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
-
First, I want to say how much I enjoyed this Challenge and all the great posts over the past six weeks. I am happy to report that I met my Unfinished Business Challenge by completing Microestudios No. 16 - 20 by Abel Carlevaro. Here is Microestudio No. 20, the final study in Carlevaro's set of 20 published Microestudios.
-
First, CONGRATULATIONS to all those who completed the challenge. Bravo to all.
I thought I'd have this piece under my fingers by now. Ah, well, best laid plans...
Here is my latest recording of my challenge piece - Le Papillon by Giulianni (Op 50 No 13). I started by spot practicing the "tricky" spots (for me) and began run-throughs at 60 bpm. This is at 100 bpm, where it starts to fall apart.
This is probably my final post for this challenge.
-
Hi everyone, I've been rather absent from the challenge and for that I apologize. Life had other plans, one of which was my broken iPhone which I use for recording. I had to find another and chose a refurbished 14 pro which seems good enough and it arrived yesterday! Anyway, the challenge piece. I definitely don't live up to the name of this week's heading of a rising maestro. Some wins: I can play through the piece from start to finish memorized, although with small doubts here and there. Some of the phrasing in the main parts I'm happy with. Still under repair: I'm working on speeding up scales so that I can play the accelerated bits more convincingly. Not quite being able to do so affects the phrasing on those parts. Otherwise, the current state of the piece is pretty representative. If I play it five times there will be different mistakes each time I play it. I think that's a lack of focus and needing to play it more. I'm looking forward to everyone's amazing work in the watch party!