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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Then follows Study #2... a bit more challenging than the first one, but the chord progression and atmosphere it creates is just...
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Blaise Laflamme beautiful, you find a very natural flow of tension in relieve in those somewhat strange but hauntingly exciting harmonies! Such a joy to liste nto your performances!
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Blaise Laflamme Btw, Progress Update #2 on Study No.10 incoming!
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Martin
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Blaise Laflamme great performance. Love the colors and the timing. Beautiful
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Martin joosje thanks!
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Blaise Laflamme I really like how expressively you played this and made note of your fingerings as I'm working on this one now. It's interesting that there are essentially no dynamic markings on 2 (as opposed 1 and 3 for example), so we have the freedom to add our own. A beautiful interpretation.
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Brett Gilbert thanks Brett! Some fingerings are good and other are not what I would eventually use, since this was part sight reading, but the end result was good enough to record. I think the most important thing, to me, is to make a sense of the musical material and make it your own, then the more it's yours the story you tell when playing will be meaningful to others.
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Blaise Laflamme That was wonderful Blaise. Phrasing and tone were beautiful.
I also really liked the disembodied effect of head and hands
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Jack Stewart Thank you Jack! Yeah that's the beauty of the green screen
... I should find a way to mask my face too... then just hands and guitar! -
Blaise Laflamme beautiful sound… and the piece is wonderful in your hands
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Emma than you Emma
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Here's my Day 2 Update on Koshkin's Progressive Study #10, let me know what you think!
- Things you found easy: Strangely enough, it's coming quicker together as I though. My mind kept on working while I was sleeping and the second day I found new fingerings which made much more sense for me. Since I grew up playing in a Progressive Metal Band, 7/8 rhythms feel quite natural for me, but the groupings of the 8th notes makes the accents quite obvious. Another thing that our mind does while sleeping: Pattern Recognition! Page 2 and 3 fell weirdly into place!
- Things you found difficult: Bar 15 to 17: Super strange downward arpeggio which will not get into my hands. It is a fingering problem and I intend to solve it! It's like a chess game and I am dedicated on a check mate!But Bar 22 to 25 might wanna have a word as well with me...
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Martin thanks for this update on #10, quite insightful! You're right about sleep, I myself resolve so much thoughts, problems and fingerings too that way... what a weird process
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Martin thank you so much for taking us along on your journey ! Fascinating. You really inspired me to start working on this study.
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Martin I enjoy watching you work on 10 (my fav) and it definitely has a certain metal band feel
Could almost be a Metallica song. Maybe someday you can share some recordings from your metal band days. 
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Martin Such a joy to watch you figuring this one out! It is really coming together for you. The chess analogy is fascinating, and you are like Bobby Fischer (or maybe Garry Kasparov since he is Russian like Koshkin).
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joosje It's a lot of fun once the initial fog clears up!
Brett Gilbert Haha, maybe we'll do a Metal Challenge one day
Eric Phillips Still waiting for something like Deep Blue where I can just upload fingerings directly into my brain
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Martin so true about the sleeping! That is why I keep postponing my video!!! It sounds really fun to practice! And it sounds so good already
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study No. 7
not as easy as it looks. I try a moderate tempo here, hope to get better after some time.
challenge:
the slurs, there are many and i tend to miss a few all the time. Keeping them rhythmical...
the litlle tremolo at the end on strings 4 and 5: nail noise! I took some extra nail care but couldnt get the sound cleaner
I will not be able to record, or even practice, much until Sunday. This is the best I could do on this one today. I promise an update later, although I want to work on 9 and 10 as well.
I have no printed schores so I cant write my fingerings, In this one RH fingerings are scarce. I am a little lost in bars 17 18... ( my solution: a im ami im ami, but its not yet controlled)
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joosje Wow, you make it look easy as your playing is so smooth and confident. I enjoyed listening to this. These studies are really remarkable in their variety.
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joosje Great work, Joosje! Very courageous of you, jumping in at number 7. It sounds really good and both hands look comfortable and controlled.
I would be at a loss about how to prevent nail noise doing tremolo on bass strings. I think there's a point at which we just have to let the instrument be what it is and let that sound be part of the musical experience. Maybe I'm just giving up too soon, though!
I personally look forward to hearing you play #9. (But keep working on 7, it's sounding great!)
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joosje thank you for posting this, you're doing great, it sounds clear and well articulated!
Eric Phillips at least you have two simple choices... change your hand/finger angle before plucking, or shape your nail differently
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joosje Wow, No.7 looks scary to me! You already brought out so beautiful details, I especially like the subtle swing in 11-12 (intended or not, it's super charming!)! I really didn't notice too many insecurities in 17-18, so you might be right on track there! Those studies really don't appeal to our muscle memory, everything needs just a little more time than usual to become natural!
But talking about that bass tremolo, I would just do that without the a finger (but I am suuper bad at tremolo anyway, so maybe I am somewhat biased).
Talking about Tremolo, did you guys notice our upcoming Interactive Class with Rafael Aguirre? We'll talk about Recuerdos, but all questions to Rafa are quite welcome there!
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joosje Really impressive and beautifully played. Talk about jumping in - #7!
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joosje it does not look easy at all! Beautiful to watch your playing, and your sound
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
