Week 1: Pick a Piece! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the "Music YOU Love" practice challenge!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream! (<- link comes soon)
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
-
After enjoying all the posts thus far this month, I decided it was time for me to join the fun. For this month's challenge, I plan to post a couple of pieces by Abel Carlevaro (no surprise there) which I have been working on over the past couple of months. This first one is a vidalita, entitled, Sol de Mayo. A vidalita is a traditional romantic love song from the Rio de la Plata region, so it seemed appropriate for this challenge. Carlevaro originally wrote this piece under the pseudonym, Jose Piendibene, who was one of Uruguay's most famous footballers of his time.
-
Dale Needles ok video is back again and now watching you video with headphones made clear your video audio is panned right, no sound from the left... it makes the overall quieter.
-
Dale Needles Hi Dale, just listened to it in my tablet. Beautiful piece and well played. I notice that Blaise says that the sound is only on one side. I tried originally on my desktop computer via the headphone socket on my sound card which, coincidentally has a fault where it only plays through one side! That's why I couldn't hear it. Plays fine through the main outputs!
-
Blaise Laflamme Derek Eric Phillips Thanks for the feedback about the sound. Still trying to figure the intricacies of video and audio interface. Will definitely use two microphones next time and be sure that each side is balanced. Eric, thanks for the comments around lack of string noise. Definitely something that I work a lot on and any progress that I have made in this area is due to Carlevaro's left hand technique. Blaise, I am only aware of one piece that Carlevaro wrote under the pseudonym, Jose Piendibene, although most likely there are others. I will ask Alfredo Escande, I am sure he would know. Additionally, as you know, he did record one album in the 60s under the pseudonym, Vincent Vallegos.
-
Dale Needles no need to use two mics if you don't want to record stereo, just ensure the microphone is panned center instead of left or right. I was not aware of his record under pseudo either, fun story!
-
Blaise Laflamme Thanks for advice. Definitely check out the Vincent Vallegos recording, it is great. You can find it on YT. Also, as the story goes, he recorded it in one take straight through. You can even hear him tuning between pieces.
-
Derek at first glance I thought your last sentence said that it "plays fine through the main octopus"!
-
Dale Needles Fun song and great performance Dale! Way to go!
-
Steve Pederson :-) funny but my sound card has 8 outputs
-
Dale Needles This is great, Dale. It is always nice to hear new (to me) pieces by Carlevaro. His range is really amazing.
-
Steve Pederson Thanks! It is a nice fun love song in a popular traditional form.
-
Jack Stewart Thanks. This was a new piece to me as well. Funny that he wrote it under a pseudonym. And yes, his range is quite impressive from a popular folkloric style to a very contemporary music style with his masterpiece, Cronomias.
-
Dale Needles sounds beautiful. I just turned the volume max. very nice playing. Dale. Great also to be able to see and admire your perfect Carlevaro left arm, moving so smoothly along the neck. I'm working on that but have to get rid of some bad habits.
-
joosje Thanks. As I mentioned in my reply to Eric, I have been working on my Carlevaro left hand (arm) technique for some time and glad to see some good results. Appreciate you noticing it. Hopefully you can get some ideas and pointers from the Carlevaro Discussion Group. BTW, I love your playing and repertoire choices and always look forward to your posts.
-
Dale Needles Nice, Dale. I hadn't heard this one so I had to look for it on Alfredo's site. I can see it being played as a set with Campo Arado and something else.
-
Steve Price Thanks. Yes, I agree that it goes well with Campo Arado and/or one of Carlevaro's early Canciones. I am actually grouping it with Milonga para Ling and Milonga Oriental. Considering adding his Tango to the mix as well for a nice little suite of Carlevaro's more popular works.
-
Blaise Laflamme Just to let know it appears that Carlevaro wrote at least two pieces under the pseudonym, Jose Piendibene. The other was a malamba, which he titled "Oriental," most likely written in the late 1950s or early 1960s per Alfredo Escande. Carlevaro recorded the malamba under the pseudonym, Vincent Vallegos around 1965.
-
-
I've been away at various places for the last couple of weeks so just starting to get into this challenge. I've been learning Les Soirees D'Auteuil by Coste but I've also just started on the last movement of La Catedral by Barrios so hopefully post a video of my progress later this week.
-
Derek Looking forward to your postings, Derek.
-
-
Just got to finishing the first little section of Rodeña. I changed up the way my LH fingering was which I believe helped a lot with some of the soreness and having correct positioning of the LH. I haven’t really put much time into it this past week, but for it being a busy week I feel glad to have gotten in the practice I did.
-
Austin Flemming Great start on this piece! I was not familiar with this song. Yes, it looks like quite a workout for the left hand! Nice work.
-
Austin Flemming Great start Austin. This is well within your grasp. You might try doing some slow metronome work on the first phrase. It is a pattern that repeats a lot so just focusing on a very short section will go a long way. At least that what I now do and it seems to help. I am looking forward to seeing your progress. This is a great piece.
-
Austin Flemming nice! I didn't know the piece. Your LH fingering looks like it works really well.
-
Jack Stewart Thank you, and I will keep this in mind!
-
-
BWV 996 Courante B Section
This is the 'B' section only - no repeats. It is the requisite number of blunders for my standard. I feel I finally have this more or less under control. I still have a lot of work refining the articulation and overall interpretation but the notes and ornamentations are mostly there. I will next work on the entire piece with refinements for my next posting.
Note: I think I have finally found a reasonable solution for my bad nail issue. I had been using glue on nails but that seem to really damage my nails. I just got some nails that us adhesive tabs. The nails stay on but are removable (and reusable). The tabs peel off with some effort but don't appear to cause any damage to the nails. Anyway I am hopeful.
I just saw the posting - I am apparently in my 'Blue Period'.
-
Jack Stewart Great job Jack. Thanks for sharing your work. I like the blue atmosphere
-
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
