WEEK 3: Mastering Carcassi's Etudes
Welcome to the Main Thread for the first week of the Carcassi Etudes op.60 challenge!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream to get an overview over the etudes!
- Get the Scores here! (<- click)
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 assignments and questions! ↓
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Study 24 final update.
This piece has been such a joy to work on, and I hope to continue working on it forever. I'm going to make it my final post of the piece for this challenge, however.
BTW, does anyone else find that, when recording a piece, as you get toward the end, the only thought in your head is, "Don't make a mistake! Don't make a mistake!" At the end of this one, my hands were literally shaking through the coda as that thought went through my mind. And of course, I made mistakes!
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Brett Gilbert Thank you, Brett! While in some ways, being a professional musician would be my dream, in other ways, it would be my nightmare. Thankfully, I'm not good enough to consider it!
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I am still with 21, now it is memorised and almost good! The mordents with different fingers are coming along. The one that I like less are the ones that start with an open string, sometimes here the sound goes wild! I am trying to look at it very in-depth checking the different movements slowly, try to get a better sound. Not ready to record, tried yesterday and well…. I need to practice them a lot to get a decent recording, it is like a tell all the mistakes! But all in all I am very happy’ my fingertips are again hard and rough after the the less practice I had during the holidays and I feel ready for more hard work. Thank you all!!!!
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Emma Thanks for the update, Emma. I hate pull-off to open strings! They are so hard to make sound nice. I hope we get to hear you play it!
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Emma Fantastic! I find it very relaxing to play through pieces in slow motion. I feel like David Russel when I am i absolute control of every movement, the problem starts when I start to speed up a little to early
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Been struggling for time this week - away last weekend and then child minding Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Managed some early morning practices continuing work on numbers 1, 3, 7, 10, 16 and 19. Started working on the videos this morning but we're having some work done in the front garden which started to get a little noisy.
What I found easy and hard are the usual problems! Trying to get a decent tone with my 'a' finger is a continuing problem, although my nails are a little on the long side.
Videos of 3 and 7 attached below.
Interesting - when I uploaded the video of no 3 Youtube said there was copyright material in the video. I don't know why but I disputed it. Anyone else had a similar problem? Can you think of a reason why Martin?
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Derek Good work, Derek! I wish I could do preparation in the right hand as well as you!
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Derek Thank you for the update, Derek! The a finger always need some special attention, I think by angling the hand a tiny bit more you can create a longer ramp and deepen the stroke a little bit! I've talked about this in my livestream about Tone Quality yesterday !
Uff, fake copyright claims are the greatest b******t in the youtube world, I know several youtube creators who are being held hostage by those fake claims. Sadly, there's not much one can do, as long as you don' intend to monetize your videos you don't need to worry about it, but I really cannot understand how such fradulent practices are allowed by YouTube.
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Derek that’s very nice Derek. You control both pieces so well. Especially no. 3, where you don’t need the score and you are more flexible, free and secure. No. 7 has some tricky passages in the second part, you manage to play it with great control. .
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric - it must be due to Mircea's right hand technique exercises that I practice everyday. Having said that I have been teaching someone who has learning disabilities, looking at Brouwers study no 2, I told him the other week to keep his 'a' finger on the 1st string throughout the first few bars. This week we looked at the next few bars and he noticed that I didn't have my a finger on the string! Practice what you preach!
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joosje Thank you Joosje
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Study 15.
For the last few days of the challenge, I wanted to try something nobody had done yet, and I settled on number 15. Here I am playing through it after making some fingering choices.
What was easy: It's very straightforward, with a simple structure and texture throughout. With a few exceptions, the left hand fingering is pretty clear.
What was difficult:
- In measures 34-39, I debated the fingering a bit. I decided to change the finger I used for the low C, instead of keeping it the same throughout those measures (third finger). It's a bit less legato, but the other way I find very awkward and prone to string squeaking.
- Measure 41 (the second to last measure of the whole piece) has a big C chord with barre played at the 8th fret, and I don't know how to make it sound in tune, due to intonation problems. Is there a way to do this?
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Eric Phillips oh, that sounds so nice. When I tried it , it felt a little boring, but it’s actually a charming study. You play it it so well already, with really good balance between thumb and fingers
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joosje Thanks, Joosje. Charming is a good word for it. Another good word for it right now is slow, but I'll work on that.
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I wanted to talk a little bit more about a certain fingering I did at the end for the first section of Carcassi's No.3, but overall it's a small little video about Philosophy of Fingerings! I hope you enjoy my little 5min session on only 2 bars of this cycle
Let me know what you think and keep on challenging! 
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Martin
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Eric Phillips There is one major difference to your way of fingering that position and mine: I play the barred finger over all the strings (I tell my students to play the barree over all 7(!) strings, haha) instead of only 5 strings, I feel that makes it much easier to fret the 3rd string! Maybe that might help you?
But it is an awkward fingering and even harder to make it feel comfortable and secure. The extended wrist has the potential to hurt you if you overdo that, so try that very carefully and if it just doesn't do it for you then it is absolutely fine if you transition works musically and technically! Your hand doctor doesn't want to hurt you!
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Martin Thanks, Doc! It is definitely easier to make the third string ring clearly by barring all six (seven!) strings - what a great tip! I do still feel the pain in the forearm, I assume due to the extended wrist. Another thing I found is that when barring all the strings, my right hand thumb instinctively goes to play the sixth string instead of the fifth. It's amazing how connected everything is in our bodies.
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Martin I enjoyed that indeed, great to hear how you come to your fingering choices. Your presentation inspiring as always. Thanks!
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Here's me playing Carcassi's Etude no 3.
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Vilio Celli Bravo, Vilio!
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I realized that I never posted my audio recording of Etude #2 which I did last week. Here it goes.
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Dale Needles your intepretation has a personal character. Really nice Dale! :)
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Khiem Nguyen Thanks. I also enjoyed your posts and your interpretation of this and other Etudes.
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Probably my last update: I'll continue to work on the pieces I've been looking at (!,3,7, 8, 10, 16 and 19) and maybe a few more until I achieve a decent performance level of all of them. I've looked a t a few others in the past which I will revive so hopefully be able to play at least 10 of these studies in a few weeks (...months...years etc). I probably won't get chance to do any more recordings before the watch party (unless I manage some tomorrow) so here is my latest recording of number 19 - it maybe simple but I think it is a really beautiful little piece. Recorded straight to my phone - no editing.
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Derek beautiful Derek. It’s not as simple as it looks, but one of the greatest pieces for warming up and ‘feel your fingers’… you control it really well.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
