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! 
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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.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary I agree with Barney, excellent performance and you really showed great progress with this great Study. You really have a strong command of the arpeggio, just remember to relax a little as you descend down the fret board with those diminished chords. That may help you with those shifts. In any case, I am very impressed with the work you have done on this Study and it will serve you well into the future.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary That was great, Nijwm. What an improvement! you have such a relaxed command of the technique and a good interpretative sense. Your performance works wonderfully.
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Barney Thank you Barney, you're all so kind. I'm kind of aware of the harmonics section, although tbh, I have been neglecting those sections a bit as they were slowing me down for the challenge. But I'm slowly trying to build up the tempo for that sequence. Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it.
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Dale Needles Thank you Dale. Yeah, I'm still learning relaxation while building stamina at the same time. I tend to tense up and it's noticeable in my playing sometimes. Is it good technique that allows you to relax more or, is it relaxation that helps in playing with good technique, I wonder. I guess it's both ways.
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Jack Stewart Thank you very much, Jack.
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Here is my latest version of the Finale from Carlevaro's guitar sonata, Cronomias. I think I improved on it but still need to speed up the tempo a little. This is also a piece that takes time to mature and develop under one's fingers, so I hope to continue to work on the entire sonata over the next year so I can play the complete 15-minute piece from memory. In any case, I do plan to combine all the posts of the three movements into one continuous post on the Carlevaro Discussion Forum before the end of the month.
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Dale Needles Amazing Dale! This piece is hard enough to play with reading. How would you even approach trying to memorize it? It usually helps me if there is a "singable" melody... but I can't hear it for this . Is the trick through repetition-measure by measure to establish muscle memory?
Excellent performance. Bravo!!!
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Barney Thanks, Barney. As far as memorizing, I break it down into phrases and memorize them phrase by phrase. As you get into a modern piece like this, there are patterns that emerge which helps in memorization. In the past, I had memorized the first two movements, but have let them go a little and will need to revisit. As for the Finale, I have parts memorized and will continue working on it. However, I am going on an 8-week trip to Portugal and Spain, departing October 9th, so I will need to put off memorizing the whole piece until next year.
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Dale Needles Thanks for sharing this, Dale. The trip in October sounds wonderful. Enjoy!!
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Dale Needles This piece, and your performance of it, continues to amaze me. It is so challenging and quite lengthy which makes it even more difficult. Excellent work!
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Dale Needles Completely agree with Barney and Jack, wonderful performance! It sounds like such a challenging piece and you're memorizing it as well. I loved how you bring out such sonorous and interweaving harmonies beautifully.
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Dale Needles chapeau, Dale. Very good playing, really. As Barney mentioned, it must be very difficult to memorize, also to phrase a piece like this, but you really succeeded in making it sound logical and comprehensible. Although it is still quite complex and abstract. So, we need to give our ears some time to comprehend. Thank you so much for sharing your interpretation, it helps us to understand the composer Carlevaro.
Really an heroic project to perform the whole set.
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Jack Stewart Barney Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary joosje Thanks everyone for your support and comments. It has been almost one year since I first started working on the first movement of Cronomias back in the fall of 2023. I then worked on the second movement in the beginning of 2024 and finally, now the Finale. It is really one of those pieces that I believe needs at least one year to learn. I also found it was useful to intersperse other pieces in between the movements in order to not get too bogged down and have some variety. In any case, now for trying to memorize it and play it straight through. Not sure how long that will take but will begin focusing on that task when I return from my trip to Europe. As far as my focus on Carlevaro, it is my goal to study all his solo compositions, which amount to approximately 70 pieces (depending what and how you count his compositions). To date, I have worked on 50 pieces and have 20 more to go. However, these last 20 tend to be some of his most difficult, so we will see how far I get.
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I didn't get to preparing anything by Villa Lobos for this challenge, but I came across this arrangement of Girl from Ipanema by Duarte, which I guess is in the spirit of things. Duarte's arrangements remain some of the best classical renditions of this type of repertoire - his best can be found in the Gershwin, Porter and Kern songbook editions.
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Sam Greenblatt Very nice playing and song arrangement by Duarte of this classic. Fun to play, I'm sure. (book seems to be out of print...) Bravo Sam!
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Sam Greenblatt This was great, Sam. I didn't know Duarte made an arrangement of this. It is really nice and you played it wonderfully.
I actually just realized I had Duarte's Gershwin book buried away in my music 'archives'. I'll have to try some of those arrangements.
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Barney I just saw Duarte's book on Gershwin on Amazon for $16.
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Jack Stewart Thanks Jack! If you play any of the Gershwin arrangements I would start with "How Long Has This Been Going On", which turns out to be a decent left hand exercise in E major, great for a warm up! If just playing for fun, "Embraceable You" is good at as slow a pace as you can go. Or "Someone to Watch Over Me", which I once adapted so my wife could overlay the vocals.
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Jack Stewart Thanks Jack! I was actually looking for the book that had the Jobim tune but couldn't find it...
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Barney The book is called "Jazz and Popular Songs" - it has dated a lot more than the American Songbook collections, although the Jobim tune still sounds somewhat fresh.
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Sam Greenblatt Thanks Sam. That book title is the one I was searching for, and apparently no longer available. In any case, I'm glad you have it so you can share some of Duarte's versions with us. I always enjoy listening to your playing.
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Hello Everyone:
Here is my final version of the Choros No.1. It has been challenging playing this piece. Please let me know what you think of this version compared to the first one I posted for the challenge.
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Raul Guzman Vidal Bravo Raul! This is your best version so far. It's not an easy piece to play well. You have all the notes under your fingers. I suggest you now listen back closely with critical ears to determine areas you can improve - such as more consistent rhythm (maybe using a metronome to help smooth out some phrases), more dynamics, color contrasts, etc. You can select certain phrases to work on separately to perfect them, and so on... Keep going...excellent work!!
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Barney Thank you for the feedback. I will follow your advice as this a work in progress that could surely take me a few more months to keep improving.
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Raul Guzman Vidal This really good, Raul. You have made amazing progress!
I am sorry my response is so late, I don't k now how I missed this posting, but I am glad I did finally hear it. Your progress is inspiring ng - Thanks.
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