WEEK 1: Vamos, Compañeros 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of our musical Journey to Spain!! This is the place to share submissions of the first week! 
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
If you want to describe your process (optional), feel free to use the following template.
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ HAPPY PRACTICING, HAPPY SHARING ↓
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Here my first video. I played through without repeats.
Main challenges are: fingering 3rd bar of the second section, i played as per score and I didn’t find a better way, but the 4 jumping from high A to High D to Middle G is not nice. I saw some people playing High F iso of high A, i find it already an improvement. Second challenge is moving the barre from seventh to fifth position at bar 6 of second part. Any suggestions welcome. For the rest long barre’ is tough. Thanks Martin and Eric for suggesting Martin barre’ video, i found particularly helpful thinking about 7th string as well as thumb positioning and lever rather than pushing. I will in parallel train on Brower estudio 4. Attached the score I am using.
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Luciano Salvatore Coming along nicely, Luciano! Your hands seem very capable of doing the task, it just needs practice to make the movements fluid. Good work.
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Luciano Salvatore That's a good start Luciano. Look forward to watching your progress. I don't know that piece. Thanks for sharing.
Is that a harp guitar?
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Jack Stewart
Yes indeed, my daughter plays the Irish Harp! -
Luciano Salvatore Very Nice, I love this piece, nice choice
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Luciano Salvatore beautful choice, and I'm so happy that the barre technique helps you! I first heard about that in my livestream with Alfredo Escande talking about Carlevaro Technique!
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After watching the great Home Recording course in Tonebase, I really want to try recording something and join the challenge this time, but I want to start small and simple. Is "Sor: Study Op.35 No.2" a good choice for a newbie?
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Wai That is a great choice! Sor has several studies for beginners. The first few studies in Op 60, Op 35, or even Op 31 would work well. The nice thing about Op 35 No 2 is that there is an excellent tutorial on the TB website by Emmanuel Sowicz. I look forward to hearing you play it!
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Wai that's great news! anything you find valuable and feel comfortable with would be just fine
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Wai just do it! For me it took too long before posting something because not as good as the rest. In the end you will just get great suggestions for improvement and encouragement!
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Wai So glad you enjoyed the course on Home Recording! You can never go wrong with some Sor, this is the production that Eric was referring to!
Luciano Salvatore Absolutely fantastic! We always wanted to be this forum super inclusive, the community can only grow stronger and more inspirational when more people come together and share the love for the guitar!
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Thank you for the kind words, everyone. I stopped playing guitar for many years and just picked it back up last year. Tonebase is one of the best things I found after I decided to restart my guitar journey.
I started practicing "Sor: Study Op.35 No.2" from today. The piece is not very hard, but after watching the Tonebase lesson, I found that the phrasing & articulation is a little bit trickier than I thought.
The hardest part for me is psychological because I just learned how to record myself playing guitar, and I have never joined online events before, everything is new to me! I hope that after a week of practice, I will have something to upload here.
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Wai We're so glad to have you here, Wai. I was totally new to doing all this just about one year ago, but now I love it. It brings so much joy to my life to be able to share the musical journey with others!
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Wai welcome Wai! You can never go wrong with Sor. Looking forward to this lovely piece.
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Here is my first attempt at Montemayor; with Torija, it is another of the Castles of Spain compilation by Torroba. I have been diagnosed with "trigger finger" of my "m" finger so it is not working as well as I would like. I am to have surgery on that hand in about a month. We'll see if it helps.
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Paul Kennedy Good work and a beautiful piece, Paul! I'm sorry to hear about your finger. Just curious - do they think playing guitar is the cause (or one of the causes)? I ask as someone without any knowledge, just curiosity. Is this something all of us should be attentive to? I sure hope the surgery helps for you.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric, Yeah, my hand surgeon promises it is a simple procedure, but a long recovery time which is why I am putting it off. I have several Irish gigs with my son from now through St. Patrick's day, so I have to wait until then.
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Eric Phillips ...and apparently it has nothing to do with playing guitar, so you are safe (unlike focal dystonia, which does affect guitar players).
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EricPhillips and I should have said "2" finger, not "m" since it is on my left hand...
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Paul Kennedy Thanks for letting me know, Paul. I hadn't heard of trigger finger as a danger for guitarists, but I was wondering. All the best, and enjoy playing Irish music with your son!
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Paul Kennedy so beautiful! Your performances of the Castles of Spain make me want to discover all the pieces of that cycle!
So sorry to hear about your finger, even if it's a minor procedure I can imagine it can be a bit frightening. My father had an accident (it involved some deer and a very strong golden retriever) and needed to undergo surgery, everything went fine! He never played guitar, but he successfully picked up playing saxophone now that he's retired
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Paul Kennedy Hi Paul, I assume when you say "trigger finger", you are referring to "dupuytren's contracture". I have it as well. I have stayed away from surgery and happy to chat about it off line.
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Dale Needles Hi Dale, yes, happy to discuss. Currently scheduled for surgery on 12 April, 22. Any advice, concerns, or other matters greatly appreciated. (My surgeon is a drummer so I am not sure he has an appreciation for left hand fingering on the classical guitar)
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OK, here is one more from "Castles of Spain"; Alba de Tormes - F. Torroba
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Paul Kennedy Thanks, Paul! I have never played this one. Such beautiful harmonies, almost jazz-like.
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Eric Phillips Jazz is exactly what I thought. Not Torroba-like at all.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
