WEEK 1: Select And Practice Your Piece! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the End-Of-The-Year Community Concert Challenge!
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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Hi,
here is my 1st take of Moreno-Torroba's "Montemayor" recorded today. Sorry for bad light (and sound) conditions.I tried this piece with a lot of different LH fingerings. Currently (and different from the printed edition that I am using), I am playing with a lot of open strings and with focus on, for example, keeping the soprano melody in the middle of the piece on the 1st string only. On the other hand, sometimes open strings need to be stopped from ringing... But I think I will stick to this version right now.
Within the next days I would like to focus on musicality and to perform this lovely, wonderful piece as best as I can.-
Robert Thanks to all for your motivating comments!
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... and here is my 2nd piece, Leo Brouwer's "Un Dia de Noviembre" for guitar. I practiced/played this piece the last time a couple of months ago, so the current playing is a bit rusty. My challenge or focus is on bringing it back into my head, fingers and soul for presenting this fantastic piece in a satisfying way.
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Robert This is such a great piece. Good choice. Looking forward to see it develop.
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Robert Beautiful! I always love to play this, it's so emotional.
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Robert Oh yeah! You're definitely not new to this piece, you already have confidence and bring some clear ideas
... I really like your light effects in the background! 
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Robert Really nice. This is why Brouwer is so interesting to me. His catalog contains these beautiful melodic pieces but also some really jarring avant garde works but it all sits on the guitar so nicely. Thanks for sharing.
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Robert I will always love that peace!!!!looks simple but it is actually not....
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Robert this is a great choice, Robert. You have good control, and time enough to lift it up even more. Beautiful piece.
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Robert Beautiful Robert. You play this very expressively. I am looking forward to see where you take it from this very impressive level.
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Blaise Laflamme lol, it is the camera, I do not know, why this is happening. The only reason can be myself by moving a bit, so that the camera detects some (very small) light changes and tries to adjust the light. Weird effect... Really looks like it is an external light effect in the room. Discoooooo...
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Here's what I'm dealing with when it comes to the Bach prelude...
I'm constantly finding new ways to play it!
I just saw somebody do this, and I was like, "That's so cool! I've got to include that!"
So, in this video I'm showing the way I have been playing it - with a half-note C# in the bass followed by a dotted quarter note F# in the base. What I'm adding in the second take is an F# an octave higher - still in the bass - on beats 2 and 4. (measure 13)
However, the person that I saw do this was not playing an A# on the and of 4. I am, and that complicates things a bit.
The biggest challenge with this is avoiding string squeak, so this is what I worked on today...
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Steve Pederson for sure squeaks are our worst nightmare as guitarists! I have not followed everything you've done in your transcription and what was your initial idea about doing your own. If you can share the score that could be interesting for us to follow. Also including other ideas is not always a good fit depending on the harmonic and melodic choices they have made. That's great to see how you're working on this!
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks Blaise. My reason for creating my own arrangement is simply because there are so many out there that I've tried, and there are bits and pieces of each that I like, but I haven't found one that works for me or grabs me entirely.
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Steve Pederson Thanks for sharing this wonderful piece and your work on it.
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Sor Op 6 No 12 Dec 7
Here is today's update. I'm playing the whole piece now, beginning to end. It is a real workout for my left hand and arm, which probably tells me that I'm not relaxed enough when I play it. The B section (in A minor) is still a bit sketchy.
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Eric Phillips Great to hear the whole piece, nice work!
That's almost always the case, speaking of workout, with more longer and advanced works by Sor. That's why we love him -
Eric Phillips Love how this is coming together. To me a lot of Sor is deceptively simple and this is one of those pieces. Seeing the score I'm like, "I got this," then I realize how much is going on and what it takes to bring it out and it goes back on the shelf, lol. Really enjoying listening to this and seeing how it develops.
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Steve Price yes, its really hard, the chordchanges and alternations you never have under your fingers and sounds so harmless....
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Eric Phillips Very good, Eric. The A section is really solid and the B section is pretty much all there. I am really impressed with your progress on this piece and am looking forward to seeing your progress.
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Eric Phillips Great work Eric! This is sounding SO GOOD! Sounding like Segovia! (I hope you take that as a compliment. I know some people don't care for him.) I'm always amazed at how quickly you learn things. I appreciate you taking the whole thing in one shot and just seeing what happens.
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Eric Phillips nice work. It was fascinating (again) to see you grow in this study, both technically and musically. And it’s definitely one of the most beautiful studies master Sor wrote. I let my husband listen and he was impressed, the singing quality of the upper voice, like a chant…. very pleasant listening.
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joosje My thanks to you and your husband for listening and for the kind words.
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Eric Phillips It is always a pleasure to watch your videos and see you practicing and playing and to observe changes, effort, improvement. Thanks for sharing this, Eric!
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Eric Phillips wow! the whole peace, and really already music. Hope your arm is better. I had to stop playing because of to much stress for my left hand with the prelude of the second cellosuite on cello, and took the chance to learn my guitarpiece just mental- did not touch the instruments for one wheek, but started on an other level after that....
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Stefanie Mosburger-Dalz Thanks, Stephanie. My arm is fine, it just hurts to play the whole thing like that. I think the pain comes not from the difficult fingerings, but also from my lack of relaxation while playing. I was making more mistakes at the end mostly because my hand was hurting.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
