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November 1, 2021
Here is an initial run-through of the three sections of the piece. I am trying to follow most of Emmanuel's fingerings and musical ideas.
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Oh cool, you created a Practice Diary dedicated to the Prelude, did you happen to watch the Kick-Off?
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Martin I did and so I re-organized my entries. I will now do a separate string for each piece I work on. Like you said, it would make it easier for anyone searching the diaries later to find a particular piece.
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November 3, 2021
I have now been practicing the A section for a couple days and I am posting my progress. I think the most important goal in this section is to make the melody legato.
I am struggling with:
- Getting good tone. For some reason, my nails just aren't giving me a good sound right now.
- Playing the chord in measure 10 cleanly. It's a tough transition from the previous measure.
- There are a couple of places where a finger has to "hop" a bit which hinders legato sound. Examples are: measure 2 from beat 1 to 2, and measure 11 beats 4-6.
- Staying on my fingertip with the left hand pinky in measures 14-15, allowing everything to ring.
- The last measure is a bit of a struggle. First of all, I've never been good playing a major chord like the D major at the beginning of the measure. Then transitioning to the D6 chord up high is hard to do quickly, and so there is a big gap.
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Eric Phillips thank you for that detailed status update! This piece is on my bucket list!
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Oh Eric so nice! you motivate me to learn it also...and you are learning it so quickly !!! it takes me much longer to be able to play like that something... I love Villalobos music for the guitar...I 've played or learned only the preludes 1 and 3.
I have enjoyed listening to you during my snack lunch!!! thanks for sharing...
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Nora Torres-Nagel Thank you for your kind words, Nora. I had played #1 and #4 about thirty years ago in college. I have since added #3, and now working on #5. All that's left is #2, which I think is the biggest technical challenge. Villa Lobos really knew how to get the guitar to sound so big and beautiful.
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Hey your sound is lovely!!!!! Keep up like that slowly and with good sound. The mantra I keep telling myself
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Emma Thank you, Emma. For some reason, it was sounding very thin to me that day, with a lot of nail clicking.
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November 5, 2021
I have been practicing the B section for a couple days, and here is a video of my progress.
I think this section is the emotional center of the piece, and I want to play it very expressively. The melody is very "cello-like" and is played all on the fourth and fifth strings. The fingering involves quite a lot of shifting, which I hope makes the melody really sing out best. It does cause quite a bit of string squeak, however.
The parts that give me trouble are:
- The repeated figure found for the first time in measure 20. It requires the 2nd and 3rd fingers to "hop" a bit, which can sound bad. I try to minimize it by playing the Bm chord a bit staccato with the right hand.
- The shifting diminished chords in measures 28-29 are not easy for me. I think they sound a bit chunky and I'd prefer them to sound lighter.
- Lots of string squeak all over. I'm not sure if I should find better ways to reduce it, or just let it squeak and be part of the emotional agitation and angst of the section.
(BTW, sorry about the wrong bass note in the second half of measure 22.)
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Eric Phillips beatiful Eric
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Derek Thanks, Derek.
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November 6, 2021
Between last night and this morning, I was able to get a couple of hours practice time, so I'd like to post my progress on the C section. This is definitely the most technically challenging section, and I'm playing it rather slowly still. I'd love to speed it up more, but I think I need to keep it at this tempo for a while until it's very secure.
I ended up changing quite a few of the fingerings that Emmanuel gave for this section. I claim no superiority for my fingerings! I simply found his fingerings to be difficult for me to execute, particularly with my less developed right hand technique. If I had right hand preparation down, I'd probably stick with his.
The biggest trouble spot for me is the transition from measure 36 to 37. I simply cannot find a way to do it smoothly.
I also find measure 39 difficult. The left hand changes are awkward and the chords sound chunky to me.
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Eric Phillips This is really coming along - love the tone and articulation already emerging in your performance. Bravo!
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Rick Lord Thanks so much, Rick!
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Eric Phillips That's sounding good Eric. I keep pulling this piece out and I find this section the most challenging.
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Derek Thanks, Derek. I think it sounds best when this section goes really fast, as a big contrast to the previous section. I just don’t think I will be able to pull that off.
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Eric Phillips thank you for updating us from the start of your attacking this great prélude. Impressive what you can do in such short time. The flow and energy of the piece are already remarkably present.
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joosje Thanks for listening, Joosje!
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November 8, 2021
Here is my first recording of the entire piece. It's chock full of mistakes, but I made it through without having to stop and restart. I'm happy to say that I am playing it from memory without ever really trying to memorize it. For whatever reason, I find Villa Lobos' pieces very easy to remember (at least of the ones I've played).
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Eric Phillips wow... amazing job you did in that short amount of time! I'm happy you've experienced that way of memorizing a piece because it's almost always how it should be, until you have to rush it for a deadline. You definitely should play it at the concert!
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise! Thankfully, I never have any deadlines for anything I play as I never play for anyone but myself. I hope I can play it for the concert, though. Weekends are always a challenge for me as so many other obligations can come up, often last minute.
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Eric Phillips but now you play for us, please don't stop!
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Eric Phillips This is one of my favorite Villa Lobos Preludes, and it is a pleasure listening to you play it! I agree about the ease of memorization for his pieces, as many of them (like #5) are very melodic and singable. Nice job!!
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Barney Thanks so much, Barney. It’s nice when the memorization just happens without even having to focus on it.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
