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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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,
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER Great job, Sultan! This study is much harder than it looks, and you played it very well.
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER great take on this one Sultan. You're right the arpeggios are a technical and mind shift that need some mental preparation a few notes or bar before!
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER great job with this one! Your right hand looks very efficient and relaxed!
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER SULTAN BAMUKHIER You are doing great on this piece, Sultan. I have never played it but I can see how challenging, and rewarding it would be to play. Great job.
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Sor Study in B Minor No.22 Op.35
I admit I hesitated to record this piece as it is one of my favorite Sor pieces along with Sor study in D Major Op.35 No.17 and I don't thunk I can play it good enough.
I didn't want to ruin its beauty of the piece but this is a recording of my progress learning it.
I first started to learn it around 6 months ago but I only keep coming to it from time to time.
Musically I need to get more convenient playing it so I can focus on improving the balance and shape the music better.
One of the challenges is to play the chords especially when having barres at time while pressing the ringing strings strong enough to avoid buzzing the notes.
Thank you,
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER Does guitar music it get any better than this? I think you are playing it very beautifully, so no need to worry about "ruining its beauty" as you say. Besides, this forum isn't about perfection, it's about sharing the journey.
If I remember correctly, martin has some livestream lessons on this piece and on the Carcassi you played above. You might enjoy hearing his thoughts.
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Eric Phillips Thank you, yes I guess we are here to play, learn and enjoy after all.
Thank you,
I will check Martin live stream I almost forgot about it, thank you for reminding me.
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER you're absolutely right Sultan, we're all here to play, learn and enjoy by sharing our love of music and guitar! Every submission is a gift for this community.
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER that's wonderful Sultan. I enjoyed listening to it
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER beautiful job! I think you're doing a great job with all the aspects you mentioned. So often the things we think are the biggest problems are actually not so bad because we've spent so much time working on them. The next thing I would focus on is improving your tone with the A finger. Because of its position on the hand relative to the strings, it can often be too perpendicular and get a worse sound than your other fingers. If you focus specifically on that A tone, you will improve the sound of your guitar playing in general
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SULTAN BAMUKHIER You play this beautifully, Sultan. I've always liked that Sor Etude as well. I remember learning that piece when I was just starting Classical guitar - 50 years ago!
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Hannah Murphy Thank you Hannah, that is a great advice, I also think it will make a significant improvements as the melody line will sound much better if the tone was warmer, thank you,
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Carulli - Andante con moto Op 320 No 2
This is the second in this set of six andantes by Carulli (I posted the first one above). The score is attached. I love the way the voices in the chords move around, creating tension and release. Again, this is a first take, so plenty of mistakes.
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Coste - Etude
Here is the etude that Hannah Murphy posted above. Great exercise in shifting! Does anyone know where it comes from in Coste's opus? If the score didn't say "Coste" at the top, I would have guessed it was by Aguado. It reminds me very much of the short lessons in his method.
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Eric Phillips Nicely played, Eric! This is taken from Coste’s ‘revision’ of Sor’s ‘Methode complete pour la guitare’. (It is less a revision than a reformulation of Sor’s principles, augmented by a large number of exercises, ‘lessons’ and longer pieces composed by Coste himself.) The study you recorded here is ‘Lecon 9’. You should definitely have a look through the entire volume - perhaps you’ll even find something else to share with us! :-) It’s available on IMSLP:
https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/0/03/IMSLP26443-PMLP58779-Sor_and_Coste_Guitar_Method.pdf
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David Krupka Thanks David, you find it out!!
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David Krupka Thanks, David. If anyone knew, it would be you!
I'll look through it.
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Sor - Andante Largo Op 5 No 5
I have been working on this spectacular piece of music for a little over a month now. Opus 5 is a collection of pieces described by Sor as 'Six Very Easy Little Pieces'. This may have been easy for Sor to play, but not for me!
This video is also a technological first for me. I recorded it in sections, and then edited the sections together in Davinci. It wasn't easy, but I think I did okay. Let me know what you think.
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Eric Phillips hey that was great Eric! Sor probably gave that title to make us feel lamentable
. I'm happy to see you're starting using multiple point of view in your videos 
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Blaise Laflamme I gave it my best shot. For me, the technology learning curve is very steep.
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Eric Phillips you're on the path to master this too and in the end it gives a little humph to the whole thing. Good work!
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Eric Phillips only a month Eric. That is very good! I've been working on this piece for a while and not ready to record it yet! Hopefully later in the challenge!
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Derek Thanks, Derek. I'd love to hear you play it!
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Eric Phillips That was beautifully played, Eric. Your persistence has really paid off. Nice 'Razzle Dazzle' with your editing and camera work.
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Jack Stewart I'm known for my razzle dazzle!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
