Week 3: Waltzes and Whirls 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the third week of "Song and Dance" practice challenge!
Choose a piece that is inspired or transcribed from a song or a dance. It could be a lively south-american danza, a passionate tango, a serene romantic lied, or a poignant aria transcribed for the guitar. You're welcome to explore pieces from unfamiliar composers or challenge yourself with a complex work.
Commit to daily practice and share your journey with the community. Aim to practice every day and upload at least two videos each week to illustrate your progress. This will not only help you stay committed and encouraged but will also allow you to share your musical voyage with our tonebase family.
Share your favorite piece or recording that embodies the theme of "Song and Dance." Your submission will serve as an inspiration to others and create a vibrant pool of potential pieces for other members to delve into.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Sor – Andantino Op 32 No 1
Okay, this is a bit of a stretch in terms of fitting this challenge. I always like to be working on something by Sor. I just finished up Op 47, so now I’d like to move on to Op 32.
My musical goal in this opus will be to play the rhythms accurately, crisply, and gracefully. Each piece in this set of six little pieces seems to have some rhythmic challenges in it. In this Andantino, Sor does something very typical of his style. He adds these little flourishes to an otherwise very simple piece. Each flourish is a little bit different, and poses a separate technical challenge.
The score is attached if you care to follow along.
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Eric Phillips Very nice Eric. Well done as usual. I think that Sor is growing on me
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Eric Phillips Way to go Eric! I absolutely LOVE this piece - and I've never heard it before. You're doing a great job with it. Man, that Sor. Am I right? Throwing all those runs in there. Brilliant!
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Steve Pederson Thanks, Steve. It's such a simple piece, if it weren't for those little runs and flourishes.
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Andre Bernier Glad to hear it. If you want to play some, I'd suggest starting with opus 60.
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Eric Phillips
Yes Eric, This is what I did. I got from Amazon the book ''25 progressives Studies, Opus 60 by Fernando Sor'' and the publisher have a video on Youtube that I can use to watch all studies. This will help me learn them. They also have the tabs in the book but I prefer to use the score to develop my music reading skills. Going slowly but surely in the right direction
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Andre Bernier Sounds great, Andre! I definitely recommend using the score and not just the video.
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Eric Phillips beautiful tone! Great playing as usual!
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Since "Dances" are included in this challenge, here is Spanish Dance No. 10 by Granados. I've played No.5, but never No.10, so this was a nice opportunity to start learning it. This piece is not yet memorized, and I'm still working on it. Here is the status right now.
This transcription for guitar was done by Phillip de Fremery based on Segovia's performance/recording, and is included in the book entitled "Andres Segovia Transcripciones - Obras para guitarra - Vol.3". Segovia never published his own transcription.
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Barney Really beautiful, Barney! I have never heard this one before. It’s so lush but gentle, and the transcription resonates so well on the guitar, as though it was written for it.
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Barney great start on this Barney! like Eric I've never heard this one before, beautiful discovery. Can't wait to hear your final version by the end of the challenge
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Barney Another great selection. Granados works so well on the guitar, and you are already sounding so good. Love your rich tone and the use of timbre and dynamics. Looking forward to the finished product.
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Dale Needles Eric Phillips Blaise Laflamme Thanks very much guys!!
Granados was a wonderful composer, and all the dances are great. When you have a chance, take a listen to Alicia de Larrocha's recording of all 12 dances on piano.
Unfortunately, I will not be available for an updated recording before the end of the challenge.
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Barney This is beautiful and your performance is amazing, Barney. I would be ecstatic if my 'polished' performance could equal your initial rough drafts.
BTW I had a week long workshop with Philip de Fremery in the late 70's. As I recall, he also played w/o nails.
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Barney Very nice piece Barney, your playing and sound are so smooth. Well done
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Jack Stewart Thanks Jack!!
That is interesting about de Fremery's nails and must have been a great experience for you to work with him. He must have an amazing ear and talent for doing transcriptions to create and assemble the volume of Segovia's unpublished pieces I have.
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Andre Bernier Thanks Andre!
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Barney This was really quite good!
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Jinsoo Thanks Jinsoo!
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Barney So cool Barney! A fun and lovely piece, and like the others are saying, I've never heard it before. Good to know there's still some fresh amazing guitar repertoire out there!
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Steve Pederson Thanks Steve! Agreed, so much great repertoire we haven't touched yet. It's the journey that's fun...
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Barney awesome! This is really beautiful. thank you for sharing.
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don Thanks Don!
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I am still working on Canarios, but when I went to the LA Guitar Festival I heard one of the luthiers - Jack Sanders - performing it on his period-specific guitar and I just thought...that's how it's SUPPOSED to be done! The first video is of him playing part of that - reading from the early tablature. I then heard just about everybody else playing that song, and suddenly it doesn't seem so compelling to learn it. It is a crowd pleaser, though, so I will continue to work on it.
Another man that was at the festival was Christopher Parkening. His lesson book was the first lesson book I had for classical guitar, so it has a special place in my heart. There are two songs in the back of the book - or at least in the back of me edition from 1972 - one of which (Kemp's Jig) I have continued to play throughout my guitar career.
Here are the last two songs from that book; Italian Dance and Kemp's Jig...
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Steve Pederson Great stuff, Steve! I especially like your performance of Kemp's jig - so musical with the changes of color and articulation, and then the super cool ornamentation. I'd put your version of it up against anyone's. Great work!
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Steve Pederson Very nice Steve. I agree with Eric, Your interpretation of Kemp's Jig is great. We can see your head and body dancing with your music. Bravo
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
