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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Today, I'm posting an updated version of Sketch I after having practiced it for a day.
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Steve Pederson I’d love to hear the rest!
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So here is my first take on Sketch II.
What was easy: Like Sketch I, the phrasing is so crystal clear that there is no guesswork.
What was difficult: A couple things.
- In order to sustain notes correctly (especially those sustained over the measure lines), great care of left hand fingering is needed.
- The accents are not easy for me. Assad says to do them with rest stroke. I can't do this right now without a lot of work, so I'm just doing a fuller free stroke. Still, I am very inconsistent. The accents on the second page are particularly difficult for me to execute well.
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Eric Phillips Gosh, I'm having difficulting keeping up with all your submissions! I can tell you've honed sketch 1 - excllent and I love sketch 2 and the way you phrase and acccent it - well done!
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Ron Thank you, Ron. I appreciate your willingness to listen to some of this stuff I do. I look forward to hearing you play!
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Eric Phillips Bravo! You are taking us on a wonderful journey here!
I am also absolutely not a fan of a-apoyando, so I will probably end up doing the same thing as you if I can keep up with your update routine!
Oooh, I loved how you felt that glissando!!!
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Martin Thanks, Martin. That glissando sounds like I’m still doing the Tarrega challenge. Assad played a much shorter fermata on the high B, but I honestly like to hold it longer (plus that gives me more time to prepare for what's next
). Fermatas are our friends! -
Eric Phillips you're doing great with the voices here... I almost never do restroke, possibly frestroke
, but I prefer to manage the voices independently with volume or timbre. -
Eric Phillips Hahah, Sergisco Tarregassad vibes going on there!
*immashowmyselfout* -
Martin You make me laugh!
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Sketch II Day 2
What was easy: Hitting the record button on my iPhone.
What was difficult: I have pretty much given up on doing the accents on page 2. I really have no idea how to pull those off, distinguishing between the pairs of notes with only the second one accented. When I listen to Assad play it, I don't hear it much either, so that makes me feel better! Page 2 is supposed to be "agitado", but I'm not sure my playing sounds too agitated (except for all the mistakes I made).
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Eric Phillips very fluent! Bravo Eric!
I can't achieve such a fluency in sketch II as you do yet, maybe my technique is limiting me! :)
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Khiem Nguyen Thank you, Khiem. I listened to your recording of it below, and I think you're doing great. What matters is progress, which unfortunately always comes slower than we want.
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Eric Phillips thank you Eric. I think I should put more hours on repeating the exercise before I can see a better fluency :)
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Eric Phillips Khiem is right, this sounds very more fluid and secure... good job!
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise. This one is really growing on me. It's really beautiful, but also an amazing exercise in left hand finger independence. To me, it's like an updated Sor Op 35 No 17.
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Eric Phillips Awesome stuff! I try to play those accents like I'd play the development parts in "Introduction et Caprice" by Regondi with a more Cuban pima-approach, here's a video for you!
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Martin Thanks you so much, Martin! It sounds really good that way. I will give that a try and get back to you (probably not until tomorrow as I'm spending the day with my family today).
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Eric Phillips I've been working on this a bit. I must admit, I do not find this right hand pattern very natural, and this would take a lot of work for me (which is not a bad thing!). One follow up question: how do you achieve making the 3rd note in the pattern shorter? Are you planting with the subsequent a finger to do it?
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Thank you Martin. Here is "Sketch 1", my first post (ever-and in this forum
) of me, playing guitar. - Things I found easy: get inspired by this challenge-love the compositions. (And also the lessons about how to actually compose music, and improvise).
- Things I found difficult: fingering (in some places). And most of all - actually record and post something in this forum! I played guitar as a child, and restarted as an adult taking classical guitar lessons a couple of years ago.
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Jenny Welcome, Jenny, and congratulations on your first post! It was great! You have a very natural sense of phrasing and musicality. Good work!
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Jenny Beautifully done! And welcome to the Community, we are glad to have you and look forward to many more awesome submissions from you
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Jenny Thank you so much for your first submission! Super excited to have you for this challenge, there are much more Sketches to discover for you
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Jenny beautiful, clean tone, Jenny! :)
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Jenny welcome to the challenge and to the community! you're doing great, you sound very comfortable and secure, I hope you'll submit more sketches!
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Jenny wonderful job! You could've fooled me that you just started taking lessons a couple years ago. This was fantastic!
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
