Week 2: Delving into Diverse Styles
Welcome to the "Around the World in 80 Strings Challenge"! This month, we'll embark on a global musical journey, exploring classical guitar compositions from various countries. The only rule: Donāt play a composer from your home country. Letās make this a truly international experience!
CHALLENGE TIMELINE
- Challenge Start: Kick-Off on May 15th
- Duration: May 15th - June 24th
- Watch Party: June 24th
ACTIVITIES
- Choose Your Piece: Select a new piece of music to work on. Share your choice in the thread below and inspire your fellow musicians!
- Video Submission: Submit a video of your practice this week. Highlight your favorite passage from the piece that showcases the origin of this piece!
GET INVOLVED
Letās kick things off with enthusiasm! Share your progress, encourage others, and explore new musical horizons together. Canāt wait to see what everyone chooses!
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Includes grossly glaring mistakes, but still has its moments and some potential, I think.
"Lullaby" - Frantz Casseus (Haiti)
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Spare Machine Thatās great! It has such a beautiful melody, and I love that it is not just standard repertoire. Making the melody legato seems to be a real challenge.
As for your question at the end, are you saying that you have to use your right hand pinky because itās a five-note chord? If thatās the case, I would typically play a five-note chord by sweeping the thumb across the two lowest strings. Another possibility is to only play four notes, eliminating a āless necessaryā note. Itās a little hard to know without seeing the score, though. I apologize if I am misunderstanding the problem.
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Spare Machine Very nice piece Mark. Well done
I am just a beginner but if you post a picture of the section of the score; I am sure some of our experts like Eric or Blaise can provide you some good advice.
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Eric Phillips a five-note chord, yes. Thank you for the tips and I look forward to working on the legato during our challenge.
Iāll post a picture of the score sometime soon! Thank you!
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Eric Phillips 5-noter, upper right.
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Spare Machine Okay. You could sweep the thumb across the fifth and fourth strings. If I were to leave out a note, Iād leave out the B (second string). Despite being the root of the chord (B7), itās the least important note harmonically. That also makes it easier on the left hand, since you donāt have to worry about touching the open second string with your second finger.
Those are my best thoughts right now, without a guitar in my hands.
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Eric Phillips So helpful! Thank you! I was thinking about the lagoto bit. I think that some of that, obviously is the literal handling melody note, but some of it is imprecision in the left hand sometimes accidentally muting strings that should be open and ringing, which, while not the actual melody, support the overal lagoto-ness of the vibe. I was thinking that was another area (better with the open ringing stings) I'd like do pay some attention to as well during this challenge. Thank you!
Also, for those of you who've I've done challenges with before, something has clicked with me in using the footstool! Suddenly, it seems to make sense to my body.
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Spare Machine This is really coming along well. Nicely done.
This is why I love these challenges so much. I primarily listen to 20th/21st century music and I've never even heard of Frantz Casseus. I found a whole album of his music recorded by Alberto Mesirca. Really nice stuff so thanks for bringing this to light.
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Steve Price Cooool. I'm going to look that record up!
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Spare Machine This is such a sweet tune, Mark. I think its Caribbean origins comes thru. You have a great start on this piece. Looking forward to your progress.
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Spare Machine very nice. beautiful piece. You are playing it very elegantly. Iād love to hear more of this.
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We just wrapped a fantastic production with Åukasz Kuropaczewski on Llobet's Catalan Folk Songs, so I've decided to jump right into Llobet's "Plany".
I want to improve EVERY chord change, there arestill some ghost notes starting to sound when I lift fingers. One core concept of Lukasz's course is that once does not only shift with the left hand, but also with the right hand!
But overall, I feel, that the melody is not really flowing, so I'll try to improve my phrasing as well. Watch out for Borbala's course coming out TODAY on phrasing and articulation!
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martin Sounds great, Martin! I look forward to seeing that production. Do you know when it will be available? Iāll check out Borbalaās lesson too.
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Eric Phillips thank you!! The course is currently scheduled for mid-October, but these things are always somewhat in flux! But definitely worth waiting for, it was one of my highlights this year!
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martin I imagine that Martinās presence on this thread has the same feeling for others as it does for me: THE ToneBase rockstar is here with us, learning, vulnerably, alongside us. How wonderful. Thank you for joining us, Martin! And, thank you for playing with us!
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martin sounds great Martin. I must admit that I am not familiar with this piece although I do have a copy of Llobet's arrangements and I play 3 or 4 of them. I've also got an album (Vinyl) of Narciso Yepes playing them. Definitely looking forward to the production!
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Martin That was beautiful, Martin A very pensive mood. Thanks for joining us. Your participation is always very informative.
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martin Thanks Martin. It is great that you have been able to find the time to participate in this challenge. This is always a pleasure to listen to your recordings.
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martin that was just sooo beautiful, Martin. Itās one of my favourite pieces. You play this so well. Iām looking forward to hear your ārefinementā. The way you keep the pulse in this slow 3/4 -with its rubato- feels just great.
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Gol-e-Gandome and Leila-Leila (arr. Afshar)
I am playing Gol-e-Gandome relatively well now, so I have also begun working on a second one of these Persian ballads arranged by Lily Afshar. Apparently this is a song about a lost love named Leila. As far as I know, it has no connection to Layla by Eric Clapton.
I am not playing the whole piece yet. There is a section at the end where the melody is played with harmonics. That still needs a lot of work before I would subject anyone to it.
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Eric Phillips itās such a treat to hear you play. Thank you!
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Eric Phillips bravo Eric sounds great
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Eric Phillips You play both of these pieces beautifully, Eric. Your use of color and rubato is really effective in the first piece.
I wouldn't be so sure of no connection with Clapton's Layla - he was apparently into Persian poetry at the time he wrote that (I think). However, you are on solid ground about Clapton having any influence on the composition of Leila x2)
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Eric Phillips Beautifully played. I really like Persian music. I actually studied the Persian Setar for about 2 years about ten years ago. An interesting lute shaped instrument which uses a right hand technique in which you play with only the index finger striking the strings in both directions. Definitely a challenge for classical guitarists. Below is a link to Gol Gandom played on the Setar and Tambok, a Persian percussion instrument. Thanks for introducing this beautiful music to the Tonebase community
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Jack Stewart I didn't know that about Clapton. I confess that I really like Persian poetry as well, like Rumi and Hafiz.
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