Week 3: Tackling Challenges!
Welcome to the Main Thread for the third week of "Unfinished Business" practice challenge!
- Choose an piece that you have started to practice but never fully commited to finish. It could be a an iconic masterpiece, a technical challenge, a sweet little miniature or a piece that you played a long time ago and always wanted to refresh! You're encouraged to experiment with pieces from composers you're not accustomed to or push your boundaries with a technically demanding work.
- Commit to regular practice and share your journey with the community. Aim to practice daily and upload at least two videos per week to showcase your progress. This will not only aid in keeping you dedicated and motivated but also enables you to share your musical journey with our tonebase family.
- Share your favorite piece or recording that you always wanted to learnm but is still "unfinished business". Your submission will serve as inspiration for others and construct a vibrant repertoire of potential pieces for fellow members to explore.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Bach - Air
Hello friends! I want to chime in with a piece that I am hoping to finish soon. This is the first half of a transcription (maybe this should've been for the transcription challenge) of the Air from Bach's Orchestral Suite No.3 in D major, BWV 1068, commonly known as Air on a G String.
I have two scores that I'm working from. One is WAY too easy and the other is WAY too difficult, so I am creating my own hybrid version of the two, using the original orchestral score as a guide.
My goal is to have the second half completed for my next recording - or at least a good working version of it.
I welcome your thoughts. One of the things that's very characteristic of this piece is the constant octave jumps in the bass line. I have tried to make that happen as much as possible. Sometimes it works, other times not so much. Some times it's just not possible.
If anyone knows of a fairly simple transcription of this piece that really does it justice, I'd love to have a look at it.
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Dale Needles Thanks Dale!
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Steve Pederson Very good, Steve! I have an arrangement of this in a very old Mel Bay book. I think it's called "Best of Bach for Guitar" or something like that. I have probably read through it a few times, but never really worked on it. I think what you are playing here sounds really great, though. Hopefully we can hear the second half as well.
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Steve Pederson Beautiful, Steve. Your transcription sounds very complete and musical, as does your performance. Looking forward to your 2nd part.
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Here is the 3rd Section of Carlevaro's Capricho from his Introduccion y Capricho. Hopefully, I can polish it up this week and post the entire Capricho next week.
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Dale Needles this is great to see you progressing over this work, can't wait to hear it straight!
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Dale Needles This is really great Dale. Great variety of timbres, and I'm sure it's more difficult than how you're making it look!
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Steve Pederson Thanks. Breaking the piece into manageable sections definitely makes the piece easier to learn. Putting it all together is the challenge. Let's see how it goes this coming week.
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Dale Needles This is beautiful, Dale. and quite an accomplishment. You have really brought this work together.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, now let's see if I can play all three sections together in one recording.
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Dale Needles Ah yes! There in lies the challenge. However, your command of the piece will prevail, I have no doubt.
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July 25 updates
I continue to work on both of these pieces.
- Even though I haven’t recorded it in a while, I am still working on the Giuliani every day of this challenge. My hope is that it is one of the pieces I will be able to play from memory for as long as I can play the guitar.
- The Sor is improving very gradually. It’s so long that it is almost impossible for me to play it cleanly in one take.
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Eric Phillips These were a real pleasure to listen to this evening Eric. I am impressed with how well you have a handle on both of these pieces. I can barely get through a couple measures of Bach without a major flub. This was great. I'm sure you're much more sensitive to subtle things that didn't go the way you wanted them to, but it sounded really great to me.
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Steve Pederson Thanks so much Steve! Will we hear anything from you this challenge?
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Eric Phillips Indeed! I already posted above - the Bach Air. I also recorded a version of the second half last night. Not sure if I will post that or wait til the next recording.
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Steve Pederson Sorry I missed it somehow! I will go listen now.
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Eric Phillips The Sor is sounding very good. I like how you start the piece using more of the flesh of the thumb for those big chords and later when you repeat those chords, you use more the nail, bringing out a contrast. The allegro section also sounds great and played at a nice tempo. Such a lovely piece and it fits your musical style so well. Definitely, Sor and Eric at their best.
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Dale Needles Thanks so much for listening and for the encouragement, Dale!
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Eric Phillips Both of these pieces are beautifully played, Eric. The piece by Giuliani (actually that entire opus) really forces a reassessment of him as a composer.
The Sor piece is also quite lovely and well played.
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Arabesque no 1
Work had been crazy for last 2 weeks and sometines don't even feel like taking out the gutiar to play. Finally had some time and in right mental state yesterday and today to practice a bit.
Finally gotten to the last bar and think this will be last update for this piece and I'll revisit this again when I have better technical control.
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don I know what you mean about work and not even wanting to play! But this is really beautiful, Don, so once you did practice, it was obviously very fruitful. Your playing up high on the neck is astounding!
I love the repertoire you choose - unexpected but just so gorgeous.
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don Nicely done! Who is the composer of the piece?
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Ernesto thank you, This is Arabesque No 1 by Debussy.
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Eric Phillips thanks Eric. I get a lot of inspiration on learning new pieces listening to Kaori Muraji, Christopher Parkening and Yang Xuefei.
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don This is amazing, Don. It is a beautiful piece that you really bring out.
great work!
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Jack Stewart thanks Jack . You are too kind!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
