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
- Pick your piece – Choose the piece (or section) that's been haunting you. The one you've been avoiding. That's the one.
- Share your goal – Post in the forum thread and tell us what you're finishing and why it got abandoned in the first place.
- Post your progress – Share updates along the way — rough takes, slow-tempo run-throughs, the gnarly passage you finally cracked.
- 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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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.
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I don’t have a good lighting setup. Light is from a single ceiling light which is dimmable. There is also a Bow window the room.
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Maybe you can buy some cheap video lights like these, I'm using another version of them...
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I see a few choices. Is the one you are suggesting the NL660 for $195.99?
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Yes, should be more than enough and they come with the brackets, I currently own a previous version, the NL480, and I had to buy the brackets separately!
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Or anything else you prefer, like if you already own something from another brand and you prefer their look and build.
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I never used any separate lighting, so not sure where they should be positioned for best results. There is limited floor space in the room…. Thanks!
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Up to you to find the right spot, but maybe one on your right or left side, to see which shadows you get and prefer, and one pointing to the wall/celing if they are painted in light color, then it'll diffuse some light. See I'm also in a small room and in the corner, so I have one positioned like that...
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Is the light pointed at the blue screen a backlight? Where and how is the main key light that shines on you and the guitar positioned? How far way and what angle must the lights be in relation to the guitar chair for a good result ?
There is no back wall behind me in the room so not sure how I would use 2 lights...
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If you look at my latest videos I don't have a back wall behind me and I sit in front of the blue bass trap maybe at 6 feet. I also add a mini-led light of top of my left camera (not there on the picture) and I usually have another light on my right side... but I'm currently trying something different with a soft box, maybe I can share a picture tomorrow. It's hard to provide specific positions because each room is different, and you also have to take in consideration your microphones position (because sound is king!) and also not to have the lights reflecting on the guitar.
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Got it. Understood , that we cannot generalize with all the variables in play. Thanks Blaise!
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That was a wonderful performance.
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Thanks Dale!
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This is how it looks with the soft box and how I'm sitting in front of the setup. I also put something between the window and the store the prevent light lines reflection on the guitar, because of my position angle. For now that's the best spot I found in my practice studio to have it kind of «permanent» without the need to position and test everything each time, then I can jump quickly for a take if the momentum is there with minimal effort and consistent results! 😅
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Wow! That looks very professional. It's great that it can be permanent for convenience when recording. It's also a bit complex for a layman like me to determine what will work in my recording environment. ( lots of choices. Soft boxes, Umbrellas, etc, etc.) I think perhaps I'll wait for my son who will visit us in December. He actually gave me his Canon 80D, as he upgraded to a high end Sony model like yours. He knows about "lighting" for Video games creation. ( he works for a division of Microsoft in Redmond, WA as a lighting artist for the "Halo" games. ) Hopefully, he can hold my hand in this process.
Thanks very much for sharing your setup information; very much appreciated!
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That's wise to wait til your son can help you figuring out what's best for you, I had to do it slowly by myself and it's still a work in progress, but at least I get a bit better, or worst, each time! 😅
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That was beautiful Barney. Well done.
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Thanks Jim!
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BWV 996 Prelude. 1st posting
This truly fits the topic for me. I started working on the BWV 996 Suite decades ago. I made it thru all but the Gigue in fairly rough form. I have been chipping away at it again for the last couple of years. I finally decided to try to get the Prelude/Fugue down. I have been working on the Prelude since about the 2nd - 3rd week and have finally gotten it to a place where I feel I am making some musical sense of it. It has been a real challenge for me. I found its rapid flourishes and fragmented structure really challenging. Oh yeah, and the trills (which I think are essential)!
I will need to live with this for a while to get the phrasing and technical aspects under control but at lest this suggests I am on the right track. I have started the fugue but I don't know if I will be able to have it together for posting by Friday (WHAT! Friday! This Friday!).