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
- Pick your piece – Choose the piece (or section) that's been haunting you. The one you've been avoiding. That's the one.
- Share your goal – Post in the forum thread and tell us what you're finishing and why it got abandoned in the first place.
- Post your progress – Share updates along the way — rough takes, slow-tempo run-throughs, the gnarly passage you finally cracked.
- 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. 🎸⚔️
175 replies
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Holy cow! I step out of the forum for a few days to grade exams, and the challenge which hasn't started yet has totally blown up with posts! Usually I'm the one jumping the gun.
After I post this video, I'll try to catch up with listening to the earlier posts, but it may take me a while.
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As I said at the start of this challenge, I have so much to work on. After thinking about it for some time, I decided to narrow the list to 4.
- Letters from Home - Pat Metheny arranged Jason Vieaux (already in my rotation, but this will force me to finish it)
- English Suite - John Duarte (Prelude only) (was in my rotation but fell off the wagon a while ago)
- Caprice Arabe - Francisco Tarrega (Somewhat know this but need to brush off the cobwebs)
- Claude Gagnon - Douze Preludes en Forme d'Etudes, VIII (somewhat read through the piece but new to fingers), this is a very cool piece though
I guess I'll choose by opening day tomorrow, maybe attempt 2 of them since some are somewhat already under the fingers.
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I have 2 projects for this challenge.
first my problem with really finalising a piece and get it to a level where I can really control and feel confident and free. So, most of my pieces are ‘unfinished business ‘
I worked quite hard on this Passacaglia by Weiss for a while. I will play this for my exam in May. There are still some moments where a little miss, brings confusion. It seems impossible for me to play flawlessly until the end.
I had a long brake in recording my playing. It’s the best way to learn what you really want with a piece. This challenge will be good for me…
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I decided not to wait till Monday because this week promises to be very busy.
My 2nd project is Philipp Houghton’s “Ophelia, a haunted Sonata”. I started this last year in Schotland, where I had a lesson with Thomas Villauteau at CGR. His performance of this piece is so ‘hauntingly’ beautiful. But then (after practicing the 5 parts) I let it rest.
Here is my chance to pick it up again. starting with a slow movement (III, Chant of the flower moon). notes: “of the heart….innocence….singing”