Week 1: A Guitar has Six Strings, Right? 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the transcription challenge! This is the place to discuss the Week 1 livestream.
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
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 Progress Update and Questions! ↓
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Here's my first attempt at Chopin's Prelude op 28 no 7 arranged by S Ranieri. Just started looking at it the other day. It's short but quite a challenge to play it smoothly. Will keep working on it.
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Derek Great job Derek. I have recently become fond of much of Chopin's character pieces - Preludes, Valses, Mazurkas, etc. Many of these pieces work well on guitar. The preludes are amazing in how much he packs into such short pieces. Thanks for sharing.
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Derek it’s lovely. Great piece for the guitar, never thought that. Really nice transcription, too.
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Paul Kennedy thanks Paul. I'll check out the other piece
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Emma thank you Emma
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Jack Stewart thank you Jack
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joosje thank you Joosje
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Hey guys, I'm going to work on Granada by Issac Albeniz (for Piano), transcribed by Andres Segovia. Will try to get some useful input from Emmanuel's Masterclass to hopefully improve my performance of this beautiful piece.
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Barney Hey Barney, what a great piece (too difficult for me). I look forward to hearing it
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Paul Kennedy Thanks Paul. Hope I can give this piece what it deserves. Such great composing by Albeniz. It’s not complicated, but tiring for the left hand, and a challenge to keep the melody line singing and balanced. I will try, haha.
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Barney I will try Cadiz! A close city to Granada :)
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Emma That’s a great piece. I played it many years ago. I look forward to hearing you play it! Maybe I’m old fashioned, but the Guitar transcriptions of Albeniz and Granada’s are still my favorites. Perhaps that’s why guys like Segovia, David Russell, and Manuel Barreuco did many transcriptions of their music.
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Barney Sorry Typo-- should be "Granados"
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Barney Hi Barney! may be I can also participate in this challenge with my Granada transcribed by David Russell and we can all compare both transcriptions, what do you mean?
Otherwise I can not begin anything new....too many things going on . I hope to send a video next week, I have still a lot to work on it , but it is nice to share.
You have sent all : Joosje, Eric!!, Jack, Derek, Olli ,Hélène do I forget someone ? beautifull music sent... your Bach Joosje...very nice piece, and Chopin...Eric with a lot of contributions!!!! thanks to all guys!
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Nora Torres-Nagel Hi Nora. That's great! David Russell's transcriptions are wonderful, so I look forward to hearing you play this one. I've never played his version myself, but have heard it; so beautiful! David loves Albeniz and Granados, as we do...
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I’ve decided this challenge is a great opportunity to try one of Dyens transcriptions- but they’re pretty tricky for me- started on Revoir Paris, I think one of the easier ones. Just reading through it and working through the fingering today. Hard- the complex 3 on 2 rhythms throughout, a few tricky stretches, maintaining rhythm in the tricky sections.
Easy- not very much unfortunately- it’s easy to like the fantastic chords and I especially like the descending glissando at the end!-
Chris Coghill Hi Chris, I am looking forward to hearing any Dyens. I am only recently a convert to his music, but all guitar. Did he write for other instruments as well?
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Paul Kennedy the music I have seen all has guitar in it at least. I’ve been trying to play most of the 20 lettres for the last year or so, and also some of the first half of the 100. I’m not sure if you could call them transcriptions though unfortunately!
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Paul Kennedy He was a " Classic Guitarist " and as Composer and Arranger he has written for guitar and orchestra, for guitar and string quartet , for guitar and flute and mandolin, and various guitar ensemble. You can find here all his pubblished' works.
https://www.rolanddyens.com/ -
Chris Coghill
I love the arrangements of Roland Dyens' French songs, (like all his works) and I am glad you are studying this song. I will listen to you very gladly, good study.
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ivan paolo Wow, I had no idea. I look forward to hearing this piece.
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Looking forward to this one and forcing myself to learn Prelude No. 2 by Gershwin
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OK, so I've selected one of Gershwin's 3 Preludes: No. 2 to be exact. These were originally written for the piano, and in keeping with his style, there is a bit of a jazzy/bluesy rhythm that is presenting a challenge for me to grasp, but I will continue to work with it.
Things you found easy: This is a typical ABA piece and the A part is quite straight forward (apart from the rhythms as already discussed -- clearly, I ain't got rhythm).
Things you found difficult: The B part is a little more challenging to understand the flow, but getting there, albeit slowly
(Optional): a video of you performing it! This is forthcoming....in a day or two
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Paul Kennedy Thanks Paul, this is great! We look forward to seeing your video in a few days. Sending lots of rhythm your way!!!
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Scarlatti Sonata K32
Scarlatti sonatas are frequently transcribed for the guitar. Here is one that is fairly easy to play. I definitely recommend listening to it on harpsichord and piano as well, as it is so beautiful on those instruments.
Although written in D minor, the versions I've heard on guitar have transposed it to E minor. I decided to record it in E minor and D minor. I'll let you decide which one is more effective on the guitar. I have included Scarlatti's score, a score for guitar in E minor, and a tablature for my version in D minor.
In addition, I also decided to play it on the lute. Please bear in mind that I am not a lutenist (at least not yet). I'm really just doing it for fun here. With the tuning I have on my lute, I suppose it sounds like it's in Db minor. To my guitar hands and brain, however, it feels like B minor. (BTW, in a few weeks, I plan to cut my nails and give a serious go at learning the lute more properly. This is my first time saying this publicly, so I guess I'm at least semi-committed to doing it. I will be playing guitar for a small group on January 19, so I prefer to wait until after that is done. Yikes!)
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Eric Phillips Lovin' the lute! (no lute Tab?)
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