Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Your music goals for 2020

I want to give myself more of a challenge this year, so I am including things I know I am going to struggle with, (especially the last one )


The Earlofmar 2020 Mission Statement (subject to change)


• Prepare and sit AMEB Grade 4 Theory exam. (picked up the books today)

• Restart a regular daily sight-reading regime and somewhat related, a regular rhythm training regime.

• Maintain the pieces learned for grade 6, so that they become part of a permanent repertoire.

• Restart working on unfinished Bach Sinfonias.

• Aim to learn pieces outside of the exam requirements.

• Restart and maintain regular ear training.

• Begin learning analysis of exam pieces much earlier to see if this aids the learning process.

• Don’t be evil.

People have great goals. I would like to take the online RCM theory level 6 exam (working on the material now) and theory level 7. Passed the theory level 5 in 2019.

Piano is getting all my attention. I need to play the violin more often!

I have collected enough repertoire in recent years including books & downloads. It's time to start perfecting some of these. For a few years I've relied on playing by memory. It's time to focus more on playing easier pieces to get reading skills up to par.

I'll be back in adult group piano session shortly after the new year until the summer break. Being away from home for business during the summer, it's hard to find a piano for practice. Don't want expect too much or make too many promises that can't be kept.

Hope to have something to submit for the next PW recital if at all possible.

Thank-you, Qwerty53, for your kind words! Yeah, let's hope that we still have many more years of piano playing yet to come!!

My goals are very similar to last year's, except for a couple of things that were clearly unattainable. So here they are:

1) Practice 90 minutes a day on average. [unlikely, but I persist!]

2) Learn at least:
Bach: 1 Invention (no. 13?) & 1 movement from a French/English suite
Chopin: Nocturne no. 20 in C# minor op. posth. & possibly Waltz in C# minor op. 64 no. 2
Kapustin, Sonatina op. 100 [very ambitious, but so much fun!]
Schumann: Scenes from Childhood no. 5 & no. 11
Mozart: Adagio from sonata K. 282 & another slow movement (possibly Adagio from sonata K. 280)

3) Practice scales/technique once a week (30 minutes).

4) Practice sight-reading/quick studies twice a week (2 x 30 minutes).

5) Recording session twice a month (30 minutes - pieces in Polishing list).

6) Maintain a performance-ready repertoire (about 30 minutes) and find chances to play in front of people.

1) MYOD 2020, practice every day. Goal is 60 minutes, minimum I'd like to not go below is 30 but really I'll be happy this year if I just have a focussed practice session of _something_ every single day.
2) Learn 40 new pieces. My goal is actually 25+, but figured since I'm revisiting Grade 1 material as part of improving my sight reading, I may as well join the 40+ challenge. Grade 1 material with a little time each day takes me about 1 week to learn to a reasonable state and could be polished up if I spent a 2nd week on it. If a piece grabs me, I might spend that 2nd week on it to polish up and record. Most I expect to record at whatever state they're in at the end of 1 week, unless I feel I've struggled with any given section, then I'll put a second week in.
3) Learn a few Beethoven pieces. As another thread mentioned it's his 250th this year it seems as good a time as any to work a few in even if they're part of the Grade 1 pieces above
4) Sort out a two mic recording setup for my piano. To date I've only ever recorded using digital pianos and I'd like to get a recording of Let it Go and Castle of Wonders that are my current longer pieces that I'm working on polishing.
5) Learn a piece or two from the Titanic score book I've had for too many years and not gotten around to

At some point during the year I'll probably start to work in a few Grade 2 pieces and perhaps Grade 3. My intention is to always have a new piece on the go that I can learn in 1-2 weeks and then a slightly longer or more challenging piece along with a fun longer term piece.

I started keeping a daily log of what I practice around November last year (I've tracked my practice time since I started though). Nothing too detailed, just which piece I practiced, which measures gave issues, tempo if slowly working up. Mostly so I can look back and see how long pieces took to identify potential weaknesses to focus on when picking future pieces.

Added a new section for 2020 and added a list of goals. We'll see how well it goes by the end of the year.

Basic goals:

• At least 2 live performances (with at least 2 pieces or movements per performance)
• At least 12 performance recordings (including at least 1 full Beethoven sonata and 1 rock song cover)
• Sing more during piano practice

Stretch goals:

• Find and join or start a piano performance meet-up group in my area

I already gave my self some goals, posted on the facebook piano marvel forum

1. Re-learn so that they become my repertoire
a) Beethoven Pathetique 2mvnt (actually I pretty well have that now)
b) Bach Invention No 13 (almost there but not quite)
c) Bach Invention No 8
d) Chopin Nocturne Op 9 No2
e) Bach/Macello BWV 974 Adagio
2. Finish Learning the entire Pathetique Sonata
Mvt 1 by 1st July 2020
All 3 movements in on go by December 2020
3) Improve my Sight Reading (SASR) score on Piano Marvel
Currently sitting at around 580 with occasional over 600
At least once over 700 by 1st July 2020
Regularly over 700 by December 2020
4) Buy a grand piano
(did my first audition today - see http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthre...itions-for-a-baby-grand.html#Post2930042)

2020 Goals

1. Learn rep more efficiently by practicing all details (and not making mistakes) in the small practice sections my teacher assigns.

In general want to be more efficient and focused in practice as I’m learning two other instruments. (guitar and viola da gamba, they all help each other!)

2. Stick with MOYD.

3. Use metronome at least every other day and clap out rhythms. This really has helped this past year (Finally accepted that I couldn’t continue to ignore this weakness.)

4. Do sight-reading at least every other day. I’m trying out Piano Marvel for sight reading with my teacher’s approval. (Thanks to posters on PM thread.)

5. Perform-play more and get more comfortable with it.

6. Work on my "Maintenance List.” Have 5 or so pieces I can play if someone asks me to “play something.”

7. Continue with applied music theory. For instance, recognizing triads And intervals in the key I'm playing and identify by sound its I, IV, V chords.

8. Post a few times on PW :-)

Good health and good practice to everyone this year.

I want to learn songs by Mitski this year but having trouble finding sheet music anyone know where I can find some?

1. Keep going
2. Finish my last method book (I just started the last one in the series!)
3. Slow down when practicing
4. Work on playing faster
5. Record something at some point

1. Learn to play more smoothly
2.slower and fewer mistakes when learning a new piece
3. Embrace new challenges in learning the piano!
4. Keep one recording of each lesson, and compare with previous pieces for areas to improve.
5. Listen closely to my teacher!!!
6. Above all, enjoy every moment!!!

just saying: really enjoying reading everyone's goals. We may not achieve them all, but just beginning is better than not trying.

This is what I'll try in 2020:

#1. Memorize something, anything and play it for friends.
#2. Learn how to trill or at least to fake it.
#3. Record something.
#4. Practice 800 hours.

Many thanks to Johan B for nurturing this tradition!

Johan B, I really appreciate your annual goal setting and goal review threads, thank you.

This year, my goals are pretty simple. To help set myself up for success, these are mainly things I already do to a greater or lesser extent, but want to improve/increase/emphasise

1. MOYD - play every day I can
2. Follow the path my teacher sets
3. Focus on the details that will make my playing sound better (and in particular, the details my teacher is guiding me on, cf goal 2!)
4. Make space in my practice for things that are not directly preparation for my next lesson - eg refreshing/relearning repertoire, fun pieces just for me, dare I say sight reading. Just "make space", this need not and should not conflict with goal 2
5. Enjoy and have fun

My goal is to start playing piano again.

What about doing that today? Success already on the 8th day of the new year.