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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Koshkin #1. First 4 measures. I like this a lot. It's very surprising and very challenging for me. This is the first time I made it through the first 4 measures without hitting the wrong string or misplaced my fretting hand, so I'm so happy!
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Elizabeth Uyehara I'm glad you are joining in, Elizabeth! Those measures are sounding great! I can see definite progress in your playing from just a few weeks ago.
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Elizabeth Uyehara very good job, Elizabeth ! Thank you for submitting. Please continue.
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Elizabeth Uyehara Excellent, sounds really solid! Focusing on a few measures at a time is a great approach.
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Elizabeth Uyehara bravo well done!!!!
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Elizabeth Uyehara So good!! Your rhythm is incredibly stable which is so important! It gives your hand a repeatable motion pattern which will lead to certain improvement when practiced mindful! Good job!
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Elizabeth Uyehara great start and sound, I'm looking forward to listen to the next part
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Elizabeth Uyehara I made a little video for you, maybe it helps with placing 3 and 4! Your submissions are so inspring, keep them coming
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Martin Thank you so much! I wasn't quite sure of what you meant about practicing slurs and this video makes it clear. Wonderful! I'll give it a try.
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Martin Here's another try with placing my right hand down while changing to the other frets with my left hand. I'm playing just a tiny bit faster than yesterday and slowly getting more comfortable with using my 3 and 4 fingers in the left hand. Thanks for the help!
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Elizabeth Uyehara Fantastic, it's much clearer!
Glad that the comments helped you! -
Elizabeth Uyehara Great job Elizabeth.
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Study 5 (in progress)
What was easy: Eating lunch today.
What was difficult: Like all of these studies, there is a lot of material that requires fingering that I am not used to.
- The entire B section in D major (measures 14-28) I find very hard. I feel like my left hand is constantly contorting and stretching in ways that are uncomfortable. Many of the fingerings in the score are quite difficult for me, but I can't seem come up with solutions that work any better.
- Measures 36-38 are a bit of a mess right now.
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Eric Phillips you’re so good! You’re right this one is so.beautiful. I truly like your approach. It’s still in progress, of course , but you go fast. The dialogue of the two voices is clear and the tempo is quite fast already. You define the sections really well. Great submission, looking forward to the update.
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joosje Thank you, Joosje! I appreciate the encouragement.
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Eric Phillips Impressive as always, at this rate you'll get through them all. Your comment about fingerings really has me wondering if there are pedagogical reasons for some of the awkward fingerings (I'm also finding that in #3). I'm sure Martin will give his expert thoughts on fingerings for most of these at some point, but definitely a question I have for Marina in the interactive class.
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Brett Gilbert Thanks Brett, but I don't intend to do them all, as a few are clearly beyond my technical level. And yes, these fingerings! They tie my hand up in knots!
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Eric Phillips what do you have for lunch? Wow!!! Wonderful sound. It sounds beautiful. I may go for this next if I complete no 4. Nothing easy about these studies ….
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Emma Thanks, Emma! I had a peanut butter and banana protein shake.
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Eric Phillips maybe is the shake protein then
you are just killing it in this challenge!!!! -
Eric Phillips great take on this one
it's one of my favorite of the set, can't wait to hear your next update on it, and to get to it myself! -
Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise!
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Lets start the challenge earlier this time because 3 weeks goes by a little too quickly! I hope to play a few of them over the weeks, even if my goal is to play #10 by the end of the challenge. So here's my initial take on #1...
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Blaise Laflamme Sounds great, Blaise! Love the big rit at the end.
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Blaise Laflamme Nice to see/hear your videos again! Always an inspiration both for playing and production values (I play through nice headphones to appreciate the sound). Glad to see you took the alternate fingering at the end as well
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
