Week 3: Show your Flowers! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the third week of the "Music YOU Love" practice challenge!
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↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Sor - Minuet Op 11 No 4 (Feb 20)
For this update, I tried to play it very gently and sensitively. I also tried to make my slurs cleaner and clearer (especially the pull-offs). I flubbed a few, but there is some improvement, I think, from last time.
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Eric Phillips Wow, very nice and impressive Eric. I feel that the interpretation (gentle and sensitive) has significantly improved in this take. I guess that when you can remember the piece and after you ironed out most of the technical challenges it opens the door to just let your heart control the flow of the piece. This is the magic of music.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
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Eric Phillips If your goal is a gentle and sensitive interpretation, you achieved it! This sounds so nice, Eric, the contrasts, timbre, tone... Bravo, my friend, thank you so much for sharing with us!
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Moyses Lopes Thank you for such kind words, my friend!
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Hello All,
I did not reply very much on the great videos posted as I was very busy. However I took the time to listen to all of them and was so impressed by your skills and abilities.
Thank you all for sharing your progress. this is always a great source of inspiration and motivation.
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Ok, well it is my turn now. I am still working on the piece ''greensleeves''
So far I have worked and improved on the intro portion. There is still a lot of work before I can say I am in control but It is getting much better. This is what's important.
Here is the take 2 of the intro.
The piece also have 3 verse sections of 2 lines each.
Over the last week, I added in my practice the line 1 and 2 of the first verse.
I made a separate video for the intro and both lines because, at this point, my progress and speed are different on each section.
This week, I will keep working on these 3 parts and start working on the verse 3 as it looks easier than the verse 2.
I hope to be able to post again my progress before the end of the challenge.
Bye
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Andre Bernier Good work, Andre. It's always best to break the music up into workable chunks. It keeps our practice organized, focused, and can give us a greater sense of accomplishment. It's something I need to do more often, so thanks for the reminder.
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Andre Bernier Great start, Andre. As you get more familiar with playing this piece, you'll want to try to bring the melody out. This is just something to be aware of as you get more adept at playing this piece. I like that you are approaching it in sections. Great job.
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Good progress Andre Bernier !
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Posting here as well, I am late to the game.
Speaking of the music we love, this is the first piece I attempted to learn on guitar, many years ago, I still practice it regularly. Still needs work at many levels. More legato on the second part and a better ponticello sound , more consistent overall sound quality, less squeaking, more rubato, accelerando and vibratto .
I am using tirando here on the melody line , I'll do another recording with apoyando.
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Calin Lupa Beautiful, Calin! This is my father's favorite piece - any time I play for him, he has to hear it! I liked your use of rubato, vibrato, and variation in tone color. The rather repetitive texture and pattern of the music really needs to have some variety added, and you are definitely achieving that.
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Calin Lupa Nicely done Calin. Thanks a lot for sharing this immortal piece.
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Calin Lupa This was wonderful, Calin. Beautifully played.
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Thank you for your kind comments Eric , Andre and Jack.
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Calin Lupa I totally agree with Eric. You bring a lot to this piece and make it sound new and interesting which is really impressive for a standard like this. Bravo.
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Sor - Minuets Op 11 No 4 and 5 (Feb 22 update)
I am now playing number 4 from memory. When I am not recording, I feel very relaxed and expressive playing it. Naturally, I did not feel that way on this recording. It's amazing how much I can get into my head.
Number 5 is now up to the speed I want, but I am very inconsistent with measure 10 still. On the recording, I hit it okay the first time through, but I botched it up on the repeat. I am also trying to play less heavily and with more dynamic contrast.
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Eric Phillips Both of these are really wonderful. Major improvements! Each is played with confidence and musicality. The #4 has a very pensive quality that is effectively conveyed with dynamics, phrasing and rubato. It is excellent!
#5 has really come alive in this version. It is much lighter and playful.
Great performances.
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Jack Stewart Thank you, Jack, for such kind encouragement!
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Eric Phillips +1 to Jack's comment , beautifully played ! I hear you regarding the recording time. I also find that it's such a joy killer! It's hard to stop thoughts of worry of making mistakes or self doubt that are popping spontaneously :(.
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Eric Phillips great progress Eric. In no.4 you seem to take a slower pulse suddenly in m 5, then going back to the original tempo. Also at several moments in the B part. A little bit beyond rubato. I do like the slow overall tempo.
No.5 is so lovely and lively. You manage these parallel 3rds really well. You could experiment with softer basses and, why not, articulation in that bass part....
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joosje Thank you, Joosje. Listening back, I did notice the wrong tempo in m 5, and now I’m playing it more correctly. It’s funny how I miss things like that when I’m playing it. I will watch the rubato in the B section as well, and try to keep it under control more.
And you are very correct about the basses in number 5. I have tried to work on articulating with my thumb, and I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. I can generally stop bass notes from ringing where they don’t belong (at a slow tempo), but actually articulating them at a quicker tempo has always eluded me. That would have to be a long term project. Maybe I can use some of this piece as an exercise in doing just that, but starting at a much slower tempo. It’s one of the many gaps in my technique.
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Eric Phillips Really love to hear you playing Sor's music, the sound of your playing sounds mellower recently, have you made any target practice on tone production? Recently I found a guitar on Youtube that I think would be 100% suitable for you, even the guitar name was called Sor, you can see it in this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ShoNTU6HKE&ab_channel=AltamiraGuitars
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Wai Thank you, Wai. I have not done any target practice on tone production, but I am very happy to hear that you think I have improved my sound! That would have to be the number one priority in our technique, it seems to me.
I have seen this guitar from Altamira, and I'd kill for one. Well, maybe not kill, but at least injure. What I'd kill for is the ability to play it like TY Zhang does in the video!
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I love the title..haha. I have no flower but a seed to share.
Clair De Lune - James Edwards arrangement.
- I did made some changes to it.
Happy with overall progress but still couldn’t get some of the harmonics righ. There are certain passages which I did a lot of spot practices on but still didn’t get it to flow. Kept thinking ok, I’m approaching that said passage and i know how to deal with it now. Cue said passage and same mistake plus added tension.
Might have to re-think my practice approach.
Thanks again for the wonderful challenge and though the challenge has ended but I will definitely continue to work on this.
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don That's really good, Don. Such a beautiful piece of music and this is probably the best arrangement I've heard of it.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
