WEEK ONE: Uncharted Territory!
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the Sergio Assad Community Challenge, starting to discover this wonderfully intriguing set of etudes!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (← click)
- Watch the Kick-Off-Livestream on July 16th to get an overview!
- Download the scores for Assad's 10 Sketches here (← click)
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 the Sketch!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ Reply below with your assignments and questions! ↓
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Hi everyone, here is my 2nd take for Etude 1, part 1,2, and 3. I have not achieved resonable fluency with part 4, so there is no part 4 yet ^^
Things I found easy: the first 8 bars of each part are easy for me because it does not require much shifting of left hand fingers
Things I found difficult: the last 8 bars of each part, because the left hand shift rapidly and jumps rapidly :)
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Khiem Nguyen Very good Khiem - it's a simple but deceptive little melody and certainly requires good finger indepence!
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Khiem Nguyen Wonderul Khiem! Thank for your update!
Even a shift of only one bar can cause stress in your pectoral muscle! Since we need to execute that shift in bar 26-29 three times, we carefully need to anticipate the movement in our elbow in order to reduce stress in our upper body!
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Giuseppe Gasparini thanks Giuseppe! Ron thank you and that is true, it needs some proper thought out, careful fingering and a bit of practice to execute it fluently. I haven't achieved fluency yet with my take,; I need to practice more :) Look forward to seeing your video :)
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Martin thanks Martin, I will look carefully at the elbow and the shifting again. Wow, it needs a lot of time and patience! ^_^
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Khiem Nguyen great work and you're right, the bass line is not as easy as it looks like
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Khiem Nguyen you‘re doing a great job and we‘re excited to see your progress!
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Blaise Laflamme yes, it needs to be practiced more to get the shift legato (I haven't achieved it yet with 30 minutes practicing). Martin , thank you, I will keep on the diligence :)
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And we're off!
What I found easy: loving this piece! It's simple and yet complex at the same time. I especially love the harmonic structure. It seems very promising.
What I found difficult:- Remembering to start with my 2nd finger on C!
- Deciding which RH fingers to use
- At first I wasn't sure if I should keep the notes separate, so I attempted playing it without letting one note ring into the next. Then I watched Sergio play it again, and noticed that he let the notes ring out together. That was a relief. Made it easier to play, and it sounds prettier that way as well.
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Steve Pederson Good job, Steve, and welcome to the challenge. Yes, it does sound better to let the notes ring into each other. It’s like a melody and arpeggios at the same time.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric, and that's a great point! I never thought of it that way before.
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Steve Pederson Bravo!!!
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Steve Pederson Well done Steve - yes it does sound much richer letting the notes ring.
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Steve Pederson Bravo! I enjoyed your thought process as well and I came to the same conclusion! Having some of the notes ring together does make perfect sense, and seeing the composer doing so himself is a great and valuable observation!
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Steve Pederson very clear sound, really nice Steve! :)
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Steve Pederson very good start, sounds clear and welcome to the challenge!
- Remembering to start with my 2nd finger on C!
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Today, I'm posting an updated version of Sketch I after having practiced it for a day.
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Eric Phillips Bravo!! good job
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Giuseppe Gasparini Thank you, Giuseppe!
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Eric Phillips Woop Woop! So much better, really enjoyed your performance, especially that continuation from bar 24 to bar 25 was beautiful!
I especially liked your improvement on the last part of the Sketch!
And I hope you have a great day as well! 
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Martin Thanks so much, Martin!
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Eric Phillips Hi Eric, that is an improvement compared to yesterday. That's really nice! :)
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Khiem Nguyen Thank you, Khiem!
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Eric Phillips yeah... sounds clear and stable... always amazing to hear you progress through the days.
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise.
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Eric Phillips Beautiful work! Inspiring me to finish the rest of the etude!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
