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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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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Paul Kennedy Sorry, I didn't take the time to write it out.
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Eric Phillips Oh my God
Please don't do that: 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 often had nightmare-dreams - cutting my nails short on the wrong Hand and woke up sweated , but happily - it was just a bad dream...
While studying guitar my second Instrument was the Renaissance-Lute...and I promise you - it is not necessary to cut the nails.... shortening the "end" of the nails a little bit ( the longest part of the nail, that in fact never hits the sting ) is everything you need for playing "thumb inside" ...
On later periods, adding more and more strings, the lutenists played thumb outside - like on the modern guitar...and this is absolutely possible with "short" guitar nails.
Owning great sounding guitars I stopped playing the lute - but I love to play lute repertoire on the modern guitar with capodastro - or on the "Lito-Forte" that i also love to play...
I compare : Lute = Windows ( windows 95
) .... modern guitar = MAC ( macOS 10.14.6 ) But these are just my thoughts about this - you have to trie it out .....
Best Regards
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Olli Thanks, Olli. I'll give your words some thought. My guitar is actually cheaper than my lute (and my lute is not expensive).
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Eric Phillips This is a very nice Scarlatti sonata. Very pensive and quiet. Very well played - each time! BTW I was listening to a piano version of this on YT and noticed Martha Argerich performing K141 in the sidebar. It was jaw dropping. I can't imagine what it would be like to have that kind of musical ability!
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Jack Stewart Thanks for letting me know, I'll have to check it out.
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Eric Phillips you play this sonata really very nicely. I can’t say which version I prefer. You’re doing such a great job on so many pieces, none of them really easy. Chapeau
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joosje Thank you, Joosje. With this one, I feel more like I'm just playing around for the fun of it. Music is just so much fun to me!
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Eric Phillips you never cease to amaze me as to how much you can do in such a short time. Another nice piece well played (on two instruments)
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Derek Thanks, Derek. Not that I've played a lot of Scarlatti's sonatas, but this one seems more accessible for intermediate guitarists like me.
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Eric Phillips I really like this sonata, good to know it is not that hard. I think I prefer the E minor one, but the D minor sounds nice too. It's great that you can play it in different keys and on the lute as well. Good for the brain, and for our listening pleasure :)
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"Jesu bleibet meine Freude" BWV 147
This piece I started practicing one week ago and I think, it fits great into this challenge.
There is much work to do and this is my practice-recording for today.
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Olli Good work, Olli! This is not easy. I'm glad to see you still have the pizza on the couch!
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Eric Phillips I put the Pizza there for David
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Olli beautiful piece on the guitar
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Olli That was great Ollie. This piece is deceptively difficult. It flows so gently but requires constant legato despite the many shifts and changes.
Great job!
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Olli great start Olli. It’s really not easy, but you are on the way to a great performance.
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Olli Great start!
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Olli after a week that's great progress Olli. Sounds good!
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Olli Very nice Olli, I have seen so many transcriptions of this piece; some easy, others quite difficult. I really like the one you are playing
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Schubert Adieu (trans Tarrega)
I think that Tarrega may have had a gift for guitar transcription (in addition to composing and playing). Here is one I found in Edson Lopes' files. The score is attached. As it says at the top, the level is intermediate, so no big hurdles.
Update 1/4 - I made another recording of this below. Unfortunately, I permanently deleted this video from YT, so it is no longer available here. Sorry for the eyesore.
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Eric Phillips That was beautiful both the music and the playing. It took me a couple of listens to get past my persistent aversion to beautiful romantic music. Once I let go I found this to be wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, as always, Jack. I always love it when I find a new piece that I enjoy that is a quick learn. I may want to go back and polish this one up a bit, but at least I'm confident about the technique.
BTW, isn't Chopin in the "aversion" category?
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Eric Phillips He was, but some of his music has managed to slip out.
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I am reviving a valse by Chopin, op. 69.2, that I worked on a while back but never got it to performance level. This is the first section (of 3).
Chopin can be a bit quirky and he slightly varies his repeats which can be difficult to keep track of. His use of chromaticism is challenging - especially after Bach and Sor. They both can be chromatic but I am more familiar with their harmonic logic.
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Jack Stewart Chopin Valse op. 69.2
This video was supposed to have been with the original post.
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