WEEK 3: Heavenly Harmonies of J.S.Bach! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the third week of the J.S.Bach Challenge! This is the place to post submissions of the third week!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
If you want to describe your process (optional), feel free to use the following template.
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ Reply below with your submissions and questions! ↓
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Hello Bach Buddies!
Here is my final recording to finish off this magnificent piece. I spent this last week learning the last third of the piece and polishing up the first two sections. There are a few glitches here and there but it's a pretty accurate representation of my progress after the three weeks. A few more slow methodical repetitions of some sections here and there and I should have been able to avoid the glitches but such is the joy of the classical guitar
This challenge meant a lot to me to be able to take a deep dive into working on one piece. I appreciated Sanel Redzic's lesson here on Tonebase. So many great insights. I learned a lot and have the feeling that if I could only play Bach for the rest of my life I'd be content. To me his music is the closest thing to the sublime intelligence and the soul of the universe. I look forward to adding more Bach to my repertoire. I was happy to take this challenge with all of you and look forward to hearing you all play at the watch party!
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Debbie great sound!!! As if you were playing it in a cathedral. What are you using for the recording? Beautifully played …
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Eric Phillips thank you Eric! You are too kind!
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joosje thank you Joosje! Sorry I misunderstood. That was a suggestion in Sanel Redzic’s lesson about the echo. Made perfect sense to me so I did my best to implement it.
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Olli thank you Olli!
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Emma thanks Emma! I have two Rode N5T pencil microphones. I bought omni adaptors for them so that I can record in A/B which is a wider spread than ORTF. Although the negative of that is that it picks up more outside sound but I think it sounds richer. So I cross my fingers and hope the dogs don’t bark during a good take
Then in my DAW I do a bit of eq and compression and bus in a little reverb. I’ve made a recording template for solo guitar so all I have to do is open a new file to record and I’m ready to play! -
Debbie Brava!! Bravíssima! Great performance, thank you!
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Debbie a great peformance and sound Bebbie....thanks for sharing!
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OK Here is my video for Week 3. Better than week 1 but still not where I want it. I've got it memorized but still have memory lapses here and there. The middle part is still pretty rough but getting better. These vidoes also point out that I need to keep my fingers from flying off the neck. Time for technique drills I think.
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matt Really well-played, Matt. It's great to hear this music on the guitar. Good job!
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matt Great playing, Matt. It’s such a beautiful prelude. Difficult, but you’re making impressive progress.
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matt bravo Matt !!
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matt great progress after three weeks Matt! Sounds great. I totally understand about the memory lapses.
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matt Great, Matt! It's sounding really nice, thank you!
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matt super Matt !!! only 3 weeks and already in your head even with some lags...already an achievement!!!!! congratulations...adelante!!!
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matt Your expression after you finished is priceless! I think that's how we all feel from time to time - like, man, why is this so difficult, or why did I mess up on that one note that I always get right in rehearsal? I thought it was really great, though!
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Steve Pederson Haha. Yes exactly. When the camera starts recording the fingers stop working correctly. I was going to cut the video before then but left it in for humor. Thanks for watching all the way to the end!
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Prelude BWV 997 (The Whole Thing!) Mar 27
Well, this is a bit of a milestone - I'm playing the whole thing in one sitting for the first time here. Plenty of mistakes, but I got through it.
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Eric Phillips great job Eric. It’s worth the effort. You will play this prelude for a long time, as we all do keep these wonderful Bach preludes in our repertoire. Getting better and better.
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joosje Thank you, Joosje. I'm not used to having such long-term projects. This piece is teaching me patience.
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Eric Phillips great attempt for the first time through Eric. This is one of my favorite pieces and on my “to do” list. Great to hear you play it.
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Eric Phillips I admire your dedication, commitment and perseverance with this piece Eric. It's paying off!
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Minuets I and II from BWV 1008 (Mar 27)
Here's a new one for me. This is from the 2nd Cello Suite, transcribed by Brian Roberts. The tempo is a little slow, but it still sounds fairly good.
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Eric Phillips Fantastic! I'm glad you gave these a try. It was interesting to hear something from the second cello suite. Some very cool harmonies in that arrangement!
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Eric Phillips Beautiful execution! Thank you for sharing, it's sounding really nice!
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Moyses Lopes Thank you, Moyses.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
