Welcome to tonebase!
Hey everyone - this is Igor from tonebase 
!
It's such a pleasure to welcome you as one of the founding members of the tonebase community. Please introduce yourself in a post below with the following format:
- Where are you from and what's your favorite food from there? ;)
- What are you currently working on?
- What are you hoping to get out of this community?
I'll go first:
- While it's hard to pinpoint where exactly I'm from, lol, I just go with Bavaria Germany, and as favorite food, I'd choose Beer (surprise, surprise - closely followed by "Schweinshaxe" - Bavarian Pork-knuckle, which is quite delicious, but sooo heavy that it feels weird calling it favorite food)
- Trying to keep my Aranjuez in the fingers, even though certainly don't have that much time to practice as during college days...
- I hope we can facilitate authentic and interesting discussions around playing, learning, teaching, performing the guitar as well as all adjacent topics like concert prep, professional development, auditioning etc...
Now over to you (after some participation from our tonebase team members!)
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Greetings from the Black Hills, the home of my youth. I recently retired from a ~30 year career in health care living on the coast of Rhode Island (USA). I'm Alan Hoff. My favorite local food is fresh rainbow trout.
I am currently working on Sor Op 35 numbers 1 & 2, and Carcassi Op 60 # 7.
I have played the guitar for a long time, but did not start out well. I was largely self-taught (playing inexpensive instruments with poor intonation and difficult action - mostly steel string acoustic and electric, but at some point bought my first classical guitar.) I learned so many bad habits - they limited my progress at a certain point. A ~year ago, I decided I needed to start over. I have changed my seated position, left-hand and right-hand technique, literally everything. I have gone back to beginning, easy pieces, so that I can focus on improving my technique. This is why Tonebase is so valuable to me. In Rhode Island I had a good teacher. I do not have access to a good teacher where I am now living. I need guidance, and structure, which I believe Tonebase can provide.
I am excited to be more active with "community activites" like the challenges, and courses, and learning how to record.
Alan Hoff
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Hello, I am Eva Grill. I signed up for Tonebase Guitar today. I live in South Germany, work as a software developer, and make music in my spare time. I take classical voice lessons and compose music. I also play the guitar, to a certain extent. The quiz allocated me at level 4.
In the past, from approx. 14 to 19 (i.e., nearly 40 years ago now), I had classical guitar lessons, but then I moved to another city and stopped taking lessons due to irregular work hours.
Apart from practicing from sheet music (of which I enjoyed Early music and Renaissance most), I always liked improvising on the guitar, a few recorded examples can be found here: https://on.soundcloud.com/CYV2rS3hNvYWBXBb8
However, I feel I never really had the fluency and technique I would have needed for more advanced pieces, and I'd like to develop a regular practice again and just see how far I can get doing a little each day or every other day.
I think I'll need to practice really cleverly and efficiently to make do with the time I have.
I have a concrete goal relating to guitar music - I've been involved in church music during the past few years, and recently I was encouraged to play a small interlude on the guitar, which I improvised. It was very well received and enjoyed, and from there I have got the idea to work on a small program of music for an evening concert in our church, music that I can sing or play, including such guitar music. I'd like to plan something like that later in the summer or early fall.
Ideally, I would like to compose some guitar music on my own, for this, but I might also include existing pieces that I just learn and perform, and also to extend my creative 'toolbox' of what I can play and express in improvisation.
Technically, I remember I always had trouble because I didn't have strong nails, while my teacher insisted I should play with nails. I'd rather learn to play good and loud enough without them.
Best wishes,
Eva
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Eva Grill
Welcome to tonebase Guitar! It's wonderful to have you join our community. Your background in classical guitar, voice lessons, and composition is truly impressive, and it's exciting to hear about your plans for a church concert.
With your dedication and clear goals, I'm confident you'll make great strides in your guitar journey. We're here to support you in developing a clever and efficient practice routine. Feel free to share your progress and any questions you might have.
Best wishes on your musical endeavors!
Warm regards, Martin
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martin Thank you for the kind welcome!
I'm trying to find my way around, and I'm finding that I should start from an earlier level because still 'knowing' many things theoretically doesn't mean I can use these techniques fluently.
But I've already looked at a few lessons. e.g., the slurs. I've begun trying out and using that more, so I just had the idea of writing a few bars of guitar music using them.
It does not look very neat, in my opinion... anyway, if anyone would like to spare the time to listen and try to play and comment, that would be great. You can find this here:
https://musescore.com/user/8752261/scores/17276266?share=copy_link
I tried to keep the slurs where the notes are on the same string and where they might make sense.
Kind regards,
Eva
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Hey everyone, this is Scott from Raliegh. Joined up for some new repertoire and some help putting some structure into my practice time
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Scott Jordan …. Welcome! Perhaps we can play some live duets at some point. I live in Apex.
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Very nice, we should make that a goal.
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Hello everyone, I'm Alvair Bastos, from Brazil. I have been a guitarist since I was 6 years old and have been teaching guitar lessons here in the region for over a decade. I'm studying some pieces at the moment (Tango en Skai, Turégano and Madroños for example) to hold a Workshop here, and I'm looking forward to learning with all of you!! Instagram: @afb.guitar
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Just started here yesterday. I'm north of Atlanta, Georgia and love all food no matter where it is from. Currently working on my technique and building my repertoire. Specifically Andantino by both Carulli and Carcassi. Haven't picked my first song here, but am working through the Beginner course.
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Hi everyone
I'm Michael from Cheltenham, in the Cotswolds, England. I'm on a trial at the moment but am very impressed with my initial explorations around the site!
I've worked in mental health social work as a practitioner and now educator, and I originally took up the guitar about 25-30 years ago as something that wasn't connected with my day job! I initially took some group lessons and then progressed to individual lessons and studied the grades through to grade 7. An enormous gap followed, and I am now picking up the guitar once again and am just really enjoying playing again (which I didn't think I would be able to do after so many years).
Although for me now, the guitar is purely for pleasure, I would like a little structure again, especially when it come to practice (
) which I have always been pretty poor at! I also need to develop my sight reading skills, and I would love to play duets with someone at some time; probably well in the future!At the moment I am re-learning a bunch of pieces including some crossover Bossa Nova and jazz / easy listening pieces, as well as some Leo Brouwer and some grade pieces I did some years ago. I'm also learning a new piece for me - the Suite del Recuerdo by Jose Luis Merlin. I am just thoroughly enjoying whatever comes my way!
Best wishes, Michael
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Michael welcome! I am also a hobbyist, living in East Anglia. Maybe we can try a duo sometime.
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Carlo Martins Thanks Carlo; that would be great, once I fee like I can play again
! What are you working on at the moment? Hope the sun is shining in East Anglia? Tends to get extremely cloudy here in the West, but there is a sliver of sunshine at the moment so I'm off to pick up the guitar.... All the best, Michael
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Michael Hi Michael, I hope there will be some blue skies over the weekend here in Norwich. So far, cloudy as well. At the moment, I am picking up some pieces from level 7, others from level 8. But there are beautiful pieces from the previous levels as well, with potential to be crowd-pleasers. Trinity grade 5 has an interesting piece for 2 guitars, called 'El panuelo de Pepa', by Saumell, for example. I might have some other scores as well, arranged by my teacher from 30-plus years ago.
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Carlo Martins Hi Carlo... thanks for your reply. Grade 5 would work at the moment, after not having picked up the guitar for many years! I'll spend a few weeks getting back up to speed (hopefully!) and then perhaps we can do a zoom call or something like that (East Anglia / Cotswolds being a bit of a distance! Hope you're getting the much needed dose of Summer we seem to be having at the moment. I'll DM you with contact details.
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Michael I realised I didn't mention the food I like! It's generally anything Italian (being married to an Italian helps!).
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Hello everyone,
My name is Jos Durkstra and I live in Zwolle in the Netherlands.
I graduated from conservatory in 1986 for classical guitar and I teach privately since then.
Recently I released an album (cd and streaming) with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's "Platero and I, both the instrumental version and the narrated version (in Dutch...).
I am now working on a second album with 4 Caprichos de Goya (1, 12, 18 and 24), Variations through the centuries, yes I am a huge Tedesco fan, and Fantaisie Elegiaque by Sor.
I like Asian food the best and I have no particular Dutch favorite dish.
About Tonebase: I hope to find inspiration for myself and my students.
That's all for now.
You can find my albums here: www.josdurkstra.bandcamp.com and on all the regular streamingservices. (Warning for classical guitar purists: I also do other styles of music like Progressive rock and Berlin school electronics).
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Welkom Jos!
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Hello Classical Guitarists. I am Bobby Deveaux from Charleston, SC in the USA. Favorite food is probably Seafood...boils of crab legs, shrimp, corn, sausage, etc. I am older & play out at local open mics. I studied classical guitar privately for 2 years & at the College of Charleston for 2 years and then slowed down a bit as other life responsibilities took over. I am not your typical classical guitarist & that is ok with me. I am currently working on some Tarrega pieces, "Crazy On You" intro by Heart. My goal with this community is to add repertoire to my performances & integrate the classical style into my playing a bit more. I enjoy going to local bars, breweries, etc & performing & meeting people & discussing guitar & music.
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Bobby Deveaux Welcome to Tonebase Bobby!
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Hi All,
I'm from a small village on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia called Chezzetcook. My favorite food for as long as I can remember has been Lobster right out of the pot, any way is good but just a dip of butter and wow! Throw in some potato salad, a few silices of cucumber and tomato and Bob's your uncle. :)
I'm working on quite a few tunes at the moment, Fernando Sor OP 29 No. 17 (having a bit of trouble with the quick 3rds 16th note just before the end); Just started Barrios La Catedral (I.Preludio Saudade) I'm up to bar 30.
What I want to get out of tonebase is to clean up my technique, learn some songs that would work well for Mass music, I currently play for a choir (me a cantor and about 5 mixed voices) it's kind of fun. I am on the lookout for more material for filler during the Mass, I'm thinking a bit of improvisation on the hymns like professional organists do in Cathedrals. I have a few Bach pieces that work well Cello Suite D, and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. I also want to prepare for a concert for my community who seem to like old time fiddle music, bluegrass and country. I'll play my 5-string banjo to get their attention then touch their sole's with some classical, baroque or Romantic/Modern sounds.
Anyhow, nice to meet everyone and I'm looking forward to digging into this wonderful resource. Thanks for creating this platform!!
Cheers
Darren
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Darren_Richard
Hi Darren,
Welcome to the forum—it’s great to have you here! Chezzetcook sounds like a beautiful place, and your lobster feast description is making me hungry!
It’s awesome that you’re blending your classical guitar journey with your community and choir work; it sounds like you have a real passion for connecting with others through music.Sor Op. 29 No. 17 is a lovely piece, but those quick 3rds can definitely be tricky! A tip that might help is practicing those passages with rhythmic variation—slowing down certain notes and speeding others up slightly to train your fingers to move efficiently. Barrios' La Catedral is such a rewarding piece to work on; reaching bar 30 of the Preludio is no small feat—great work so far!
For Mass music, your idea of improvising on hymn themes sounds perfect. If you haven’t already, exploring some simple cadences or variations in different keys could give you a nice framework for improvising. David Russel's arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is my personal project for several years, but that's because I only practice it during winter!
The community concert sounds like it’s going to be a hit! Mixing in your 5-string banjo to draw in the crowd is such a clever idea. It’s a great way to balance accessibility with showcasing your classical chops.
Looking forward to seeing your progress and hearing more about your journey here. This community is all about supporting each other, so don’t hesitate to share questions, tips, or even some recordings!
Cheers,
MArtin
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Thanks Martin,
I'll try the dotted rhythmic variations on #17 for sure. I just tried a few cadence variations, feels like there is a potential for some good ideas and could unlock a new dimension of creativity for me! The tips are much appreciated and I'll keep at it.
I heard David Russell's arrangement, wow! All those voices, that is nice project, the version i do has mostly two voices and the odd chord here and there. You wouldn't know where i could purchase the arrangement? I suppose I could try and transcribe it for some ear training exercise but that seems like a lot of work for me right now.. lol
Thanks!!
Darren
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
