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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On to the second variation of the first etude...
What I found easy:
- the first line
- being expressive with the piece. It lends itself very well to dynamic interpretation.
What I found difficult:
- the left-hand fingerings that were written in. I had to make some modifications to execute well.
- m. 45 as written with the fingerings. This was the most challenging. I just couldn't get my fingers to cooperate with the fingerings that were written in, so I reconfigured that part.
- I also re-configured pretty much all the fingerings in mm 41-48, as well as mm 53-54 and m 58.
- getting one good clean take. I'm a perfectionist, and I can't tell you how many recordings it took to get it the way I wanted.
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Steve Pederson Good work, Steve! Your fingering seemed to work for you. You play very musically.
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Steve Pederson Well played Steve, the fingering changes certainly work
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Steve Pederson GREAT! You captured the mood of the piece, a little nostalgic but with a certain lightness to it! Really enjoyed this up-tempo performance (though it might a little faster then indicated by Sergio?), the D on the 5th string brings out a fantastic personal nuance there! Loved every second of it, it had a nice flow!
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Steve Pederson wow, clean and musical! Great interpretation Steve!
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Sketch V Day 2. Here it is after about one hour of practice. There is definitely improvement. The B section, while not an absolute disaster like yesterday, still needs work.
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Eric Phillips indeed what an improvement, especially in the B part... a lot is going there... bravo!
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Eric Phillips Beautifully played Eric! Well done!
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Blaise Laflamme Thank you, Blaise. Yes, that B section would be interesting to analyze more. Maybe we can ask the composer about it at the Watch Party!
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Ron Thank you, Ron.
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Eric Phillips man, that´s wonderfull!
I want to learn this one know 
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Daniel Beltrán Thanks so much, Daniel. I'd love to hear you play it.
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Eric Wohooooo! What an improvement! I‘ll try to remember to ask Sergio about the B-Section in the Watch Party next week! Great drama and phrasing in the b part!
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Hello guys, sorry for the late reply, I haven't got too much time to practice. But here I post my video of the 2nd Sketch by Sergio Assad. Huge thanks to Tonebase for commisioning this awesome etudes! Sorry for my concentration face
I will watch your videos know, guys! - One thing you found easy: Phrasing and shaping the melodic lines! It's more noticeable on the 3/4 part!
- One thing you found difficult: Mostly memorizing and executing well both parts (3/4 and 4/4) because of the motivic differences (don't know if those are the right terms...), there is a moment where I stop to remember the passage but with practice I'll get it right
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Daniel Beltrán Awesome playing, Daniel! What a challenging tempo! I would find this very difficult to memorize, trying to keep the subtle differences straight between the 3/4 and 4/4 sections. I really think this one could become a standard of our repertoire because not only does it teach great left hand finger independence, but it's also just plain beautiful.
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Daniel Beltrán great Daniel! I was not expecting this piece to be played as fast as you did... you did it well and clean... wow! Waiting for your next one
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Daniel Beltrán very smooth playing, good job Daniel!
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Daniel Wow, what a nice flow in the beginning and great tempo in the second part! How long have you worked on these? Great job!!!
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Eric Phillips Thanks, Eric! Yes, it requires practice to memorize well the differences between the 3/4 and 4/4 part. It's really beautiful indeed! I changed a little bit the fingerings to do some passages more legato. Would love to play this one and many other of the sketches in a future recital or exam!
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise! I like to play the second part with an "agitated" tempo. Hope to hear your recordings soon
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Khiem Nguyen Thanks, Khiem!
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Martin Many thanks, Martin! I think I began with this sketch on last week's monday. I was practicing it for less than an hour daily, I think, and the day before of this recording I praticed it with intensity haha (2-3 hours). But yeah, this sketch is difficult to get right on the first attemp!
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Hello, just finished the first sketch. I found the notes and tempo easy to play but it wasn’t so easy to memorize. I needed about half hour of practice for 5 days to complete the sketch. Hope to be able to learn faster the next sketch.
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Raul Guzman Vidal That's great, Raul! I would find this one very hard to memorize as the different variations are so similar, but with small differences. Regarding your pace of learning, I personally think consistency is far more important than speed when it comes to practicing, so good job! These pieces aren't going anywhere - we can practice them for the rest of our lives.
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Eric Phillips Definitely, I will need to take my time with the pieces. Thank you for the advice. I am looking forward to continue studying the rest of the sketches.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
