Week 2: Sharing the Journey 
WELCOME TO THE "A FRESH START" COMMUNITY CHALLENGE!
Embark on a musical journey with our latest challenge, "A Fresh Start". It’s time to dust off that sheet music you’ve been eyeing and dive into a brand-new piece!
CHALLENGE TIMELINE
- Challenge Start: Kick-Off on April 15th!
- Duration: April 15th to May 13th
- Watch Party: Join us on May 13th at 11 AM PST to watch selected submissions!
WEEK 2 ACTIVITIES
- Progress Sharing: You should have your new piece selected by now. This week, let's start sharing our progress. Post a video or describe what you've been working on. It's fascinating to see how everyone approaches the learning process!
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Working on the Ponce Sonata Classica. Going through my edition and finding error is less than encouraging. But watching videos and exploring fingerings in the first section. Practicing connections of odd left hand shapes this week.
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Blaise Laflamme Well I've started the first movement, just about halfway through with l.h. and r.h. fingering so far.
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Anthony DiMambro That's a great piece. It seems working through errors and alterations on Ponce is the norm. I'm been studying his preludes for a while now and there are at least five variations of the set that I know of. I'm looking forward to this one.
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Steve Price Exactly! I originally started the Sonata Romantica and found too many discrepancies in the first several measures alone that I swapped it out. A month isn't enough time to research and sort through all that. At least with Sonata Classica its a bit more regular and easier for me to sort out since it's written in the Sor style.
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I'm working on G. Regondi's Etude no 1 got first half recorded now tackling the harder second part wish me luck lol.
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Vilio Celli Great start, Villo. I have never attempted any Regondi but I know his Etudes are very challenging. Looking forward to hearing more.
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Jack Stewart thanks Jack his piece is hard but worth the effort
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Vilio Celli That's really coming along. And a very pretty piece. I'll have to look more into his work.
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Vilio Celli Very nice, Vilio! This piece is quite a big challenge, but judging by this start, I think you're up to it. Another piece I have on my list of pieces to play someday.
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Video 2, my attempt of Tiento Antiguo by Joaquin Rodrigo, Bars 34 to End, this is such a beautiful piece of music, I only hope I can do it justice in the end. Just a little background, Tiento apparently was dedicated to Siegfried Behrend a german guitarist/composer who in 1953, gave the first German performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. The piece is written in E phygrian mode or 3rd degree of C major scale.
Much work needed to clean it up, sharpen slurs, eliminate squeaks, clean up the Candenza's and piece it all together into a performance.
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Michael Shirk Very nice, Michael. That piece is so moody and I really like it. I have some music that was edited or transcribed by Behrend, but I had no idea who that was.
The only thing I'd mention is that your sound is very good but there's a faint high-pitched whine or feedback I'm hearing all the way through the recording. It's steady so I don't think it's background noise so you might want to take a listen and see if you can isolate it. Awesome work on this.
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Steve Price Thanks Steve, yes I heard it when I put my headphones on. Very annoying. I tried a new rig with my Iphone to eliminate the syncing audio to video step. I may have over-driven the gain on my mics.
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Michael Shirk Very good, Michael. This is a beautiful piece and you are capturing its haunting mood very effectively. Looking forward to more.
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Michael Shirk It's definitely getting there, Michael! You already have the feel for the music, which is the heart of the piece. The rest is just details!
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Michael Shirk Very nice Michael. Bravo
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A take of the Lento from Les Cinq Doigts. It's a fairly straight-ahead piece, but Stravinsky is playing with tonal ambiguity. The melody of the A section is played with a major third and the accompaniment is played with a minor third of the same key. Stravinsky lines up the parts so the thirds never play at the same time so it's not jarring, just a little off.
Just as an experiment I played the A section with the thirds either all major or minor to hear what they sounded like on their own.
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Steve Price This really works well on guitar, Steve. It is fascinating to hear the difference between such little alterations. Great job and thanks for this.
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Steve Price What fun! I bet Igor is smiling on you, and likes you enjoying and sharing this music.
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Steve Price I agree with Jack; it is fascinating to hear the 3 different versions.
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Sor – Le Calme Op 50 Sections A, B, C, and part of D
I thought I’d make a recording of the entire piece up to the point I have been practicing. At the time of my last submission, I wasn’t sure if the C section was possible for me to play. I’m a little more hopeful now. It still needs much work, but I don’t think it’s insurmountable.
Sorry for leaving you hanging in the middle of the D section on the dominant chord. That section gets pretty difficult after that point, and I haven’t even worked out fingering. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
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Eric Phillips Well done Eric. Very nice piece by Sor. Thanks for sharing your great progress.
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Eric Phillips Almost there and sounding really good.
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Eric Phillips This is sounding really good. I'm glad I read your comment first about not being the actual ending because that unresolved progression would have killed me, lol.
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After trying for a few days, I think i’ve settled on the fingerings. It is pretty hard for me to stick to it as I realized i had so much bad habits with my right hand appregio picking. I tend to go i m a i when i play any appregio from g-b-e -e.
This exercise is great, I have somewhat memorized it. For now my aim is to make sure i’m conscious of my right hand and focussing on articulation.
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don
Prelude BWV 1007
i worked on this fingerings previously but never really played it well. There is a local community with open mic in a couple of weeks and I thinking to use this opportunity to work on this piece and hopefully ready to participate in the open mic.
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don What a great choice, Don! I heard this video from Tariq Harb the day he posted it, and I thought, "This is a piece worth working on." It is sounding good already. Great work.
By the way, is that your child we hear in the background? What a gift to hear that!
And the Bach prelude may be an old warhorse, but also worth listening to.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
