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! ↓
210 replies
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Diving a little bit into Sketch XI - Chord Shapes & Arpeggios!
- Things you found easy: Puh, hitting the record button over and over again maybe?
- Things you found difficult: There are a lot of weird things happening, the most annoying thing is that you cannot fully trust your eyes to recognize a chord shape because they are so unique. However, some of the phrases just sound soooo beautiful! There are some technical intricacies which I will discuss in tomorrow's livestream!
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Hey hey! I'm glad I could provide some comic relief in my first video! 😄 Perhaps this one will be a bit better. The main challenge I am having with this piece is to not be a perfectionist. I feel like I have definitely made progress on this one, but it is certainly not "error-less" just yet. I'm playing it at a speed I can handle it and have it still sound like music!
Easy: Comprehending the melody and harmonic structure and finding the beauty in the piece.
Difficult: emphasizing the accent on the "and of 4". -
I'm not very certain what I should do with the days left in this challenge. Pushing ahead to the later sketches does not seem wise as they are so far beyond my technique that I don't think it would serve me or the music that well. So, today I decided to go back to Sketch II. There are some fingerings in there that I knew I was not executing well, so I wanted to work on them some more.
Here are the specific spots I worked on (see score below):
- Measure 8. I paid close attention to the right hand, using the correct fingers and damping the low E string. With the left hand, I needed to make sure to use the pinky in anticipation of the next measure.
- Measure 15. I made sure to damp the low E string again, and to use the third finger (LH) for the E.
- Measure 40. Same as measure 8 above, but this time the ring finger (LH) needs to play the high G to keep the pinky free for the first note of the next measure. It's so simple, but trying to be attentive to that while also damping the bass I find to be very difficult. It feels like trying to pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time.
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Sketch 3. Okay, this is a first-time read-through. I only spent a minute looking over the music visually before attempting it. No where to go but up! 😉
If you watch my face, it looks like one of those YouTube videos where people are reacting to a song they've heard for the first time. Hilarious! 😂
Did anyone else notice that this sounded a bit like The Simpsons theme song? 😄 My wife even asked if I was learning The Simpsons song.
What was easy: The steady bass notes and the fairly consistent rhythm of the melody.
What was difficult: I wasn't expecting that high A in m. 4. Because I didn't reposition my left hand I wasn't ready for it. I will also need to work on the rests between the bass notes in the "metallic" section.
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Steve Pederson Good work, Steve! Maybe on the mistakes you should have said, “Doh!” (That’s a Simpsons reference. 😄)
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Eric Phillips 😂👍
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Steve Pederson Damn, you are right! Nice Read-Through, those are very valuable in order to spot the points of interest! Our hands tend to do their own thing, if there's no problem: keep going! But where we get stuck, that's where we want to look at! Though, at some point I always prefer to write down my fingering to have it as a visual reference 🧙♂️
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Steve Pederson 👍
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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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Jaime Zaldua That was wonderful to listen to, Jaime! You have such nice control over your dynamics and tempo, and made it so musical. Thanks for joining in!
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Jaime Zaldua I'm happy you entered the challenge, I missed you... great take on this 1st sketch, sensitive as you always play... I hope you'll find time to submit others even if they're not perfect 👍
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Jaime Zaldua Beautiful and welcome, we are super happy to have you here again! I really enjoyed the tempo and how you play through those sections with ease! I might look at some right hand fingerings in the last part, there are passages where you repeat a finger multiple times which is a common source of mistakes.
I've attached my annotated score, maybe you'll find some inspiration in some of the fingerings. I also made a video in the Week One Updates Thread (I think).
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Eric Phillips Thankyou Eric - thanks too for all of your updates I so admire your commitment and really enjoying hearing you progress so quickly.
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