Week 6: Rise of the Maestro

Hello tonebuddies! 🎶

A long time ago, in a practice room far, far away... you picked up a piece. You were excited. You cracked it open, worked through the first page, maybe the second — and then something happened. Life struck back. A new piece caught your eye. The fingering felt impossible. The score quietly migrated to the bottom of a stack where it's been sitting ever since. 🎸

This May, we're bringing back the Unfinished Business Challenge — and we're kicking things off on May the 4th, because what better day to summon the Force and finally finish what you started? Every guitarist has an abandoned piece (or three). This is your chance to rescue one from the Sarlacc pit of your music folder and bring it home.

This challenge is open to all levels. Whether you left off at bar 8 or bar 80, whether it's a Bach fugue or a beginner study that got away — if there's a piece waiting for its return, it belongs here.


🌟 The Challenge

Revisit a composition you started but never finished — and this time, see it through. It might be:

  • 🎯 A piece you abandoned because it felt too hard
  • 🎯 Something you got halfway through before a new obsession took over
  • 🎯 A passage or section you never quite nailed
  • 🎯 A piece you learned years ago but never polished or performed

Share the story of why it got left behind and what it means to finally complete it. That's half the magic of this challenge.


📅 Challenge Dates

Start: May 4
End: June 12
Watch Party: June 12


🎥 How to Participate

  1. Pick your piece – Choose the piece (or section) that's been haunting you. The one you've been avoiding. That's the one.
  2. Share your goal – Post in the forum thread and tell us what you're finishing and why it got abandoned in the first place.
  3. Post your progress – Share updates along the way — rough takes, slow-tempo run-throughs, the gnarly passage you finally cracked.
  4. Engage with your fellow rebels – Cheer each other on, leave constructive feedback, and celebrate every piece that makes it across the finish line.

Bonus points: Share a recording of your favorite performance of the piece you're revisiting — the version that first made you fall in love with it.


🎬 Watch Party — June 12

The Watch Party on June 12 will feature recorded submissions from everyone who completed their Unfinished Business. Make sure to submit your final performance videos so we can celebrate your finished piece together! 🎉


💡 Need a Little Help from a Jedi Master?

If the reason you left the piece unfinished is still giving you trouble, tonebase is full of lessons, masterclasses, and courses from world-class guitarists ready to help you through the tricky parts. Search for the piece, the composer, or the technique — chances are, there's a Master ready to help.


May the 4th be with you, tonebuddies. Let's finish what we started. 🎸⚔️

138 replies

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    • Eric
    • 5 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Frederic Mompou – Canción No. 6

    Okay, so this does not really fit the theme of this challenge, since I had never heard of this piece until last week.

    A performance of this piece by Carlos Bedoya randomly came up while I was walking my dog and listening to music last week. It made such an emotional impact that I decided to see if I could play it. It is originally written for piano. I found several transcriptions, but I ended up using Edson Lopes' transcription as a base, while throwing in a few ideas from myself and others. (Apparently Edson used Alirio Diaz' transcription as his base.)

      • Steve_Price
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

      This is really nice, Eric. I hadn't heard this one before. That little alternating note motif is really pretty. 

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       This is beautiful, Eric. I also had not heard this before, despite having played #10 a couple of years ago. Mompou has a wonderful sense of harmony and melody. Thanks for sharing this discovery.

      Are you planning on trying your hand at the accompanying Danza?😲

      • Eric
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I don't think so, as it's quite fast and rhythmic, which are not strengths of mine. Maybe you could tackle it.

      Soren Alexander Golz performs both beautifully in this video. He transcribed it into E minor instead of D minor. He tuned down a half-step, however, to keep it in the original key.

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I heard Golz's performance of this work and really like it. Oh no, I think the Danza is way beyond my pay grade (hence the astonished face). As I was listening to his Cancion I was thinking this would be a great combination to learn -  at least until I actually heard his Danza! I then thought, well... the Cancion is lovely by itself. 

      • BLaflamme
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       A beautiful piece and take you did Eric. Like Jack I never heard this work before, while I know this composer by name and what Joosje played in another challenge, his compositions are unknown to me.

      • Retired
      • Jim_king
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       A beautiful piece Eric.  Well done.

    • Barney
    • 5 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Here is my  interpretation of "Fantasia on Themes from La Traviata".  I have it mostly memorized at this  point (the 6 weeks helped).  This is based primarily on Tarrega's composition with some elements from Arcas.

    Sorry about the in / out of focus in this video.  Not sure why it happened with this old Canon EOS 80D camera.

      • Eric
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       That was wonderful, Barney! I particularly love your tone when the melody soars up on the second and third strings. It's sweet, but also full and rich, and so perfect for the music. Your slurs are also very well-executed.

      • Barney
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks Eric!

      • Retired
      • Lars_KjollerHansen
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Bravo, truly  Rise of the Maestro. What an achievement. - and the pressure of keeping concentration and stay cool to the end of 7 min recording. Like your tremolo, seldom heard in these challenges. We have to have some diversity in the repertoire, but I guess  this is not my favorite music - What an excellent arranger Tarrega was.

      • Steve_Price
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Excellent work, Barney. A really lovely piece of music very well played. It's inspirational. 

      • Barney
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks Lars!  Tarrega was certainly a great composer and master arranger.  It was very interesting to observe how Tarrega weaved together some themes from Verdi's opera into his own composition. Amazing.

      • Barney
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks Steve!

      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Epic performance, Barney. I can never play through a 7 min piece myself. Everything flowed so smooth and beautiful.

      • Barney
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks Nijwm!!  I try to find some spots along the way for micro-relaxation.  My personal concern is tension  and stretches that may cause injury in my left hand.  The glove helps a little to stabilize the LH thumb, particularly in longer pieces.

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       That is excellent, Barney. Your performance is beautiful and to be able to sustain such high standards for 8.5 minutes is especially impressive. (I struggle at 2' and even that is optimistic.)

      • Barney
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks Jack!  I think memorizing most of the piece helps to not pay attention to my fingers and notes as much , but rather,  to listen as I'm playing to the sound and flow of the music. I guess his helps me forget how tired my fingers really are till the end of the piece;  then I feel it, ouch.😂

      • Amateur guitarist/lutenist
      • David_Krupka
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Very fine playing indeed, Barney! (It's not very often that we get treated here to such a 'showstopper'!) Concerning the authorship of the Fantasia, my understanding is that the attribution to Tarrega is incorrect, and that it is actually the work of his teacher, Julian Arcas. The confusion arose in the early 20th century after a handwritten copy of the piece was found among Tarrega's papers and published posthumously as his own work. While this version does deviate in certain details from the original, it is clearly the same piece.

      About your video, I suspect the 'problem' has to do with your camera's autofocus function, which I assume you're using. Perhaps turning it off will solve the issue.

      • Barney
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks David!  You are correct about the Arcas/ Tarrega authorship.  Thanks for clarifying it for our audience. ( you are so knowledgeable; Are you a musicologist?)

      Yes,  I have the camera set to "Auto".  Thanks to reminding me about that.

      • BLaflamme
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       That was excellent Barney, what a performance and you sustained it till the end! I think you’re right about memorization, at least for me it makes sense and it helps a lot managing all other challenges a piece like this brings to the table. Like David I think the problem is the auto-focus, combined with your microphones position and possibly the lights, you can see the focus switching from you to the microphones. Maybe you can position your camera and/or your microphones a bit different?

      • Barney
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you very much Blaise!

      Thanks for you suggestions about the focusing issue.  Your videos always look and sound amazing, so I will need to do some experimenting with the set up.

      • BLaflamme
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks Barney, in fact I experiment almost every time by changing something somewhere! In your case, without changing too much, you probably can lower down a bit the microphones and higher up a bit the camera, then they won't appear anymore within the frame.

      • Barney
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       When I do my next recording  I will try the things you mentioned.  I need to also figure out  the best camera settings.  Thanks again Blaise!

      • BLaflamme
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       The camera settings would depends on the light setup you have, I would say try at all cost to not have light from the outdoor as it changes all the time, that would be similar to have a moving microphone while you record, hard to work with after!

Content aside

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