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 II. – leira í botni fjarðar - littoral mud in the bottom of a fjord
- One thing you found easy: Transitioning from the chords to the melodic part! Bar 16 and 17 are crucial for establishing the meter and tempo for the next part, but I felt that it had a nice flow despite the vertical choral structure in the beginning!
- One thing you found difficult: Definitely finding a way to balance and connect the chords! In the end I embraced what I couldn't change, the planting of my fingers in order to prepare the chords created a subtle pulse that helped to carry me through the first 16 bars! Another thing was to get the guitar resonate in the low register while playing soft, different right hand fingerings and register helped a lot there.
I hope you like my red/blue lighting setup for compositions from a land of ice and fire! (didn't have a funny blue hat though
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martin Martin, this was amazing!!! I am absolutely astounded at how beautiful this sounded. I loved the lighting too - but much more importantly, the music was so wonderful! Such a great, stable and controlled pulse, perfectly dosed dynamics, and just generally an absolutely wonderful atmosphere! This is art, my friend! So happy to watch you play after so long, despite not currently being able to see each other because of travel restrictions. Well done, Martin!
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- Landslag you worked on: Landslag III. – grjóti þakin háslétta - rock covered plateau
- One thing you found easy: following the dynamics of the piece, especially the the subito piano is very enjoyable (so much that I pushed back the tempo a little bit there)
- One thing you found difficult: Getting the bass to sing and not let the open strings cover up the melody! I'm pretty sure I didn't succeed throughout the piece but I REEAALLY wanted to catch up with my recording, so I pushed through this piece! The scratchiness of old strings really didn't help to create a plateau-like airiness.
I recorded my latest uploads for this community challenge with a stereo mic setup with two omni capsules and added a hint of reverb, hope you liked that! The gods of flat impulse responses of Sennheiser were with me, so the scratchiness doesn't get emphasized by the closeness of the mics!
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martin Wonderful, wonderful job as always, Martin!! So good to hear. I love the way your setup sounds, by the way! I wish my live streams sounded like this, haha
(for those that don't know, Martin helped me set up my studio back when we were just getting started with tonebase live) I thought you did a great job at not letting the open strings cover up the basses, personally!
I enjoyed this a lot.
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- Landslag you worked on: Landslag IV. – lækjarsprænur í grænum dal - river creeks in a green valley
- One thing you found easy: feeling the subtle groove makes distinguishing the different voices pretty easy and quite recognizable!
- One thing you found difficult: I really really wanted to keep all the arpeggi parts on different strings, so I dug into left fingerings quite a lot, so the piece would probably need a little bit more time to settle hin. Right now, I think I am just able to play it, but I don't really shape it musically. Oh, and I needed a little break at 1:40 to think, haha!
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martin Great Martin, I'm working on this, it helps me, thank you
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Giuseppe Gasparini Awesome, I'm glad you like it :) Looking forward to your version if you decide to upload it
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martin So beautiful! And your fingerings worked! All the arpeggios were sounding all the way through in the part where that plays such an important role in the music, at the beginning - wonderful job!
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Before anyone asks: Yes, my latest 4 uploads are a daily update, I was suuuper busy the last days, so I made my Saturday morning really count and pushed through Landslög 2 to 5! Those pieces definitely deserve more time than I am currently able to spend, but I wanted to share my experiences with them with you anyway :) I'm looking forward to the next landslög!
- Landslag you worked on: Landslag V. – birkikjarr í fjallshlíð - birch shrubs in a mountain slope
- One thing you found easy: I liked this piece so much and I am sure it's very easy to do some colorful magic with sounds (if my strings weren't so damn old), that's why I am even more embarrassed about the wrong note in bar thirteen-ish. Although the piece looks like a couple of unconnected dots, there is an inner drama that holds everything togehter. Loved this one!
- One thing you found difficult: I wasn't too sure about the acciacatura, I just did it ... somehow, really didn't put too much thought into it. The last bars right before the harmonics were quite hard for me, I didn't really find a solution that makes sense.
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martin my immediate impression is wow your tone is incredible!
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David Chidsey thanks a lot!!! But those strings definitely need replacement, haha!
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martin what microphones and camera do you use?
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David Chidsey These are a matched pair of Sennheiser 8020s running through a RME Fireface UFX II, Video is recorded with a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k!
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martin so beautiful! That beginning sounds like a warm knife going through butter, seriously - just on a different level of tone color and high quality music! Amazing.
This Landslag was actually the one that took me the longest to get right on my recording, just because there is so much open space... and it sounded so masterful when you did it! Very impressed!
David Chidsey you can tell it's a $6000 setup
but all of it would be worthless without Martin's mindbogglingly beautiful music!
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Landslag Number IV. The one thing I found surprisingly easy was the rhythm :)
I am struggling a bit maintaining the consistency in the fingering of the right hand. Mainly the p i m and p i a
thank you Mircea your comments are very encouraging!-
Emma so happy to hear my comments were helpful
Awesome! Good job getting through number 4! That rhythm was just too easy for you 
Keep it up, looking forward to reading more updates from you!
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Week 1 update: I didn't manage to practice every day, but I did find time for two good sessions of about 90 minutes each, one on Monday morning, the other Friday evening. The first I devoted to working out specific problems in various pieces: the polyrhythms in no.8,; the meter shifts in no.7; the awkward (because of the high position) passage near the end of no.9; and the general craziness of no.11. I also spent about thirty minutes on no.4, mostly trying out alternate fingerings. Last night's session was devoted to the first four pieces. I'm feeling fairly good about these now, although I need to pay more attention the dynamic structure or 1 and 3. I'm hoping to have time on the weekend to get through 5, 6 and (possibly) 7.
I also want to say that I'm really impressed by how many here have taken up this challenge, and how well people are doing with the pieces. Thanks to all those who are posting videos! (I do hope to record something myself before the two weeks is up.) And thanks to Martin and Mircea for not only sharing their own masterful interpretations, but for their many useful (and encouraging) comments as well.
OK, now it's time for some serious work!
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David thank you for the update, David! Very happy to hear you've been working on these
and I have to say, I am so incredibly impressed by how many have taken up the challenge, too! I had no idea whether anyone would participate in this when we launched the appeal, and now that we are more than halfway through it, I couldn't be happier with the response I hope a lot of those who joined will keep it up until the end. Thank you so much for your kind words, too - so happy to hear my comments have been helpful and that you've been enjoying my interpretation of these absolute musical gems!
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Landslag I worked on : number 6
Thing I found easy : surprisingly the key signature of c minor wasn't too difficult
Thing I found hard : listening to Mircea's performance and then listening to mine :-)
Hopefully next week will post some recordings
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Derek haha Derek! I'm sure your performance was great! As you know, it's not about where we are, but about how much progress we've been making since we started
I have to say, even for me, taking part in this challenge consistently has been difficult at times! In this incredibly busy week, with everything I'm doing at the same time, and having done almost no practice in the past two weeks (due to the insane finals period here at USC - the university where I'm doing my doctorate), I've really struggled to go from "what is guitar and how did I use to play this?" to "let's put a recording up for a bunch of people to see - you have 5 minutes to warm up, 15 to practice and another 30 to record: go." It could get quite challenging at times!
Anyway, I would love to watch some of your recordings! If you get the chance to make some, do post them - recording is a great tool for practice, too. And if you don't, I'm looking forward to your text-based updates like this one
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Landslag V today. Sooo relaxing (the easy part). Stumbled over the ornamentation in measures 21-23. Loved your performance Mircea. Something for me work towards!
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Ron thank you so much, Ron! So glad you liked my version
great job on moving on to Landslag 5 this weekend!
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I worked on landslag 7 but no recording yet. It’s a very difficult exercise for me and very much reminds me of Leo Brouwer compositions. Changing meter, stretch to the annular finger in right hand patterns, changing of timbre in the right hand gradually and observing dynamics all at the same time. Very challenging for me. I guess the only easier aspect for me would be the repetitive nature
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David Chidsey Yep - exactly the same here. Maybe tomorrow. With a lot of luck.
I found what Björnsson says in the the video on 7 about how to practise it efficiently very helpful - practising by playing just one repetition – especially for reducing the amount of thinking about each cell in conjunction with the dynamic and tone changes. The complex ostinato plus two changing musical parameters is a lot to get your head round, so this helps to separate them.
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David Chidsey I had exactly the same thought! It reminded me of La Espiral Eterna, though most of it is much more free when it comes to the number of repeats.
Roni Glaser yes! I also thought that was very helpful. In this case, I didn't quite have time to apply that advice myself, but in general, for this sort of music, that is exactly what you should do! Glad to hear you found that useful.
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Landslag you worked on: Landslag no. 4
One thing you found easy: As in previous pieces, I immediately connected with the mood of the piece.
One thing you found difficult: Definitely starting to get harder now! I found balancing the voices more difficult and keeping the changes between chords clean.
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
