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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Pavanas por la D - Gaspar Sanz
Hi everyone, I would like to share another Gaspar Sanz's piece with you all. This time, I decided to create my own arrangement instead of using the original tablature (since it wasn't playable as written). It took me the first week of the challenge to come up with this arrangement and I was planning to record it in the second week. Unfortunately, I caught Covid (first time, not too severe luckily) and had to spend 3 days in bed. But I finally tested negative this morning and managed to record this before running out of energy again.
I tried to stay true to the original as much as possible, just placing some notes an octave lower (to act as bass notes) or higher (to maintain the voice-leading), with no artificial flavoring added. The most challenging part was definitely the campanelas passages. I know it's impossible to fully recreate the sound of a baroque guitar on a modern classical guitar, but I still wanted to try playing it on mine and hoped that my version at least makes some sense and is enjoyable to listen to. I hope you find it interesting!
By the way, Wiki said, "Pavanas" (Pavane) refers to a type of dance, so it seems like this piece fits with the theme of this month's challenge, doesn't it?
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Wai Very nice. Well played and very nice arrangement!
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Wai Fantastic job Wai! It's nice to hear a little different interpretation than what I'm used to, and I think just about anything Sanz wrote can be considered a dance!
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Wai very interesting version of this Pavana, and the campanella section is unexpected, bravo!
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Wai That's a great version of this. The campanella section really adds something to it in my opinion. Well done.
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Wai Glad you made a quick recovery. This is great! I've not heard the original before but this sounds really good.
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Eric Phillips Thank you, Eric. If covid could give me a better performance, I wonder what flu would bring me, better try it next time.
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David Krupka Thank you for pointing me in the right direction, David! Your generous sharing of knowledge made it possible for me to create this arrangement. Thank you so much!
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Jack Stewart Dale Needles Steve Pederson Blaise Laflamme Steve Price don Thank you, everyone!
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HVL - Valsa-Choro (final version)
Sorry I've been away from the forum for a few days. Life was getting in the way
. After I post a couple videos, I will go through and try to catch up on what I've missed.Nothing new to say about this one, really. I opted to play it ABCA and not ABACA as written. Fewer opportunities to make mistakes, I suppose!
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Eric Phillips Nicely performed, Eric! Personally, I prefer it with all the repeats. I guess I just really like the 'A' section. And for the record, I like the 'C' section too - and, for that matter, the 'B' section! I think it's altogether a great piece - there's something mesmerizing about it, I find. Well done!
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Eric Phillips This is wonderful performance, Eric. I like this 'truncated' version and, for my taste at least, I think it enhances the 'C' section.
I think my problem is I tend to be impatient with pieces that I find too ponderous for too long. Probably why I shy away from the longer Romantic pieces. I can only sigh for so long - then I got to boogie.
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Eric Phillips great Eric, I'm impressed by how fast you learned and improved over it, and your performance is beautiful! Just take care of mesure 10, in the middle voice it's a F#.
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Blaise Laflamme You are correct, Blaise, thank you for your keen ears and eyes! I will have to re-program my muscle memory.
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Eric Phillips well... it's mostly because I've read through it last week and when you plucked the chord I was like... hmmm... looks like I misread it... that was my initial reaction
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Blaise Laflamme No, I’m am the guilty offender! Thanks again for catching it.
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Eric Phillips No offense here... a friend long time ago used to say (from his former teacher) that in that case you rewrite for a better experience!
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Eric Phillips Such a lovely piece and performance Eric. I'm really digging it!
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Eric Phillips wonderful as usual. This sounds great as it is. My teacher was telling me that HVL often doesn't always follow his own repeats when he performs too.
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Joanambrosio Dalza - Piva
After playing the pavana by Dalza in week one, I promised I would try to work on the other dances from the "suite". Well, the saltarello and piva that Dalza put together with the pavana I played were just too difficult for me. Here is a piva from another "suite" that is in the same key, but is within my capabilities at this point on the instrument. I am playing it slower than a piva should be played. My most common mistake on the lute is playing the wrong bass string with the right hand, and I do that several times in this recording. The close spacing of the courses on the lute is very challenging for me.
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Eric Phillips Very nice, Eric! Perhaps (as you say) a little under tempo, but you manage to capture the character of the form nonetheless. This is (from a playing perspective) my favourite of Dalza's little suites.
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Eric Phillips Another impressive performance on your lute, Eric. Sometimes I struggle to not touch adjacent strings w/ my LH fingers, I can't imagine dealing with the close spacing of a lute.
Great job.
I have never heard of a Piva. I wonder if Dalza ever composed a Salsa?
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Jack Stewart Red or green salsa? Maybe a nice peach chutney?
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Eric Phillips never heard of Piva before... looks like you have Aquila red strings in the basses?
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Blaise Laflamme They are the ones that came on the instrument when it was shipped. It came with a spare pack, so I assume they are Roosebeck strings (in the pic below). I dread the day I feel compelled to change them, as there are so many, and the pegs are friction pegs (no gears). I hate changing guitar strings, but I will definitely hate changing lute strings even more!
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Eric Phillips I'm with you, Eric. I generally change them one at a time, and only when absolutely necessary. Luckily, the lower strings (from 7 down) don't need to be changed very often, since they are so rarely stopped with the left hand. (A dealer who has Paul O'dette as a client told me (a few years ago) that the bass strings on Paul's theorbo hadn't been changed since the 1980s!) Have you had to replace any frets yet? That's another task I hate, although it can't be avoided!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
