Week 2: Share your Love! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of the "Music YOU Love" practice challenge!
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↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Hi, folks! To this challenge I thought work "Invierno Porteño", from Astor Piazzolla. I truly love Piazzolla's music. For sure, it will be impossible to finish till February 27 but I guess it's a good choice.
I started doing a structure analysis and the result is (on Feb/09):
Sections
1 - 7
8 - 16.1
16.2 - 19
20 - 31.3
31.4 - 47
48 - 63.1
63.4 - 78
79 - 87.3
87.4 - 98.1
98.2 - 111
112 - EndAfter that, I listened to some YouTube videos, both guitar and quintet, and started the reading process.
At this point, I realized some interesting divergences between the Assad version (that I'm using) and the score for solo violin and strings quartet. For example, the section between measures 9 to 16.1 has significant differences, as well as the cadence (measures 16.2 to 20 in the Assad version). For that, I decided to do my version and the result you can hear in the video.
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Moyses Lopes Ah man, Moyses, that was so cool! It starts off with these lush chords and great bass voice, then the texture picks up around 0:38, and then from about 1:00 onward there is just one voice, but it sounds so angular and rich with all the implied harmonies. Really great stuff! I cannot wait to hear the whole thing.
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Barney thank you for your words! These tiles are from my Portuguese kitchen, they sound good, don't they? I was trained in the Carlevaro technique since I started my guitar studies. In fact, I was born - and started to play guitar - in Porto Alegre, Brazil, very near Montevideo. Unfortunately, I have never studied with the maestro Carlevaro but I used your technique throughout my life. Regards!
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Jack Stewart and Steve Pederson thank you for your kind words!
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Eric Phillips You're a gentleman, Eric! Thank you for your kind words and for listening to my record so thoughtfully. Piazzolla is a great passion I have and I'm really tempted to write a duo version to this piece but for now, I'll keep studying the solo version, is work enough...
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Moyses Lopes Really nice work so far! This is a very challenging arrangement, but you’ve certainly got it under control.
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Moyses Lopes impressive, Moises. I can't wait to hear more of his.
Basically I'm not a fan of Piazzolla on guitar (solo or duo). The interaction between the players, different instruments, timbres, loudness characters, add so much brightness and excitement to the polyrhythmic and layered structure of the music.
But your approach is really convincing and might change my opinion ...
The way you structured the piece makes a lot of sense . After all Piazzolla is a real composer, and not just selling ready made sing along Latin tunes...
It worked well, you give the listener a clear understanding of what's going on. Super.
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Marilyn Blodget Thank you, Marilyn!
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joosje You're very kind, Joosje, I'm delighted to read from you! I agree that music like Piazzolla's can be very challenging to play when you reduce all the lines into one instrument. It's easy to lose the independence that permits fluidity, even because is not the same if a single person plays lines that were played by musicians separately. In fact, I have been thinking about it for years, but for me is even a mystery... Thank you for communicating your thoughts, that's a concern we share!
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O Sacred Head, Now Wounded (St. Matthew Passion)
This month's challenge is sharing the music we love, I was late to the party, but I would like to share this one with you guys. I just started practicing this piece and the chordal movements were very challenging for me. My playing was not good, but the music and arrangement were beautiful. The version I used was from Per-Olov Kindgren, I hope you guys would like it.
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Wai Nice playing on this Wai! I really like this piece(although never played) and you have a great feel for the pulse, balance of voices and phrasing. You are inspiring me to look more at Bach pieces. Thanks for sharing it!
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Wai That was beautiful, Wai. It's good to hear from you again. You seem to excel at Bach, especially his choral pieces. Great job.
BTW, how is the prelude (BWV 1006?)coming along?
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Wai Beautiful post, Wai! Like said Barney, the balance of voices and phrasing is amazing, you made this piece sound really well. Good to hear you again!
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Barney Thank you, Barney. I just started practicing this piece, and there are a lot of things needed to be worked on, hope that I can record a better take next week.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack! After Bach's challenge last year, I really fell in love with Bach's music, but they are all difficult unfortunately
. And well...about the BWV 1006, the version I used was arranged by Lily Afshar and there are 7 pages in it, I still got stuck on page 5, and found out that BMV1006 was an amateur guitarist killer, I don't know what should I do right now.
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Moyses Lopes Thank you, Moyses. There are still a lot to work on, hope that I can make a better take next time.
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Wai Really nice work Wai! Bach would be proud! You play this really beautifully, and I like the ambient sound of birds in the background. Perfect!
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Wai Great to hear from you, Wai, and a wonderful choice to work on. I know the hymn well, but I have never heard it arranged for guitar. It is very effective, and I particularly enjoy the bass lines. I imagine it would be difficult to play legato, with all those block chords, but you are doing it so well already.
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Steve Pederson Thanks, Steve. Wow, I was surprised that you could hear those birds singing in the background, you must be using some high-end headphones.
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Eric Phillips Thanks, Eric. You are right, playing legato and the balance of voices are the most challenging parts of this piece. Playing a piece like this always reminded me of Leo Brouwer's Estudios No. 2., that kind of spacious "cathedral" sounds.
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Wai A very lovely Bach chorale. I really enjoyed your performance!
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Marilyn Blodget Thank you, Marilyn.
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Wai that's very beautiful playing, Wai. it's one of the great Bach chorales from his Matthew Passion. Your sound and voicing are really great. Thank you for sharing with us.
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joosje Thank you, joosje!
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Hi, Just put new strings on my new guitar, sounding better to me. But maybe a bit out of tune? Also cut my right tumb yesterday, but otherwise, still loving to practice this piece. The second part I play a bit slower, but I hope next time I can play the whole piece in one tempo :)
Also it's becoming easier for me to play without being influenced by the "camera" and also being able to continue playing and post it, while making mistakes, saying as a perfectionist ;)
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Hedda Koning That is coming along wonderfully, Hedda. The first section is pretty much up to speed and very musical. The second part is coming along nicely as well.
I notice in this video that you tend to lift your fingers quite a bit while playing, especially the little finger but others as well. I think learning to control those movements would smooth things out considerably. Perhaps spend a few minutes on some scales just focussing on minimizing the movement. This can be frustrating at first (how well I know!) but that will change. I think you can continue to practice this as you are and incorporate the change in your playing gradually.
You are doing great on this difficult piece.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
