Week 1: In the Salons of 19th Century Paris! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the "Around the 19th Century Guitar World" challenge!
Pick a piece from the 19th century and feel free to share it! Tell us what you love about it, how long you've been playing it, what you're struggling with! Let us into your practice room 
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream! (<- click)
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Ok lets start the Week with Carulli's Andantino Op 241 #5 for a try out of my brand new Wilhelmy 2022 I got a few hours ago!
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Blaise Laflamme Awesome, Blaise! What a great feeling that must be to have a new hand crafted instrument in your hands. You probably never want to put it down.
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Blaise Laflamme Beautifully played Blaise! Enjoy discovering this new beautiful guitar
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Blaise Laflamme Beautiful! and the guitar sounds so sweet!
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Eric Phillips thank you Eric and you're absolutely right, the feeling is great while being puzzling at the same time because the instrument is so different in its construction and sound than the other one.
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER Thank you Sultan, I have many hours of discoveries to come.
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Wai Thank you Wai
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Blaise Laflamme I love it, so nice and warm
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Stefanie Mosburger-Dalz Thank you Stephanie, I'm surprised by the warmth of this Spruce top!
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Blaise Laflamme wow congrats on this new instrument! Its sooo beautiful and I can't believe its only a few hours old, it's going to open up so nicely and only get better!
Love your interpretation of this piece too. The timing and attention to melody makes it sound very much like a romantic piece. Great job!
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Hannah Murphy Thank you Hannah, musically I followed what seems a natural flow for the melody and the harmony. About the instrument, I'm more than happy as it's my first spruce top and I'm amazed by how it already sounds! But yes the better is to come over the next years.
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For those interested in seeing more about this new instrument here's a link to the luthier photos done before the delivery. Also to be noted that the Rodgers tuners are custom with supplied wood from the same piece than the head plate, rose and bridge. Enjoy! https://www.facebook.com/wilhelmyluthier/posts/pfbid02sWYEdDQ459mQJRoMBFsBFiy69ztqmZGBfWMNJMFDGuHedxEyPW1PSs2NUmYkfZPil
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Blaise Laflamme Very nice, Blaise. Nice guitar too. Is he a Canadian luthier?
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Jack Stewart thank you Jack. Yes he is, in Montreal (Quebec) about an hour from home. I got my first one from him in 1991 where I moved the year after around the corner from him. You can visit his website http://wilhelmy.ca
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Blaise Laflamme Beautiful playing, Blaise. I love the attention to detail you bring to even a modest little piece like this. That’s musical integrity! And the new guitar sounds great, as everyone here seems to have already noticed! You are lucky indeed to own such a fine instrument. (Actually, if I understand correctly, you also have a cedar-top from Rene. So you are ‘twice blessed’!) On an unrelated note, does anyone else hear a well-known pop song in the second half of the opening phrase? (The descent from the G to the D.) It reminds me of something very familiar, but I can’t quite place it. (And now it’s stuck in my head, like some kind of ear-worm!
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David Krupka many thanks for your kind words David
I love playing music and make the most out of what a musical work tells me within the range of my abilities and the instrument. Yes I currently own 2 Wilhelmy guitars, a cedar-top (1999) I roughly bought two years ago from the original owner and this brand new spruce-top (2022). I also previously owned one he built for me in 1991 that I regretted having sold in 2005 
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Sor - Andante Allegro Op 44 No 7
This summer on my YT channel, I'm doing something called the Summer of Sor Studies. Every Wednesday and Saturday, I am making a video of a Sor study I haven't played before. This was my video for this past Saturday, so I figured it would be alright to share it here as well.
This one is really fun to play. We don't hear very often from Sor's Opus 44, but I'm really enjoying it.
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Eric Phillips Well done! beautiful study which I didn't hear before, maybe I will also try to play it one day
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER Thank you, Sultan.
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Eric Phillips what a great idea your «Summer of Sor Studies», always great to listen to you and discover tons of music
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Blaise Laflamme Someday, I’d like to play all of Sor’s studies. Right now, there are far too many beyond my abilities.
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Eric Phillips that's a great long term projet, if you don't already have some of the required abilities you'll then get them in no time with your dedication! I don't have this ambition at the moment but I certainly want to play a few of them, some for their technical and other for their musical aspects.
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Eric Phillips Love Summer of Sor! Great interpretation of this one with such nice tone colors. Thanks for introducing us to this piece, I'd never heard it before!
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Hannah Murphy Thank you, Hannah!
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Carcassi Etude No.1 Op.60
This is Etude No.1 by Matteo Carcassi, one of the most joyful etudes to play, I started to learn it almost a year ago and I always love to warm up with it.
What I like of this etude:
- it is a good practice for the lift hand keeping my four fingers always in a square shape near the strings, so all fingers are ready to play almost immediately as they are already near the fret.
- it is a good exercise for right hand strings crossing especially while alternating i and m, it was challenging at first to not make mistakes but it is getting better with time.
The challenges I faced playing it:
- In order to increase the tempo I need to synchronize both hands, sometimes I cut the note earlier so I am still practicing to keep pressing for full duration especially with the arpeggio part.
- The arpeggios are more difficult than the scaly part especially when I try to keep playing with the same tempo, still I need to practice more to play clear notes.
Thank you,
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
