Week 1 - Technical Foundation // May 3
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the virtuosity challenge! This is the place to discuss the Week 1 livestream and post your Week 1 practice updates.
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
Download the sheet music: in this first week, we will be working with materials from my right-hand technique workshop. Download them here:
Right-hand exercise book (<- click)
See the pinned post below for a specific practice guide featuring all the exercises we talked about during today's livestream!
Since this challenge is all about virtuosity, video updates are more highly encouraged than usual. Feel free to upload the video in the reply OR simply link to your YouTube video.
YouTube video submissions CAN be unlisted. Just make sure they're not set on "private", so we can actually see them.
If you want to describe your process, feel free to use the following template.
- Exercise(s) you have been working on:
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
↓ Reply below with your submissions and questions! ↓
-
Exercises I've been working on: all that you gave us.
Things you found easy: playing them were fairly easy with rest strokes and planting fingers.
Things you found hard: playing with metronome and keeping the right tempo.
-
Mircea thanks Mircea good advice! Will try playing with different volumes on m,a fingers.
-
Vilio Celli Awesome!
-
-
Hi, I'm really enjoying this workout and nice to have a fresh warm-up to work with.
- Exercise(s) you have been working on: Everything
- Things you found easy: Everything when slow :-)
- Things you found difficult: Everything when fast :-) But seriously the planting seems ok on the exercises but in songs that I already know it's hard to place the plants even though it does help the playing - so it's correcting the memory muscles is the problem.
On the scales I've been doing those exercises 'ma' as well in order to gain the same ability as my 'im' fingering.
Hopefully I will get time tomorrow to upload a video of some things I've been working on
Kind Regards,
Dennis
-
Dennis Greensmith very good job, Dennis! I'd love to see your video at some point! Great idea to practice the rest stroke stuff with m, a, too! That's quite a bit harder than i, m. If you feel like it, you can also practice i, a as an intermediate step - most people find it easier than m, a, but harder than i, m.
-
Here’s a video of just arpeggio exercises. Hopefully I can upload a rest stroke update soon.
-
Andrew Bravo!!!
-
Andrew Bracken thank you for posting this update, and great job on everything!
It's all sounding great! - 1A: Love the movement of your fingers right there from the big joint! You've got the most well-developed one of all the updates I've seen so far. For the next step, try to use even less arm movement to achieve the same volume - sometimes, we have leftover movement from back before we started practicing certain exercises and it can be quite hard to get rid of it. With that good "into the palm" movement you got, you don't need help from the arm at all at this tempo. (You will if you practice faster repeated chords, though.)
- The other arpeggio exercises were so good, too!
- 4E: Great job on the preparation and everything! Just one tiny little detail: on the initial p, i formulas at the beginning of the pattern, they are not perfectly even, rhythmically. They sound a bit like "p,i - p,i - p,i - p,i" instead of "p - i - p - i - p - i" etc. This is a small detail, but it's important to keep an eye on it to prevent future bad habits.
Wonderful job on everything once again!
-
Andrew Bracken well done!! congratulations!!
-
-
Hi all, exercises 2B, 4E, 3C and a little of 5B.
I have problem with the "prep" in general. But I will continue trying.
And with the reststroke problems with coordination and speed; also is difficult for me to descend with i, specially with different rythm for exemple bar 43 (in 5B).
Thanks!
-
Nora Torres-Nagel Brava!!
-
Nora Torres-Nagel great job on everything!
It's sounding really good, especially when you do the exercises without preparation. Congratulations on sticking with it and practicing all these exercises even when they're hard! Two points I'd like to make here - make sure you've read my long reply to your other post before reading this one though:
- Every time you play a note with m, the a that is prepared on a higher string leaves the string. Make sure that doesn't happen, otherwise the preparation won't help - it will just add unnecessary movement.
- To make this easier, what I think needs to change is the position of your palm. Here, I'm going to give you the same advice I gave to Eric . Experiment with holding your palm further down (towards the floor in front of you, not only towards the guitar body), so the a finger can play easier without needing to leave the string and go back to it later.
Check out this video I had made for Eric here - you don't have exactly the same issue, but experimenting with the position of your palm is what will allow you to prepare without requiring the a finger to leave the string every time m plays.
-
Mircea very good point Mircea, I have looked at my video again and I see clearly what you have remarked. Also I have in arpegios "immer wieder" the problem, that I touch the neighbor string with my nail, I hate that and I know is a problem of the angle and position of my hand (in tremolo with the nail of my thumb ...horrible! a pain in the neck). I continue practicing this point
-
-
Does anyone know the exact fingering for 3A and 3B? Is the b open second string or 4th finger 3rd string? I’ve been doing both since I wasn’t sure but the latter is harder so maybe it’s that one?
I tried to go back and watch the video but keep getting an error.-
Debbie I would say the B is open string, this is the typical pattern for a chromatic scale from G to G. But nothing prevents you to do both, you'll just cover more options!
-
Blaise Laflamme thanks Blaise. That was my intuition as well, just wanted to be sure. Indeed, both can’t hurt!
-
Debbie Hi Debbie on Mirceas original workshop the b is on the 3rd string - fingerings is (1) 3210 (2) 4321 (3) 43210
-
Derek perfect Derek! Thank you!
-
Debbie Hi Debbie! Yes, Derek is right - that's what I do. Thank you Derek!
Blaise Laflamme , that is correct, most people would play the B as an open string - however, if you are trying to avoid indirect string changes (m to i going from a higher to a lower string), the only pattern that will allow that in this particular scale is to start with i on the high G, and then play the B on the 3rd string.
When you play this exercise with doubled or quadrupled notes, that suddenly doesn't matter - the note repetition will ensure you always end up with direct string changes. However, for the last scale in the exercise (the simple chromatic one), that's where B on the 3rd string is easier.
-
-
- Exercise(s) you have been working on:Arpeggio 1C-2A-2B
- Things you found easy: no comment
- Things you found difficult : Running after the metronome and the noise in the changes
-
Giuseppe Gasparini wooww congratulations Giuseppe! This is sounding so great!
Right-hand wise, the only thing I can really say is... wonderful job!!! Nothing else for me to say here at all. Congratulations!
Super tiny detail: in your left hand, I see you sometimes take the thumb away from the fretboard while you're staying in position with a given chord. I wonder why that is - it's not affecting you in a negative way rigth now, but it is unnecessary movement, so it might be worth trying to get rid of it.
-
Mircea Hi Mircea, thanks for the comment, the left thumb detaches it to release tension, is that wrong?
-
Giuseppe Gasparini it's not wrong! I was just curious why you were doing it. I think it might be possible to play without it (basically, being relaxed and strong enough to not require that help), but if it's helping you release some tension right now, don't stop doing it!
-
Mircea and @ everybody first of all thank you for correcting me as much as you can, you will have to fast fwd in places, also I taped myself in 2 positions for some exercises. Apologies and thank you!
The easiest thing after a week of daily practice is still the preparation, it feels very natural to me
The most difficult: left hand seems to slow me down more in the arpeggios, while the right hand seems to slow me down more in the scales. In the apoyando scales I still produce a noise, just when my finger touches de string (bzz) to plug and kill the previous note....
-
Emma Such a beautiful tone and position overall, and such great preparation - this is amazing, Emma! Congratulations on this! And thank you for posting the whole thing! Very very cool.
One small left-hand comment: when you play chords, make sure to not pull the strings down - otherwise you will sound out of tune even if your guitar is in tune. Especially in the higher positions where there is less string tension. (Look at the 3rd string at 6:32, for example.)
Right-hand wise, incredible work on all the arpeggio exercises! It looks so relaxed on the Villa-Lobos - just great! But great job on everything in general.
5B: great job on everything, especially your tone! I actually can't hear the buzz you were telling me about at all - I think it's not something to worry about at this stage. The faster and louder you get, the less audible that will become.
-
Emma Really good job! I am especially impressed in Lobos - preparation here don't want to work for me and this is the most difficult exercise for me of all (muscle memory from the past - I think)... Congratulation!
Since I lost the nail of my a finger, I had to radically shorten the remaining fingernails, and I am very poor at this stage of the challenge.
-
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
