Week 2: Forgotten Favorites!
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of "Unfinished Business" practice challenge!
- Choose an piece that you have started to practice but never fully commited to finish. It could be a an iconic masterpiece, a technical challenge, a sweet little miniature or a piece that you played a long time ago and always wanted to refresh! You're encouraged to experiment with pieces from composers you're not accustomed to or push your boundaries with a technically demanding work.
- Commit to regular practice and share your journey with the community. Aim to practice daily and upload at least two videos per week to showcase your progress. This will not only aid in keeping you dedicated and motivated but also enables you to share your musical journey with our tonebase family.
- Share your favorite piece or recording that you always wanted to learnm but is still "unfinished business". Your submission will serve as inspiration for others and construct a vibrant repertoire of potential pieces for fellow members to explore.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Sor – Andante Op 45 No 5 (July 12)
Okay, I went a whole week of this challenge without posting any Sor. Well, that changes today. (No mocking me!)
This is a piece that I remember trying to play maybe two or three years ago. I got stuck on the repeat of the A section (with Sor’s typical fast flourishes) as well as the coda a bit, and so I dropped it. Today, when I started working on it, it was a good feeling to see that, while those sections are not easy, they are certainly within my grasp with some practice. It was a good confirmation that I have actually progressed in the last few years.
This video is after about an hour of practice. It's still a little slow. The fingerings are pretty straightforward. Stopping bass notes from ringing too long is a bit of a challenge, but doable.
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Eric Phillips I was wondering what happened...;-) Beautiful playing as usual.
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Last week was a bit crazy for me, had some minor work done on two tendons in the palm of my right hand but all went well and only kept me off the guitar for a few days. Now back to work on the Carlevaro's Capricho from the Intrdocuccion y Capricho. The Capricho is a bit whimsical as the name implies and is written loosely in three sections. The following is the A Section which is meant to be played "Expressivo, poco rubato." I still need to work on this some, mainly to increase the speed a little and smooth out a couple of rough spots.
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Dale Needles Glad the surgery went well! Your hands are obviously feeling good as demonstrated by your beautiful playing of the first section. I look forward to hearing more when you're ready.
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Barney Thanks. The "surgery" was very minor. They numbed my palm with a few shots and then made a couple of small incisions with a needle and scraped away scar-like tissue that were on two of my tendons in order to release the tendons so they aren't contracting as much. I have a condition called Dupuytrens Contraction.
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Dale Needles Got it Dale. Sounds like you have good people taking care of you, and hope it provides the results you want. We need you in tip-top shape for the level of pieces you play.
All the best, Barney
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Dale Needles excellent Dale this is already in shape and sounding good!
What have you done to your audio setup, sounds like you have a bit more body... lowered your mics? the «surgery»? 
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Dale Needles Glad all went well and that you are paying again. As always, you play this beautifully. The music seems very mysterious, like it's building up to something.
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Dale Needles happy to hear all went well. Your playing is great, as always. Nice, mysterious piece. Very Carlevaro… Lots of interesting details to work on, your interpretation is very promising. Looking forward to hear the progress.
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks. Yes, I did move my mics down as well as closer and agree that it improved the sound. I also have two Anthony Murray guitars and while I normally record with my 1999 guitar which has a little brighter sound, for this recording, I used my 1982 guitar which has a little bit deeper basses.
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joosje Eric Phillips Thanks. I agree this piece is a little mysterious and offers a lot of nuance use of timbre and interpretation.
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Dale Needles multiple combined variables for an enhanced result!!
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Dale Needles Well done, Dale! You really captured Carlevaro's signature sound and moves in this piece. It's a challenging work both physically and musically, but you handled it with such ease. I'm hoping to record No.14 this weekend and look forward to sharing with you.
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Wai Thanks, Wai. The Capricho is classic Carlevaro. I look forward to hearing your interpretation of Microestudio #14, another great Carlevaro study. BTW, I recently posted on my Tonebase Practice Diary a short unpublished sketch/study by Carlevaro.
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Dale Needles Sounding really good, Dale. I recognize this from our get togethers. What a challenging piece, but you have great command of it. Great job.
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Dale Needles thanks for sharing. Hope you feel better now!
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Sor - Andante Op 45 No 5 (July 13 update)
I tried to improve a few things from yesterday's video. I slightly altered a few fingerings that I hope give it a cleaner melody line. I also was a bit more careful about my tone on the open E string, which was a bit thin and bright in a few places yesterday. In order to play the ornamented A' section, I could not bring the tempo up at all. That said, I do think this tempo works.
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Eric Phillips tempo works really nicely. Well done, Eric!
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Eric Phillips Wow, Eric, I'm really impressed! Your playing in this video is so much smoother and more consistent compared to the previous recording, and you did all of that in just one day of practice. Really well done!!
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Eric Phillips Very close!. You are right on the verge of getting all of the ornamentations up to speed which is quite an accomplishment. They are so challenging! Great job.
I feel this tempo seems very comfortable. I don't think it needs to be any quicker.
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Sor – Les Adieux Op 21 (July 14)
This is one of the first pieces that came to my mind when I heard the topic of this challenge. I had done a lot of work on it a while back, but I eventually put it down. The last section of it (the "un poco mosso" part) is generally played quite fast, and even with a lot of work, I was never able to get any speed on it, and I was constantly making mistakes. I find the right hand to be extremely difficult in this section. So, feeling frustrated, I decided to just let it go.
So, when the topic of this challenge was announced, I thought of this piece. To be honest, I have been very hesitant to try it again, as it caused me so much frustration earlier. Then, this morning, I was inspired by a recording I heard of the piece by Vasilena Shashkova (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ6Crwp6LLE&t=1032s). It made me want to try again because:
- She is just FIFTEEN YEARS OLD! I have been playing guitar almost three times as long as she has been alive! If she can play it, I ought to be able to play it, right? (This is all just my silly pride rearing its ugly head, I know.
) - She plays the "un poco mosso" section rather slowly, but it is still very beautiful. So, maybe I can just focus on playing it beautifully and not worry about the speed so much.
So, anyway, still with a bit of hesitation, I am digging into this great piece once again. The video below is just a quick snapshot of where I begin. It’s long and full of mistakes, so feel free not to listen, or only listen to a part of it if you must.
Last month, Eduardo Fernandez did a livestream on this piece, which I did watch, but I will have to watch again. I think this one might take me to the very end of this challenge at least to get to a reasonable level of playing.
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Eric Phillips Always very nice Eric. It is a pleasure to watch you playing this way.
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Eric Phillips Great choice for this challenge and excellent start. I feel this is Sor at his best and great to see you take on the challenge of mastering this important piece. Look forward to watching you progress with it over the next couple of weeks.
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Eric Phillips Great start (restart), Eric. You have quite a challenge for yourself, but I am sure you will be able to get this. I think your approach is correct - to focus on playing it musically without worrying about tempo. That will come over time. I am looking forward to your updates.
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Eric Phillips good for you that you actually found motivation from that. I almost always thought of giving up each time i see these child prodigy play.
Back to this piece, i thought was already really nice. The slower tempo works too.
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Eric Phillips great start on this beautiful work Eric. I'm happy to see you working on a larger work by Sor, I can definitely hear you played a lot of his music before
- She is just FIFTEEN YEARS OLD! I have been playing guitar almost three times as long as she has been alive! If she can play it, I ought to be able to play it, right? (This is all just my silly pride rearing its ugly head, I know.
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
