Week 4: Serenade Showcase
GREETINGS, ESTEEMED TONEBUDDIES!
Are you ready to embark on a musical journey through the enchanting realm of Villa-Lobos and his South-American roots? With the new release of Douglas Lora's Preludes this Friday and the whole Suite Populare Bresilienne with Fabio Zanon in the making, we are thrilled to present the revamped "Villa-Lobos Voyage Extravaganza," an extraordinary experience celebrating the works of Villa-Lobos and composers influenced by his heritage. Over the next four weeks, dive into captivating compositions, exploring the rich tapestry of sounds and rhythms.
WHEN 
- Challenge Start: Official Kick-Off on July 30th
- Challenge Duration: July 30th - August 30th
- Watch Party of Selected Submissions: September 9th
HOW TO BEGIN 
Select a Piece:
- Choose a mesmerizing piece from Villa-Lobos or a composer connected to his South-American heritage. Options include soulful Villa-Lobos compositions, rhythmic Brazilian-inspired works, or pieces by other artists inspired by South-American musical traditions.
- Choose a mesmerizing piece from Villa-Lobos or a composer connected to his South-American heritage. Options include soulful Villa-Lobos compositions, rhythmic Brazilian-inspired works, or pieces by other artists inspired by South-American musical traditions.
Practice and Share:
- Commit to regular practice and share your progress with the community. Aim for daily practice and upload at least two videos per week to showcase your musical voyage. This keeps you motivated and allows you to share your artistic journey with our tonebase family.
- Commit to regular practice and share your progress with the community. Aim for daily practice and upload at least two videos per week to showcase your musical voyage. This keeps you motivated and allows you to share your artistic journey with our tonebase family.
Submit Your Performance:
- Share your favorite performance or recording that captures the spirit of the "Villa-Lobos Voyage Challenge." Your submission will inspire others and create a vibrant collection of potential pieces for fellow members to explore.
- Share your favorite performance or recording that captures the spirit of the "Villa-Lobos Voyage Challenge." Your submission will inspire others and create a vibrant collection of potential pieces for fellow members to explore.
The heart of this challenge lies in exploring the rich cultural heritage of Villa-Lobos and his musical influences. So, pick a piece that intrigues you and embrace this journey with enthusiasm and curiosity. Together, let's celebrate the captivating sounds of Villa-Lobos and his Brazilian roots. Get ready to practice, learn, and immerse yourself in the Villa-Lobos Voyage Challenge! 
-
Here is the Finale, the third movement of Abel Carlevaro guitar sonata, Cronomias. This sonata was completed in 1971 and is one of Carlevaro most important works for solo guitar in my humble opinion. As I have mentioned before, Carlevaro studied with and was greatly influenced by Villa-Lobos. The Finale is the third movement of the sonata. I still need to work on smoothing out some rough edges and increasing the tempo in places. Nevertheless, I am relatively pleased with the progress to date, having worked on the Finale for only one month.
-
Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack. As I replied to Barney, it is coming along. With this extra week of the Challenge, I will try to polish it up some but won't try to record the entire piece (22 pages and 15 minutes long) for this Challenge. As it is, I now have recorded each movement separately. Recording the entire piece in one go will have to wait for another day.
-
Dale Needles Thanks for your response. It’s interesting how our life experiences color our music. And certainly the title tells us something about what Carlevaro was thinking.
-
-
Dear tonebuddies, as we have a lot of cross streams in the next two weeks, we are going to postpone the Watch Party to September 9th! Happy practicing!!
-
martin Good idea... can you add it to the live calendar?
-
Martin Hey Martin, I just noticed that the Watch Party has not been posted on the Live Calendar yet. Is it still scheduled for September 9?
-
-
VL Etude #5 Better .... but....
This is somewhat better, I think. Most of the rough spots have been ironed out (or at least glossed over), however there are still some annoying glitches.
Some ongoing problems I have yet to resolve:
I have not been able to separate the voices when the bass is prominent but the upper ostinato should be very soft. mm 5-6, 12-13, 31-33. and the repeated upper note mm 37 - 40.
Eliminating the 'squeakies' mm 17 - 20
navigating the E ½ dim7 (?) at the end of m 48 (to the f# dim (?) in mm 49.
Overall I still need to get a better sense of phrasing.
I just saw that Martin is going to make me practice this some more.
I think Tilman Hoppstock is my preferred interpretation of this piece.
-
Jack Stewart That was great, Jack. You started very strong and kept it up throughout, one of your best posts. Congrats
-
Jack Stewart ExcellentJack! It keeps getting better, Bravo!
You are playing this quite fast. (perhaps it is actually concert speed).. However, I'm thinking if you reduce speed very slightly, it may give you more control to attack some of the issues you mentioned, seem less rushed in some spots, and address phrasing more easily. Just my initial reaction...not a criticism.
-
Dale Needles Thanks Dale. I have been putting more time into this piece and hope to get a better recording now that I have an extra week.
-
Barney Thanks Barney. Thanks for your observations. I agree with your comments. I believe I was suffering from 'mission creep'. I was playing this piece slower with better results and I think I started playing faster insisting that it should be the same. I have been focussing on the rough spots with slow focussed practice and hope to record a cleaner version this week.
-
-
VL Etude #5 yet again
This is better. My voice separation is better but still needs improvement. Squeakies are still there - that's a hard one to get. Hopefully as I get more settled in playing this piece I will be able to concentrate on that. The chord shift at mm 48 to 49 is better but still not real clean.
Barney I thought I was playing this slower but I think it is still too fast for my current abilities.
I will probably have to live with this piece for a while before I can get the phrasing as I would like. I might make one more recording later this week with new strings but I am not sure that will happen.
-
Jack Stewart This is definitely better, Jack! Relax and enjoy it...it sounds great. If you change the strings, you may have frustration with tuning instability if you are rushing to record.
-
Jack Stewart Sounding really good. I agree this flows a little smoother than the previous version, although I must say, I like the tempo better in the previous. This is such a great study that I think you can live with it for some time, and it will only grow on you and get even better. I also think that this pairs well with the Brouwer Apunta that you play.
-
Barney Thanks Barney. I am taking a day off from working on it. If I can get a good performance at a bit faster tempo I'll post that, otherwise this will be my last post for this challenge.
-
Dale Needles Thanks Dale. I agree that this sounds better a bit faster. However, I still don't have the consistent control at a faster tempo. If I achieve that over the next couple of days I'll post a revision, otherwise this will conclude my efforts for this challenge.
-
Jack Stewart wonderful Jack. I so much enjoyed this interpretation, You have great control. It sounds very solid and and energetic. I used to play this study more soft and smooth, almost like a children’s song (motivated by the C major key and the simple melody in the opening section). But I’m totally convinced by the energy in your playing.
The chord changes and polyphonic passages are extremely complicated and the whole piece demands so much agility and strength especially in the left hand,. You managed all of that! Very well done.
-
joosje Thanks Joosjie. I think the first time I learned this (about a year ago) I played it pretty straight forward, pretty drab. I then heard Tilman Hoppstock's version and was blown away by what he did with it. The was my model for what I am trying to do here, though I am very far away from achieving that goal. I have gotten a bit better at separating the voices but I am not very consistent. But then ... that 's why we practice.
I am glad to hear from you. I hope you are doing well.
-
-
Posting another practice session on Prelude No 1.
I've been working on reducing the squeaks, and that's hard!I need to re-learn how to move my hand on the freetboard while lifting / placing the fingers perfectly perpendicularly to avoid the squeaks. Then how to keep the legatos and the melody fluid ?
I watched the recent lesson from Łukasz Kuropaczewski, "Practice Principles" and I am trying to apply his method of practicing slowly, with pauses , repeat 5 times each bar or difficult passage.For the recording I played with the filter on my cellphone, I thought that a retro look will be a good match for this piece :) . The sound and image are out of sync though, they are perfect on my phone, but when auto-uploaded to google photos are out of sync.
-
Calin Lupa Very nicely played, Calin. Loved the tone colour, sounds warm and mellow. HVL pieces are very squeak prone, especially at fast sections (at least for amateur players like me). I didn't perceive any issue in audio-video sync, it looks and sounds fine to me.
-
Calin Lupa Very beautiful performance, Calin! Nice expression --dynamics, color, rubato, etc. I really enjoyed it.
-
Calin Lupa Very well played! This Prelude really flows under your fingers and you have such a great tone for it. Congrats!
-
Calin Lupa This was excellent, Cailin. You have made a lot of improvement. Great work.
-
Thank you Barney Dale Needles Jack Stewart Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary for your kind comments, I fell like this is one of the pieces that I can work on for a lifetime to polish and change, as my techniques and understanding of the piece evolve... :)
-
-
Hi, everyone, hope everyone's well. This is my 4th attempt to play this piece with some minor improvements but also some major issues. I tried a higher tempo than previous attempts but ended up losing control over some sections (like the scale passage with slurs), plus the usual culprits like squeaks, missing notes. I did try to bring more dynamic variation, not entirely successfully. I'm also still trying to work out the harmonic balance as I think I couldn't bring out the higher notes properly. By the way, Dale Needles , I have done repeats on the diminished chords section :) this time.
-
Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary Excellent Nijwm! Best performance so far..
Just a suggestion about the harmonics at the very end of the piece-- I believe the sequence of harmonics should be played more quickly, if you can ;( try to start the sequence more quickly and "gradually" slow down the harmonics till the end.) Also, the very last harmonic of the piece should not have that long space between it and the previous note.
You are now in a refining stage, so you can concentrate on more details. Try to listen to some recordings of artists you like for ideas for interpretation. Great job!
-
