I think I've got it....

I know from experience with other "big ideas" I've had, that I need to keep this realistic and within reach. My motivation to finish things is often fragile at best. I'm great at coming up with big ideas,  positively awful at executing them to completion.

SO, after tapping into the brains of two piano teacher friends (whom I have now also drafted semi-against their will as my unofficial expert consultants), I've decided the theme for the project is going to be GRAB BAG!

I know, this kind of sounds like cheating. "BUT, ERIN! NO THEME IS NOT A THEME!" That's my impersonation of you yelling at your screen right now, which I'm sure you aren't really doing because you aren't that passionate about my crazy project and you're only reading this because you clicked over from Facebook for something to read while you drink your coffee.

Hear me out though. I'll be choosing each month's piece from one of my original theme ideas. This will keep some variety in the mix and also allow for some flexibility. There are definitely months I won't have as much time to devote to this as others. Most importantly, this keep me from potentially hating any one composer. I'm a huge Mozart and Bach fan-girl and I would hate to spend a year with either of them and ultimately decide we can no longer be friends because they made 2020 miserable for me.

In other news, I bought myself a Christmas present today!

It was pointed out to me that there are 12 scales and that maybe learning all 12 scales, arpeggios, inversions, and broken chords would be an idea for a theme.  What a great idea, right?

Spoiler alert: I HATE SCALES. 

After some thought though, I did realize it will make a nice addition to the 12-month-challenge.  I have never had any kind of formal piano lessons and thus, I have never spent any time on scales because scales are BORING. However,  two of my children can now play circles around me with scales and inversions and it feels sort of hypocritical to constantly be nagging at them about their fingerings when they can already play them a million times better than I can.

So this will be the musical equivalent of the kids eating their vegetables. I know it will be good for me, but I'm not going to like it and I'll probably whine a lot.  Consider yourself warned.