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! ↓
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I distilled the practice down to 4 minutes by taking snippets of the recording. The exercise I'm doing is titled in either lower left or lower right of the video. I hope this is a good format for submitting the exercises. I was scratching my head a bit as to how to do it so that it wouldn't be too long.
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Debbie Great Debbie! I admire your guitar and video-work at the same time!
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Debbie great work. Nice overview of the approach to the practice. Sounds very secure.
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Debbie This is so good, Debbie! Huge congratulations to you on this one! It's sounding and looking great.
I have some super small details to keep in mind:
- in exercise 2A, on the return of the arpeggio pattern (so basically, on your way back down to the bass - where you're correctly playing "from the air") your right hand bounces a bit sometimes. Keep an eye on that sometimes, perhaps even by practicing in front of a mirror. Super small detail, not to worry too much!
- in 4E (the Villa-Lobos exercise pattern), your m and a sometimes slide on the string to the right right before you use them. This is not too bad, since it's not holding you back, but it's interesting to note there is a tiny bit of tension there - otherwise, that wouldn't happen.
- 3A, 3B: this is sounding so good! Your fingers could go even further away from the strings, -exercise those extensor muscles by challenging them to do so. That will make you faster and more secure over time. (Remember the trick I showed on-stream with trying to make them "slap" your left-hand index finger? That's one way to do that.)
- 3C: also sounding great. One thing, you are doing all string changes from the wrist. You could take the p away from the bass strings a little earlier (perhaps when you reach the 4th string) and then hold your wrist in place, moving the arm instead. It is possible to achieve high speed the way you do it now, but I think it puts a little more pressure on your wrist than the alternative.
Such a great job on everything though!
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Mircea Thanks Mircea! I didn't even see this post until now and I've already uploaded an update. I will apply your suggestions starting NOW!
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- Exercise(s) you have been working on:I'm working on everything
- Things you found easy: I never find anything easy
- Things you found difficult: Speed Exercises
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Giuseppe Gasparini great work Giuseppe. Lovely tone!
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Debbie Thanks
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Giuseppe Gasparini hi Giuseppe!
I'm sorry to hear things can be difficult sometimes - for what it's worth, I think you are doing some great work here! The exercise you've posted is sounding beautifully!
The only thing I might be able to say is - try to allow the fingers to continue their movement a bit further into the palm of your hand. This will allow you to use less arm movement to achieve the same volume, and over time it will eliminate some of the hand movement!
But it's already sounding great, which is the most important thing
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Giuseppe Gasparini those chords sound well. Força Giuseppe!!!
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Emma Thanks
- Exercise(s) you have been working on:I'm working on everything
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Working on 1C, 2A, 3C, 4E, 5A
Difficult-making the arpeggio even on 4E
Posted below are 3C, 4E, and 5A
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david robinson nice rest strokes
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Vilio Celli Thank you
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david robinson Bravo!!very nice
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david robinson nice sound and you are looking so relaxed
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david robinson thanks for posting. Well done!
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joosje thanks!
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Thomas thanks Thomas
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david robinson Hi David! You're doing such a great job, this is sounding really really good and secure!
- 3C: try placing the thumb on the 5th string while you're playing the top 3 strings. This will allow your wrist to move a little less.
- 4E: this is sounding great! Nice job with the preparation, too! Only on thing to say here: the a finger is making quite a long journey away from the strings when you play the m by itself. Not super important at this point, but try to keep an eye on it. Consider practicing with a mirror, or watching the screen of the camera you're recording with to take a look at your hand from another angle. Sometimes, we're totally unaware of these things until we look at them from the outside!
- 5A: Nice job with the thumb staying on the bass strings while you do this! For the thumb, I recommend the 5th, rather than the 4th string in this exercise, so you're not "intruding" on its space when you play i, m on the 3rd string. One thing to keep in mind here, which I think is the main thing currently holding you back from advancing to even higher speeds and levels of accuracy, is that the m finger causes your right-hand palm to move when it plays, while your i does not. Try to hunt for a better angle of the right hand, where the m doesn't need to move your hand to go through the string - just like the i currently doesn't.
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Mircea Thanks so much for your attention and suggestions. My a finger seems to rub against m; I try to mindfully separate them, but they always default back. In your experience, can a bad habit such as my m finger moving the hand, be corrected?
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david robinson Yes, it absolutely is possible! In fact, I've battled (and won) against many such habits myself - and I've also seen it in my students, colleagues and even teachers. It does take a long time, but it is possible.
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david robinson it is incredible what we can learning seeing our videos.... thank you for posting!
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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.
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Vilio Celli Bravo!!
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Vilio Celli Great job, Vilio! Are you playing with fingernails here? It is quite a lot harder to achieve these movements that I've described in my stream using your fingertips. This means that if you are playing all this with your fingertips (which... I think you are!) you deserve a huge congratulations for making this work!
amazing! One thing you might want to work on is to try to match the dynamics of the return pattern in the arpeggio to the first half of each pattern - so, basically try to make your m, i sound as loud as your p, i, m, a.
(Basically, aim to increase the volume of these notes in bold: p, i ,m, a, m, i.)
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
