Week 1: Setting Sails! ⛵
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the "Music YOU Love" practice challenge!
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
316 replies
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Love the topic of this challenge, and since I will have more time to practice this month, I decided to join the community challenge for the first time. I think it is a great opportunity to finally play Villa-Lobos. I picked Choros No 1. The big question is if I am actually able to play to piece, it is a little more advanced compared to the repertoir I am used to. I read the first phrase of the piece and it seems viable. Let´s see if I can play the A section by the end of the week.
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Andrew York's Squares Suspended practice. Hammering away on Bars 14-32 working on clear slurs and eliminating pesky unwanted sounds by fingers that won't listen sometimes. All in all it's moving along good. The final part is slow practice through 14-32. Isolating the trouble spots before I try the entire piece. Then up to speed around 74bpm.
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Hand – Elegy for a King (Mar 9)
Another day of practice and I’m loving this piece more and more. I did this video as a “one take” only, so it has plenty of mistakes.
In the livestream today, martin gave me a great idea about an alternative way to play the very difficult measure 16 (see picture below). I like his idea a lot, and so it’s in this recording (right at 1:00). Basically, the low F in the bass is changed to an octave higher, the note A in the melody is made a harmonic, and then I just skipped the low C bass note, as I don’t think it is musically essential. The big compromise is the loss of the descending bass line, but I think the sound of playing it like this is just so cool that it is worth it. It’s also quite a bit easier to play (i.e. it’s possible for me to play it now), which is a real bonus!
I’m still not too pleased with the coda, so I will keep working on that.
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Hello martin I would like to take advantage of the challenge to learn a new guitar piece during this month. I was looking at intermediate level pieces on Tobebase by Latin American composers and was thinking of learning Un Dia de Noviembre by Brouwer. Please let me know what you think of my selection or if you have a better suggestion.
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La Maja de Goya was a learning adventure for me during our Covid lockdown. Martin reminded me this morning that I don't want to lose it. Because strings 5 & 6 are tuned to G and D, I have not kept it in my practice rotation. I've spent the rest of today bringing it back. I'm making progress, but this video is from 2020. I am pleased that my fingers and ears seem to remember somewhat what to do.
