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 ↓
310 replies
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Thank you for setting this up again, for me that just play for my own pleasure, it gives a reason to practice and improve with the goal to upload a decent video. I picked Evocacion by Jose Luis Merlin. I understood it was written in Spain and definitely has spanish character!
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First attempt. A piece by Bartolome Calatayud - Cancion De Cuna. Hopefully upload an improved version but I wanted to be the first to post a video for this one :-)
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PS - I was recording direct to the phone - not using the mic you can see in the video!
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Derek Ooooh, watch out Eric Phillips , someone's about to initiate a community revolution!
A beautifully sad piece with that special Spanish nostalgia! I don't think we have lullabies in Germany which are in minor! Next time you can get a hat and a big hand rolled cigarette and go full Catalyud!
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Martin I could do the hat but not the cigar :-). I have a book with lots of his music - hoping to add some more of his pieces - some I know but I will work on some that I don't!. Also hoping to attempt some Moreno Torroba!
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Derek That was great, Derek! I am very happy to let someone else go first, and what a perfect choice to kick things off. Calatayud has so many great pieces that sound very Spanish (whatever that might mean) and are not uber difficult to play. I might have to find one to play myself 🙂.
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Derek Yes, Torroba! So much great stuff to explore and re-discover!
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Derek Very nice Derek - not one I’ve heard before
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Derek great start Derek! Eric Phillips now that someone has took the lead, I think your next step would be to anticipate the next challenge and post first 😂... then Martin would have no other choice than follow 😯
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Martin hahaha you cannot go more Spanish than this!!!
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Derek bravo Derek!!!!! You lead de way hahah
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Blaise Laflamme Too late, I already started the next challenge. It's the John Cage challenge, and I submitted a video of his masterpiece 4'33". Great piece, and works very well on the guitar! 😄
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Eric Phillips awesome! I think I'll post a version with my own fingerings 😆
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Blaise Laflamme Mine uses a lot of open strings and right hand damping.
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Eric Phillips I think this is the best approach to keep the legato across silences.
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Eric Phillips I hope you continue your practice of working on it in sections.
I come across an album (online) of a guitarist who recorded 4'33". I don't remember her name but it was well done.
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Jack Stewart I think it is divided into three movements, from what I remember. I think they're all at the same tempo though!
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Martin That was very nice Derek. I have heard of this composer but don't know any of his work (that I know of). Thanks for sharing this.
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Derek Very nice piece Derek, I love these old Spanish tunes. Beautifully played!
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Eric Phillips to Blaise - after several hours of practice, I have the Cage piece down to 3 min, 54 seconds….but it takes a lot of work with the metronome.
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Paul Kennedy haha... well... the hardest part is to play by heart without any metronome or watch... 🤯
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Blaise Laflamme With this piece, I had to use the old "memorize the piece backwards" method, starting at the end and making my way to the beginning.
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Eric Phillips or by 15 seconds chunks starting from the end, like the Memento movie 😵
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Luys de Narvaez - Fantasia del quarto tono
I thought I would start this challenge off by playing some early music from Spain. I have always loved vihuela music from the Renaissance, and this is one of my favorites. It comes from Narvaez' Los Seys Libros del Delphin (Book 2), and I have attached a photo of the first fifteen measures of the original tablature.
I don't have a vihuela, unfortunately, but I did play it both on guitar and on the lute. As many of you know, I am a total novice on the lute, so please be forgiving. I did trim down my nails significantly a couple days ago, so I am still searching for good tone on both instruments.
