DAILY UPDATES (Click Me!) Main Thread - Where the magic happens!
Welcome, one and all, to the Main Thread for this challenge!
This is where the magic happens - the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Every day between December 6th and 19th, we are hoping to read your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Landslag you worked on:
- One thing you found easy:
- One thing you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
Sample daily update:
- Landslag you worked on: Landslag no. 1: dark sand dunes with some moss
- One thing you found easy: The first bar was the hardest one for me to learn, although it looked easy enough on my first try.
- One thing you found difficult: I liked that it was a single line; it allowed me to focus on every note and it was much easier to read than most pieces I play.
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
Download the full score (click ↓):
Gulli's Lessons for each individual Landslag:
- Landslag no. 1, Landslag no. 2, Landslag no. 3, Landslag no. 4, Landslag no. 5, Landslag no. 6, Landslag no. 7, Landslag no. 8, Landslag no. 9, Landslag no. 10, Landslag no. 11.
Dedicated discussion threads for each Landslag:
- Landslag 1: dark sand dunes with some moss (<- click)
(More dedicated threads will be created as we progress throughout the challenge)
↓ Let's do this! Post your daily updates below ↓
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- Landslag you worked on: Landslag no. 9
- One thing you found easy: The music once again ebbed and flowed so naturally, and finally, the distinction between melodic voices and others allowed me to do some right-hand preparation! Also, the passage high up was quite easy once I changed the fingerings around a bit.
- One thing you found difficult: I had a bit of a hard time maintaining a steady rhythm as the indication at the beginning of the piece suggests. I felt compelled to underscore certain moments not only through dynamic, but also agogic means. All in all, I don't think it necessarily did the music a disservice, but I realize my heresy in possibly going against the composer's wishes
hope I will be forgiven 
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Mircea really nice
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Giuseppe Gasparini thank you so much, Giuseppe, Dennis Greensmith , and Derek ! So glad to hear you've enjoyed it!!
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- Landslag you worked on: Landslag no. 9
Another lovely relaxing piece (lovely performance Mircea). Again with most of these pieces I'm trying to use them also as sight reading practise as Gulli made a good point in one of his comments about trying to push the reading would be beneficial. This makes the first attempt quite difficult - especially the higher notes!
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Dennis Greensmith So true! I do agree with Gulli that pushing the reading is one of the best ways to get better at it. Great job sticking with it and reading through this movement!!
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Landslag 7
Despite the notes themselves being easy, I think this one is going to take me some time to get to the point where the whole piece is flowing with natural sounding rhythmic changes and incorporates all the subtleties of the timbre changes and dynamics! Still, before the challenge, I was starting to think about what new pieces to add to the repertoire next year - now I think I have my answer!
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Ron that is just wonderful to hear, Ron! So happy that you've been enjoying these pieces enough to consider keeping them in your repertoire! I feel the exact same way.
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Been working on landslog 1 to 5
Thing I found easy (ish): numbers 1,2,3 & 5
Thing I found hard : getting 4 up to tempo
Will post video tomorrow
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Derek good job! It's a great idea to work on a couple of those at a time - and one that especially benefits those that have to be practiced in a slower tempo than their final form. Happy to hear that's been working for you!
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- Landslag you worked on: Landslag no. 10
- One thing you found easy: Usually, when I have to learn very harmonic-heavy passages quickly, it's really hard to divide my eyes between my left hand and my music. Since this piece however had such a consistent internal rhythm, and just generally swayed between the 7th and 12th fret (with the occasional diversion into the 5th and the 9th), it was actually really easy to follow!
- One thing you found difficult: It's surprisingly difficult to create musically meaningful motion between repeated harmonics - due to their extreme preference for high tension (as Rene Izquierdo eloquently put it in his latest livestream), we only have a couple of options: loud vs quiet (not really much in between) and short vs long attack. Doing smooth crescendos and decrescendos can be quite tricky!
Also, tip for anyone playing this: balancing the different harmonics dynamically can be difficult too, since the 5th and (especially) the 9th fret are so much quieter than the 7th and (especially) the 12th - which just reigns supreme as the loudest harmonic of all. Play the notes in the 9th and 5th fret much louder than the others and you'll see they sound quite balanced in the end.
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Mircea wow! Just beautiful. So very musical
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David Chidsey Thank you David! Very glad to hear you liked it!
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- Landslag you worked on: 10
An interesting piece which clearly has a different compositional feel and quite difficult to balance some of the harmonics over 3 strings - which helps improve technique to achieve clear consistent sound! The first time I have come across a whole piece using harmonics so this was a refreshing challenge to work through. Good tips form Mircea as well.
Kind Regards
Dennis
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Dennis Greensmith Great job, Dennis! So happy to hear my advice was useful to you! And you're totally right - it's very hard to find a piece that consists entirely of harmonics! The first one I ever played was, I think, Dusan Bogdanovic's Mbira Song from his African Miniatures, and I don't think there's been another one until practicing Landslag 10!
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Landslag I worked on: No 4 - trying to get it completely under my fingers.
I've also done a recording of nos 1 & 2. Link to noi 1 below:
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Derek Great job, Derek! Very beautifully, steadily and gently flowing, just like the music demands - and I love that a finger preparation on the first string at the beginning! So much stability comes from that, especially in high-stress situations such as performances or recordings!
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Video of Landslag 2. I think if I were ever to have a career in music then it would have to be on the radio :-)
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Derek Congratulations Derek, 1 and 2 Landslag very nice to hear
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Giuseppe Gasparini Hi Giuseppe - thank you
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Derek Well done Derek
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Derek Great job!!! So happy to hear you playing these first two Landslög, I enjoyed it a lot!
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I skipped 8 and 9 for the moment and worked on no. 10 (thanks for great tips and performance Mircea). Easier than I thought to read through it, but difficult to get the right balance between the harmonics. Lots more work to do but I enjoyed working on it today
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Ron wonderful! So glad you've enjoyed my performance and tips! And yes, Gulli's helpful combination of standard notation and fret tablature works great in this situation, and helps speed up the reading process considerably! Happy to hear you've been having fun with it!
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Landslag 10. I had very little time today unfortunately. Teaching school is pretty intense these days
easy part: the harmonics are pretty straight forward. It can be sight read without too much trouble
hard part: maintaining a steady rhythm while keeping the tempo up. And of course the dynamics and timbre as always
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David Chidsey awesome, very happy to hear you tackled number 10! And totally agree with you about the difficulties regarding dynamics, timbre and tempo!
If I may offer a bit of unsolicited advice about the issue of tempo, harmonics actually allow us to do a really cool thing that regular notes don't - and that is to jump to the next note immediately after we play the first one. I see a lot of professional guitarists neglect this advantage at even extremely high levels, and I never quite understood why.
(My hypothesis is that it's just not difficult for them - which is understandable, but this trick is something that has helped me learn get harmonic passages up to tempo so much faster!) Anyway, just thought this might be useful to you. Treating them as open strings to be jumped away from immediately was very helpful to me.
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- Landslag you worked on: Landslag no. 11
- One thing you found easy: So many preparation options! Ascending arpeggios make this piece a lot easier than it could have been. Also appreciated the idiomatic harmonies! Very beautiful.
- One thing you found difficult: The dynamics made it quite a bit more difficult to realize at tempo, especially due to the natural tendency of the hand to tense up in forte passages. Perhaps I will find time the next 3 days of the challenge to record this again, but I can't guarantee. In the meantime, I feel like this is a pretty good effort for one day~.
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
