Week 4: "The most fearsome beasts are tamed with a gentle melody."
Welcome to the Main Thread for the last week of "Monsters of Nylon" practice challenge!
Select a "Monster of Nylon" or a piece that you have been trying to solve for a longer period of time. The choice is yours!
Commit to regular practice and share your progress with the community. Strive to practice daily and upload at least two videos per week to showcase your musical voyage. This not only keeps you motivated but also allows you to share your artistic journey with our tonebase family.
Share your favorite performance or recording that captures the spirit of the "Monsters of Nylon" Challenge. Your submission will inspire others and create a vibrant collection of potential pieces for fellow members to explore.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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It sure has been a quiet few weeks on the Monster of Nylon Challenge. In any case, I am really pleased that I participated in it and that in doing so, was motivated to begin learning Abel Carlevaro's great guitar sonata, Cronomias. During the past three weeks, I focused on the first movement of this 14-minute piece and while I am relatively pleased with the progress, I know it still has a long way to go. A couple of the challenges in learning this piece were integrating the changing tempos and interpreting Carlevaro's musical language. Additionally, I have also been a bit busy getting ready for a two-month trip to the UK and Ireland, which I depart tomorrow, October 3rd and return November 28th. So here is my last post of the challenge and I look forward to everyone's feedback.
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Dale Needles Amazing! Dale! This is such a challenging piece (Monster of Nylon Indeed) and you have really taken it in, both technically and musically. Your phrasing and dynamics make beautiful sense of this complicated and challenging piece. Great job!
I hope you and Suzanne have a great UK trip. 2 month is quite a trip. Nu and I were 'fried' when we got back fro just 1 month. I also hope your flights fair better than ours. My bag was lost (for 3 days) going over and on our return we had 2 delayed flights which kept us traveling for 25 hours. But we still had a great time. I am now confronted with trying to learn how to play the guitar again.
You have a more solid foundation than I do so hopefully 2 months won't be as debilitating musically as 1 month was for me.We should get together after your return (and recovery) to share stories.
BTW nice travel 'do'.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack. It was a good undertaking and I really enjoyed working on this first movement. Let's see how I feel when I return but I hope to tackle the other two movements in 2024. Glad you and Nu had a great trip even with some of the traveling obstacles. We have already had our flights changed six times since we booked six months ago but now are all set to depart on Tuesday and arrive in Edinburgh on Wednesday evening. Look forward to seeing you and Nu when we return and share our travel adventures. And, I am sure the guitar will come back quickly for you, muscle memory is pretty amazing.
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Dale Needles Congratulations. Very clear and well performed. I think it must be difficult to really get the language , the phrases and remembering the piece since it , at least for me, seems difficult to sing the melody. Have a nice journey.. in search of your roots ?
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Dale Needles Sounds amazing Dale! Wow, this looks very tricky with those changing tempos and rhythms. This piece certainly requires a guitarist with your level of training and musicianship to perform as well as you have. Thanks for meeting this difficult challenge and sharing with us!
Have a wonderful trip Dale!
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Dale Needles Wow! You’ve really gotten this one into your fingers. You play with real intention and directionality. These challenges get us to dive into waters that have looked inviting from the shore. Once we’ve jumped in, it’s easier to return to a familiar place. I hope you have a wonderful time on your travels!
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Dale Needles beautiful! that was such an intriguing and inspiring adventure of yours. Really impressive to see and hear how you got from the first takes to this convincing interpretation of the complete first part. I think you get close to what Maestro Carlevaro had in mind. I’m looking forward to your diving into the remaining movements over the coming months. But first, relax and enjoy your journey.
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joosje Marilyn Blodget Lars Kjøller-Hansen Barney Thanks for all your supportive comments. It was an excellent journey going through this first movement Cronomias, finding my way through all the changing tempos and Carlevaro's complex musical language. Now on to my journey through Scotland from beautiful and actually sunny Edinburgh (or at least sunny for a few hours today).
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How exciting! Have a memorable, meaningful, marvelous trip!
Dale Needles
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Dale Needles Bravo Dale, what an interesting piece of music and again you shine at bringing it to life. I can't wait to hear the whole Sonata and this will be a great addition to our Carlevaro group! I hope you enjoy your trip and stay safe, more Carlevaro to come!!
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Fantasia que contrahaze la harpa en la manera de Ludovico
Wow, it's already the fourth week of this month's challenge. I tried to record another take yesterday, but it seems that two weeks of practice didn't bring me much improvement. This time, I attempted to use the 'p on downbeat & i on upbeat' technique to play those fast passages. Playing with the p-i technique felt like learning this piece from scratch, which is why I didn't see much improvement in the other parts.
The faster second half is still hit or miss for me; I couldn't play it smoothly without any hiccups. However, I can now play it from start to finish without any major stops. This piece is truly a challenge for me; I think I need more time to conquer it.
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Wai Bravo, Wai. That was very nice and I could tell that you really connect with this piece. Very musical!
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Wai That was really great, Wai. Your improvement is quite evident. You have an impressive grasp of this piece and very close to having it fully under control. Great job!
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Dale Needles Thank you, Dale! After the Bach's piece (the unfinished business challenge) and this one, I have to tune down the difficulty and playing some easier tunes. I started practicing Microestudios No.16 this week, hope I can share with you soon.
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Jack Stewart Thank you, Jack! I think I need a few more months if I want to play it really fluently, but I have sidetracked by another tune right now, hope that I will pick this piece up again in the future and be able to take a more polished take.
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Wai Good progress and pleasant to listen to. As with all monsters, except in fairy tales (and unfortunately in wars) there are no cunning tricks to conquer them, only patience and hard work.
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Wai Nice playing and sound on this great Fantasia X. It is one of my favorites from that era.
When I recorded my interpretation on tonebase (using Alirio Diaz transcription), I did not use the capo and was wondering whether it was "violating" standard period practice. Tonebuddies advice was either way was acceptable based on the research. When I listened back to Alirio Diaz recording, he did in fact use the capo, as you have. The special sound created with capo in the raised register is wonderful. Keep up the great work!
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Wai Very well played Wai! Just imagine— you have joined the group of guitarists who have enjoyed playing this beautiful music now for almost 500 years. You’ve returned to the birthplace of our instrument.
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Wai thank you so much for posting this incredible piece. The word monster doesn’t feel connected in my view, but I’m stil happy you chose to commit it it here. It’s a pleasure for the ear. Such nice sound and natural rhythmic flow. Bravo.
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Barney Thanks, Barney! I was using the one I found on IMPLS(Tres libros de música en cifra para vihuela (Mudarra, Alonso) - IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download). One of the reasons I used the capo was to make those stretches more forgivable, plus I really like the higher register when playing early music on the guitar.
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Marilyn Blodget Thanks, Marilyn. The most amazing thing is we can share all the beautiful guitar music online from all over the world. What a time to be alive!
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joosje Thank you, joosje. I love to hear this piece being played on a harp, hope you also like it:
fantasia X "que contrahaze la harpa en la manera de Ludovico" by Mudarra • pedal harp • Cara Dawson - YouTube -
Wai I totally agree!
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Wai Bravo Wai, that's for sure a piece you'll keep in your repertoire for years to come!
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I got a very late start to this challenge, so only submitting the 3rd movement of this Torroba masterpiece.
