Week 2: "Brazilian Rhythms Rendezvous"
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of "Villa-Lobos Voyage" practice challenge!
Select a mesmerizing piece from Villa-Lobos or a composer connected to his Brazilian heritage. Whether it's a soulful Villa-Lobos composition, a rhythmic Brazilian-inspired work, or a piece by another artist inspired by the Brazilian musical tradition, the choice is yours!
Commit to regular practice and share your progress with the community. Strive to practice daily and upload at least two videos per week to showcase your musical voyage. This not only keeps you motivated but also allows you to share your artistic journey with our tonebase family.
Share your favorite performance or recording that captures the spirit of the "Villa-Lobos-Voyage Challenge." Your submission will inspire others and create a vibrant collection of potential pieces for fellow members to explore.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Here is a first recording of Prelude No.1 , part 1. I learned this piece long time ago, and this is an opportunity to revisit it and work on difficult passages to see if I can bring it to a better level.
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Thank you Blaise Laflamme , Jack Stewart don for your kind comments. I posted a recording of part 2 in week3, planning to put them together in week 4.
Blaise, guilty as charged :) , I do enjoy playing this piece a lot, glad to work on it more for this challenge .
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HVL Prelude 2 B section (Aug 16)
Here is another update on the B section. This is slightly slower than my post two days ago, but it feels much more controlled. Slowly chipping away at it.
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Eric Phillips your control over the pattern becomes more precise with each iteration, nice job!
Have you tried playing the thumb reststroke and using the 4th string as preparation for the rest of the pattern? -
Eric Phillips Great work, Eric. Your arpeggios are more balanced now. Now just combine this version with the previous one and you're there. Looking forward to your complete performance.
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Blaise Laflamme To some degree, I have tried it. I have never developed rest stroke very well with either my thumb or fingers. I find that when I play a thumb rest stroke, I tend to shift my hand position downward, which is fine if the passage is slow and I have time to bring it back up again. This passage, of course, is not slow. I know it is just a matter of developing the stroke with time and practice.
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Eric Phillips When I use rest stroke it's almost only with the thumb and in this case I find it of a great use, at least to me it helps emphasis on the bass line (the power chord!) and detach better the fast arpeggio pattern. In fact if you shift your hand position it should be stabilized when your thumb stops on the 4th string.
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This video came up on my YT feed this morning, and I thought I'd share it. It's HVL's five preludes arranged for piano. As guitarists, we are so accustomed to hearing and playing music written for other instruments. It is very refreshing to hear some of "our" masterpieces played by another instrument.
I think number 5 sounds the best on the piano. What do you think?
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Eric Phillips what a great find Eric! I am always surprised by the interpretation of other musicians. It's refreshing to hear this music played and freed from the idioms of the guitar. Indeed the 5th is harmonically interesting for the piano as much as for the guitar.
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Eric Phillips It is interesting to hear these on the piano. They are very different.
The first prelude sounds like Rachmaninoff (I am not overly familiar with Rachmaninoff so the reference might be off).
The second Prelude (yours) is an interesting interpretation of the 1st part, however, the second part lacks the 'Metallica' treatment.
I think the 3rd is probably my favorite interpretation, something I might reference if I decide to work on that prelude.
The 4th is also very effective.
And we are back to Rachmaninoff or Liszt for the 5th.
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Eric Phillips I love the fact that there is no string noise. Thanks for sharing.
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Eric Phillips thanks for sharing, definitely interesting to listen to. Makes one appreciate more the expressive capabilities of our instrument :)
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HVL Preludes 1, 3, and 4
These are all pieces I have played before, so I thought I’d record them for fun during this challenge. I have worked on number 5 as well, but not in a while, and I certainly don’t have it memorized like I do with numbers 1-4. Maybe by the end of the challenge I will refresh number 5 as well.
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Eric Phillips nice! I'm starting to catch the Villa Lobos bug, all the preludes are really amazing by itself. Was just looking at the live stream by Emmanuel Sowicz on the Prelude 5 too.
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don That is one of the best livestreams I have ever watched here at TB! Like I said, I might try to refresh number 5 before the end of this challenge. The C section is really hard, though.
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Eric Phillips your HVL repertoire is impressive!
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Eric Phillips I love it more the more I listen to it. It has a very 60s Disney/MGM vibe. I can imagine section A fits right into Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz.
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