Week 5: The Guitar Awakens

Steve Price I really loved it, Steve. Yeah, the tempo and pulse sounds great, very fluent with your fingers and nice flow to the music. I also like Blaise's advice on using interpretation right from the start. Alas, I also forget this advice when I start on a piece, overcome by my eagerness to get the notes in my fingers and then,  having to think about interpretation and expression only later by which time muscle memory builds up. 

But you played very well, perhaps a few more versions before the challenge deadline ends?

Steve Price Excellent performance Steve!   Speed is perfect. I agree with the advice from Blaise and Dale and would add that "listening" to yourself closely  during the process (assuming the notes are already well established under your fingers) is key to shaping  the piece and adding the dynamics and color you want. The balance between melody and accompaniment is very good with nice execution by your RH Thumb.  Bravo!

Barney Dale Needles Lars Kjøller-Hansen Thanks a lot, everyone. I appreciate it. 

Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary Thanks so much. I know what you're saying about eagerness. A new piece is like a shiny new toy, and I get excited and forget about the things I should be doing. This challenge has been a great experience to see how much a methodical approach can help, so I think, or at least hope, that I'll be able to stick to it in the future.

Steve Price Excellent performance.  As for learning the interpretative right from the start, that is something I am just realizing/learning at my early stages.  I find it hard to do this when there are so many other things to think about, like note accuracy, keeping good form in the hands, and so on.  All will come in good time.  Just need to develop the habit of also dealing with interpretation at the beginning rather than later.

Jim King Thanks, Jim. I agree it's hard to do from the start. I get overwhelmed with so much to work on. One thing that has helped me in this challenge is learning smaller sections at a time. I used to try to learn a whole A or B section, but now I've been working on just a phrase at a time or even a measure in the case of difficult passages. I think this approach might help when adding interpretive elements as well. Thanks again for checking it out. 

Steve Price That is what I have been instructed to do, break it down to small segments (such as a phrase or a few measures or a single measure as appropriate) and make the interpretive elements part of that learning.  I think I have hesitated because I don't always trust my initial interpretation compared to more experienced instructors.  Nevertheless, I plan to give it a try in my next few pieces and see if it is easier to change my interpretation later, if needed, or just learn the interpretation later.  I expect it will be the former rather than the latter.  

Steve Price Wow! This is really impressive, Steve. 
Great tempo which you handle really well. Very fluid and expressive performance.

It has been very interesting reading the discussion on learning a new piece and interpretation, especially considering how undisciplined I am in learning a new piece.🙄