![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.forumbee.com/avatar/accd0ae87f28f35ab3f514934e65003a-1605042331257/h/40.jpg)
Week 1: Welcome to the Latin American Music Challenge ![🥳](https://d56vh6ph4jjmq.cloudfront.net/emoji/emojione/4_0/svg2/1f973.svg)
![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.forumbee.com/i/045daefb-045b-49e1-9e74-0f0001f1390a/h/547.png)
Greetings, everyone! We are thrilled to welcome you all to the Latin American Music Challenge!
In this exciting journey, we'll be immersing ourselves in the richly diverse and vibrant world of Latin American music, a world that's deeply interconnected with our beloved instrument
This challenge presents an opportunity to not only enhance our skills but also to appreciate the cultural richness and musical complexity that Latin American melodies bring. From the passionate rhythms of salsa to the poignant strains of the tango, we'll explore it all!
Please remember, we have an extensive category in our library dedicated to Latin American Repertoire. This library is a treasure trove of courses designed to provide deep insights and technical knowledge about various aspects of Latin American music. Make sure to make the most of it!
We are excited to kick-start this musical journey and we hope you are too. Let's dive in!
https://app.tonebase.co/guitar/library/repertoire/latin-american
CHALLENGE TIMELINE
- Challenge Start: Kick-Off on June 24th
- Duration: June 24th - July 24th
- Watch Party: July 24th, 10 am PST
ACTIVITIES
- Choose Your Piece: Select a new piece of music to work on. Share your choice in the thread below and inspire your fellow musicians!
- Video Submission: Submit a video of your practice this week. Highlight your favorite passage from the piece that showcases the origin of this piece!
GET INVOLVED
Let’s kick things off with enthusiasm! Share your progress, encourage others, and explore new musical horizons together. Can’t wait to see what everyone chooses!
-
Hi Martin, can i play music that are copyrighted and not in the public domain. I'd love to play a piece by brouwer like un dia de noviembre Or an etude by him. I'm also considering Julia Florida by Barrios.
Btw, I watched the livestream of around the world watch party. Unfortunately, my internet was very sketchy. But all of you played beautifully. Eric, Joosje, Dale, Kai, Andre.
-
Hi, everyone! I'd like to do Emmanuel Sowicz's arrangement for "Gracias a la Vida" (a Chilean tune by Violeta Parra) for this challenge. I'm excited to get to share this with you all and get your tips and feedback.
This is a tune I first tackled WAY before I was technically ready for it, but it was such a compelling tune and arrangement and it provided me with SO many opportunities to practice elements of technique that I just stuck with it for ages, getting a handle on it basically one beat at a time. It was a very rewarding process for me as a learner, which I don't know if, at that time, I would have found in another piece.
This is music I would have never found, let alone begin to learn how to play, if it weren't for Tonebase, more specifically from this lesson:
https://app.tonebase.co/guitar/courses/player/emmanuel-sowicz-teaches-parra-gracias-a-la-vida.
So, thank you Emmanuel Sowicz and Team Tonebase!
-
Matilde Tettamanti de Calandra – Canción de Cuña (June 27)
I love finding composers whose music is not played very often. The last time we had a Latin American challenge, I mostly played Barrios, so this time I will try to find more obscure selections. Calandra was Argentinian and lived from 1909-1995. I could not find much about her, but I did read that she studied guitar with Maria Luisa Anido, and composition with the very illustrious Alberto Ginastera. I could only find scores to a few of her pieces, and this lullaby seemed to be the most playable. If anyone has or can find the score to her Prelude No. 1, I would love it.
Listening back to the video, I am hearing a lot of string squeak, so I need to work on that. My tone is still hit-and-miss as I play without nails – something I may not continue that much longer.
-
Matilde Tettamanti de Calandra – Canción de Cuña (June 28)
After hearing how loud my string squeaks were in the video I posted above, I really wanted to change my fingering to have fewer position shifts on the bass strings. Yesterday, in an effort to make the sound warm and sweet, I put the melody on the second string almost exclusively. But after re-fingering it, I think my nail-less ring finger keeps the melody sounding good, even when it’s on the first string (and even on the dreaded OPEN first string).