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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Here is take 2 for Carlevaro's Vidalita - Sol del Mayo. Not sure I play it any better, but I hope the sound is better.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric. Also, enjoying your Sor' posting. You clearly have Sor down and they are sounding very good. I also have seen several posts in which you mention not using the apoyando stroke. That is interesting. Not sure you are aware, but Carlevaro also did not use the traditional apoyando stroke. He has some very interesting and innovative ideas around a variety of different strokes that he uses which he describes in his School of Guitar book. Might be something to check out.
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Barney Thanks Barney. It is a very beautiful early piece by Carlevaro, and I like your suggestion of using vibrato for some of those thirds. I think Carlevaro would agree, but probably only on the final third of the measure. BTW, Carlevaro has a great section on Vibratos in his "School of Guitar" book. Glad you like Carlevaro's book, "My Guitar & My World." It offers a wonderful insight into Carlevaro, the artist. Regarding your question about the need to study his technique with a qualified teacher, I would say that in the past it was essential, and clearly it is helpful, but with all the excellent online materials as well as his book, School of Guitar, I think a serious guitarist can still get a lot out of studying his technique without the direct aid of qualified teacher. Also, you might want to check out the new Carlevaro Discussion Group on Tonebase. We hope this will be a place to discuss his ideas, share our experiences and explore his fabulous compositions. BTW, I love your posts. You do such a great job interpreting the great Spanish composers of the early 20th Century.
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Steve Price Thanks Steve. I agree that even with his early pieces that are connected with more folkloric forms and traditional rhythms, he always infuses them with something interesting. I know you have explored some of these early pieces and it would be great if you could post some of them in the Carlevaro Discussion forum in the "Composition" thread. Finally, I liked your recent post of the Navaez piece. Very nice!
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Dale Needles Thanks Dale! I appreciate your advice and insight into this technique.
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Dale Needles Also Dale... I am concerned , as Alfredo said, that if the movements are not done properly for the exercises, it may cause more harm than good... I will explore it further.
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Barney Hi Barney, well of course Alfredo is right up to a point, however, I do believe that Carlevaro's book, "School of Guitar" is an excellent guide to help a guitarist explore Carlevaro's technique. Also, check out Carlevaro's YT Masterclass Video. It is also a good introduction. I believe that the return is greater than the risk. In any case, your question and concern would be a good topic for discussion for the Carlevaro Discussion Group Forum under the Technique thread. Maybe, you could post something there and we can see what Blaise and Moyes say who both studied with students of Carlevaro as well as others who are new to Carlevaro.
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Dale Needles Good idea Dale! I will check into these things. Thanks!
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Dale Needles Great recording and performance of this piece, Dale.
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Jack Stewart Thanks!
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Dale Needles A very musical performance, Dale. Lovely phrasing and contrasting dynamics. This is a new piece for me. Thanks for sharing!
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Dale Needles great interpretation! Vidalita is a sad popular rhythm from Argentina, and you played in a beautiful way. As for Barney's question about studying Carlevaro's nowadays, I totally agree with you. Thanks for sharing!
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Moyses Lopes Thanks! While not very well known, Carlevaro was such a master at writing simple little pieces using popular rhythms and folkloric forms, such as the Vidalita, Milonga and Tango.
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Sor - Minuets Op 11 No 4 and 5 (Feb 24 update)
On number 4, hopefully my rhythm is a little better (thank you to joosje ). Last time, for whatever reason, I lost the pulse in measure 5, and I think it's a little better here. I also tried to rein in the rubato in the B section, but I am not certain that I was successful.
Other than having it memorized, I don't really think there is any improvement on number 5 this time. I tried to lower the volume of the basses. Articulation on the bass notes would be nice, but I really have no idea how to achieve it without someone to teach me. Whenever I try, I can't even do it at a ridiculously slow tempo, so I must be going about it in the wrong way.
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Eric Phillips Really nice work, Eric. Number 5 was one of the first pieces of Sor's I really loved. I've tried to play it off and on over the years, but it's so deceptively difficult and so hard for me to get clean. I really enjoyed this.
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Steve Price Thanks, Steve. Yeah, number five is harder than it sounds. The fast passages in thirds, the active bass lines, and even the opening appoggiatura with the pinky and ring finger, all combine to make it pretty challenging. It’s still not where I’d like it to be, but I’m getting there.
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Eric Phillips I found a copy of nr. 5 and tried it again and nope, I'm not there yet without a lot of work, lol.
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Eric Phillips Another great posting of these minuets, Eric.
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Eric Phillips Beautiful performance Eric! Great phrasing, dynamics, and articulation!
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Marilyn Blodget Thank you, Marilyn!
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Here's a take on the complete set of the "other" variations Narvaez wrote for Guardame Las Vacas.
I've been super busy recently, so getting away to this little project has been really a pleasure. I finished transcribing the third one which is a little unusual. The only thing I changed on this one was the key so the different voices colliding and intermingling for a measure is all Narvaez. It's a really interesting effect that will take some more time to pull off cleanly so both voices are clear. I'm really glad I chose to keep them as a stand-alone set since they have such a different "minor" character than the more familiar"major" set.
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Steve Price That’s wonderful, Steve! I really like the flavor of this music. (I know that sounds weird, but I can’t think of a better word to describe it.)
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Eric Phillips I find music sometimes hard to talk about so I think "flavor" is perfectly apt.
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Steve Price Hey Steve, I love this piece, and really like what you did with it!
Have you ever listened to the version that Alirio Diaz recorded? It contains a nice mix as well.
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Barney Thanks a lot, Barney. I'm a huge Diaz fan and it was actually hearing his version that got me interested and his score I started learning. I ended up being really close to what Diaz did, but it was still interesting to go back to the source material from 1538. I like how he plays them together, but once I started looking at the scores I ended up seeing more and more how different the two sets were.
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Steve Price very nice Steve. It works well as a stand alone set. i really like the way you play these variations.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
