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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Hello friends,
here's my progress on sketch #4 so far... that's a beautiful one for sure... the melody and harmonies are very well written in a «not too hard» piece to play... but hard to render indeed! Sergio really shines here and demonstrate how he's a genius and a master at composing for guitar!-
Blaise Laflamme Beautifully played, Blaise! You make the melody sound like it's dancing in a slow and relaxed way. I had to listen to it several times in a row just because I loved it so much.
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Eric Phillips thank you Eric
... I hear this piece a bit differently than how others play it as I can see... I feel it more like a 3/8 or 6/8 and that gives it a more dancing flow as you have noticed. -
Blaise Laflamme wonderful, it sure is a beauty, but still only dots on a piece of paper! Your performance made those shine beautifully!
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Martin you're too kind... I'm happy you enjoyed it... it's also just fingers on strings
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Blaise Laflamme Very beautiful Blaise! :)
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Blaise Laflamme Tasty! Great work!
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Blaise Laflamme absolutely lovely bro! I could listen to that all day long, very soulful. Id love to hear you improvise on it.
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Jaime Zaldua thank you Jamie, well... that's an area I should explore more, I improvise about technique and patterns to help me learning a piece but not regarding melody and harmony. I'll give it a try if I have some time left after some of the last sketches.
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Blaise Laflamme Awesome Blaise I'd love to hear that, I've not come across these improvise parts before in classical - I'm really enjoying it - Im so exited to hear your later studies - your recordings are mind-blowingly good
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Blaise Laflamme Great, you were placed in the group of artists
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Jaime Zaldua thank you... my vacations are not going as I thought so I hope to have enough time to do some more... but you should thanks Martin for his tips and patience about recordings!
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Giuseppe Gasparini thanks... but well... as soon as you express yourself with music I think you're already an artist, so you are my friend
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HI everyone, here is my third take for Sketch II. It is still a challenging sketch for me . What I am trying to achieve in this third take is to hold the notes for correct duration. I do not achieve all notes with full duration in this take, but I think most of them are, and it has improved compared to my previous takes of Sketch II. Hope you can give me feedback :) Thank you
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Khiem Nguyen That’s a big improvement, Khiem! Getting those highest notes to sustain over into the next measure is what makes this one both challenging and beautiful. You achieved that very well!
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Khiem Nguyen Bravo Khiem. it's super inspiring to watch your progress and dedication! Great job, it really starts to sing!
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Eric Phillips thank you and I agree with you Eric, when we can hold the notes for their full duration, they sing very beautifully. I start to enjoy the singing melody very much.
Martin thank you Martin! I am happy to hear your encouragement. And I want to continue my dedication! :) -
Khiem Nguyen great khiem! you're following Eric Phillips path to consistency and dedication, fantastic to have you on board!
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Blaise Laflamme thank you Blaise. I really love the quality of the singing notes. I will keep up the hardwork :)
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Khiem Nguyen Bravo!!!
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Monkfish (Sketch VII) Day 2.
This is a video edit of variations 1-5. After the fifth variation, I hop down to the two-measure ending (measures 85-86). I cannot play variations 6 and 7 yet.
I attached the score again if you want to look at it while listening.
I must say, I'm having fun with this! It feels a bit like the composition challenge with Ashley earlier this year.
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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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Martin That's incredible for having worked on it for so short a time (I think you said one hour). Those are very rich chords. It reminds me of the chord voicings a jazz guitarist like Joe Pass would play.
Thanks also for the bonus taste of Sketch VIII!
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Martin thanks for sharing your thoughts as you progress on this sketch, it's very informative. I'm looking forward to your next stream about the lasts sketches.
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Blaise Laflamme Eric Phillips Thank you guys! I hope you enjoyed the stream about the last Sketches!
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
