Week 2 - Into the Dojo 🥋

Hello tonebuddies! 🎶

A long time ago, in a practice room far, far away... you picked up a piece. You were excited. You cracked it open, worked through the first page, maybe the second — and then something happened. Life struck back. A new piece caught your eye. The fingering felt impossible. The score quietly migrated to the bottom of a stack where it's been sitting ever since. 🎸

This May, we're bringing back the Unfinished Business Challenge — and we're kicking things off on May the 4th, because what better day to summon the Force and finally finish what you started? Every guitarist has an abandoned piece (or three). This is your chance to rescue one from the Sarlacc pit of your music folder and bring it home.

This challenge is open to all levels. Whether you left off at bar 8 or bar 80, whether it's a Bach fugue or a beginner study that got away — if there's a piece waiting for its return, it belongs here.


🌟 The Challenge

Revisit a composition you started but never finished — and this time, see it through. It might be:

  • 🎯 A piece you abandoned because it felt too hard
  • 🎯 Something you got halfway through before a new obsession took over
  • 🎯 A passage or section you never quite nailed
  • 🎯 A piece you learned years ago but never polished or performed

Share the story of why it got left behind and what it means to finally complete it. That's half the magic of this challenge.


📅 Challenge Dates

Start: May 4
End: June 12
Watch Party: June 12


🎥 How to Participate

  1. Pick your piece – Choose the piece (or section) that's been haunting you. The one you've been avoiding. That's the one.
  2. Share your goal – Post in the forum thread and tell us what you're finishing and why it got abandoned in the first place.
  3. Post your progress – Share updates along the way — rough takes, slow-tempo run-throughs, the gnarly passage you finally cracked.
  4. Engage with your fellow rebels – Cheer each other on, leave constructive feedback, and celebrate every piece that makes it across the finish line.

Bonus points: Share a recording of your favorite performance of the piece you're revisiting — the version that first made you fall in love with it.


🎬 Watch Party — June 12

The Watch Party on June 12 will feature recorded submissions from everyone who completed their Unfinished Business. Make sure to submit your final performance videos so we can celebrate your finished piece together! 🎉


💡 Need a Little Help from a Jedi Master?

If the reason you left the piece unfinished is still giving you trouble, tonebase is full of lessons, masterclasses, and courses from world-class guitarists ready to help you through the tricky parts. Search for the piece, the composer, or the technique — chances are, there's a Master ready to help.


May the 4th be with you, tonebuddies. Let's finish what we started. 🎸⚔️

124 replies

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    • Steve_Price
    • 6 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Some recorded practice sessions. I always loved Antonio Lauro's music, but wasn't able to play much of it. I'd started on Vals 2, Andreina, before, but only made it through the A section, and Vals 3, Natalia, always seemed over my head. I'm hoping that approaching it now with what I've learned about practice might help. 

    There are too many shifts for me to read them, so I'm slowly memorizing them. Here are the openings to each, as well as the most challenging part in Natalia, which will determine the future of this piece. 

      • Dale_Needles
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Good start on these two wonderful valses by Lauro. I am sure you heard me mention in the past that I had the honor of meeting Lauro twice in the 1980s in Caracas and arranged the publication of two of his pieces with Guitar Solo, La Catira and Maria Carolina. 

      • Ron.3
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Great start on these lovely pieces Steve. I've always liked the Lauro valses but never  tried to play them 

      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Hi Steve, what a great start!  I especially loved the Vals 3, Natalia. It already sounds nicely polished and performance ready. Looking forward to hearing more.

      • Steve_Price
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Nice, Dale. I knew about La Catira, but not Maria Carolina. That's always been one of my favorites. 

      • Steve_Price
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Ron. They are very fun and thankfully, they seem to fit under the fingers pretty well. The jumps have been the hardest for me to figure out. 

      • Steve_Price
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I appreciate it. I'm glad they sound okay at a slower tempo, since a lot of people, including Lauro himself, play Natalia at a blazing speed. 

      • BLaflamme
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Both are already shaping great Steve! 💪The booklet of 4 valses venezolanos (including both of them) was in the first scores purchased in the '80s, the first and last valses are also very beautiful, a great set of 4 to play in concert!

      • Steve_Price
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Blaise. I have the whole set, so I might try to work on the other two a bit. I like the idea of playing all of them, but we'll see what happens. No 4 sounds different than a lot of his work, so that will be fun to play with. 

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Great start on these, Steve. Your movements thru the large shifts are very smooth. Really looking forward to your progress..

      • BLaflamme
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       This is indeed a great idea, in fact #4 is my favourite (but it wasn't in the '80s 😅)!

      • Retired
      • Jim_king
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Great start to these pieces.  Looking forward to seeing what you can do with them over the course of the Challenge.

      • Steve_Price
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Jack. I can't remember who, but a teacher in a Tonebase lesson said to look at the target location well before shifting, and that has been a huge help. 

      • Steve_Price
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Jim. I appreciate it. 

      • Amateur guitarist/lutenist
      • David_Krupka
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Good start on these 'standards' of the guitar repertoire, Steve! I like that you've immediately tackled the most challenging section of Natalia - and as far as I can tell, you're having no real difficulty with it. (For me, the tricky bit is getting that stretch from the 'G' in the bass to the high 'C' in the melody, but you seem to be nailing it every time!) Looking forward to further updates!

      • Debbie
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

      lovely piece and your off to a great start with your measured approach to practice.

      • joosje
      • 4 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       very nice to hear and see you approaching these lovely pieces. They seem to suit you really well. Looking forward to following this project.

      • Retired
      • Andre_Bernier
      • 3 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Great work Steve. I like your approach to tackle the piece is clear specific segments.

    • Eric
    • 4 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Schubert - Standchen (arr. Mertz) May 13

    I have always loved Mertz' arrangements of six songs by Schubert. But, when I try to actually play them, they seem to turn to mud in my hands. I am going to give another shot at Standchen, though, for this challenge.

    I am more than a little embarrassed by this recording - it's slow, plodding, and very full of buzzes and fumbles. I'm hoping that it can just be like the "before" pictures we see of people who lose lots of weight or get extreme makeovers. We'll see.

      • Ron.3
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       This is such a lovely piece and a very good start Eric. Sounds like it would be easier as a duet!

      • Retired
      • Jim_king
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Sounds like a great start to me.  I always find it amazing how much expectations can influence our judgement as to how good or bad we play.  Myself, I would be over the moon if I had played that " slow, plodding, and very full of buzzes and fumbles" as you put it.

      • Steve_Price
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Very nice, Eric. I hadn't heard this before. I love how the melody bounces between the voices starting around 2:30. Excellent work so far. 

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Great Start, Eric. As Ron indicated, your 'rough'  read thru is my glimmer of hope after months of practice.

      I played this years ago (I remember it taking me a long time to get it to a playable level). I kept thinking I want to revive it - as in re-learn, 

      Btw, I had always thought Mertz had created a magical transcription/re-composition of this work until I heard Liszt's arrangement written a decade before Mertz's. I now suspect this is actually Mertz' transcription of Liszt. Though still a beautiful transcription.

      • Amateur guitarist/lutenist
      • David_Krupka
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Great start, Eric. And just like those individuals chosen for makeover, one senses from the very outset the latent beauty that will soon be fully revealed. Looking forward to the 'final episode'!

      • Amateur guitarist/lutenist
      • David_Krupka
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I think you're right about this, Jack. I wonder if Mertz's wife (a concert pianist) had the Liszt arrangements in her repertoire?

Content aside

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