Week 1: Path to Completion!
End of the Year Challenge: "Finish Strong!" 
As the year comes to a close, it's the perfect time to look back on your guitar journey, celebrate your progress, and set the stage for a powerful finish! Whether you've been steadily refining a piece all year, revisiting past favorites, or holding onto that "one day" project, now’s the time to bring it to life. Let’s wrap up this year with a final push, together!
Challenge Theme: Complete, Conquer, and Celebrate!
Goal:
Choose one guitar piece or project that has been on your list this year. This might be a piece you’ve been working on in lessons, something you’ve always wanted to learn but never started, or a performance you’d like to polish. Dedicate the final weeks of the year to bringing it to completion—whatever "finished" means for you!
Challenge Options:
Complete a Piece: If you’ve been working on a piece throughout the year, let’s aim to bring it to the finish line. Focus on refining tricky sections, memorizing it, or even recording it as a performance!
Start & Finish a New Piece: Is there a piece that’s been sitting on your "someday" list? Dive in! Start fresh, put in dedicated practice time, and see how far you can get by the end of the year.
Polish for Performance: Got a piece you can already play but want to perfect? Use this time to iron out the details and maybe even perform it for friends, family, or the tonebase community!
Challenge Guidelines:
Set Your Goals: Decide on the piece or project and set a few concrete goals (e.g., "play smoothly at tempo," "record a full video," or "memorize all sections").
Share Your Journey: Post your progress, questions, and reflections with the community! Let us know what you're working on, why you chose it, and any hurdles you’re overcoming.
Celebrate the Wins: At the end of the challenge, share your "finished" version! Whether it’s a recording, a progress update, or simply sharing your reflections, let’s celebrate together.
Dates:
This challenge runs from now until December 30th. Finish the year with a sense of accomplishment and the motivation to take on new pieces in the coming year!
Why Join?
This isn’t just about completing a piece; it’s about proving to yourself what you can achieve with focus and support. Join us for a fun, collaborative way to end the year on a high note. 
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Great End of Year Challenge!
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Jack Stewart What are you going to work on?
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Blaise Laflamme I've just started to evaluate my (massive) collection of unfinished and rough pieces. I am trying to be reasonable (
), clear eyed (
) and realistic (
stop it, you're killing me). -
Jack Stewart why not everything at once... as a Christmas gift!
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martin
OK, I am in again and I really like the idea that I have again more than a month to learn a piece and for me as a beginner; this makes a huge difference.
I started last month a piece for Christmas but put it aside to work more on Landslög II.
This is a finger picking adaptation of the Christmas song '' Angels We Have Heard on High'' written for acoustic guitar
. However, it also sounds very good on a classical guitar.Well let's start tonight
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Andre Bernier This is certainly fitting to the time of year. Are you still using Alaska Picks?
I am looking forward to hearing your work on this.
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Andre Bernier nice, looking forward to this.
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Jack Stewart joosje
Thanks for your support
Yes I am still using the Alaska picks. I am used to them now and they are good to almost anything but the Flamenco Rasgueado
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martin
I have two pieces on my plate that are some paces from even my idea of complete :-). Scarlatti Kp. 34 Sonata in E minor and Lagrima. While I have gone end to end I do have a challenging section or two in both, apart from a reliable memory while playing. So that is the goal for me before the year draws to an end; play both of these pieces end to end, record it and share it through a personal diary entry in Tonebase. Wish me luck :-)
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Srinath Subrahmanyan Are you doing your own transcription of K34 and if not from who?
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Srinath Subrahmanyan I just listened to KP 34. It is beautiful. I am looking forward to hearing your progress.
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Blaise Laflamme this was from teh ABRSM syllabus. I was planning to do that exam but other things intervened, and so it is on hold. Attaching the image here.
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Srinath Subrahmanyan that’s indeed a beautiful piece.
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I am preparing for a local open mic for the middle of December. This is a perfect way to celebrate that preparation.
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Martha Kreipke that's great you're doing an open mic, what pieces you'll share with us?
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Blaise Laflamme Lately I have been focusing on our guitar orchestra pieces - we have a concert tomorrow - so it is good to again have a solo performance goal. At this point I have selected 3 pieces in my set.
1. Ah, Robyn, Gentyl Robyn
from King Henry VIII Songbook (1518)
By William Cornysh, Jr. (1465-1523)
By Thierry Tisserand
3. Beautiful Promise
By Hirokazu Sato
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Martha Kreipke great choices, Martha. Looking forward to your submissions!
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Martha Kreipke That's a great inspiration for this challenge.
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Jack Stewart joosje Blaise Laflamme I appreciate the encouragement! Thank you.
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Hello to all, Ihappy to participape...I have some pieces I need to polish and complete.....one I believe is very addecuate for the end of year challenge becouse its melancholic mood: Sor´s Andante Largo Op5 . Nr and/or maybe a shorter piece form Tarrega .......
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JUAN ALONSO you mean Op5#5 I suspect... good choice, that's a beautiful composition.
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JUAN ALONSO great. If that is the andante largo that I think it is, great choice. It’s part of a set of ‘petites pieces’ but it’s far from petite, it’s great.
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JUAN ALONSO I agree with Joosje and Blaise - that is a great piece. And petite it is not! (What was Sor thinking?)
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I have just transcribed Schumann's Winterzeit II op.68.39. So my initial project will be to polish Winterzeit I (from the previous challenge) and work up Winterzeit II.
I am also hoping to finalize the Prelude from BWV 1009.
I had better leave it there for now. Besides, I will be leaving the country for 3 weeks on Dec. 17 so I only have a month to work on these.
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Jack Stewart I'm looking forward to listen to your Schumann transcription and for sure the BWV 1009!
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