WEEK 3: Dóbry wétscher (Good Evening)!
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the Nikita Koshkin challenge! This is the place for the Week 3 Submissions!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream for help with the first section!
- Get the Scores Here
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
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Study 9 Update
Here is where it's at right now for me.
What was easy: Tuning the sixth string down to D maybe?
What was difficult: Playing all the notes.
But here are some specifics. - The slurs in measures 11, 16, and 18 sound strained and not beautiful at all.
- The huge leaps and shifts in measures 12-14 I almost never play accurately (including in this video).
- The right hand harmonics in measures 20-23 are so hard for me to play in time. I'd love to be able to pluck them with my thumb, as Koshkin suggests, but I'd have to drop the tempo by about half to hit them in time. So I gave up on that (at least for now) and am plucking them with the ring finger.
- At this tempo, the harmonics in measures 24-27 are rarely accurate. I think I just need to commit these measures to memory so I can keep my eyes on the guitar and not the music. I don't know if this is my age showing, but I find it very difficult to see the correct frets up so high, and I almost get dizzy trying, especially at tempo.
I'll keep plugging away. I really want to be able to play this one well, as I love it so much, but I lose hope sometimes, especially when recording it.
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Eric Phillips Do you really want to be? You're very much like another wonderful guitarist I've heard - think his name was Eric Philips or something like that.
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Derek Thanks, Derek, you speak truth!
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Eric Phillips well done, truly amazing, that you are completing number 9. I can only imagine your progress. I have been working only 3 studies and I can see mine . Congratulations
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Finally got around to recording myself. This is study 1. First time recording so I don’t know about sound quality.
things I found easy- this piece is really nice to practice, so it’s enjoyable to play around with.
things I found hard- getting the dynamics right. Getting ahead of myself and fluffing a note.-
Chris Coghill not sure if I attached that correctly?
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Chris Coghill I was able to watch/listen to it. It sounded great, Chris! Well done.
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Eric Phillips thanks heaps! Yours have been very inspiring! I notice everyone else has YouTube videos uploaded. Do I have to get a YouTube account then attach them- I just uploaded this one from the photo app on my iPad?
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Chris Coghill Yes, if you create your own YouTube channel, it lets you upload videos. It’s a bit challenging at first, but you get the hang of it after a little while. If you can’t figure it out, just let me (or someone else) know and I can write up instructions. Be sure to make the video either unlisted or public. If you make it private, it won’t show up when you post it here.
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Chris Coghill welcome to the challenge and great take on study #1! That'd be awesome if you can upload on your YT channel to share it directly here. Never tried but I think you can upload from your iPad with the YT app. I'm looking forward to your next submission!
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Chris Coghill thanks Eric and Blaine-think it’s sorted now!
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Chris Coghill Congrats! You’re now a YouTuber!
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Chris Coghill woohoo!! that was fast!
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Chris Hi Chris and welcome to the challenge! Glad that you got your YouTube account set up and can share your wonderful performance here!!! Fantastic submission! Let us know with whatever you are struggling with in either this or the next challenge, all of us are happy to come up with ideas, some crazier than the others, haha!
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Chris Coghill what a good interpretation of this study. Thank you for posting (+ the video)
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Chris Coghill Great work Chris
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Chris Coghill I liked it a lot. The rhythm is great and very musical
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Chris Coghill Bravo well done, I like your warm tone.
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Still plugging away with 1,2 and 4, although I have had a look at some of the others. Mainly been trying to get 4 to a decent level though I've also got lots of other pieces which I need to finish soon as well.
Easy (number 4). Bars 4 to 6 aren't too bad.
Hard: bars 7 and 8 are still tricky as are bars 19 to 21
Video attached it fell to pieces a bit at the end but this was about the 15th attempt so it is as it is
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Derek Good work, Derek! This seems to be the most popular one so far, and with good reason. It's a cool piece of music.
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Eric Phillips thanks Eric
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Derek nice to hear you again Derek, great take on this one. It's quite a challenge to raise up the speed, especially in the second part, RH fingerings can be confusing!
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Derek Fantastic, Derek! I actively try to limit my recording attempts, otherwise I wouldn't get done anything at all
Do you actually play it by heart? 
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Derek well done Derek. All of you guys make this study sound simple. But it’s very tricky.
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Derek Thanks for posting a video of #4, sounds great and it looks like you memorized it. I'm working on this right now (along with 3) and it's tough to play at the indicated tempo.
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joosje Thank you Joosje. I think it's one of those pieces where the individual phrases aren't too difficult - it's when you try to put them together that the problems start to appear.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
