Week 3: Overcoming Obstacles
Get the Scores for the Carcassi Etudes op.60 Challenge
HOW TO BEGIN 
Ready to join the "Carcassi Etudes op.60 Challenge"? Here’s your starting line:
- Pick Your Etude: Dive into the evocative world of Carcassi by selecting an etude from op.60. Whether it's a piece that tests your technical limits or one that you've longed to perfect, the choice is yours.
- Commit to Practice: Embark on a disciplined practice routine, aiming for consistency. Share your journey with at least two video updates each week on our platform. This commitment will not only enhance your skills but also enable us to experience your progress, fostering a supportive atmosphere in our tonebase community.
- Share Your Practice: Submit a recording that you feel best captures your connection with Carcassi's music. This will inspire and contribute to a rich collection of performances for our community to enjoy and learn from.
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My greatest obstacle for the moment is that I’m traveling and won’t have good recording conditions for a few days. But my guitar is with me so I can find some stolen moments to practice a bit and hope to record a little progress next week, when I’m back home.
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in our hotel, in Metz (Fr). Time for a bit of practice. I chose to work on no. 22. Another one that I never played before. The first section only, in this first improvised phone recording,, if only to show the (fresh) starting point. I think I’m going to enjoy playing this one. It’s not so easy. First try different tempi to decide what works with the arpeggios combined with slurs. It’s a coordination issue to make them sound even and easy.
then the crescendo upward vs decrescendo downward. I’m not sure I can have it up tempo an fluent before the end of the challenge…
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joosje Very nice Joosje.
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joosje That is very impressive for a read thru. You already have a great start. I just noticed you picked #22 to record on the 22nd.
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Today we made a stop in a small Lorrain town (Pont a Mousson) with an impressively huge abbey church. Not much tourism here, so the empty space just incited me to a practice session and experiment with the acoustics. Mainly baroque repertoire, but I couldn’t keep myself from trying this Carcassi piece- my husband came in and took his phone.
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joosje Beautifully played, Joosje! And a wonderful location, too - amazing acoustics! One question, though: are you 'on vacation' or are you 'on tour'!?
Thanks for sharing! -
David Krupka
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joosje Great playing and that sound is beautiful. Glad you had the opportunity and that you shared it.
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joosje Wow, the acoustic is just incredible. Thanks Joosje for sharing this special moment.
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joosje How fun! Very well played, and such an inspirational setting!
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joosje That was beautiful, Joosje. Would love to hear your baroque pieces in that setting - any deVisee or Rameau by chance?
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joosje
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joosje Wow, well played ...the acustic is superb... You was lucky to have the chance to play there
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David Krupka JUAN ALONSO Jack Stewart Marilyn Blodget Andre Bernier Steve Price thank you all for taking the time to listen. It was indeed a very nice opportunity to be able to play in an empty church of this impressive size, as well in some other rooms of the Abbaye de Premontres. Experimenting with natural reverb was fun. The church hall itself had actually far too much reverb for a nice guitar sound (to my taste). And yes Jack Stewart I did play some De Visee, as well as Weiss. The experience brought me back on track to play more baroque music.
Btw, the best church for acoustics that I know is the Cathedral of the Isles in Scotland, where Matthew McAllister used to hold his famous Classical Guitar Retreats.
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Here is my first recording of the Allegreto in E minor Op.59.
I started working on this new piece a bit late in the challenge and got 2 broken nails last weekend.
This mess up the tone and the RH playing.
It is starting to get together but still at a very slow tempo and with the use of a metronome.
I still have many issues with a few of the more difficult chords.
I will keep working on it this week and will make another recording before the end of the challenge.
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Andre Bernier good start, Andre. I didn’t know this study. It’s a great piece to develop melodic playing and legato chord changes. You are making good progress. Both melody line and harmony are clear and well defined. It’s true we guitarists are so dependent on the quality of our nails. You did great not to be disturbed too much - at least, to my ears….
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Andre Bernier You're off to a great start on this piece Andre. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to your update later in the challenge.
Also, I know exactly what you are saying about the nails. I broke the nail on the m finger a couple of weeks ago. It throws you off your game for awhile but we learn to live with it.
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Jim King joosje You are too good with me.... This recording was pretty bad
The good thing is that it will be easy to improve from there. 
Thanks for listening and for your support.
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Hello to all, Happy to see so many contributions to this challenge....and with such quality....here I post a take on the etude XIX which, in my opinión more than a etude is real concertistic. ( I dont know whether this Word exist in English) piece....
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JUAN ALONSO wow, that’s, firstly, a great choice and, secondly, a very nice interpretation. Musically interesting playing and beautiful tone. It’s the most ‘musical’ ’study’ of op. 60, has the quality of a character piece, not sounding like an etude. Wonderful job, Juan!
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JUAN ALONSO Very nice Juan. This is indeed a very nice piece and you did a great job pplaying it. Bravo
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JUAN ALONSO Very nice Juan, well done! I enjoyed your interpretation of the piece very much.
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JUAN ALONSO Really good, Juan. That's an impressive piece and well played.
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Obstacles, obstacles, obstacles indeed! Just passing by to moan about the overwhelming amount of work, which is keeping me from my training... Hope to have this finished soon, so that I can come back and try to post some videos addressing the issues raised by some of you. Happy playing you all!
