Week 4: Celebrating Global Connections
Welcome to the "Around the World in 80 Strings Challenge"! This month, we'll embark on a global musical journey, exploring classical guitar compositions from various countries. The only rule: Don’t play a composer from your home country. Let’s make this a truly international experience!
CHALLENGE TIMELINE
- Challenge Start: Kick-Off on May 15th
- Duration: May 15th - June 24th
- Watch Party: June 24th
ACTIVITIES
- Choose Your Piece: Select a new piece of music to work on. Share your choice in the thread below and inspire your fellow musicians!
- Video Submission: Submit a video of your practice this week. Highlight your favorite passage from the piece that showcases the origin of this piece!
GET INVOLVED
Let’s kick things off with enthusiasm! Share your progress, encourage others, and explore new musical horizons together. Can’t wait to see what everyone chooses!
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Well Paraguay does not sound very exotic for guitarists, but I guess it qualifies for the challenge. This is the Tango #2 by Barrios (it's not clear if there is a Tango #1 - if anyone knows of it please let me know).
Anyway, the opening phrase which repeats throughout the piece is very tricky, and will require a bit more work - although I'm not sure how to practice for improvement here - it simply is an awkward figure - a cutaway guitar would help (I think) but that sort of thing is not my scene - color me conservative.
I decided to play this because I finally acquired the 4th Stover Barrios collection, and chose this piece for its jaunty and playful nature - but as usual Barrios was never motivated to make things easy.
Only problem is that the piece kinda gets stuck in your head - I really need to displace it with something a bit more languid.
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Sam Greenblatt I enjoyed listening to this piece (which I don't know) and your terrific playing. In spite of the quick bar position shift challenges, you maintain good rhythmic consistency and the melody comes through very nicely. Well played and thanks for sharing it!!
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Barney Thanks very much - I am trying to work more on the fun element that should come through, difficult when focusing on the technical challenges.
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Sor Op 60 No 16 (June 10)
Here is snapshot of my continued journey into playing without fingernails. For this study, it just did not feel right to place my pinky on the fingerboard, so my hand position is more similar to where it had been previously, before I cut my nails off. In order to get a decent sound, I need to plant more on the fleshy pad of the finger. I also really need to “grip” the string with the flesh of the finger just before plucking. It doesn’t sound horrible, but I don’t think it’s as nice as my tone was with fingernails. I also find I have less control over the sound and the dynamics. I’m hoping that, with time, my sound and control will develop.
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Eric Phillips I agree your nail sound is nicer but you are early in this journey so I am sure your nailess sound will only get better and already sounds pretty good.
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Eric Phillips I agree with Dale that your sound is not as good as with nails at this early point in your development. However it is much too soon to give in. You actually are playing the piece very well. I mention that because it took me quite a while to be able to play a piece w/o missing notes or grabbing the strings with my fingertip.
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Eric Phillips Very nice Eric.... Don't give up. I am sure very soon you will sound as good as Brandon Acker
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Eric Phillips Hi Eric! i'm sorry... i wanted to see who were the others that replied to Michelle (about "one year...") and got to this post of yours. If i may, i think your left elbow is always too high because the guitar fretboard is high and a little too much to your left. If you try to maintain this same pose without the guitar, you'll realize that having the elbow so raised costs you a lot. If you try raising your hand to your shoulder by flexing the elbow without moving it, that would/should give you exactly the hight and angle of the fretboard for the 5th position or so. If you need me to elaborate we can chat about it privately.
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Ariel Elijovich @eric btw,.. i just saw you playing the lute and the elbow is much better, because the lute is shorter!! I bet you feel better playing the lute than the guitar!! try to move the guitar into a more lute-like position (lower and a little more to the right)
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Ariel Elijovich Thank you very much, Ariel, for your attentive observations and suggestions. What you say makes complete sense. I have not had a teacher or played live with other classical guitarists for more than 30 years now. Obviously, practicing alone without objective feedback can lead to bad habits.
I have not had much time to work on this issue in the last few days. I did quickly try adjusting my guitar support to bring the guitar lower and to the right. It makes sense that this position would be less straining on my right arm, but I could not feel a difference right away in that regard. It did feel uncomfortable, but probably just because it is not what I am used to. Moving it to the right did make my right hand position more difficult (especially this newer right hand position I am experimenting with to play with no nails).
As for my lute playing, I am definitely not more comfortable playing the lute. It's still very new to me, and it feels quite awkward holding it. I actually have found that I cannot play it for too long without getting some pain in the middle of my back, which does not happen when I play guitar.
Thank you again, and I look forward to having more time to try out your suggestion. I have a lot going on right now at work and with my family, so practice time is scarce.
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Sor Op 60 No 16 (June 10 again)
Okay, I’m going to really geek out here and post the exact same piece as I just posted a few hours ago. It was bugging me that I wasn’t able to play it with my pinky placed on the soundboard, but I figured out why. It’s because I was trying to play it with the same right hand fingering I had played this piece with in the past. Once I limited myself to p i and m, I could put my pinky down. This also improved my tone a bit, and especially gave me much more dynamic control. I basically played almost the entire melody with my m finger, which right now is giving me the best tone.
After listening back to this recording, I have also learned that I need to cut my pinky nail (for some reason, I had not cut it off). I’m pretty sure that most of those scratchy noises in the recording are coming from my pinky nail scratching the soundboard.
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Eric Phillips wow... very nice Eric. The tone is definitively better.
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Eric Phillips I agree with Andre, this does sound much more balance with a wider Tonal and dynamics range. It seems like 'losing' your 'a' finger will eventually be limiting, though Dowland seems to have done quite well w/o it. I don't know if Weiss and the Baroque lutenists planted their pinkies also (a question for you are David krupka).
I think this certainly should give you hope and relief that this can be done.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack. I certainly would not want to lose the use my 'a' finger, but much of Sor's music seems to be playable with only minimal use of it (which I think was what he advocated in his method book). I find it very difficult to use the ring finger with the pinky on the soundboard, so I either need work on doing that, lift my pinky only when playing with the ring finger, or abandon the whole "pinky on the soundboard" approach. As you can see, I am still in the experimental phase of this whole thing, and probably will be for quite a while if I can stick it out. Or maybe I'll just give it all up and grow my nails back! (Not that my former technique with nails didn't have significant issues.)
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Eric Phillips You might see if Lorenzo Michelli has any videos that feature his right hand. He plants his pinky on the soundboard and seems to handle it pretty well.
I don't know if it impacts his use of 'a' or how he handles the issue but his playing is pretty impressive. Other options I am sure you have considered would be Ackers 10 day program and/or Virginia Lucque, someone Debbie has mentioned and with whom she studies online.
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Lutoslawsky Folk Melodie #3 Jest drozyna (There Is a Path)
I am not able to practice very much for the time being due to a slice on the tip of my 'm' finger. It is actually heading pretty well but is still a bit tender and I certainly don't want to re-open it.
I'll continue to practice the Ravel piece - slowly and quietly. As a break I decided to try the 3rd Folk Melodie by Lutoslawsky. It is interesting how difficult it has been for me to learn this piece as it is not very challenging.
This is the best of a very large collection of efforts. I'm playing too fast and don't have the dynamics. Still lots of work. Hopefully I can do another recording of this and the Ravel piece. I leave on the 20th for 3 days of the GFA in Fullerton, Ca, so I should have time.
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Jack Stewart I love the harmonic dissonance of this piece. Simple but complex, lyrical and dissonant. Nicely played and no obvious sign of your injured finger.
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Dale Needles Thanks Dale. I like this one a lot, though I am sure it is driving Nu nuts. It is mostly simple but it has some awkward fingerings. It is very sparse which I always find challenging.
I actually made that recording with a bandage on the tip of my finger. Today I was able to play without any protection and seemed to be ok. Only slightly sore.
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Jack Stewart Very nice Jack. A style of music that I am starting to like more and more. Thanks for sharing your work
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Jack Stewart Good playing, Jack. The music was not my cup of tea at first, but the gently rocking rhythm became more appealing as I listened longer.
Is the GFA already coming up again?! I don't really keep tabs on these things, but it seems like just a little while ago you were coming to NYC for it, but I guess that was a whole year ago. Man, time flies! Who are the "main attractions" this year (other than you, of course).
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Andre Bernier Thanks, Andre. I like this piece though, by itself it is somewhat harsh. I have a couple other pieces is this set and when I work them back up it will have a better context for this work.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric. As I mentioned to Andre, this works better in context of the other pieces of the set. When(ever) I rework the other 2 pieces that I have played I'll try to record them together.
I just got back from the GFA last night. It was very good but much lower key than last year(!) NYC. The major attraction was Paul Galbraith, who was great, both in concert and in a masterclass (watched only). I also saw Andras Csaki and the Kupinsky duo in concerts. Bothconcerts were great. I regret not seeing Petra Polakovich in concert but that would have required 2 more days in Fullerton which was a bridge too far. I went there with no expectations (food wise) and it, somehow exceeded my expectations. The only options were fast food and the
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Jack Stewart Welcome back! I’m glad you enjoyed your time at the GFA, other than the food. If you start playing your guitar in the cello position now, I will know why. The Kupinsky duo just had a video released with some great Chopin arrangements - maybe they played some of them in their concert? I had not heard of Andras Csaki, but I just listened to a bit of his playing, and it was outstanding. Petra Polackova is definitely one of my favorites, so it’s a shame you had to miss her. Not worth two more days of Taco Bell though, I guess!
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