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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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!).
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Fantasia- Roberto Gerhard. A modern piece - just one year older than me.
Roberto Gerhard studied with Felipe Pedrell (musical father of Albeniz , Granados etc.) and with Arnold Schönberg ( father of serial, atonal,”12 tone music”). Fascinating
That is how far I got in 6 weeks. Recording not to good , stressful. Wish could have taken each part in separate takes, so everything had come out as intended. With some months acquaintance I am confident I will feel more comfortable playing and not training holding my breath for 4 min. I am happy I got started on this unfinished thing.
I don’t buy that thing with something being too difficult. Everybody can do a marathon or climb Mount Everest but it requires patience and motivation.
PS if you don’t enjoy the music please enjoy all the reflections in my shining self French polished guitar
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final submission? Erm, I tried my best, although, there's always a lot to work on, a few squeaks, some difficult transitions and a struggle to maintain legato of the melody at certain points. But it is what it is for the moment.