Week 1: Play Whatever You Love ☀️🎸

Summer's here. Longer evenings, slower days, and hopefully a little more time with the guitar in your hands.

This one's wide open. No set piece, no required technique, no weekly checklist. Just this: spend some of your summer making music you love, and share it with us.

That could be:

  • A piece you've been chipping away at all year and want to finally get on tape
  • Something brand new you're picking up just for fun
  • A tune that sounds like summer to you, bright, warm, nostalgic, whatever that means for you

Post whenever you've got something to show: a video, an audio clip, or even just a note about what you're working on and how it's going. Cheer each other on. That's the whole thing. Open to all levels.

Dates: August 1 to August 28

How to participate

  1. Pick something you love, any piece, any style, any level
  2. Share your goal, tell us what you're taking on this summer
  3. Post your progress, clips, audio, or just an update as the weeks go
  4. Engage, cheer on your fellow players and swap encouragement

We'll close things out with a Watch Party featuring your recorded submissions, so make sure your final performance video is posted by the end of the run. 🎥

96 replies

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    • BLaflamme
    • 7 days ago
    • Reported - view

    In memory of Gizmo, my faithful and unwavering friend, I share with you a work by Andrew York, a composer I particularly love, which has served as a "mantra" and comfort to me these past few days.

      • BLaflamme
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Thank you Nijwm!

      • Steve_Price
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       That's a great performance and a lovely tribute. This led to our boys getting some extra playtime and some of the top-shelf treats in Gizmo's honor. Take care, and again, that was a beautiful performance. 

      • BLaflamme
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you Steve, I'm glad it served some useful purpose! 😅

    • Eric
    • 4 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Llobet - El Mestre (Aug 8)

    I am generally pleased with my progress here. I watched Lukasz Kuropaczewski's lesson on the piece, and found it very helpful. I wish I had the technique to utilize more of his ideas.

    There are still several sections lacking fluidity. The section with the artificial harmonics needs particular attention.

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       You really have made great progress on this piece, Eric. you have well defined phrasing and clear separation voices. I find the harmonic phrases to be a bit intrusive. 

      Great work on this piece!

      • Ron.3
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       As Jack said really great progress on this beautiful piece. Well played! I think to only piece I've ever played by Llobet is El Noi de la Mare. I must revisit!

      • Steve_Price
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I know that's very tough, so I'm really impressed with how it's coming along. 

      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       beautiful performance, Eric. To produce such quantity and most importantly, great quality is mind blowing. I especially loved the bass line in the middle part with the beautiful glissandos. Well done.👏

      • Eric
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Nijwm, and yes, the section with the melody in the bass is the coolest section, no doubt! It's so fun to dig in with the thumb.

    • Steve_Price
    • 3 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Nuevos Estudios Sencillos, II. Omaggio a Mangore

    Leo Brouwer's wrote each of his new studies as an homage to a different composer, and this one is for Agustín Barrios. It's supposed to be played vivace, but we'll see how that goes. 

      • BLaflamme
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Interesting study, it already sounds fluid and very well controlled... I know that he wrote a set of new studies but I've never took a look at them, you plan to play others?

      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Great work on the first attempt, Steve. I haven't heard this piece before, but you have complete control over this and playing it with ease and fluidity.

      • Ron.3
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Good work Steve. I think I have these studies but I not attempted anything beyond the original set yet!

      • Retired
      • Jim_king
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Sounds great Steve.  You have it well under controlled.  Also, very musical at the current tempo.

      • Eric
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       That was great, Steve! I do not know these Nuevo Estudios at all, so thanks for introducing them to me. I know you are not quite playing it vivace, but I rather like the sound of this tempo. I wonder in what sense this is an homage to Barrios. Do you think Brouwer was thinking of La Catedral, third movement? Or is the connection to Barrios less specific?

      • Steve_Price
      • 18 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Blaise. I have a few things I'm working on, but I want to get down another estudio or two. 

      • Steve_Price
      • 18 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

         Thanks. I appreciate you checking it out. It's definitely a fun set, and with a couple of exceptions, they are similar in difficulty to the first ten. 

      • Steve_Price
      • 18 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Eric. I definitely think he was making the connection to La Catedral's allegro solemne with the melody against the pedal in the middle section. Some of the set are a match for the composer's style, but I didn't notice any exact quotes. Others just seem to be in more of a "vibe," which is helpful as a performer's note. I might go a little faster, but I've heard some renditions that I think are a little too quick for my taste (and not just because I can't do it, lol).

    • Eric
    • Yesterday
    • Reported - view

    Llobet - El Mestre and Lo Rossinyol (Aug 11)

    Another update to El Mestre. I have it memorized now. I didn't really set out to memorize it, but it just happened, which is always nice.

    Lo Rossinyol is a very short one from Llobet's Canciones Populares Catalanas that I hardly ever hear performed. It's very fun, and I wish I could play it faster. Apparently the original song is about a young woman asking a nightingale (rossinyol) to carry her song to her mother, but not to her father, since her father let her marry a shepherd who mistreats her. I must say, the subject matter of most of these Catalan songs is rather depressing!

      • Steve_Price
      • 18 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       These are really good, Eric. I remember hearing Lo Rossinyol early in my playing days and really liking it, but it was too tough. Might have to revisit it. There are definitely some darker stories that go along with these sweet-sounding songs. Kind of like learning about nursery rhymes and original fairy tales. 

    • Eric
    • 16 hrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Llobet - El Mestre (Aug 12)

    I had some time this morning, so I decided to go ahead and make a dolled up version of this, and I will probably make it my last post of the piece.

Content aside

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