WEEK 2: Keep on practicing! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the End-Of-The-Year Community Concert Challenge!
If you want to describe your process (optional), feel free to use the following template.
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ Reply below with your assignments and questions! ↓
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BWV 996 Allemande Revisit
I am reviving / updating my interpretation of the BWV 996 Allemande from last year's Bach Challenge. This is still a bit rough (further complicated by my losing my 'I' fingernail (fake) just before recording this). I have revised some of my ornamentation which I like better - I think. The trills were difficult w/o the I fingernail but hopefully clear enough to suggest what I am trying to do.
Note: We had to cancel our Portugal / Spain trip due to various reasons. Actually we just postponed the trip - we will try again later this year, I hope. We are trying to arrange something more local over the next week.
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Jack Stewart Beautiful, Jack! Really love the sound of those cross-string trills and your playing was really smooth. The Bach piece I am practicing is giving me nightmares, but your playing made me pick up the guitar and practice again. Thank you!
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Wai Thanks Wai. I have spent a lot of time working on cross string trills and I still find them challenging, especially the longer trills. They are better with all my fingernails but even then it is hard to be consistent.
Your playing is always so good. Keep working on that prelude. I would love to hear your progress.
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Jack Stewart sad to read you had to postpone the trip
OTOH your work on this piece since the Bach challenge has paid off, the music is well connected, cross-string trills are well articulated and the overall flows well. Looks like a good candidate for the next concert 
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Jack Stewart Very well done, Jack! I like this piece so much, and your performance is really good!
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Jack Stewart bravo jack you have great command of this piece
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks Blaise. Feel I am finally getting a grasp on this piece. I'll have to live with it for a while to see if I like the ornamentation - their placement and structure. But for now, I think I like the general direction.
Yeah, it was disappointing to have to cancel the Spain trip. We had a series of complications (our daughter was supposed to move into her new apt. on the first of Dec. but the landlord had not made it available by the time we were to leave and then Lisbon flooded so severely they essentially closed the city.)
Oh well, we will try again later.
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Robert Thanks Robert.
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Vilio Celli Thanks Vilio.
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For sure cross-string trills require to reorganize some fingerings to ensure they sound they way they should. OTOH, while you're doing them great
, I'm not a big fan of them myself since they kind of mimics the overlapping sound of both notes, like a keyboard do, but you never get them on other instruments like winds, brasses, strings, ... 
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Jack Stewart Nice work Jack. This has been one of those pieces that's been on my radar for years for decades since it was in the first guitar book I ever owned but has always been out of reach. I might have to have a go at it finally. I really enjoyed your performance on this.
Sorry about Spain, but hope you guys find something else to do in the meantime. Our last trip to Spain was great up until we went to catch our return flight on 11 September 2001. Pretty much chaos at that point so we'd really like to get back to have a different experience.
Again, congrats on this.
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Jack Stewart such great listening , thank you very much for sharing this with us. Agree with Blaise, it’s a good one for next concert. You are in control - more than, phrasing and breathing are very natural and convincing. Even your elaborate ornamentation. Impressed. It’s a bit more than what I’d choose to do, sometimes grace notes overlap main notes, and sometimes they hold back the pulse, which overall you are so beautifully keeping. I also appreciate this quiet tempo and clear voicing.
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Jack Stewart Incredible playing, Jack! Your hand looks like a nimble spider crawling across the fingerboard. You really make the different voices come out so clearly. And those ornaments! Did you get some private lessons from David Russell?
I'm so sorry the trip is postponed. I hope everything is okay.
Far less important, but I do like the haircut.
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Eric Phillips Jack Stewart absolutely, the haircut is perfect!
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Jack Stewart I never would've known that you lost your fingernail just before this. It sounds great! It's a good thing we have our guitars to console us after postponed trips to Spain!
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Steve Price Thanks Steve. The BWV 996 suite is one of my favorites. Years (decades!) ago I played the entire suite except for the gigue. I am slowly working my way back into it.
Wow! 9/11 was such a shocking time. It must have been really disorienting to be caught up in overseas travel then. We will make a trip to Spain later. We have managed to put together a quick (1 week) visit to Mexico City - which is where I am now.
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Blaise Laflamme Eric Phillips This is why I never look in the mirror.
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joosje Thanks Joosje. There are some of my ornaments that I don't have under control yet and cause me to extend beyond the beat a bit. Hopefully I can work those out.
I understand your and Blaise's opinion on elaborate ornamentation in Bach. Many of his pieces I don't ornament or only minimally. However, I find this suite lends itself to more elaborate ornamentation. Being in the French style I try to model it on a keyboard perspective ( as in Gustave Leonhardt or Rosalyn Turreck).
BTW your performances of the Dowland and Kellner Fantasies in the community concert were wonderful. Well done.
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Jack Stewart That 996 gigue is ruthless, lol. And I struggled when I tried to play the courante and the sarabande since I had trouble hearing the melody lines. I'll have to wait until I'm more musically advanced I guess.
During our trip to Spain we were fortunate that I was military so we were able to hole up at a joint Spanish/US Navy base up the coast from Cadiz until things settled down as much as they could at the time.
Enjoy your trip and have good christmas.
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Jack Stewart but the camera is looking at you!
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Jack Stewart that's really good Jack I enjoyed listening to it you seem to have it under control and I like the tempo. It's not an easy piece - I've tried it a few times. Sorry to hear about your trip. I'm just trying to catch up after being down with Covid this week
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A complete pass through the Canco Trista. Not perfect, but it's coming along. Thanks for the feedback everyone and thanks for the suggestions, Steve Pederson .
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Steve Price This is really coming along beautifully Steve! Very nice work, and this piece is really growing on me. Nice incorporation of the slurs.
A couple things to consider...
I'm not sure what your score is indicating, but the score that I'm looking at has no indication how to handle that intro line (from B to B). You could try several different approaches with that - even doing it differently each time you play it.
For example, you could do a campanella effect with it - starting the B on the second string open, followed by the C on the 3rd string at the 5th fret, then the open E string. This would give you essentially a Cmajor7 chord right off the bat. You could then follow that with the F# on the second string and then the G, followed by the high B on the first string, or even slide up to the B at the 12th fret, playing the next high B on the first string.
You could also do some other slides. The possibilities are many! I would just say personally I don't necessarily care for the hammer-on of the E from the C on the second string. It seems to rush the timing of that note.
Also, on the very last chord, I would suggest considering playing the final C# on the second string, and here's why: Although playing that note on the 3rd string gives it a richer/darker tone that this piece seems to call for, it's also stopping the open G string from ringing out. That is a very important note in that chord, as it gives it its minor flavor. There will be no problem stopping the second string B from ringing out, as there is already a B an octave lower. It's overtones should cover that octave higher B sound. Also, playing that note on the second string wouldn't be as much of a leap timbre-wise from playing the open E string that immediately precedes it, which is very bright.
Hope this helps!
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Steve Price That is really beautiful, Steve!
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Steve Price nice! Such romantic playing. Fine tone and phrasing!
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Steve Price Very nice and beautiful, Steve! Thanks for sharing this.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
