Week 5: The Guitar Awakens

Hello tonebuddies! 🎶

A long time ago, in a practice room far, far away... you picked up a piece. You were excited. You cracked it open, worked through the first page, maybe the second — and then something happened. Life struck back. A new piece caught your eye. The fingering felt impossible. The score quietly migrated to the bottom of a stack where it's been sitting ever since. 🎸

This May, we're bringing back the Unfinished Business Challenge — and we're kicking things off on May the 4th, because what better day to summon the Force and finally finish what you started? Every guitarist has an abandoned piece (or three). This is your chance to rescue one from the Sarlacc pit of your music folder and bring it home.

This challenge is open to all levels. Whether you left off at bar 8 or bar 80, whether it's a Bach fugue or a beginner study that got away — if there's a piece waiting for its return, it belongs here.


🌟 The Challenge

Revisit a composition you started but never finished — and this time, see it through. It might be:

  • 🎯 A piece you abandoned because it felt too hard
  • 🎯 Something you got halfway through before a new obsession took over
  • 🎯 A passage or section you never quite nailed
  • 🎯 A piece you learned years ago but never polished or performed

Share the story of why it got left behind and what it means to finally complete it. That's half the magic of this challenge.


📅 Challenge Dates

Start: May 4
End: June 12
Watch Party: June 12


🎥 How to Participate

  1. Pick your piece – Choose the piece (or section) that's been haunting you. The one you've been avoiding. That's the one.
  2. Share your goal – Post in the forum thread and tell us what you're finishing and why it got abandoned in the first place.
  3. Post your progress – Share updates along the way — rough takes, slow-tempo run-throughs, the gnarly passage you finally cracked.
  4. Engage with your fellow rebels – Cheer each other on, leave constructive feedback, and celebrate every piece that makes it across the finish line.

Bonus points: Share a recording of your favorite performance of the piece you're revisiting — the version that first made you fall in love with it.


🎬 Watch Party — June 12

The Watch Party on June 12 will feature recorded submissions from everyone who completed their Unfinished Business. Make sure to submit your final performance videos so we can celebrate your finished piece together! 🎉


💡 Need a Little Help from a Jedi Master?

If the reason you left the piece unfinished is still giving you trouble, tonebase is full of lessons, masterclasses, and courses from world-class guitarists ready to help you through the tricky parts. Search for the piece, the composer, or the technique — chances are, there's a Master ready to help.


May the 4th be with you, tonebuddies. Let's finish what we started. 🎸⚔️

60 replies

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    • Eric
    • 2 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Standchen (final version?)

      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Bravo Eric, you've polished it to such a beautiful level. I'd be very happy if It was me.😊

    • Dale_Needles
    • 2 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Here is Abel Carlevaro's Microestudios No. 19.  I have really grown to love this study and while it still can use a little work, it is coming along nicely. 

      • Retired
      • Lars_KjollerHansen
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Wow it does not look easy - but your are doing so well. 
      ‘What an achievement to work though all these studies. What is next? - after Carlevaro? —and are there places in the Spanish /Portuguese area where you have not been.

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Excellent, Dale. This is probably my favorite study that you have played. You really bring out the contrapuntal and harmonic complexity. It is remarkable what Carlevaro has created with some very simple elements. That is what really attracts me to this piece.

      Great work. Bravo!

      • Dale_Needles
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Lars. After I work on No. 20, not sure what will be next. I still have 15 more Carlevaro compositions left to learn from his body of solo works, although I may work on another composer as well, maybe Ponce's Folias, Lauro's Suite Venezolano or Piazzolla's Maria de Buenas Aires Suite. We will see. As for Spain and Portugal, been throughout both countries but still plenty left to see. In Portugal I would like to spend more time in Alentejo and in Spain in Aragon. 

      • Dale_Needles
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Jack. Glad you like this study, definitely one of my favorites as well. This week I will focus on No. 20 with the hope to post by Thursday. We will see. 

      • Barney
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       This is a really nice one, Dale.  Excellent playing!  Lots going on in the left hand.   Was this study meant to practice a particular technique or combination of skills? 

      • Dale_Needles
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Barney.  In addition to be very musical, this study mixes both left and right techniques., for the left hand in shifting chordal positions and in executing slurs/trills and for the right hand bringing our the two voices in the contrapuntal sections. 

      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Great work,, Dale. Wow, so you've played all the 19 studies and only one more to go! Congratulations on your progress and looking forward to hearing the 20th.

      • Dale_Needles
      • 13 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Shukriya.

Content aside

  • 10 days agoLast active
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