Week 1: Rhythmic Revelations 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of "Song and Dance" practice challenge!
Choose a piece that is inspired or transcribed from a song or a dance. It could be a lively south-american danza, a passionate tango, a serene romantic lied, or a poignant aria transcribed for the guitar. You're welcome to explore pieces from unfamiliar composers or challenge yourself with a complex work.
Commit to daily practice and share your journey with the community. Aim to practice every day and upload at least two videos each week to illustrate your progress. This will not only help you stay committed and encouraged but will also allow you to share your musical voyage with our tonebase family.
Share your favorite piece or recording that embodies the theme of "Song and Dance." Your submission will serve as an inspiration to others and create a vibrant pool of potential pieces for other members to delve into.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Villa-Lobos - Valse-Choro
Well, now for something completely different.
I don’t often take on these icons of the repertoire, but I came across this in my binder of music, tried playing a bit, and I think it may be doable for me. Obviously, this one will take me a little longer than the pieces I have played thus far in the challenge. Here is where it’s at on day one.
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David Krupka HVL's study #1 or #12 on the piano
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Eric Phillips well... i'll see... there are others I'm interested in...
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Eric Phillips Beautiful, Eric. As usual, your ability to pick these things up (and perform them so well) is awe inspiring.
I don't think I have heard this before. I especially liked parts A and B (C not so much but probably because it starts to seem relentless to me about then. To my taste it would be better as just an 'ABA" form).
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack! As Emperor Joseph said to Mozart in Amadeus, it simply has too many notes. “Just cut a few and it will be perfect!”
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Eric Phillips Well I do think I provided more specifics than Emperor Joe.
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Jack Stewart Very true. However, he added the lesser-known fact that there are only so many notes an ear can hear in the course of an evening.
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Jack Stewart yeah I usually do ABCA for ABACA, the middle A is a bit too much IMHO.
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Blaise Laflamme Jack Stewart Interestingly, this piece reminds me very much of his Prelude No. 5, in that it has three sections that are each similar in character to these three sections. That prelude, however, is indeed in ABCA form.
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Eric Phillips Jack Stewart Blaise Laflamme That's really interesting about tweaking the repeats. These songs are probably the least challenging pieces in his catalog, but I haven't worked on them a lot since they seem a bit on the long side. Knowing it might not be heresy to change it up makes me want to look back into them.
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Eric Phillips interesting point
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Steve Price They're not as easy as it looks
... and about section repeats, in AB form I usually only repeat A and not B, and most of the time B includes a full or partial return of A. -
Blaise Laflamme Thanks Blaise, and I agree this set isn't easy. I've played through them before, it's just nice that not all of the material he wrote is at the level of things like etude 7 and 12 because as a hobbyist, I don't see those ever in my future, lol. Knowing it's reasonable to shorten them is really helpful.
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Steve Price you're right, not in the same league than those studies!
But even with simpler works you still have a lots in your fingers!! -
Steve Price I agree, Steve - quite a bit of HVL is within reach of the average amateur, but many (perhaps most) of the studies are best left to the professionals. Even Segovia thought they were unplayable, although it may be that he simply didn't like them.
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Blaise Laflamme Eric Phillips From the introductory essay of Frederic Zigante's edition of the Suite Populaire: 'From a structural point of view, it [i.e. the term 'choro'] signified a composition in duple meter (2/4) and rondo form, wherein the A section appears three alternating times (ABACA).' That would seem to imply that the three-fold repetition of 'A' is called for - even if the 'valsa-choro' is not in duple meter.
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David Krupka Yes I was aware of the Rondo-like form for Choro, but the thing is a Rondo usually have shorter sections than what HVL do in his Choros, each Choro sections are in AB or ABA form!!
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David Krupka I stumbled on a really well-done site dedicated to the choro. I always thought these terms referred to a particular meter or rhythm, but there's a lot more to it at least in this case.
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Steve Price Interesting article. Thanks for link, Steve!
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HVL Valse-Choro (May 22 update)
Today, I am posting three videos, one for each of the major sections of the piece. I am playing them rather slowly, simply trying to get the hand movements down and fine-tuned a bit. I’m not paying much attention to musicality yet.
A section: In E minor, with the melody on top. The main technical hurdles are making the melody legato, making the accompaniment softer, and playing the barres cleanly.
B section: In A minor, beginning with melody in the bass. The challenge is to bring out the melody, wherever it may be, from within the texture. It also goes up higher on the fingerboard, with some tricky shifts, and mixing fretted notes with open strings, which is always challenging. The chromatic bit in measure 46 is tricky for the left hand.
C section: In A major. It eventually needs to be piu mosso, but I am still playing it very slowly here. There are quite a few awkward left hand fingerings in the section. Those fingerings, together with the speed, tell me that this will be the most difficult section for me to play.
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Eric Phillips That's really nice Eric. That c section is kind of a bear from what I remember, but it's sounding good.
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Eric Phillips Great work, Eric. I should follow your example and record each section separately or at least problem areas. Oh wait, I do. It's just that the entire pieces are my problem areas.
I still don't care for the C section. Perhaps you should perform a C section (sorry - sometimes I can't help myself). Note: I've just started my first cup of coffee and can't be held responsible.
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Jack Stewart Man, that joke should have been stopped in-utero! (Hopefully that won't get this post blocked.)
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Eric Phillips or continued!
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Jack Stewart If HVL had taken the proper precautions, a C-section wouldn't be necessary ..
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David Krupka Good point!
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