WEEK 4: The Journey with J.S.Bach's Music! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the last week of the J.S.Bach Challenge! This is the place to post submissions of the fourth week!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
If you want to describe your process (optional), feel free to use the following template.
- Things you found easy:
- Things you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
- (Optional:) questions
↓ Reply below with your submissions and questions! ↓
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One final take before the end of the month. Getting better, just forgot how the ending goes :D.
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matt Great work, Matt. Your sound is spectacular.
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matt Very good, Matt. This looks like a very challenging piece. I am not familiar with it but those runs in the middle look daunting. It lulls you with these gentle arpeggios, and then, all of sudden, you're thrown into these really challenging free form scalar passages. Bach then returns to the arpeggios as if nothing has happened. Tricky indeed! Great job.
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matt Bravo Matt! Some of the parts of this piece seem like an Eddie Van Halen solo!
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matt Great work, Matt! Bravo!
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matt beautiful playing, Matt. Thank you for this.
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matt beautiful sound Matt!!!
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My last post to this challenge, an update on my work on Prelude BWV 998. Still are a lot to do, but I am very happy to get together with Bach's music again. Thanks to ToneBase and all of you that gave a piece of your time to listen to my posts. That's a great community!
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Moyses Lopes That is wonderful, Moyses. You play this Prelude beautifully.
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Moyses Lopes Beautiful, Moyses! You have memorized that so quickly! Very good playing.
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Moyses Lopes beautiful. Thank for this posting. Wonderful phrasing and flow.
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Thank you, Jack Stewart , Eric Phillips and joosje for the kind words!
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Moyses Lopes beautiful …. So clean and flowing, very legato. Bravo, thank you for this
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Gigue from Cello Suite 1
I almost forgot about this last item! (Sorry Eric Phillips I'm not going to get to the "Sleepers Awake" for this challenge.
) I haven't really been working on this, but I figured I would give it a run through real quick as it is part of my "solo note" transcriptions from the cello suite.
I wasn't going to record it because I was getting all caught up in the right-hand fingerings. Then I thought, why not?
My thought with this piece now, and maybe the minuets as well, is to add the bass note accompaniment on the repeats. That should give them some variety.
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Steve Pederson Nicely done, Steve. I like the idea of adding bass notes on a repeat, and I hope we get to hear you play it that way.
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Steve Pederson very nice Steve. I like the flow and sound . Really good.
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Steve Pederson This piece is really beautiful, and you have a great start. As said Joosje, is a very fluid melody. Maybe it a hard work to put at tempo, but sure you will. Thank you for posting!
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Steve Pederson Well done, Steve. I agree with Eric about adding bass line in the repeats. You might even consider adding a few to the initial time since guitar doesn't have the 'gravitas' of a cello
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I give a second try of the Loure, with a corrected(?) apoggiatura in bar 1. And a little bit cleaner tone, overall
I practiced the whole suite (partita) but the prelude is, for now, above my skills. This Loure is almost under control. Recording will be helpful to refine the interpretation. Thank you Tonebase for challenging us like this.-
joosje You're so expressive!! This Loure is sounding beautiful, thank you for playing!
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joosje bravo!!! Very expressive and beautiful . Is it a dance?
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Moyses Lopes Emma thank you. Yes Emma, it’s apparently an old French dance, “slower than gigue, usually in 6/4 rhythm”
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joosje So good, Joosje! You convey a very clear pulse with heavy and light beats that make this sound very elegant. Great ornaments as well.
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Eric Phillips thank you so much for your generous comments, Eric.
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This gavotte en rondeau is a very tricky piece. I practiced it for these three weeks, but I’m not there yet. The recording situation still makes me nervous and the nerves gave in during the last verse, unfortunately. I cannot make a second take now. It’s such a great piece, I will keep working on it. There’s a lot to say about the ornaments. I had to make a choice, but might change my views later.
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
