Week 2: Ballads and Barcarolles 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of "Song and Dance" practice challenge!
Choose a piece that is inspired or transcribed from a song or a dance. It could be a lively south-american danza, a passionate tango, a serene romantic lied, or a poignant aria transcribed for the guitar. You're welcome to explore pieces from unfamiliar composers or challenge yourself with a complex work.
Commit to daily practice and share your journey with the community. Aim to practice every day and upload at least two videos each week to illustrate your progress. This will not only help you stay committed and encouraged but will also allow you to share your musical voyage with our tonebase family.
Share your favorite piece or recording that embodies the theme of "Song and Dance." Your submission will serve as an inspiration to others and create a vibrant pool of potential pieces for other members to delve into.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Lob Der Tranen
I’ve managed to work on section 2.
Again splitting them into 2 sections to work on.
Section A,
Some minor mistakes here and there but generally have the fingerings down and should be better with practice.
Section B,
Cannot memorize the music yet and keep mixing up the right hand fingerings. Need more spot practice.
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don Nice Don! I have never heard of this piece before. Great to see/hear you diving into it.
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Am I alone or all YT videos in posts are not showing up today? martin
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Eric Phillips hmm... weird... all of them are like that... probably related to my provider attacking YT!
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Eric Phillips Oh... everything's back now... Woohoo!!
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I kept working daily on my piece for about a week now and it is progressing nicely.
Now I can play it completely without the score and I was able to increase the speed to 90 bpm which is getting close to the 100 bpm I would like to be able to reach.
Here is my recording of last night. Still a lot of polishing to do but I am happy of the progress.
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Andre Bernier very nice progress Andre!
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Andre Bernier Wow, Andre. Your progress is really impressive. you have it firmly under your fingers and your playing was very smooth.
I think you could work on greater use of dynamics. Your playing is very soft. That might be improved by moving the mic closer to the guitar or upping the gain (Martin and/or Blaise would be much more competent at addressing those ideas than me.)
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Andre Bernier That's a lovely piece and well-played. It always feels like such a win once I get to the point where I don't need the score. Very nice.
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Andre Bernier I remember playing this piece soooo many years ago! Thanks for sharing it
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Jack Stewart Andre Bernier sure the mic position or gain could help, hard to say without knowing more about Andre's gear and setup?
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Jack Stewart , Blaise Laflamme , Steve Price , Marilyn Blodget
Thanks all for your supporting comments.
For the recording, I am only using my Pixel 7 phone that I put right on the table at arm length.
My recording would certainly benefit from a better set-up but I have no clue where to start, what to buy and make everything work together and generate a synchronized audio and video file. If you have suggestions I am more than open to listen
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Andre Bernier thanks for sharing! It is progressing very nicely. Will definitely get more fluid once you past the metronome stage.
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Andre Bernier All I use is my iPhone 11 Pro Max , a tripod with an attachment to hold the phone, and a remote control shutter linked to my phone.
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don Thanks Don for your support.... always appreciated
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Marilyn Blodget
I also have a tripod and a remote control shutter. I don't use it all the time but this time I think that this is the sound of the metronome from my computer located just beside the recording phone that messes up the recording audio. I will try another recording without the metronome and see if I can produce a better video.
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Andre Bernier you are really making great progress with this piece. As for recording I can’t help. I have only the most basic experience and no knowledge. You could try earphones on the metronome (if you have it on your phone), so you don’t hear the sound in your recording.
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joosje thanks for your support Joosje. This is very much appreciated. I tried a short recording tonight replacing the sound on the metronome by screen flash and this improved a lot the recording. I will try to post another recording later this weekend.
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Andre Bernier Great work, Andre, and looking forward to your next post!
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Andre Bernier Way to go Andre! Thanks for posting your progress on this. That's what it's all about here. Congratulations on the progress you've made so far!
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I found a CD of Johann Kasper Mertz's shorter pieces which includes some real gems. I didn't know much about him aside from his Elegie and some parts of the Bardenklänge which are well above my grade so this was a nice find. This is one of his Ländler, which from what I understand. is a precursor of the waltz. I need to clean it up a bit, but it's coming together.
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Steve Price this is sounding great Steve, there is so beautiful and interesting music from Mertz.
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Steve Price Really nice, Steve. You have picked this up really quickly.
The opening 2 chords immediately reminded me of 'Deep River Blues' by Doc Watson (at least that is who I heard play it). Nothing else is similar but that recollection was really strong for me - which goes back maybe 50 years (OUCH!)
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise. He really does have some interesting pieces. He wasn't shy about experimenting a bit seems and it makes it really fun to go through.
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@Jack Stewart That's funny, Jack. I wasn't familiar with that Doc Watson piece, but I looked it up and I can totally hear it. I guess it speaks to the universality of music. Travis-picking Mertz? We'll see.
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Steve Price Thanks for sharing and it is already sound really nice. I was trying to discover more of Mertz's music and I agree some of his shorter pieces are reallly nice. I was recently hooked on one of his shorter piece Nocturne No. 2, Op. 4.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
