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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Hello everybody, I gave the first Sketch a try and - Spoiler alert - failed miserably in the 4th section of the 1st Sketch, but I'll continue working on that one!
- Things you found easy: Shaping and phrasing the line as the Simple Notes can't hide their harmonic direction!
- Things you found difficult: Adding the brazilian flavour the the 4th part and especially performing it! While the first 3 sections are repetitive and the way their patterns are built, the 4th really needs attention for fingering in order not to stumble! A wolf in sheep's clothing!
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José Espírito Santo it‘s so fascinating to see how Sergio develops this last part from such a simple! But I need to work on it a little more over the weekend
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Peter thank you, Peter!
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José Espírito I‘m excited to hear your version of it!
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Martin Martin
Thanks, Martin. Still struggling with it but I improved a lot and I found this sketch as something very useful. Because I like it a lot, it pushes me to practice more and more…
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Here's my first stab at Sketch I.
Things I found easy: The harmonic structure of this melody is so clear that phrasing is not a mystery at all.
Things I found difficult: Two things.
1. The left hand fingering in measure 45 I find very difficult, which probably means I need to work on it. I took the easy way out for this recording and re-fingered it.
2. I did not work out any right hand fingering at all, but just went with whatever came naturally. Section 4, in particular. would benefit from more careful planning.
So now I can either work on these details or move on. Not sure what I'll do!
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Eric Phillips I decided to work on the trouble spots. Here's a quick video of my improvement on the left hand in measure 45. (In the video I say measure 44, but it's 45 ... oops.)
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Eric Phillips And now here is measures 81-84 after some practice. This time I'm concentrating on the right hand. Assad included some RH fingerings, but I wrote them all down and practiced the phrase.
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Eric Phillips very thorough work, Eric! Keep up the good work! :)
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Khiem Nguyen Thank you, Khiem.
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Eric Phillips Eric this great I think I will write the fingerings in too as I've tripped over several times. Well done! Thanks for reminding me to focus on trouble spots too!
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Ron To be honest, I almost never work out RH fingerings (I'm ashamed to say). I noticed by watching the videos how much more stable my right hand was after working out the fingering and practicing them.
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Eric Phillips Thank you so much for your detailed update, this is a great to follow and super valuable for fellow community challengers!
Bar 45! Opposing Motion! Damn hard! I feel your hand would benefit from keeping the 3rd finger on the d until you play the c. By that, you do two movements at the same time and reducing motion in opposite directions!
Bar 81-84! Love your fingering, I'll probably copy that!
It's so nice to hear you explain what you're doing!
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Martin Thanks, Martin! I'm having lots of fun with this.
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Eric Phillips here's what I cam up with...
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Steve Pederson Wow! Thanks for making that video. Like you, I re-fingered it at first and was practicing it with the new fingering. Then I looked at the fingering Assad wrote and said to myself, "Here's a fingering I find challenging, and this thing we're doing is called a challenge, so why don't I just work on the difficult fingering?" I suppose if I were preparing for a performance I might go with something else, and I like your thought process around your choices a lot. What you played certainly sounds good and looks secure.
For such a "simple" piece it sure is complicated, isn't it? I love the complexity though, and thanks so much for sharing your thoughts.
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Eric Phillips yes, complicated in a beautiful way. And, I love your attitude - this IS a challenge. Let's rise to the challenge!
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Steve Pederson Wow! So cool, super inspiring to see your thought process and that you took the time to create a video reply for Eric Phillips ! You put it beautifully in words, first of all we have that fingering that Sergio put out there for us and we need to analyze the intention behind a certain finger combination. But of course, all of us have our own hands and and we need to come up with possibilities to convey they music in our way! Again, so inspiring to see and thank you so much for putting together a 6:45 video about that!
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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 work, Khiem! It's a simple melody, but it requires quite a bit of dexterity, doesn't it?
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Eric Phillips thank you, I totally agree with you Eric! It requires a lot of finger independance! Stretching in the first position is not always easy since the frets are broadest :)
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Khiem Nguyen Yes, why didn't he write this in 7th position!
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Eric Phillips haha, good question Eric. I think it is because the basses are in the 6th string, first position anyway (and can't be moved to the 7th frets). At the same time, it is also nice to practice stretching horizontally, isn't it? :)
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Khiem Nguyen I was only kidding, Khiem. I just wanted it to be easier!
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Eric Phillips Lol, okay Eric, I was thinking you were kidding also! :P
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Khiem Nguyen Bravo!!!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
