Week 1 - A New Hope 🌟

Hello tonebuddies! 🎶

A long time ago, in a practice room far, far away... you picked up a piece. You were excited. You cracked it open, worked through the first page, maybe the second — and then something happened. Life struck back. A new piece caught your eye. The fingering felt impossible. The score quietly migrated to the bottom of a stack where it's been sitting ever since. 🎸

This May, we're bringing back the Unfinished Business Challenge — and we're kicking things off on May the 4th, because what better day to summon the Force and finally finish what you started? Every guitarist has an abandoned piece (or three). This is your chance to rescue one from the Sarlacc pit of your music folder and bring it home.

This challenge is open to all levels. Whether you left off at bar 8 or bar 80, whether it's a Bach fugue or a beginner study that got away — if there's a piece waiting for its return, it belongs here.


🌟 The Challenge

Revisit a composition you started but never finished — and this time, see it through. It might be:

  • 🎯 A piece you abandoned because it felt too hard
  • 🎯 Something you got halfway through before a new obsession took over
  • 🎯 A passage or section you never quite nailed
  • 🎯 A piece you learned years ago but never polished or performed

Share the story of why it got left behind and what it means to finally complete it. That's half the magic of this challenge.


📅 Challenge Dates

Start: May 4
End: June 12
Watch Party: June 12


🎥 How to Participate

  1. Pick your piece – Choose the piece (or section) that's been haunting you. The one you've been avoiding. That's the one.
  2. Share your goal – Post in the forum thread and tell us what you're finishing and why it got abandoned in the first place.
  3. Post your progress – Share updates along the way — rough takes, slow-tempo run-throughs, the gnarly passage you finally cracked.
  4. Engage with your fellow rebels – Cheer each other on, leave constructive feedback, and celebrate every piece that makes it across the finish line.

Bonus points: Share a recording of your favorite performance of the piece you're revisiting — the version that first made you fall in love with it.


🎬 Watch Party — June 12

The Watch Party on June 12 will feature recorded submissions from everyone who completed their Unfinished Business. Make sure to submit your final performance videos so we can celebrate your finished piece together! 🎉


💡 Need a Little Help from a Jedi Master?

If the reason you left the piece unfinished is still giving you trouble, tonebase is full of lessons, masterclasses, and courses from world-class guitarists ready to help you through the tricky parts. Search for the piece, the composer, or the technique — chances are, there's a Master ready to help.


May the 4th be with you, tonebuddies. Let's finish what we started. 🎸⚔️

294 replies

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    • Retired
    • mgshirk
    • 2 days ago
    • Reported - view

    First week of practice, decided to resurrect Se Ela Perguntar from the ashes. After listening to audio, it needs a little work to resolve missed notes, bad barre's and just the sound in general is bad. This was recorded on my phone, so the sound will be a little compressed. I'll keep working on it and then record it with better mics. 

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       That was a beautiful snippet, Michael. It took me several listens to realize this just a fragment and not a problem with my browser. Your tone and phrasing are really good in this segment. I am really interested in hearing your progress.

      • Retired
      • Andre_Bernier
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       I agree with Jack. This looks like a great start.👍

      • Retired
      • mgshirk
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Very distressing,  this was a complete video of the pieces. Youtube actually cut this video.  When I uploaded it, during the validation check, it said there was a license violation.  Youtube claimed 'Se Ela Perguntar' was a licensed product.  That name was not used in the video anywhere, not even in the name. I have no idea how it knew that's what I was playing unless it Shazamed it and recognized the melody.  I guess I can't play this piece and place it on Youtube.  

      • Retired
      • mgshirk
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Here is a working version of the video. Sorry for the first one. 

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       This is a beautiful performance, Michael. I am glad you were able to resolve the issue and post this. I am looking forward to your progress - though it seems very close the being there as it is.

      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Beautifully played for just a week's practice. There's a nice balance between the melody and the accompaniment. 

      • Retired
      • mgshirk
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Jack. I've played this before,  let it fall off my rotation, and never recorded it. This is a good opportunity to get it in shape again.

      • Retired
      • mgshirk
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

      Thanks, Nijwm.

      • Ron.3
      • 22 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Good choice and lovely performance Michael- look forward to following your progress

    • Reinhard
    • Yesterday
    • Reported - view

    Since I have no finished pieces it was easy to find one, but hard to choose one for this challenge. I startet to learn "letter from home" 14 months ago when i did not yet play on a classical guitar. It is originally from Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays but classical guitarist Jason Vieaux recorded it too. This had a lot of impact to start my interest in classical guitar. I abandoned the piece soon since i started to discover the classical repertoire. My goal now is

    to play it with a steady pace, better flow, more legato and better tone. 

    https://youtu.be/wPCjdc7Bvfs?is=yWfyTfdBMjPKcDel

      • Retired
      • Andre_Bernier
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

      Very nice piece and a very good start. Well done 👍

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       This is a really nice piece which you are performing very well, Reinhard. I look forward to hear your progress.

      As an irrelevant aside; I saw Pat Metheny with Gary Burton in the mid 1970's. I was going to school in Maine at the time.

      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Great start! I'd not heard this piece before, lovely dynamics towards the end. Looks like a challenging one as well, especially with some of the shifts and chord shapes on the left hand. Is this piece written for classical guitar or a transcription for it? Also impressive improvement in such a short period of only 14 months with the classical guitar.

      • Dale_Needles
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Great re-start on this beautiful piece. Looking forward to seeing how you progress over the month.  A small suggestion is to pay close attention to your left hand, wrist and arm movements and positioning.  Since you mentioned you have a copy of Carlevaro's School of Guitar book, review the chapters on the left hand. I think it could be helpful. Nevertheless, you are doing great. 

      • joosje
      • 23 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       very nice sound and phrasing, Michael, great expressive storyline. About the license issues, I think it will become more and more difficult for us to post our interpretations, because AI will check everything and find others who edited/ interpreted the same pieces and laid their claim… I had an issue with my Weiss recording (my playing was claimed by 2 editors (both not my interpretation). Luckily no problem with posting the video

      • joosje
      • 22 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       that’s a very good start, your recording sound is beautiful, the music flows nicely for most of the piece, and your control in the shifts is already quite secure. Looking forward to hear more of it.

      • Ron.3
      • 22 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Great start Reinhard! Not a piece I've heard before!

      • Retired
      • mgshirk
      • 19 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Joosje. I finally read the fine print, which said the owner had no issue with it for posting.  In the first video, it asked me if I wanted to correct the problem. I said yes, and it scrubbed everything but the intro. lol 

    • Derek
    • 22 hrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Wow - you guys have made a fantastic start, some great videos already.. I'm revising some old pieces and hopefully will find time to post some videos towards the end of week 2. I've been working on the Bach Prelude BWV998 for a couple of months now. I have started and stopped this quite a few times. I like to learn a piece so that I can play from memory but I can never really memorize anything by Bach for some reason. I've also decided to revisit a couple of other pieces Lob der Thranen - Schubert/Mertz and Les Soirees d'Autueil by Coste - by coincidence I will be in Paris this coming week hope to post when I get back.

Content aside

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