Week 1: Pick a Piece! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the "Music YOU Love" practice challenge!
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- Watch the kickoff livestream! (<- link comes soon)
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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I started working on Rondena by Regino Sainz de La Maza. Yesterday, somehow I injured my left hand, so had to stop playing for a while. I think I will "practice" the piece by reading the score without the guitar. Who knows...maybe it will help me memorize the piece.
Hopefully I will recover in time to resume Rondena for this challenge.
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Barney Great, Barney. That is a great piece. I just became aware of it a couple of days ago (via Austin Fleming). Looking forward to hearing your work.
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Barney Sorry to hear about your hand Barney.
Take good care of that. We can do a lot by simply visualizing where our fingers will go, from what I understand. Good luck! -
Steve Pederson Thanks Steve!!
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After being away from the forum just discovered this new challenge. Lovely to hear already some impressive submissions here, and see great suggestions for repertoire. And i expect there is a lot more to come soon.
I will be happy to participate and my choice is Federico Mompou's suite Compostelana.: Prelude, Nana, or Cancion, I'm practicing all pieces for an audition, but I'll make a choice and try to post over the Challenge period.
I worked out my version comparing Segovia's edition with the original score fingered by Ghilardino.
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joosje Great choice, Joosje.I really like that suite though I have never done more than (try to) read thru it. Looking forward to seeing your posts.
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joosje That's a beautiful set. Can't go wrong with any of those I think. Good luck with your audition.
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I took my first steps with Chorus N.1 yesterday, I am astonished that I could play it from the score there , but it is so interuptive....this month I have to work a lot, cant make 2 videos per wheek I will be glad to work on the piece and share one or two videos ;-)
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If someone wants to know how to upload a recording on YouTube, I talk about it in this livestream at 00:49:00!
https://app.tonebase.co/guitar/live/player/introduction-to-home-recording
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martin Thanks Martin, I will watch the full livestream as I can certainly improve on the recording side of my musical Journey....
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Hi, my father had a lot of records, this one was my favorite. He died from a car accident when I was six and I often listened to this album from Segovia and really wanted to play the guitar ever since. I was able to do start playin when I was 11 (when I was young there were no small guitars) and now 58 still playing (with ups and downs). The most on this record I liked the Allemande by Weiss. Took me a long time to find the notes, but I did in. More recently I learned that the Allemande was actually by Ponce. I tried it before, but want to study it seriously for this challenge. Here is my starting point, I record it after the motivation by Martin to also show your practice material and vulnerability. For now I play the first part, the second (more difficult) part I will try to study too and share later on.
Hope this YouTube link works of my first practice video works:
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Hedda Koning Your off to a very good beginning Hedda. That is a challenging piece but you are doing great. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
It seems a bit odd that Segovia would credit Weiss for those pieces especially since he (apparently) suggested Ponce compose something in the style Weiss.
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Hedda Koning Very nice piece of music Hedda, great choice. You are already performing well and with one more month of practice, you will master it. Good luck
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Hedda Koning that's a wonderful choice of piece and you are making a great start with it. As Jack Stewart mentioned, it is more challenging than one expects after reading the first notes. Can't wait to hear your progress with it. And you inspired me to have a look into this Ponce/Weiss suite. Thank you for sharing the video.
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Hedda Koning First of all, I'm really inspired by the fact you are going after this at your/our age, which is still young! (I myself am 54). Keep going! And, you have a very inspiring story regarding your father. You're off to a great start! Interestingly, one of my favorite pieces is a song by "Weiss" which was on a Segovia album. Glad you found the notes and are working on it!
Also, as an aside, to get your video to show up in the forum here, just click the video icon button right above the Save button and enter your video link there. Hope this helps!
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Jack Stewart thanks! I think in the beginning I had a hard time finding the score because it's actually by Ponce? My guitar teacher told me so much later. But in the meantime I had found a handwritten score of the Suite by Weiss in the Library. I will post soon, including the second part
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Andre Bernier Thanks! I tried the first part before, always thought the second part was a bit to hard, but will try now, to really dive into it.
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joosje thanks. Yes I really love this piece of music. Nice to hear it inspired you. There's work for me to do ;)
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Steve Pederson thanks! Nice to hear from you and that you're also liking a Weiss song on a Segovia album. I will work on the notes I found and hope to post a new video soon. Will use your explanation, thanks for that.
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It is a piece that I’m currently working on already and a piece that topped my Spotify wrapped 2022. I actually listened to it over 3000mins of different arrangements and instruments last year.
I’ll play James Edwards’s arrangement of Clair De lune.
I’m still making changes and this comes at a best timing for me to continue improving it.
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Sor - Menuet from Op 3
I know I posted above that I want to work on Mallorca during this challenge, and I do indeed want to continue with that. A couple days ago, however, I heard this piece by Sor that has absolutely captivated me. I had never heard it before, and I knew immediately that I had to try to play it. I guess you could say that it was love at first sight!
Here is a video of where I am at after a couple days practice. The big challenges have been legato and phrasing.
I have attached a score if you are interested. The menuet is on the last page.
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Eric Phillips That's beautiful Eric! Thanks for sharing it with us!
The legato melody is nicely connected with good balance in voices.
You are so good at sight reading and achieving this level of playing is just a few days. Great!
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Eric Phillips I never would have thought that was Sor. With those progressions, it sounds more like something in the Romantic era to my ear. Really nice playing and thanks for bringing this one to my attention.
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Eric Phillips Beautiful, Eric. I wish I could play something like that after 2 days. Your facility to pick up new pieces always amazes me.
BTW, it took me listening 3 times before I realized you were only playing the minuet at the end. I kept trying to follow the score thinking 'what are you playing?'
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Barney Thanks, Barney. Sometimes a piece just captures me and I am driven to play it. What I often lack is the patience to bring it to a higher level.
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Steve Price Thanks, Steve. I was surprised too. The chromaticism in the melody and the somewhat irregular phrasing are not what we've come to expect from Sor, let alone early Sor.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
