40(ish) Pieces in 2025

Nightowl · 2024-12-27T21:45:28+00:00

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 concep...

Kaydia

Thanks, Sophia. I would love some cheering on and I'm sure I could use some friendly tips or advice. I'm still exploring other recording options. So hopefully will be able to get something recording sooner than later. 🙂

Gooseberry

In the spirit of sharing 🙂, my next two pieces (3 and 4), though again very far from perfect, but I have chosen them to address some of my weakest points - jumps, and tempo.

40-P list 2025:

BartK

Gooseberry
Nice! Those two are always fun to play.

Gooseberry

BartK Thanks! It took some hard work for me to get them even to that imperfect shape 😅, but yes, quite a bit of fun too.

Sophia

Very nice Gooseberry! I too learned the Musette piece a while ago because I love it so much! And yes, it has many big jumps... plus some tricky passages. Now I want to dust it off and ~~play~~ learn it again, thanks for the reminder.

And the Wild Horseman is a very nice, I liked it very much. Very happy and bouncy. I also sense a theme developing... Wild Horses, Wild Horseman, so what's next... Wildfire? Goodbye Horses? One Trick Pony?

Gooseberry

Sophia 😂Goodbye Horses, rather, I've had enough of galloping for now and look forward to learning something of a nice walking tempo.

Gooseberry

Here is the "nice walking tempo" piece that I wanted to learn next:

Thornton's Walk by Martin Phipps
It's from the soundtrack of the BBC mini-series "North and South", an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel.

And then...

Sophia I also sense a theme developing... Wild Horses, Wild Horseman, so what's next...

Well, I couldn't resist when I saw the title of this piece 😂:

Dragon Rider by Hans-Günter Heumann
I think it fits the theme? There is also the "Halloween Witch Ride" by the same composer, but it will have to wait till October...

Kaydia

This latest 40(ish) piece is played entirely on the black keys. It was fun to play, with a lot of 8va repeated sections. Getting the groups of 2+3 black keys to sound as one was the most challenging part for me, especially the further away they were in the 8va sections.

A Canyon Deep by Edna Mae Burnam (From Pieces to Play with Step by Step Book Two)
Stained Glass Window In A Church by Edna Mae Burnam (From Pieces to Play with Step by Step Book Two)
The Shoemaker by Edna Mae Burnam (From Pieces to Play with Step by Step Book Two)
Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley & Vera Matson, Arr by Christine H. Barden (From Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Greatest Hits Level 1)
Ming Ling by Mary Elizabeth Clark (From Favorite Piano Solos Blue Ribbon Encyclopedia Level One)

Nightowl

Here are my January pieces. They are all from Alfred's AIO book 2.

Frankie and Johnny
Waltz in G Minor
Theme from 6th Symphony "Pathetique" (Tchaikovsky)
Fascination (F Marchetti)
Loch Lomand

The book does not include composer names for three of the pieces.

Next month I will begin choosing my own pieces, but this month I stuck with the method book as I'd like to finish it soon.

Animisha

It is all going very well with my 40(ish) pieces. So very nice to work with something else during my evening session!

J.S. Bach - Arioso from cantata 156 (lesson piece)
John Thompson - Hide and seek (quick study)
Erik Satie - Petite prélude à la journée (quick study)
J.C. Bach - Prelude in A minor (quick study)
Andrew Lloyd Webber - Memory, from Cats (quick study)
Sarah Konecsni - Bells in the mist (quick study)
To be revealed in the next recital (lesson piece)

WieWaldi

Animisha Very well played. It started very easy on one hand and got more are more advanced. Didn't expect this one to be a 40-ish piece study. If you keep goin like this, you will end up with 84 pieces by the end of the year. Be careful Animisha, you are risking a speeding ticket 🏎️

pianoloverus

Your technique is excellent and it's obvious that you've thought with a lot of care about how to play the piece. If you have a teacher I think they are doing an excellent job and if you are self learning it's even more impressive because I think many who learn without a teacher don't play with such good technique.

twocats

pianoloverus I'm assuming your comment is for Animisha; if you click "Reply" at the bottom of her post (next to the "Like") it'll tag her when you respond and link your reply to her post 🙂

Animisha

pianoloverus If you have a teacher I think they are doing an excellent job

Thank you so much Pianoloverus. For years I have been a student at Piano Career Academy and the two teachers there have taught me all I know about how to play the piano.

Animisha

WieWaldi Didn't expect this one to be a 40-ish piece study.

WieWaldi, you are correct! The thing is, I found the easier first page when I still was a beginner, and I liked it very much, but I could never play it well enough. Now with the short studies idea, I resurrected that piece, and found that there were two more pages. Of course, I could not just play the first page... So it was a bit too much for a short study, but still, very enjoyable to learn.

pianoloverus

twocats Thank you for clarifying that. I think sometimes I have been hitting the reply that's in the dark blue box to the right of a post. Am I correct in assuming that will not tag the person I am replying to?

Sophia

pianoloverus Correct 🙂 If you click that button on the right, it's a generic reply:

But if you want to reply specifically to a person (like I did above), you can click the reply underneath their post:

twocats

pianoloverus I think sometimes I have been hitting the reply that's in the dark blue box to the right of a post. Am I correct in assuming that will not tag the person I am replying to?

Yes, that's correct! When the person is tagged, the reply will have their name @name at the beginning of your reply. And if you want to quote, just highlight the text and a "quote" button will pop up. On mobile you can highlight by holding your finger for a couple of seconds over the text.

BartK

You might have been wondering where I have been since I haven't posted a new piece for 2 weeks. Well, I bit off more than I can chew. 😆

So, my next piece is the Schubert-Liszt Ständchen. Yes, the famous one but not exactly the one that concert pianists play. Liszt actually wrote an alternative "Ossia più facile" which simplifies some of the accompaniment and ends before all the immitative counterpoint and all the decorative cadenzas start. It's a pretty cut down version and it looked fairly easy on paper, or so I thought. Well, now I know that when Liszt writes "più facile" he is trolling you and you shouldn't believe him. 😄

It's not yet as good as I would like it and I still have some hesitations but I decided that quick studies should not take more than two weeks so it is what it is. I may come back and actually learn the full version properly one day.

Quick Study List for 2025

Nightowl

BartK Well, now I know that when Liszt writes "più facile" he is trolling you and you shouldn't believe him. 😄

Ha ha, I love this comment! 😆 Reminds me of those books of "Easy" piano pieces, which turn out to be anything but easy!

That is a beautiful piece and you did well to get it to that level in 2 weeks... at my current playing level it would probably take at least 2 months (but I don't stray out of my ability zone, it would just be frustrating)! Thanks for posting an imperfect recording - the occasional hesitations reassure me that advanced players share similar struggles to early beginners like me. That said, there was some lovely playing there and you also coped with page turns very deftly - something I've deliberately swerved when choosing a recital piece! 🙃

Sophia

BartK Gorgeous Bart. That is one of my all time favourite pieces, and your rendition actually brought tears to my eyes. I now have hope I might be able to play it too, hopefully 10 years from now. Love how the hands keep crossing over. Thanks for being an inspiration 🙂

Gooseberry

BartK Great playing! All four pieces you've chosen so far are beautiful. I wonder which one is your favourite?
I like the last one, but it goes neck and neck with Granados' Oriental 🙂

Animisha

Here is an easier version (easier than the one BartK played so very well). I made it partly myself, not from scratch of course, but by combining other easy arrangements. In m5, and a lot of other measures, you'll see a line above three notes. It means that this is a triplet. The number three in the middle of the line confuses me, so instead I just use the line.

BartK

Sophia BartK Gorgeous Bart. That is one of my all time favourite pieces, and your rendition actually brought tears to my eyes. I now have hope I might be able to play it too, hopefully 10 years from now. Love how the hands keep crossing over. Thanks for being an inspiration 🙂

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

The hand crossings are the tricky part because they interfere with the melody and you have to do some clever finger and pedal work. And the part with the echo one octave higher (which I didn't play) is even harder. Like I said, this piece looks simple on paper but it's not easy.

I have to pick something easier now...😆

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