Week 3: Italy in 19th !
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of the "Around the 19th Century Guitar World" challenge!
Italy was the birthplace of many great classical guitar virtuosos, although many of them found success outside of the Italian peninsula. Paganini was arguably one of the greatest violinists of all time, but was also a very talented guitarist and performed regularly with Legnani. Regondi, technically from Switzerland, followed in the Italian style of composition and was also a gifted multi-instrumentalist.
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Sorry for my insisting on the capriccios. I just thought at least one of us should try to post the famous No. 7, Hannah introduced to us.
Please forget about the ‘prestissimo’. I’m learning the piece, not yet performing
I had to put on new strings up yesterday. D-string broke, didn’t happen to me for a long time - changed the whole set, Now used my Knobloch (Leo Brouwers choice?) , they are a bit on the bright side for my taste. Feel is also a bit different. Less flexible than I’m used to.
and, being new, they are noisy with shifting!-
joosje Amazing! People often say I learn new pieces fast, but this is ridiculous, Joosje! The main section already sounds quite solid, just needs to be a bit faster. Great job!
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joosje I agree with Eric, Joosje - great job! (I had the same thought as you - try at least to learn this one, since Hannah had mentioned it. But i was so far from ‘prestissimo’ that I soon got discouraged …)
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joosje I will add my voice to the praise, Joosje. I am amazed how quickly you picked this up and at such a polished level of performance. You are in Eric's league of learning new pieces.
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Eric Phillips David Krupka Jack Stewart Thank you for your kind words. Actually this is a fun piece to work on. (Apart from the speed) it is technically not as crazy as it looks. And yes, Eric is an inspiration, showing us how you can work to discover all those new pieces, even within the short time of these challenges. Thank you Eric.
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joosje There is nothing better than starting a day with 3 beautiful guitar pieces (and a cup of coffee
). Thank you for sharing. 
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joosje Great work on this one and also # 2; they are sounding very good already and are not so easy. I also posted my current status of #2 as well and needs plenty of time and work to get in shape. I really enjoyed listening to all your performances of this composer and hope there will be more instruction on Tonebase of other Caprices in the set.
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Legnani - Capricci 22 and 27 updates
I have continued to work on these. The progress is slow, but at least it hasn't stopped!
- No 22 - The challenge is still all the barre chords and making it legato.
- No 27 - I'm trying to play it a touch faster, making it more "capricious" and playful perhaps. Measures 33-36 are difficult. I watched Tariq Harb play it and he uses a hinge barre, so that's what I'm trying to do. I find it very hard to get the barre set just right at this tempo, since precise barre placement is crucial to making the correct notes ring.
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Eric Phillips Both of these sound even better than your previous postings. There are still areas to smooth out but your grasp of the music and required technique are very good.
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Eric Phillips Nice job on these Eric! It's amazing how Legnani puts so much musical material, including drama and humor in such short pieces. I'm enjoying watching your beautiful playing of these pieces. Thanks for posting so many of them.
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Eric Phillips I admire the steady progress you are making with these. You are showing the way. i love the way you are bringing out the dramatic character in nr 22 and the tone is so steady and legato, not easy in this key. I really liked also the way you separate the sections and at the same time build the connection between them., in both pieces.
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joosje Thank you, Joosje. If I'm really doing that last thing you kindly wrote, I was not even aware.
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This composer is new for me, so it needs more time and practice to clean up some areas, memorize, and get up to performance speed. I'm glad Tonebase exposed his works to me. They are not easy, but very guitaristic.
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Barney Very good, Barney. Even in a piece that is a work in progress you still manage to make it sound vibrant and convincing.
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Jack Stewart Thanks Jack! The process is fun!
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Barney That's beautiful, Barney. At first, I thought your playing tempo was the performance speed until I searched this piece on youtube...wow, that was fast!!
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Barney what a great start with this one. I’m glad you chose it too. And you sound so beautiful, (as usual!) I agree this tempo is not bad as a starting point, and also think the crazy tempo you often hear on YouTube doesn’t do much good to the playful, singing character. But maybe others here have a different opinion on that.
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Wai Thanks Wai! I agree about the performance speed. Not sure I want it too much faster though , as it will lose some lyrical qualities(IMHO).
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joosje Thanks Joosje! I agree with your opinion about the tempo.. Perhaps it's better to refine and master the playing and musical qualities rather than worry about the tempo as much, although I would like to increase it a bit. It looks like a composer to explore further.
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Barney Love it, Barney! You give nice contrast to the different sections.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric!
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Giuliani Op.113 Fughetta 1st half - very rough
I find this Fughetta by Giuliani to be a very nice Romantic Fugue (well, fughetta as the title says). I intended to post it during the Vienna week which was more appropriate. However, I grossly miscalculated how difficult it is for me. This is my best (?) take of the first half of this piece. I hope to have it by the end of the challenge.
Next week? Oh wow! Not sure, maybe?
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Jack Stewart Wow, it really sounds difficult, but I saw two good boys dancing to the music behind you, so I think you did a good job on this one, Jack.
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Jack Stewart that’s great playing Jack. Thank you for bringing this one out. To be honest, I had it on my stand at the beginning of this challenge, but didn’t dare , it’s so difficult, for me, to grab and hold these incredible dissonants. But they make this piece so fascinating. Keep us with you when you move on .
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Jack Stewart Nice work on this so far Jack. Not so easy to keep those lines flowing so keep going man!!! Bravo!
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Jack Stewart Very nice. I'm not familiar with that piece and never would have guessed it was Giuliani. He's full of surprises. I was noodling around with the score and that's tough. Congrats on the progress.
The dogs are a nice training tool to work on focus, lol. It's like they know when you're trying to record something. My two goldens make an appearance on a tonebase zoom recording being the hams that they are.
Again, nice going.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
