Week 6:Reflections on the Journey: Final Touches 
End of the Year Challenge: "Finish Strong!" 
As the year comes to a close, it's the perfect time to look back on your guitar journey, celebrate your progress, and set the stage for a powerful finish! Whether you've been steadily refining a piece all year, revisiting past favorites, or holding onto that "one day" project, now’s the time to bring it to life. Let’s wrap up this year with a final push, together!
Challenge Theme: Complete, Conquer, and Celebrate!
Goal:
Choose one guitar piece or project that has been on your list this year. This might be a piece you’ve been working on in lessons, something you’ve always wanted to learn but never started, or a performance you’d like to polish. Dedicate the final weeks of the year to bringing it to completion—whatever "finished" means for you!
Challenge Options:
Complete a Piece: If you’ve been working on a piece throughout the year, let’s aim to bring it to the finish line. Focus on refining tricky sections, memorizing it, or even recording it as a performance!
Start & Finish a New Piece: Is there a piece that’s been sitting on your "someday" list? Dive in! Start fresh, put in dedicated practice time, and see how far you can get by the end of the year.
Polish for Performance: Got a piece you can already play but want to perfect? Use this time to iron out the details and maybe even perform it for friends, family, or the tonebase community!
Challenge Guidelines:
Set Your Goals: Decide on the piece or project and set a few concrete goals (e.g., "play smoothly at tempo," "record a full video," or "memorize all sections").
Share Your Journey: Post your progress, questions, and reflections with the community! Let us know what you're working on, why you chose it, and any hurdles you’re overcoming.
Celebrate the Wins: At the end of the challenge, share your "finished" version! Whether it’s a recording, a progress update, or simply sharing your reflections, let’s celebrate together.
Dates:
This challenge runs from now until December 30th. Finish the year with a sense of accomplishment and the motivation to take on new pieces in the coming year!
Why Join?
This isn’t just about completing a piece; it’s about proving to yourself what you can achieve with focus and support. Join us for a fun, collaborative way to end the year on a high note. 
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Giuliani - L'Oeillet
Another Giuliani's music from op.46, and this one is really difficult. I would like to share a better version with you all, but I am afraid I do not have time to practice and make another recording before the end of this challenge. So I decided to record it today anyway. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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Wai Great work on this Giuliani piece. Which seems quite challenging. This is another of his works that I don’t know. You have a great grasp of this piece. I hope to hear your progress on it whenever you get the chance.
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Wai Wow! I have played several pieces from this opus, but I never even consider trying this one. You not only tried it, you succeeded quite well at getting it under your fingers. Amazing!
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Wai Excellent job on this so far, Wai! It is not an easy one, and you delivered a convincing performance. thanks!
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Wai The carnation? A bit spicy and ruffled at the edges. I really enjoyed your musical painting!
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack! This one is difficult, the position of the notes were actually quite comfortable under the fingers, no big stretch and quite logical, but the speed is just over my limit.
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Eric Phillips Thank you, Eric! It's your performance that inspired me to learn this suite. Before I started, I also wanted to skip this one, but once you try it, the placement of the notes are actually quite comfortable to play, the only problem is the speed. So, practice slowly.
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Barney Thank you, Barney.
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Marilyn Blodget Thank you, Marilyn. Personally, I would have preferred a softer mood for this flower, but the music was indicated as "vivid", perhaps the color and the season gave Giuliani a flamboyant impression. My tempo was quite off, because it was too fast for me, it's hard to keep it steady and clear, need more slow practice.
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I finally managed to record some of my progress on the Vivaldi pieces. I had a hard 4th trimester, but also a beautiful Xmas with our 5 grandchildren .
no time for any editing, just rough recording. I hope to make some better one this week.
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joosje These pieces are really coming together nicely, Joosje. The Largo has a stately charm that you present beautifully. Your ability to maintain an expressive legato despite the the many leaps and position changes is very impressive. I hope you get a chance to post an update, I would love to hear it.
You have also made impressive progress on the allegro. Vivaldi’s Allegros are always quite challenging but you have this one well under way.
It is really nice to hear some Vivaldi other than The Four Seasons and concertos. -
Jack Stewart thank you Jack. I needed some of those encouraging words you always know how to choose. It’s not so simple to make progress in this kind of pieces, not written for guitar (you know all about it.). And of course David Russell had is own virtuosity and impressive tone in mind when he arranged this. Challenge it is.
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joosje These are wonderful, Joosje! The largo just melts the heart, but then the allegro brings it right back again. And it sounds like they are nearly up to performance level, which is an incredible feat. Great work!
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Eric Phillips thank you Eric. I’m very happy with your listening and sharing your impressions.
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joosje Thanks for sharing this with us given your rough time schedule. You never disappoint with your musicality and sound quality. I know what you mean about the David Russell transcriptions---there are always some extra difficult spots to deal with...
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joosje Thanks for sharing the Vivaldi pieces. A lot of hard work went into those pieces— both on your part and Vivaldi’s. As I understand it, he was responsible for all the music performed by the girls orphanage for which he was musical director. He left us almost 600 pieces! I loved listening to your performance!
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A couple updates:
- Sor Op 32 No 5 - I have kept working on this, trying to make it more fluid and more expressive.
- Regondi Etude 6 B section - I am playing this VERY slowly here. It is quite challenging, so I think it will take me quite a while to get it sounding good. It's in Bb major, with continuous 16th notes in the middle voice. At one point, it climbs up to the 14th position. Fun, fun, fun!
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Eric Phillips The Sor Andante sounds great, Eric. It definitely sounds fluent (fluid?) and expressive. Beautiful playing.
Btw - I tried to listen to the Regondi #6 but the posting won’t let nor will it let me listen again to the Sor. (I have to sign in to prove I am not a bot and then I am redirected to a generic YouTube page?!) I suspect it has something to do with being international at the moment. I had the same issue with Andre’s posting earlier.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack. Darn autocorrect!
That issue has nothing to do with being out of the country. I have had it here stateside for about a month now. To watch any videos posted here, I have to tap on the “Watch it on YouTube” button. I wouldn’t bother going through the effort with mine, though, as it’s pretty much just a video of me practicing.
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Eric Phillips Beautiful playing, Eric. -both technically and musically. Your skill level has really improved significantly this year, so Congrats! Thanks for continuously sharing your wonderful performances with us!
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Eric Phillips Lovely phrasing and tone on the Sor. I really enjoyed it.
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Sor - Andante Op 43 No 5
My lack of progress on Regondi's Etude 6 has been really frustrating me. When I get frustrated, I turn to Sor (I know, big surprise).
The Cantabile is the big star of this opus, and is rightly played by many. I think this Andante, however, is just as wonderful. The coda is particularly fun to play, with it's ornamentation and chromaticism. This video is a first take with many mistakes (another pesky B section
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