READ ME FIRST: Rules & FAQ for the FIRST-EVER Community Challenge!
Alright, everyone: welcome to our very first tonebase Community Challenge! 
So happy you've decided to stop by! Let's settle in, grab our guitars, and learn some new music together!
14 days of 11 Landslög (by Gulli Björnsson)
(New cycle of works, commissioned by and for tonebase!)
Download the full score:
Gulli Björnsson: Landslög for solo guitar (<- click)
The What:
- We commissioned our very own cycle of new educational pieces from the wonderful and talented young Icelandic composer Gulli Björnsson.
- He wrote the 11 Landslög, a collection of short pieces based on Icelandic landscapes in progressive difficulty.
- We will be learning some of those together by practicing at least one of them every day!
- You choose your own pace and difficulty, but you commit to 2 weeks of daily practice.
The When:
- Challenge start: Sunday, December 6th
- Practice days: December 6th - 18th (13 days)
- Watch party: December 19th, featuring Gulli Björnsson, the composer himself!
The How:
- Start by practicing Landslag no. 1, "dark sand dunes with some moss" on December 6th.
- When you are finished practicing for the day, go to our Daily Updates thread and post about one thing you found easy, and one thing you found hard.
- If you are comfortable with it, add a video or audio of yourself performing it. This is optional, but it will allow you to share your progress with others!
After December 6th:
- When you feel ready, move on to Landslag no. 2.
- Repeat steps 1-3 from above every day of the challenge.
- There is no limit on how many days you can spend on each Landslag! Do whatever feels comfortable, as long as you keep practicing one of them every day.
The Why:
- Because we want to challenge ourselves to practice every day for the next 2 weeks
- Because learning together is more fun than learning alone
- Because we get to share our progress with others (whether through video or just text)
- Because new music is wonderful and these pieces were written especially for us!
- Because we want to meet our fellow tonebase community members
The Fun Part:
- At the end of our practice challenge, composer Gulli Björnsson will be joining us for a Watch Party on tonebase LIVE!
- He will be taking questions from all of you, addressing some of the things you found easy or difficult, and maybe - if you send in videos with your daily updates - watching those with us, and giving you some specific comments and advice
- The day will be December 19th, the mood will be festive, and we hope to see you all there!
Frequently asked questions:
Can I join the challenge if I wasn't there on December 6th?
Yes! Just make sure you keep practicing and updating us every day. For an extra challenge, commit to keep practicing for 2 weeks from the day you join, rather than from December 6th.
Is it Landslög or Landslag?
Great question! Icelandic can be a difficult language. The name of the cycle of pieces translates to "Landscapes".
Landslög is plural ("landscapes"), while Landslag is singular ("landscape"). Don't worry if you get this wrong! Gulli will won't get mad at you.
I have a question, who do I ask?
Feel free to use this thread to ask any questions you might have about this challenge! If you would prefer to ask something in a more confidential setting, please use my email: [email protected]
Can I get some guidance on these pieces?
Yes! Gulli just recorded a wonderful tonebase lesson on this cycle. And who better to ask? He is the composer, after all! Check them out by clicking the corresponding number here:
- Landslag no. 1, Landslag no. 2, Landslag no. 3, Landslag no. 4, Landslag no. 5, Landslag no. 6, Landslag no. 7, Landslag no. 8, Landslag no. 9, Landslag no. 10, Landslag no. 11.
These are all worth a watch, throughout our challenge - make sure you're up to date with Gulli's tips on the Landslag you are currently learning!
Can I do more than one Landslag per day? Or start with no. 10?
But of course! This challenge is for you - do with it what you wish. As long as you 1) practice every day; 2) keep track of your progress; 3) share your progress with others - you are fully participating! Of course we won't be mad if this is too easy for you 
↓ Reply with other questions below ↓
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Is there a prize for the winner? (Just kidding!) Interesting proposal, this 'challenge'. (To be frank, my first thought was 'I'm too old for this kind of thing' but I'm warming up to the idea.) I've looked briefly through the score and they do indeed seem to be interesting pieces. (I am reminded of Brouwer's 'Nuevos Studios Sencillos'.) I haven't watched Gulli's presentations yet - I like to form my own 'first impression' of new music when this is possible. As for making a video? Hmmm, I'll definitely have to think bout that. Maybe in a few days I'll feel more confident about that than I do at the moment ...
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David I'm glad to hear you like the pieces! I also thought they were great - this is part of the reason why the rest of the tonebase team and I felt we sort of have to do this
and I'm happy to hear you're warming up to the idea of joining a two-week practice challenge, too! Don't worry about the videos - if you do choose make some at some point, I and everyone else will be very happy to see them! But it's perfectly possible to participate via short daily updates in text form; in fact, I'm pretty sure this is how most people will do it
hope to see you around these forums the next two weeks! PS: there is no winner, but if enough people request it, I will draw a cake for everyone who makes it out the other end
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Hi Mircea, great initiative, I am here and I try
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Giuseppe Gasparini Awesome, Giuseppe, so glad to hear!!! Looking forward to reading your updates.
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wow, great challenge for keeping guitarists learning new music. I think old guitarist (age 60) like me can practise along with this community of keen and passionate guitarists around the world. Anyway, I live in Borneo island located in East Malaysia and the time zone is (UT+8) and thereofre it is a bit difficult to follow Tonebase live streaming event because of time differences.
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Law Hi Law! This is wonderful - I absolutely agree, learning new music is amazing, no matter your age! Hope you will join our challenge these next two weeks!
When it comes to the live stream timetables (we have many livestreams per week, did you know? Click this text to watch) - yes, you are absolutely right. The way we have it set up right now unfortunately, the timetable is not great for people in East Asia and Oceania. Hopefully, in time, we will have a few more hosts like Martin and me around the world, and we will be able to do live streams at all sorts of hours of the day!
In the case of Gulli's watch party, no worries - it will be recorded and continue to be live on our page, together with all other live events, here: https://app.tonebase.co/guitar/live
If you can't make it on the day, perhaps we'll see you there after!
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Mircea, How do I join in this 14-day practise challenge for learning 11 Lanslog music? Where can I post my video and comments of pracitising the new music?
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Law Law, to join our challenge, you just start posting daily updates in this thread right here (click the blue text). Post a quick update about one thing you found easy and one thing you found difficult. That thread has a full score of the pieces by Gulli Björnson that we will all be learning! You can practice as many or as few of them as you want, it's not about going through them all, but about practicing a little every day.
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A love this idea and the music. Sadly I wouldn't be able to start it until December 11th. Can I just chip in then if I can commit to it?
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Mark Edwards Hi Mark! Of course you can
join us whenever you can. It's just about practicing some of the new pieces every day and posting a quick update about it. For an extra special challenge, keep it up for 2 weeks from when you start, rather than 2 weeks from now. This way, you'll get the satisfaction on Christmas that you've been practicing every day
This is such a good question that I've put it in the Q&A at the beginning of this thread! Now everyone will know they can absolutely join the challenge late.
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I agree with Law that this is great to get us to learn new music, big up and serious respect to tonebase for commissioning them! I'd love to see more new pieces appearing and entering our repertoire this way.
Mircea as a suggestion for the future if you haven't thought of it already, this format could also work nicely with slightly larger single pieces that we could all learn together over the course of, say, a week. Perhaps even organised for us into bite-sized little nuggets to work on each day?
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Roni Glaser Thank you Roni!!! So glad to hear you like the idea. When it comes to slightly larger pieces, yes, we have been thinking about doing something like this, too. We'll see what the next challenge will be, but if this one is popular with the tonebase community, we will definitely have another one.
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I agree with Roni and others. This is such a great initiative by Tonebase. I have lately been struggling with motivation with my classical playing, just getting a bit tired of playing the same pieces but this has really reignited the fire! Thanks to everyone involved in this fantastic project.
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Jaime Thank you so much, Jaime! So happy to hear you've been enjoying this
Many greets to you and hope to see many more updates (and videos!) from you until the watch party next week!
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Hello Mircea and everyone! My name is André and I am Brazilian.
I heard about this challenge today, December 11th.
I will participate! I'm very happy to have this opportunity. It's an excellent way for me to have discipline for my studies. I will post my daily advances starting tomorrow, ok?! -
Hi Mircea - what time is the watch party? I really hope to attend although I have evening (UK time) commitments
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
