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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Schubert Adieu (trans Tarrega) Update Jan 4
I practiced this piece a bit more, and here is a new video. I tried to make the melody come out more clearly above the accompaniment. I also tried to play it more expressively.
BTW, without thinking, I permanently deleted my previous recording of this from YT, so that video is no longer available.
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Eric Phillips beautiful Eric. I'm going to have to try that one myself
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Derek Please do! It's not as difficult as some of the other transcriptions of Schubert's songs, like Mertz' Lob der Tranen or Stanchen.
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My first Challenge :) So I was planning on learning new repertoire anyway. Mostly Romantic era music since I ordered a romantic guitar (was thinking Mertz, Regondi, Coste, wasn't sure what exactly). So because of the Challenge, I decided on some Schubert-Mertz. Not sure yet how many pieces I will be able to work on, but I started Lob der Tränen Sunday. I made some progress on the first page (mostly the intro and first melody). Will try to record something tomorrow (actually, I tried to record yesterday, but it sounded awful
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Hélène Beaulieu Welcome to the challenge. It's good to have new people join in. I LOVE Lob der Tranen! I've worked on the first half a bit, but when the melody goes up an octave, I get frustrated with those big arpeggios. I look forward to hearing you play it, especially if you're using a period instrument.
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Hélène Beaulieu Hello Helene, I am looking forward to your recording
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Hélène Beaulieu soyez la bienvenue! A pleasure to have you join the community. Wonderful full choice of a piece. Looking forward to hearing you perform.
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Such a wonderful challenge, but I am having this problem making a choice: so much incredible music! most of my repertoire is original guitar (or lute). So, I have to discover some new. Granados and Albeniz are tempting….
This first attempt of a recording is from Bach’s violin sonata (1005). The transcription is in original key (3rd F major part from the C major sonata). It’s so hard to find the ideal tempo…
i tuned the 6th string to F and my 7th to C, mainly to enhance the harmonic resonance and the dominant bass in the the cadenza (hardly noticeable with my poor sound quality)… it’s perfectly possible to play this on 6 strings with normal E tuning. Still lots of work to be done, but it’s still the first week.
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joosje Great start! This tempo is very nice, but I am not familiar with this sonata...
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joosje That was wonderful, Joosje! Yes, it needs work, but so much beauty is already coming through. I particularly loved the way you played the ascending scale-type passage from about 2:56 - 3:03. Brilliant fingering, lovely tone, well-placed vibrato, and an absolutely perfect diminuendo! I could just listen to that over and over again.
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joosje Jose that was beautiful. I don't know this piece but it is very nice. I actually just now looked it up and I am familiar with parts of the sonata.
You have great start. Looking forward to hearing your progress. Thanks for sharing.
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Hélène Beaulieu Eric Phillips Jack Stewart Nin Harris thank you!
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joosje what a beautiful transcription! And nice tempo as well. Great job
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Paul Kennedy thanks Paul.
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Paul Kennedy based on the Barrueco transcription, with some minor changes, but almost identical with the violin original.
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This is an awesome challenge man!
So many wonderful posts. I've been so lazy during the holidays that I didn't even practice anything. I always wanted to play Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence transcribed by Hirokazu Sato, Rhapsody of a theme of Paganini variations 18 and one of the Final Fantasy Song for the longest time but just couldn't work myself to it.
This comes at the right time to motivate myself to start it. I'll start working on
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. Hopefully I can get it done before Christmas. Not an easy piece to play for my current technical ability but if I never try it will always be beyond my ability.
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don Hello Don,"get it done before Christmas" ?
....You need a time machine ... -
don Sounds like a good plan, Don! Do you mean Christmas 2022?
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Olli haha I'm still hangover from Christmas eve so mentally I am still trapped in 2021.
Eric Phillips Yes I mean this coming Christmas 2022. IT is not an easy to piece to play well. Maybe learn it, let it stew for a couple of months then revisit later.
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Been true to my promised and have spend time daily on this piece. Manage to work to end of the piece. Can only play 20% of the intended tempo so gonna take a lot of work to get it into shape but it has been really fun as I dont' think I'll work up the commitment to learn this piece if not for this challenge.
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I was hoping to beat Eric to the Scarlatti pieces! I started looking at this a day or so ago, it's one I used to play many years ago but haven't looked at it in a long while. Still a bit unsteady but another one I'll keep looking at. I'm also working on a couple of the Schubert /Mertz pieces among others so looks like it's going to be a busy month!
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Derek great piece Derek, one of my favorite Scarlatti sonatas.
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Derek That is a great Scarlatti sonata (aka K.431). You have a great start on this.
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Derek beautiful piece and you did a great job here. Scarlatti has this talent of sounding simple and clean, but it’s never easy. Well done!
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Derek Good work, Derek. I'm not familiar with this one. Can I ask what number it is?
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Paul Kennedy Thanks Paul
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