for beginners/intermediate players, as it equates to learning one piece every 9 days. However, this target may not be suitable for advanced players who are tackling complex pieces to pass exams or perform in a professional setting, as they may be unwilling or unable to commit further practice time. Those players might like to tweak things slightly so as to make the target less onerous - perhaps a target of 25 pieces would be manageable - one easy piece every 2 weeks could be a welcome distraction from stretch pieces and is still likely to reap benefits. So, set your own target, choose your pieces and plot your path to sight reading success! 🙂

                              This thread is somewhere to post monthly updates about progress with the challenge. I aim to list titles/composers of the pieces I have played each month, along with a running total. I look forward to seeing how everyone gets on with this challenge and I hope that this thread will also provide useful information for other beginners looking for easy pieces to play. Good luck everyone.
                              I know that for some people this approach is apparently useful and that's fine and they should do it, but as stated in this post I see what I would call several misconceptions.

                              I assume this idea is mostly geared towards beginners or low intermediates because beyond that I don't think any pianist ever learns anywhere near 40 pieces a year or even 25 pieces a year. I am guessing most of these pieces for people who do this challenge are very short, one to three pages. So starting with these assumptions I don't see this. approach as more than minimally useful for site reading improvement. To improve sight reading, one should be spending at least 5 or 10 minutes each day doing it, so that would be more like 365 pieces per year. It is true that learning one short piece around every 9 days will help with general reading skills which is related to site reading skill but not exactly the same.

                              The best way to approve sight reading is to do a lot of it. And the best way to do a lot of it is to choose pieces one likes and wants to sight read. Most of the best site readers never thought they were practicing sight reading although they did a lot of it . There is nothing wrong with reading some pieces at one level or even above one's level as long as the piece is not too far above one's level.

                              Even at what I would call the intermediate level some pieces could be 5 to 10 pages long so there's no way someone practicing an hour a day would usually learn 40 in a year. I don't think choosing pieces below one's present level just so one can get up to 40 pieces per year is a good idea.

                                  • Sophia

                                  • Post #43
                                  • Edited

                                  pianoloverus I don't think choosing pieces below one's present level just so one can get up to 40 pieces per year is a good idea.

                                  Noted. Luckily, there is no law that says you have to to do it. 😃 (for the record, I'm not doing this challenge either for reasons entirely unrelated to the ones you mentioned, but I'm still very happy it's here for the ones who do enjoy it - I love to read and listen to others submit pieces on a regular basis)

                                    pianoloverus I don't think choosing pieces below one's present level just so one can get up to 40 pieces per year is a good idea.

                                    In fact, the teacher who originally came up with the idea recommends just this very thing -- playing 40(ish) pieces below one's present level. Given that sightreading pieces are also set below one's level, it is quite well-aligned with those ideas.

                                    Also note that the 40 pieces do not replace one's other pieces, but are in addition to them, which I think is an important element.

                                    Separate from that, if you @pianoloverus would like to engage in a discussion about the pros and cons of the 40P challenge, perhaps we can move that to a different thread, since I note that @Nightowl 's original goal with this thread was:

                                    This thread is somewhere to post monthly updates about progress with the challenge.

                                    and that is in fact how posters here are using it.

                                        ShiroKuro pianoloverus I don't think choosing pieces below one's present level just so one can get up to 40 pieces per year is a good idea.

                                        In fact, the teacher who originally came up with the idea recommends just this very thing -- playing 40(ish) pieces below one's present level. Given that sightreading pieces are also set below one's level, it is quite well-aligned with those ideas.

                                        Also note that the 40 pieces do not replace one's other pieces, but are in addition to them, which I think is an important element.

                                        Separate from that, if you @pianoloverus would like to engage in a discussion about the pros and cons of the 40P challenge, perhaps we can move that to a different thread, since I note that @Nightowl 's original goal with this thread was:
                                        This thread is somewhere to post monthly updates about progress with the challenge.

                                        and that is in fact how posters here are using it.

                                        Quite a few posters both before and after my post did not use this thread for monthly updates about their progress with this challenge.

                                        I was very careful to say that if you feel it works for you then it's fine. But I also gave reasons why I thought some of the ideas involved were not correct. Namely that if improving one's sight reading is one of the main goals of this approach, then 40 pieces a year is nowhere near enough. 5 or 10 minutes a day which would mean at least one piece per day makes more sense. Limiting sight reading practice to pieces below one's level Is also not the best idea I think. The best way to improve sight reading is to do a lot of it and people will tend to do a lot of it if they are enjoying the pieces they are playing and are not necessarily concerned about their difficulty.
                                        Since you are so concerned about thread drift which probably has occurred on the majority of threads on this forum, I will not post further on this thread. I hope some readers will take my advice into account.

                                          pianoloverus I assume this idea is mostly geared towards beginners or low intermediates because beyond that I don't think any pianist ever learns anywhere near 40 pieces a year or even 25 pieces a year.

                                          Agreed. I said as much in my opening post.

                                          ShiroKuro I note your point that the original concept was that the 40 pieces should be in addition to other pieces. My approach is pretty relaxed as I'm not working towards exams, but I recognise that in order to grow my piano skills I need to play some stretch pieces. It's a matter of choice whether to count stretch pieces as part of the 40 pieces and in my case I plan to count them, but aim for a total near to 50 pieces, rather than 40.

                                          I don't mind people discussing the pros and cons of the concept here, although it might make the thread quite unwieldy as time goes on, so perhaps it might be better to have those discussions on the other thread (see link in my OP).

                                          I enjoy watching the videos of fellow players, but there's no obligation for anyone to post videos and I wonder if perhaps this thread might become a bit glitchy/overloaded if it turns into a year round recital thread? I'm not tech minded so perhaps someone who knows about this stuff could offer guidance around this point. Anyway, we could always start another thread, perhaps at the 6 month point, if this one becomes unusable.

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

                                              Third piece. A quick study this time (3 days).

                                              1. Michael Head - The Quiet Wood - The Best of Grade 1 Piano
                                                2, Joanne Bender - Ripple Effect - RCM 3 Piano Etudes
                                              2. Henry Mancini (arr.) - The Pink Panther - Piano Adventures Popular Repertoire - Level 3A

                                              Ideally, I like to work on 4 kinds of pieces at a time, so that's what makes up my list:
                                              a) Piano Adventures lesson pieces
                                              b) Classical pieces of my choosing at whatever I think my grade level might be
                                              c) Non-classical pieces of my choosing that isn't too much of a stretch
                                              d) Quick study of an easier piece that I've sight read and liked enough to flag for quick study

                                                lilypad It seems like we have a similar approach, in that we will be playing a ratio of roughly 3 easy pieces to 1 current level piece (which might also be a stretch piece). I intend to play one stretch piece and 3 easy pieces each month, which would take my yearly total to 48 pieces. When I finish book 2 this will be my way of keeping the momentum going, as I don't currently have a teacher, nor any plan to buy book 3.

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

                                                    Nightowl lilypad It seems like we have a similar approach, in that we will be playing a ratio of roughly 3 easy pieces to 1 current level piece (which might also be a stretch piece). I intend to play one stretch piece and 3 easy pieces each month, which would take my yearly total to 48 pieces. When I finish book 2 this will be my way of keeping the momentum going, as I don't currently have a teacher, nor any plan to buy book 3.

                                                    By the end of the year on paper 3 easy pieces to 1 piece at current level is what it looks like. As far as everyday practicing for me, it's 3 pieces at my level plus 1 quick study piece.

                                                    The turnover rate on the quick study pieces tends to accumulate, although it takes a while. I don't really have a numerical goal, but I like to keep a list out of curiosity and a 'memory lane' of what I've played. Sometimes around midsummer before the accumulation effect has really kicked in, I'll wonder if I'll even make it to 40. But surprisingly without extra effort, by the end of the last couple of years I've had over 70.

                                                    Here is my list from the end of last year: [