WEEK TWO: The Musical Voyage!
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of the Sergio Assad Community Challenge!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (← click)
- Watch the Kick-Off-Livestream on July 16th to get an overview!
- Download the scores for Assad's Etudes here (← click)
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 the etude!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ Reply below with your assignments and questions! ↓
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Hi Everybody..
Beautiful work on these amazing etudes thanks everyone, couldn't resist but to get involved.
I have been enjoying playing most of them and realised quickly 3 weeks is not long enough for me to get deep into all of these, I'd probably need 3 years. I've decided to start at no 1 all the same.
I found that most of it went in my fingers quite easily and I enjoyed experimenting with different vibes and textures in the 4 parts.
I found some fingerings hard: LH 1st and 2nd finger on fret 1 and 3rd on fret 3. RH on the last section the chromatic bass run caused issues. I found it difficult getting it all to sit together in a performance.
Enjoying this so much! Any feedback appreciated.
One love
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks so much Blaise your a legend! I will be back with more sketches thanks for the confidence boost brother!
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Martin Awesome Thankyou Martin! Really appreciate your feed back and your annotated copy of score - the repeating same finger is a old technique haunt of mine, I'm going to tackle that today! just the motivation I needed many thanks.
Your livestream was really useful and inspiring - I'm not often there live because it's the time I'm settling my kids down for bed but I watch them all. Wonderful wonderful work Martin Thankyou. -
Jaime Zaldua Bravooo!!!
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All very good, congratulations
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Alrighty - Here's my more polished run-through of Sketch 3. It's really interesting how much harder this seemed to get the more I played it.
One of the things I have been working on in general is my right-hand fingering. I feel like I'm having to relearn how to play - like learning to walk again. I went through and wrote in the fingering for every single note. I think this is why it was so difficult for me. In this performance I think I started out following my fingering, but eventually I gave up and just played whatever I needed to get through the song. I realized afterwards that my right hand was cut out of the frame. That was not my intention.
With that, plus those rests in the "metallic" section, there was just too much going on. Something had to give. It was the rests. I'm playing right through those, sorry.
Also, my reading skills are severely underdeveloped. I actually created my own tablature version of this sketch. (see attached)
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Steve Pederson Big improvement, Steve! It's not just accurate and in time, but really musical.
Like you, my right hand technique holds me back. I played with a pick exclusively for my first six years of playing, and when I started classical in college, I was really annoyed that I could do more advanced things with my left hand, but my right hand felt like I was just a beginner (which I was). Unfortunately, that has led me into the habit of just doing whatever works fastest with my right hand, without giving much thought to doing it correctly. I'm realizing now (at age 51) just how many bad right hand habits I need to break.
BTW, there are more posts in the Week Three thread now.
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Eric Phillips Thanks! I reposted this in week three. I couldn't find it earlier.
Wow, it sounds like you and I have a lot in common. I played electric guitar for about six years before I went to college and started learning classical. I got a bachelor of arts degree with an emphasis on classical guitar (instead of a bachelor of music) because it was a much quicker track to graduate. So, like you, I just did whatever I needed to make things happen. Similarly, I developed really poor right-hand fingering skills. After college I didn't take any more classical lessons, so I continued my bad habits for 30 years. I'm now 52 and realizing I have a lot of room for improvement. It's hard to overcome old habits! I recently started studying with a guy here in Chicago named Steve Suvada. It's been amazing!
By the way, I went to the University of Minnesota. Where did you go? -
Steve Pederson Yes, a lot of similarities. For undergraduate I went to Nazareth College, a small school in Rochester, NY, where I still live. I took classical lessons there for three years. I traded in my Les Paul for the only classical guitar I’ve ever owned (the one you’ve seen me play). I received a minor in music (my major was math, a degree I don’t use now at all). From undergraduate until about five years ago, I only played sporadically. I even cut my nails off! Then I discovered the wealth of classical guitar videos, sheet music, and educational materials online, I fell back in love with classical guitar and now I wish I could play almost every waking minute! I would love to take formal lessons again, but that’s just not in the cards right now.
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here's my first attempt at sketch 4, very rough but at least I tried.
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Vilio Celli Good job, Vilio! Like me, you picked a hard one to start with.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
