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:

  1. 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!

  2. 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.

  3. 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:

  1. 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").

  2. 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.

  3. 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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  • 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. 

    Like 4
      • Jack Stewart
      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 7 days ago
      • Reported - view

      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.

      Like
    • 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. 

      Like
    • 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!

      Like
    • Eric Phillips thank you Eric. I’m very happy with your listening and sharing your impressions. 

      Like
      • Barney
      • Barney
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

      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...

      Like
  • 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!
    Like 1
      • Jack Stewart
      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 7 days ago
      • Reported - view

      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.

      Like 1
    • 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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      • Barney
      • Barney
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

      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!

      Like 1
  • 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 😣), but hopefully some of the music's spirit comes through.

    Like 2
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