Week 2: A Song Of Ice! 🧊
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of the Landslög Challenge
Share your progress updates here and help each other out by commenting on other member's submissions!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream! (<- click)
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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After messing with these for a week I'm feeling more comfortable with them. I'm also getting more comfortable with recording and figuring out how to make the presentation a little better sound and video-wise.
A challenge I'm finding now that I don't remember having before is noisy fingernails on wound strings. I try go at them with a more perpendicular stroke, but there's more that needs to be done for sure.
Thanks to everyone for all the involvement in the challenge far.
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Steve Price it's great to see and hear your progress on both music and production, looks like you have quickly find your way through this! As for noisy sound on bass strings it's related to the nail shape and pluck angle, then it could be caused by a different position of your body, like sitting higher or lower than usual, that leads to a different arm/hand/finger position and angle. But for sure you have to file your nails based on your arm/hand/finger position/angle to ensure the right string contact. If I recall there's a few video on Tonebase about this topic.
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Steve Price Well done Steve, very nicely played!
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Steve Price that was so beautiful. Your dynamics in #1 are very convincing. Well done.
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks Blaise. I'll play around with nail shape but until you said something it didn't even occur to me that I'm using a new chair as well and sure enough it's a couple of inches lower.
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joosje Thanks Joosje! That means a lot especially after hearing some of your performances here.
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Steve Price I think you probably figured out the problem then
For sure a lower chair, even half an inch, will have an impact on your arm-hand-fingers position and angle, enough to produce that noisy sound on the basses. Before changing your nails shape, if it was correct with your previous chair, try to adapt the instrument position and ensure your right arm contact with the instrument is at the same position and the neck in relation to your left arm-hand and eyes also the same way than before. -
Steve Price nice sound Steve, very relaxed
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Steve Price really really great work here Steve! Great performances, sounded really good, and you kept a great steady and consistent tempo during the 2nd piece.
I hope I'm not the one that put the idea of hearing the nails scrape against the strings in your head!
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Steve Pederson Thanks, Steve. I appreciate it. No, it wasn't you that put the idea in my head about string noise. I have a little bit better mic and recording set up so I'm able to listen to myself better and I'm noticing it more. Several things at once changed (nail shape, chair, string brand) so now I have to figure out what works for me again.
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Hello all,
I am still working on Landslog 1 and enjoy the process. I am still struggling a bit with some of the chord changes but it is getting better. I am still playing very slow until I feel comfortable enough to get to normal speed. At that time I will share a video.
I have one question about the speed we should be playing.
The score is showing 1/8 note with a dot on the side at 76 bpm......
Well on a 9/8 I am just mixed up.
Can someone explain to me how I can translate that. I would like to know what is the bpm of one of each 6 triplets.....
Also, I noticed on many videos that often the first triplet of each bar seems to be played at a slightly slower speed and increases gradually in the bar. I feel it generates a great feeling of the piece. Is this OK or should we try to avoid that?
Thanks for your help
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Andre Bernier I'm certainly not an expert but I'll put in my two cents on your questions.
In this case for the metronome you'd play one of the six triplets on each beat at 76 bpm but I don't those measurements are intended to be exact.
For the variation in time, I think what you're referring to is rubato. It's a tool like articulation, tone color, and dynamics that lets the performer control the phrasing of a piece and pick out what you feel is important and want heard by stretching and/or squeezing the time. In some pieces the composer will call for it, but a lot of performers will add it in much of their playing. I'm a big fan and use it a lot to the point of being told to dial it back occasionally, lol. The trade off of playing something rubato is that you lose some of the steady meter. That can be a problem especially for pieces that are intended to have a strong pulse. The important thing is that you're doing it by choice so working with a metronome to make sure you can play it steady first is probably a good idea.
I go completely by feel so someone more knowledgeable than me here will have to chime in on deciding where to use it and how much.
You mentioned holding off on posting anything here but keep in mind you don't have to play the whole piece. If you're looking to get some feedback you can just post a phrase or two or a few measures or whatever you're comfortable with.
Hope this helps a little. Enjoy. -
Steve Price Thanks for your help Steve. I will try to ramp up to 76 bpm (per triplets) and see how i am doing... Also I now know another musical word "Rubato".
Very helpful, thanks
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Andre Bernier just in addition to what Steve Price already mentioned, another word for your musical vocabulary: what you heard in Gullis rendition of the piece (also in others) is what is called 'agogic accent'. If all notes in a musical phrase have the same value (length), like in this piece, it's important to somehow accentuate the first beat, in order to 'feel 'the pulse. You can accentuate by playing it louder (like a drum machine), but the more musical way is to give the note a little emphasis by varying the duration (lenght). You can play it slightly later or hold the note just a little longer. Hope this makes sense. Looking forward to hearing you work on this beautiful study.
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joosje Thanks Joose for your comments. It is a very interesting subject that clearly demonstrates how infinite options are available to us when playing a piece of music.
It is probably why great artists can study a piece for months or years before using it in a performance..
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joosje That's really interesting. I'd never heard that term before so it led to some interesting study. I found some good articles and videos on the topic.
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hello all I've been working on Landslog 4 and enjoying all the pieces, even the most difficult ones.
here is my take on Landslog 4 playing at 110 bpm
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Vilio Celli Great job Vilio. Despite sounding easy these pieces have many challenges to overcome. You are doing well. Thanks for sharing
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Vilio Celli Way to go Vilio! This sounds like a fun piece. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like you're really getting a handle on it.
One thing I would check is that it sounds like you're holding the last note of each measure too long.
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Steve Pederson thanks Steve good advice that pause comes with not knowing the piece that well
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Hello,
Finally a big step for me.... A lot of learning to record and post (private) on Youtube but here is my first take of Landslog I.
I used a metronome set 3/4 at 85 bpm which is a lot slower than the normal required speed but the best I can do at this point of time. Many mistakes, few skipped triplets but I is done.
For me a late beginner acoustic player... I feel good about it.
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Andre Bernier Congratulations on posting your first take of Landslog I. Sounds like you are well on your way to accomplishing this one.
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Andre Bernier Congratulations! And you should feel good about it! It sounds great, now you can just start increasing the tempo little by little. You are laying a good foundation.
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Andre Bernier good job Andre nice steady beat
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Andre Bernier Bravo for both your performance and production, and as a first time submission, you're on the path to make it flows very well.
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Blaise Laflamme
Eric Phillips
Jim King
Vilio Celli
Thanks for your good words. I will keep working daily on the piece and put another video at the end of next week. It will be interesting to see the progress ..... Hope so.....
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
