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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What do I love in spanish music:
The mood, the fast Phrygian scales, the rasgueados, the 'odd' harmonies
The challenge
( these 3-4 weeks are not very inclusive for me :-), I am a lucky man with wife , 3 kids, 7 grandkids and a busy job as an interventional cardiologist at a teaching hospital. im usually too tired to practice most days. maybe I just need to pull myself together, but the first 30 min of practice most I usually very frustrating.
I give it a shot And my ambition is to send updates and finals with new strings DAW recording and well rehearsed. but lets see. these videos are best of two
1. M de Falla. Danza del Molinero. his could have been a transcription challenge. Orchestra to solo guitar.
struggles with the run the rhythm in the end and confidence and consistency
2. J Rodrigo. Tiento Antiguo. hot slow spanish village in a dream like state. have to work with tension resolution and as above- and forgot the ending
3. J Turina. Rafaga. That long run is really a killer.
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Lars Kjøller-Hansen wonderful playing Lars. Loved all three, but the de Falla is my favorite. Glad you have joined us. Keep up the great work!
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Lars Kjøller-Hansen For someone who has a big family and a busy day job you're amazing! Love your passion for the music and the instrument!
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Luciano Salvatore I tried to decipher this passage of "Evocacion" by José Luis Merlin, an incredibly beautiful piece with a fingering that just won't work for me, so I tried to work around that! Let me know what you think!
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Martin haha Martin, we'll have to jazz-up your fingers!!
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Martin Martin, that was very helpful. I have had the same problems you address here. Thank you
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Martin that’s awesome Martin, thanks for the suggestion! I will try it out and let you know, it looks more fluid indeed!
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Martin I love seeing how your brain thinks through these fingerings. Thanks for making this video, not just for Luciano but for all of us.
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I've been trying to learn Paseo by Eduardo Sainz de la Maza since the beginning of January so here is a video of one of my attempts.
Things I found Hard: Trying to bring out the melody with a nice legato. There are a couple of tricky shifts of position and trying to get a nice floaty feeling in the middle section.
Things I found easy: ?
This is one I will keep working on as I hope to perform it sometime!
ps - note the glasses! I don't usually wear glasses for near distance (I do for long distance) but over the last couple of years I find that the fretboard is getting more and more blurry. I was hoping the glasses might improve my playing but I'm not so sure! Trouble is - if I wear them I can see the fretboard in great detail but the music on the stand is too blurred to read (I can read it fine without them)! Must be a compromise somewhere
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Derek I love this, Derek! I had never heard it before. I will have to go look for the score.
The glasses look nice. I can empathize. I wear bifocals, and when I have to play high up the fretboard, things start to get fuzzy and I often start feeling dizzy. Just part of the fun of being human I guess!
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Derek that's a beautiful piece, I'm not too aware of his music but I'll definitely take a look in the future.
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Eric Phillips Thank you Eric. It's from a set of pieces called Platero y Yo. It's actually (I believe) written to accompany the poem of the same name by Juan Ramon Jimenez but I have only ever heard any of the pieces played as solo guitar. My score is from a compilation album The Guitar Music of Spain (Vol 3) by John Zaradin. This is the only one of the set in the book and I'm tempted to buy the complete set but! the set is £8.99 and I've noticed there is a publication of all of Eduardo Sainz de la Maza's pieces for £11.99 which one to buy? I'd like to actually see them before I buy as I'm not sure the words would be in the complete works book. I know someone who speaks Spanish so would be good to accompany the poem sometime.
PS Vol 1 of the The Guitar Music of Spain is all Bartolome Calatayud - some nice pieces in that and Vol 2 is transcriptions of Albeniz and Granados - I haven't got that one so don't know what it's like.
PPS I haven't had chance to listen to your recordings yet - hopefully tonight I'll be able - looking forward to it.
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks Blaise
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Derek Thanks for the info, Derek. I have some vague memory of Platero y Yo.
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Derek That's very interesting Derek. I've only become (vaguely) aware of Sanz de la Maza recently. I did see something by him on Platero yYo. I thought it was a misprint as I was only familiar with Tedesco's work by that name.
Thanks for sharing.
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Jack Stewart thanks Jack. I'm hoping to play Campanas de Alba by Sainz de la Maza sometime so I thought I'd start on this one beforehand.
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Derek Thanks for introducing us to a beautiful and interesting piece and composer. I had not heard of Eduardo Sainz de la Maza so I looked him up to find out he is the brother Regino Sainz de la Maza, the well-known Spanish guitarist who lived from 1896 to 1981. Eduardo lived from 1903 to 1982.
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Derek Nice job Derek. Never heard this before, but now I’ll have to find it. Thank you for sharing this.
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Derek Hello Derek, this is a wonderful piece you have chosen
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Santiago de Murcia - La Tia y La Sobrina
I have started looking at a few works by de Murcia, and I am discovering what a treasure trove it is. The pieces are, of course, all written for the baroque guitar, which sounds so unique. I have no memory of ever playing anything by him, but that will now change. I'll start with this fun piece that translates to The Aunt and the Niece. I have no idea why it is called that.
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Eric Phillips That almost sounds like a folk song. I've seen his name around but I don't know his music. Thanks.
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Jack Stewart It does. His music seems very diverse. I'll post more in the upcoming days.
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Eric Phillips nicely played Eric. I've not heard that before. Thank you
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Derek Thanks, Derek!
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Eric Phillips Beautiful Eric!
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Hi, I’m practicing Asturias, by Albeniz.
Also starting today “Canários” by G. Sanz
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
