Week 4: The Flow of Practice: Bringing It Together 
End of the Year Challenge: "Finish Strong!" 
As the year comes to a close, it's the perfect time to look back on your guitar journey, celebrate your progress, and set the stage for a powerful finish! Whether you've been steadily refining a piece all year, revisiting past favorites, or holding onto that "one day" project, now’s the time to bring it to life. Let’s wrap up this year with a final push, together!
Challenge Theme: Complete, Conquer, and Celebrate!
Goal:
Choose one guitar piece or project that has been on your list this year. This might be a piece you’ve been working on in lessons, something you’ve always wanted to learn but never started, or a performance you’d like to polish. Dedicate the final weeks of the year to bringing it to completion—whatever "finished" means for you!
Challenge Options:
Complete a Piece: If you’ve been working on a piece throughout the year, let’s aim to bring it to the finish line. Focus on refining tricky sections, memorizing it, or even recording it as a performance!
Start & Finish a New Piece: Is there a piece that’s been sitting on your "someday" list? Dive in! Start fresh, put in dedicated practice time, and see how far you can get by the end of the year.
Polish for Performance: Got a piece you can already play but want to perfect? Use this time to iron out the details and maybe even perform it for friends, family, or the tonebase community!
Challenge Guidelines:
Set Your Goals: Decide on the piece or project and set a few concrete goals (e.g., "play smoothly at tempo," "record a full video," or "memorize all sections").
Share Your Journey: Post your progress, questions, and reflections with the community! Let us know what you're working on, why you chose it, and any hurdles you’re overcoming.
Celebrate the Wins: At the end of the challenge, share your "finished" version! Whether it’s a recording, a progress update, or simply sharing your reflections, let’s celebrate together.
Dates:
This challenge runs from now until December 30th. Finish the year with a sense of accomplishment and the motivation to take on new pieces in the coming year!
Why Join?
This isn’t just about completing a piece; it’s about proving to yourself what you can achieve with focus and support. Join us for a fun, collaborative way to end the year on a high note.
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Julia Florida- Agustin Barrios Mangore
Hi, everyone, hope you're well. As a big Barrios fan, I thought, 'why not sign off this year with this famous and often overly played piece. I adore this piece and have been trying it for several months. Still to improve upon, need to eliminate mistakes and be able to play through without mistakes. It's such a tender piece that it becomes tricky how to control the dynamics and harmony. I hope you enjoy. Thanks.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary That's beautiful; I love your warm tone, Nijwn.
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Wai Thank you, Wai.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary This is really sounding good, Nijwm. It is very impressive how you maintain the beautiful melodic despite the many leaps (and with harmonics!). Your tone and phrasing are beautiful.
I think the only thing I noticed that you might work is the string noise. Other than that I thought was wonderful a performance. Great job!
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Jack Stewart Thank you for the nice words, Jack. Yeah, string squeak is something that's been bothering me too. It's something I need to work on more carefully instead of ignoring it, which I often tend to do.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary beautiful, Nijwm, very good phrasing. The squeaking is natural in our playing. A recording so close to the strings brings it more to the foreground. I think in live performance it would be hardly noticeable . Very good performance.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary Congratullations, I believe you play it very well......maybe you feel there is room to improve , but it really sound well......good job....
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary Hi Nijwm, very nicely played and such a sweet tone. As for the string noise, I would point you to Carlevaro's "School of Guitar." He was a strong advocate that string noise can be reduced, if not completely eliminated, with the proper left-hand technique. I refer you to the Carlevaro Discussion Forum here on Tonebase which has a list of great resources on Carlevaro's innovative "School of Guitar."
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Dale Needles Thank you, Dale. That's nice to hear. I'll definitely look into the forum and consult Carlevaro's technique. I'm a little bit aware of the lift and shift technique, but I often neglect to do it. But I'll definitely look into it.
As an adult learner (43 counts, right?
), I'm often eager to jump into the evergreen hits like Julia Florida. I'm planning to work more on a progressive manner by starting with easier etudes and easier pieces. -
JUAN ALONSO Thank you, Juan. You're very kind. Yeah, there's always room for improvement, plenty in my case. Glad you liked it.
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joosje Thank you for the compliments, Joosje. I'll continue to work on this and, hopefully post an update or two before the 30th.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary That sounds good. You might take a look at Carlevaro's Microestudios. There are 20 of them and they are all pretty short, interesting musically and offer progressive technical challenges. You can download them for free from the Carlevaro Online Library which you can find a link at the resource section of the Carlevaro Discussion Forum.
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Dale Needles Thanks a lot, Dale. I'll look it up.
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Dale Needles Hi Dale, I looked into the Carlevaro forum, but couldn't find the material you referred to. I'm not much familiar with Carlevaro's technique. Could you point me towards a link where I can find the material? His books aren't available or easily accessible from India. I'm especially looking for LH finger independence exercises. Thanks. But I'll also keep exploring the Carlevaro forum to know more about his technique. Thanks.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary Hey Nijwm, links are in the Carlevaro - General Discussion intro, but if you're looking mainly for scores go to the Abel Carlevaro Library.
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Blaise Laflamme Thank you, Blaise.
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