WEEK 1: Dóbroje útro (Good Morning)!
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the Nikita Koshkin challenge! This is the place for the Week 1 Submissions!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
- Get the Scores Here
If you want to describe your process (optional), feel free to use the following template.
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions
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What a wonderful challenge, again! Thank you Eric, for kicking it off with 4 of the études . You play them so accurately in this short time. They sound great and I’m looking forward to hearing more. Thank you Tonebase, for giving us access to this treasure. I discovered the score thanks to Eric’s posts. It’s great material. I’ll have a look at them this week. The analysis presented in the notes is very useful, saves some time, but I need to give my fingers a chance to ‘taste’ the (sometimes unusual) harmonies and feel the (sometimes uncomfortable) fingerings….
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joosje I'm looking forward for your upcoming submissions, this music is very interesting!
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joosje yes! Sometimes the fingerings are uncomfortable.. Mainly those of the R hand. I wonder if it is important to maintain them from the point of view of learning and musicality or we can make some changes. For me in it will be a learning experience because although I pay close attention to the fingerings of the L hand, the R hand goes less attentive on fixed fingerings .
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joosje We are super excited to kick-off this challenge today, let's have some great weeks with this fantastic new repertoire!!
Emma those are fantastic questions for Marina in the Interactive Class! My personal standpoint is that you have to make a fingering work for you! But sometimes the deeper meaning of a fingering goes unrecognized when we change them too quick, so it's always important to get to the idea behind a fingering!
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- Things you found easy: I still had to work at this for a few days, but was easier for me to learn than the Assad study #1.
- Things you found difficult: Making a video. It's tough for me to play on camera without making a mistake and I have occasional static with my audio setup (which I hope to fix with some equipment upgrades for later in the challenge!).
- (Optional): a video of you performing it! I recently installed Martin's recommended string set and the difference from the standard/normal tension d'addarios I had is remarkable. I definitely prefer hard tension strings and the combo of nylon E and carbon B/G is wonderful for keeping a consistent sound in the upper strings.
- (Optional:) I found the recommended fingering at the end awkward, so attached an image of the fingering I ended up with based on Martin's recommendation in today's kick-off. Will be curious what others use. On to #2!
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Brett Gilbert That was excellent, Brett. The strings sound great and your fingering at the end was very elegant and clearly works for you.
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Brett Gilbert Fantastic, Brett! I really enjoyed the performance, your right hand in particular is very stable despite requiring quite an active thumb for that piece! Good job!
Recording opens up a wonderful possibility when it comes to practice: You have the option to really go into your piece with a magnifying glass! What I recognized is that your left hand might have little too much tension which expresses itself through heavier finger placement than necessary in some passages! Especially directly in the beginning there is a ghost note audible due to the finger placement of 3 and 4! It's just a symptom of a certain insecurity since this piece is still super fresh!
I think, with continuous practice your hand will get used to the new movements and relaxes more and more!
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Brett Gilbert it’s beautiful Bret. Your sound is so good. I like this fingering too. Really great after such short time.
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Brett Gilbert great Brett! you're already confident with the piece and what a huge sound improvement, those strings were waiting for you! I should try to add some static to my next recording, that's lovely
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Blaise Laflamme Izotope Vinyl, for the Segovia Recording Touch
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Martin cool and it's free!!
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Blaise Laflamme Yes, that's a very cool little Plugin!
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Martin Thank you for noticing that and the detailed feedback. I rewatched and I see what you're talking about as I am definitely a bit tense especially when recording and perhaps trying too hard to plant the notes in preparation. I will work on this.
...and Thank you Joosje, Blaise, and Eric for your comments!
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Brett Gilbert Yeah!
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Martin Those parts of the song that require fretting with 3 and 4 are very hard for me. I like the challenge of using those finger more though because I can tell I really need to build dexterity and strength in those fingers!
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Martin
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Brett Gilbert Incredible performance for the second day of the challenge. Well done!!! It sounds very clear
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Elizabeth Uyehara I highly recommend doing slurs to improve that! Especially between 2-3 and 2-4 to connect your strong side with the weaker side of the hand!
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So, since Blaise Laflamme challenged me to go for Study No.10, I thought I shouldn't waste any time and jump directly in!
- Things you found easy: Well ... completely destroying my nails, my brain power and will to do anything more meaningful today? It's not that dramatic, knowing that this one is only 3 pages long and that half of the second page is an arpeggio pattern that stays roughly the same and the third page mostly consists of a repeated scale makes me somewhat already see light at the end of the tunnel!
- Things you found difficult: Okay, where should I start? There are so many stumbling blocks for the right hand, pair that with the 7/8 rhythm and it'll completely mess with all your trained motion patterns. Nothing just wants to work, nothing plays itself, everything every note needs focused attention and the reflection if the fingering makes sense. I try to commit quite early to a certain fingering which is why I spend so much time on them in the beginning since this piece also needs just plain and simple practice to bring it up to speed. But no speed without control!
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions: Someone wants to join and rock through some of the first bars or the scales in the end?
I'll attach my fingerings which are in no way finalized!
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Martin Awesome Martin, that's great to see how you learn and manage your practice. I started working on the first half of the studies, and hope to post soon, and read through the others, then took a bit more time on #10 to also manage my time if I want to play it before the end of the challenge
! Like you, the arpeggios are almost the same on different positions and the scale is repeated twice, but for the scale I settled on different fingerings than the proposed one to make it easier for me. The chords part are also almost thought about fingerings but the main staccato pattern is far from being fingered, I'm still just reading and playing notes to get a musical sense out of it... until my mind is cleared enough about what I'm comfortable with... if that ever happens 
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Martin this is wonderful Martin. This one is really tough. You showed the way towards an interpretation of your own within Koshkins language, which is quite a demanding experience in this case. I’m still struggling with the rhythmic accents and the fingerings….
I’m on holiday now and my friends are having some hard time with the harmonies of this study. I’m not sure if I will follow up here…. But such a fascinating study….
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Martin It's amazing and inspiring to see your attention to detail and the inner workings of your mind! It's always nice to see that, although we may be in different places on the musical journey, it is a shared journey for all of us.
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Martin your first look sounds amazing maestro! Beautiful …
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Blaise Laflamme I did change my scale fingering also a little bit, I try to upload either today or tomorrow another update! It's incredible what your brain is capable of while sleeping, I came up with some cool ideas!
joosje Thank you so much! Having played in a Progressive Metal Band, 7/8-Rhythms come very natural for me
Eric Phillips and what a journey it is! This time through some rocky Russian landscapes!
Emma Wow, I think you might be the first one to call me "Maestro"
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Martin Waiting for your clues
- Things you found easy: Well ... completely destroying my nails, my brain power and will to do anything more meaningful today?
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
