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! ↓
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Wow it sounds very good already!!! And you are nailing the thrills and ornaments! Now polishing ahead haha now I will be shy to share my Bach
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Emma Thanks Emma. (I assume you are addressing me as my posting is the only one at this point.) I find my recording somewhat harsh, and my trills are sometimes good and other times inconsistent. I hope they become more consistent. I have started the second part which is much harder. At least it seems so right now.
Please don't be shy posting your progress. I always enjoy your posts and we are all here for support and progress.
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I am in! I will work on the Bach prelude BWV 1007, and I want to do the whole suite! This piece I used to play time ago, now I am trying to put in place all the thing I am learning on muting and ordering my right hand, and it is hard! . I used to love it, now it is so much heard that it took me sometime to fall for it again. I will post in a weeks time as I will be travelling until then .
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Emma That's a great suite, Emma. I have 'sight read' thru the prelude but have never actually played it. (When I sight read I am probably the only person who can tell what I am playing.)
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Emma Good luck Emma, this is a nice suite with a lot of challenges
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For this challenge, I wanted to take one of the first pieces I ever tried to play and see how it comes together now. Before I was working on the Noad version with the first four variations, but I have the Diaz version with three additional variations that I'm interested in. Not sure what will come out at the end of this so we'll see.
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Steve Price Sounds great, Steve. I am very interested in seeing this mystery set of variations.
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Steve Price Iike Jack Stewart I'm also curious about the mystery variations you are preparing for us.... So, let's have a quiz. My guess is 'guardame las vacas' although I'm not aware of a Diaz transcription.
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joosje Haha, I guess I forgot to put the name of the piece in my post. I really wasn't trying to be mysterious, I just have a short attention span.
But yes, it is Guardame Las Vacas by Luis De Narvaez. There's apparently quite a bit of debate about the piece since he included the four variations commonly known in his book of vihuela pieces and immediately after there are three other variations labeled "otras tres diferencias hechas poz otra parte." Diaz plays the three in the middle of the original set while Segovia just adds one. I really like the extra variations but I can't find a version I'm happy with so I'm making my own transcription from a copy of Narvaez's book with what I consider the best of Noad, Segovia, Diaz, etc. It's really been kind of interesting since I haven't done any of this recently. We'll have to see what comes out.
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My life is getting busier and I'm not sure how active I can be on here, but I'll give it a try.
I just started learning Rondeña by R. Sainz De La Maza. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the piece to performance level by the end of the month with everything I have going on, but I'll try to keep updating my progress and see how it goes.
Today I spent 15 minutes getting the fingering down for the first 4 measures, and I got close to having it down somewhat smoothly. Something that has been a concern of mine recently as I've been going through Kitharologus is dealing with my LH 4 finger staying close to the fretboard and not flying off when moving my 2 and 3 fingers, especially when pulling off my 3 finger to my 2 finger, and in this piece it deals with that exact issue. I am having a hard time understanding the importance of keeping my 4 finger steady, it seems to be creating more tension in my hand rather than less tension, which from what I understand more relaxed and less tension is what you want with any piece.
Anyways, looking forward to working on this piece more and hopefully getting it down sooner than later.
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Austin Flemming That sounds interesting. I am not familiar with it (I am listening to it now). It does sound very challenging. I am looking forward to seeing your progress.
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Austin Flemming
I just listened to Rondeña played by David Russel. It is a big challenge. Good luck.
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Albéniz - Mallorca Feb 5
I started working on this last month, but I think it makes a good candidate for me to continue working on for this challenge. It certainly is an iconic piece that I have always loved since I first heard Bream's recording of it more than 30 years ago.
I used Stanley Yates' transcription as my starting point, but have made several of my own changes. I say "my own" but they really come from hearing others play it. Other than Bream, I particularly enjoy the YT versions of this by Tariq Harb and Matt Palmer.
I hope you like the Valentine's decorations in the background. Just to let you know, I did not do that special for this month's challenge. That is all my wife!
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Eric Phillips Wow! That was great, Eric. This is a wonderful, sustained performance of an 8 minute piece. I am looking forward to hearing your next post, though, it's hard for me to imagine how much better it could be.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack! Still plenty of room for improvement. Whether or not I have the ability to get it there is another question.
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Eric Phillips Very nice Eric. I like your choice and you are already so good.
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Andre Bernier Thanks, Andre. Still a lot to work on in there.
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Eric Phillips Yes, great decoration, I noticed immediately and I love the way you play Mallorca. It is already there!
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Eric Phillips Hey Eric! So happy to see you playing some great Albeniz! It is sounding very good so far, and you certainly have it well under you fingers. When I played this piece, it was the Segovia version, which is a little different.
I would suggest some steps to take it to next level would be working in more dynamics and tasteful Rubato . Keep it up...It's sounding great, and I enjoyed it!!
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Barney Thanks, Barney. I didn't know you liked Albeniz. (Just kidding
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Stefanie Mosburger-Dalz Thanks, Stephanie. Still miles to go.
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Eric Phillips good choice. This piece is really within your range. I like the way you organize and interpret the different episodes. It's great music and you give it the depth and calm breathing pulse.
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joosje Thank you so much, Joosje! I wish I felt more calm when playing it.
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Eric Phillips Great!! Beautiful piece with excellent performance! The lines are well-balanced, and it's possible to hear all of them clearly. Maybe you were inspired by these little hearts behind you! Bravo!
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Eric Phillips Bravo Eric! Bravo for both this performance and for picking such an epic and beautiful piece for this challenge. This is a piece I LOVE and have approached numerous times, but haven't been able to get past the first few measures - in particular because of that C# to Bb grace note. There's so many ways to play it, and I've gotten frustrated by the numerous transcriptions. Maybe I'm making too big of a deal about it and just need to move on!
You have such mastery over it already. I'm looking forward to the polished product!
BTW - I noticed at 3:05 you released your left hand. I'm wondering if that was because of the strain on the left hand.
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Steve Pederson Thanks Steve! Yes the C# to Bb grace note sounds better, I think, if executed on the same string as a pull-off. After trying to do it for a while, however, I decided simply to play it on two strings.
And yes, at that moment when I took my hand off, it is simply because the music affords me the opportunity to completely relax the hand. It's such a long piece so I want to take advantage of any chance I get to relax, even for a split second. I'm sure I could be doing it more, perhaps not so obviously, in other places. Come to think of it, finding ways to relax more while playing would be a great topic for a livestream or two-week intensive. What do you think, martin ?
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
