Week 1: Monsters come in all shapes and sizes!
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of "Monsters of Nylon" practice challenge!
Select a "Monster of Nylon" or a piece that you have been trying to solve for a longer period of time. The choice is yours!
Commit to regular practice and share your progress with the community. Strive to practice daily and upload at least two videos per week to showcase your musical voyage. This not only keeps you motivated but also allows you to share your artistic journey with our tonebase family.
Share your favorite performance or recording that captures the spirit of the "Monsters of Nylon" Challenge. Your submission will inspire others and create a vibrant collection of potential pieces for fellow members to explore.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Fantasia que Contrahaze la Harpa en la Manera de Ludovico - Alonsa Mudarra
Since it's so quiet here, please let me share the piece I'm currently working on. It is a piece I really love to listen to, although it is not a "Monster piece" by any means, but it did pose a challenge for me at my current playing level (to me, it's a beast at least
).I've been practicing this piece for over 2 weeks, yet I still can't play it smoothly. The second half, in particular, is quite fast and requires constant changing pivoting points between the 1st and 4th fingers (which reminds me of Carlevaro's exercises) – a truly challenging task.
I plan to continue practicing it for 1 or 2 more weeks, hoping to achieve a better version next time.
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Wai Nicely done. Looking forward to seeing how you progress with this beautiful composition.
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Wai Uuuh, we're going to release a lesson with Peter Katona about this beautiful piece soon!
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Wai Great start, Wai. This is a wonderful ‘monster’ to take on. I had muddled thru this years, nay decades, ago, very badly. I am looking forward to your progress and (perhaps) inspiration for me to try again.
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Dale Needles Thanks, Dale. This piece has a lot of "diagonally left-hand movements", and I found Carlevaro's exercises very useful for piece like this.
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martin wow, can't wait to see the lesson!!
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack. It would be great if you also practice this piece for this challenge, it's a fun and beautiful piece.
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Wai I agree it is a fun (well, after all the frustration) and beautiful piece. However, I am traveling in Europe until the end of September so I won’t even be able to practice. I tried to convince Martin to not have an interesting challenge for September. (I thought the ‘Ice Cream Truck Transcription’ challenge was a reasonable option that I wouldn’t have mind missing; but to no avail. Life is tough.)
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Wai Nice work on the Fantasia. I learned a lot from watching you and Evangelina playing the pi runs. It’s interesting how our posts and responses to them encourage our exploration. Thanks Wai.
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Romance - N. Paganini
I would also like to participate. But it‘s only the first part of the piece and I want to find out how far I can get in 4 weeks of practicing. Here is day 1
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Romy Very nice Romy. Well done. This will be great to follow your progress
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Romy This piece utilizes the entire neck and appears quite challenging. I'm looking forward to your next version, Romy. Good job!
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Romy This is a great start, Romy. I haven’t heard this in quite a while. I’ll have to reacquaint myself with it. Looking forward to your next posts.
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OK Martin! You ‘re on! You suggested the Chaconne, and I figure if I’m going to ever play it in my lifetime, I need to start now. First challenge, which edition? I think I’ve settled on Barrueco’s for the moment.
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Marilyn Blodget Great choice, Marilyn. This summer I heard such a beautiful performance by Gwennyth Aggeler, Barrueco’s (very young);student at Peabody (Baltimore). Very very impressive. So, I would tend to follow Barrueco’s edition. But always check the violin score and other editions and in the process of practice find your own solutions.
Btw this summer I promised myself to go for it as well. Practicing 3-4 variations per week. That was too demanding, until now I had only 2 weeks available for this practice. I use the violin score and a few others.I think you might also want to consider Carlevaro’s notes and fingerings. You may choose not to follow his indications and fingerings to the letter (note), but his comments and technical remarks are useful and enlightening.
enjoy the travel and I’m looking forward to hearing your progress. -
joosje Thank you Joosje. I really appreciate your suggestions. I worked on it for about 3 hours this morning, and read through it all. There are parts I can play with relative ease and enjoyment, but then there are the others! I’m thinking I should give special attention to the others at this point, so maybe it can all come together eventually..
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Marilyn You go girl!! This is the monster of all monsters! The Grendel of the guitar (I guess that is Danish but still Scandinavian, no?).
This has always been my fantasy piece. It was the first piece I heard after starting classical guitar. I remember thinking, “wow, I’m going to learn to play that?” Well, that was 50 years ago and it is still just an ‘air guitar’ fantasy. (Actually, since I only act it out in my head I guess it is more of an ‘air head guitar’ fantasy).
Looking forward to your postings!
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Marilyn Blodget as Jack pointed out, the monster of all monsters! Good work!
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Marilyn Blodget wow this is definitely worthy of the challenge. I really look forward to hearing you play it. Good luck!
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Marilyn Blodget This is definitely a giant of a monster! I look forward to following your progress.
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I am late to the challenge but as they say, better late than never. I am currently working on Sor Opus 6 No. 11 for one week. I don't know if it's considered a Monster but it is for me because I've never played it before and I find some sections to be big in the left hand. I love this rendition by Petrit Ceku.
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Debbie Debbie, this is a wonderful piece, especially as Ceku plays it. In fact, I used to think it was a very nice, but light, piece until I heard Ceku’s performance. That really opened my mind to the beauty of this work. Great choice. Looking forward to your postings.
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Debbie Great choice Debbie. I play the minuet Opus 11 no 6 and I always think it would be great to play that followed by Opus 6 no 11. I'll watch how you get on with it and try to learn from you if I ever attempt it!
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Debbie this is indeed a great and beautiful choice.
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yes, I agree, good choice.
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Debbie Debbie this is one of my favourite Sor studies. I think it's no 17 in the Segovia edition which I have. Really looking forward to hearing it.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
