WEEK 2: Conquering Carcassi's Etudes
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the Carcassi Etudes op.60 challenge!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream to get an overview over the etudes!
- Get the Scores here! (<- click)
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 assignments and questions! ↓
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Study 21 B section only (measures 17-52).
This section still uses the rhythmic motif and the mordents of the A section that I posted above, but it has a very different character to it.
Like in the A section, I tried to focus on executing the mordents well. I also wanted to give this section some better phrasing and dynamics than I did in the initial run through, since it seemed so long and rambling in that video. It is by no means a finished product here, but I hope there is more of a shape and musical direction to this long section now.
By the way, you may notice that I am in a different location. I am in the classroom where I teach. The lighting in the room is all fluorescent, which looked horrible, so I turned the lights off. Sorry it's so fuzzy. The sound is okay.
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Brett Gilbert Thanks, Brett! There is a fine line between dedication and obsession. I was actually just there waiting for my daughter, who is a student at the school, while she had tennis practice. I probably should have been working, but practicing guitar is so much more fun!
I do play for my students on the last day of the year. It’s literally the only time I ever play for anyone other than my family (and now my Tonebase family too).
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Eric Phillips what a difficult slurs exercise (or trill). Really nice Eric! :)
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Emma I'm not sure what you mean. Here is a picture of my fingering for measures 23-24. Is this the correct measures?
Update: I decided now to play the G’s in measure 24 with the open third string.
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Khiem Nguyen Thank you, Khiem. What makes them difficult for me is that they require such precision of finger placement and pressure, and each one is different depending on its location on the fingerboard and the fingers used. On the plus side, they force me to have good hand alignment, especially if the pinky is used. If my alignment is off (and it frequently is) the mordent will sound bad.
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Eric Phillips same here, it is difficult to make a good gods take. But this is a great study to improve ourselves
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Eric Phillips yes thank you, these are the measures. This is a tricky part for me, doing the mordent at the same time of the open chord (G and B ) with a good result. I will try this fingering I do thé 24 measure in the first string. Thank you so much Eric!
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Had a look at number 19 this morning - I love it - don't think I have heard it before. I play it slower than the marked tempo but I like this speed. Only had about 30 to 40 minutes on it but I did a quick video - just on the phone but added a bit of reverb in Da Vinci Resolve (which may have been a mistake)
Things I found easy - most of it easy(ish)
Things I found hard - getting the melody to sing and I fluffed the changes up to the seventh position in the video - but I only had time for one take. This is another I will work on and post a hopefully better version next week.
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Derek good first take! Congratulations it does look promising
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Derek very good first take Derek! You are really good at sight reading!
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Hi everyone, here is my Etude no. 2 after two days of practicing. Please give me feedback for improvements. Right now my weakness is I did not learn to rest the right hand thumb on a un-played bass string after playing a note. My right hand thumb is floating :) I will try to experiment with resting the thumb to see how it feels.
I have tried to focus on having the dynamic as written by the score.
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Khiem Nguyen That sounded really good, Khiem! Lovely tone and control. I think the dynamics could be pushed a bit farther, and maybe play a touch slower at the end of phrases.
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Eric Phillips thank you a lot Eric. Your feedback is very precise. I could have pushed the dynamic and the rubato a little bit further. I will try to push both dynamic and ritardando at the end in next takes :)
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Khiem Nguyen That sounds beautiful!
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Khiem Nguyen you are playing it so well!!! My only observation would be to accentuate more the base when the melody is there. That would be more contrast to the piece. But the tone the phrasing and the control are there ! Congratulations
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Emma thank you a lot Emma, it motivates me a lot. And you are very precise in your advice; I listen again and also find that the basses could benifit from being accentuated more. I will keep the bass dynamic in mind next time I record it. :) Let us keep on the spirit :)
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Elizabeth Uyehara thank you Elizabeth, let us continue to have fun with learning this piece ^^
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This is really hard for me so I'm taking it slowly. Here I just looped the first phrase three times. I'm just trying to get my fingers in the right place at the right time! All the cool nuances will have to come later.
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Elizabeth Uyehara Well done, Elizabeth. Very clean and controlled. That’s a good idea to work just on one phrase at a time.
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Elizabeth Uyehara well done, slow and controlled ! It will come if you continue practicing like that. Congratulations!!
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Eric Phillips Thank you for the encouragement. This first phrase may be all I can accomplish in 3 weeks, but there's no hurry. 16th notes played slowly feel like 7 measures instead of 3.5 and is quite satisfying to ruminate on!
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Emma Thanks for the encouragement. All of the other players are so inspiring to watch!
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Elizabeth Uyehara Good job, I really like your right hand finger and the eveness of the tone. :) In addition to that, I think it will get even better when you shift your lefthand to the next chord, try to keep the left hand at the last mili-second, and only at the beat of the metronome, release it and shift to the next chord shape, and synchronize with your right hand. It will be more legato. ^_^
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Khiem Nguyen Khiem Nguyen Thanks for the advice! I am struggling with smoothly moving from chord to chord. This morning I experimented with some different fingerings. I saw that you were using slightly different fingerings that I hadn't thought of. The suggested fingerings on the score are a little hard for me and I might need to develop more strength to do them. I think I will try some new fingerings on this passage and record it again.
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Study 21 Final(?) Update.
Here's the whole thing put together. I actually changed my mind and went back to a more conventional fingering for the piece. I'm fickle, I guess!
I still played several of the mordents poorly, and I was not able to execute my planned dynamics and rubato as well as I would have liked, but I'm probably going to move on to another study now.
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Eric Phillips same here but I don’t dare to record it just yet. Well done!!!!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
