Week 2: Share your Love! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of the "Music YOU Love" practice challenge!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream! (<- link comes soon)
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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martin Hey guys, Got a late start due to left hand injury, but wanted to get current status to you. Could only due one take as left hand still hurts some. I tried to do the piece from memory, which I was working on without the guitar for a while. Had some lapses here, but I see where they are.
I think the left hand injury may have been due in part to a chord in the Copla lyrical section of this piece played in 1st position. It has a stretch with wrist out at an angle, which is held for a bit. I tried to adjust it here, but if someone has suggestions about it, please let me know. Thanks!
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Andre Bernier Thanks Andre! I appreciate your advice about the Chiropractic therapy!
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joosje Thank you Joosje!!
From the video can you tell if the position of my wrist, arm, etc. is in a good and "safe"anatomical form and angle for this passage (in that 1st position with the out stretched wrist)?
I really appreciate your advice about the relaxation method.
I don't have training in the Carlevaro technique, but wondering what those guys would say as well.
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Barney Great work, Barney! This kind of piece is definitely your strong suit. Like most of these kind of pieces, I think I looked at the score and tried playing it for about five minutes, but then said, “No, that’s beyond me.” Your dedication shows and it is really sounding great.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric!
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Barney Played like a boss! Fantastic job Barney! I'm sorry I'm not able to offer any specific suggestions for the left hand position, as I'm not familiar with this piece. All I know is, for myself, if there's something I'm having a real challenge playing, I explore if there's a different way to play it, perhaps by leaving out a note or something or trying a different voicing.
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Steve Pederson Thanks Steve!
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Sor - Minuet Op 11 No 4
Here is an update on this piece after a couple more practice sessions. This is one of those pieces that I could play 1000 times straight and never grow tired of it.
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Eric Phillips Beautiful Eric. I love Sor. Something so pure, and yet so tasty, about his music.
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Sor - Minuet Op 11 No 5 (Feb 18 update)
I'd like to get this one going fairly quickly, in order to contrast with the slow #4 before it. There is one measure, however, that is very difficult for me to play quickly (measure 10). So, I have been practicing a loop of measures 9-10 a lot. Hopefully if I keep at it, the speed will increase.
So here is a video of measures 9-10 looped four times, a video of the entire piece, and also a picture of measures 9-10 in the score.
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Eric Phillips that's very good, Eric. You are almost there. Your loop work seems to have really paid off. Those descending thirds are very smooth. I agree that a slightly quicker tempo would give it a lighter feel.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack. When I listen back, my number one critique is that it feels too heavy.
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Eric Phillips Nice job Eric. It's a fun piece, to be sure! I'm curious how you approach that descending thirds line. (You got me trying it out - thanks for sharing the music image.) I find for myself that my brain takes a while to process some things. What I tried, once I got the notes down, was just focusing on a finger configuration/combination (second and third finger to start the A and C#, followed by first and third finger for the F# and A, and so on) and then just focusing on one finger - in this case the first-string finger - to be the "lead" note - like that's the one I follow. Does your brain work like that too?
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Steve Pederson Exactly. Years ago, I used to practice scales in thirds, but I haven't done it in a while. For this measure, I wish I hadn't stopped.
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Eric Phillips I hear that.
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Marilyn Blodget To my knowledge Albeniz was never in Albania. Oh well! This is an amalgam of Segovia's and Barrueco's arrangements, with additional suggestions from Jason Vieaux. I love the very Spanish flavor of Mallorca, and Eric asked me to play it. It's had a several year rest and a few days of resurrection.
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Marilyn Blodget That was very good, Marilyn. You have a great feel for this music. I would imagine it won't take you long to have this piece completely polished
A few days practice after a several year hiatus, that is really impressive! A few days rest and I wonder if I have ever played a piece before.
Do you (have you) played this on piano?
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Marilyn Blodget Amazing, Marilyn, thank you so much! I can’t believe you got that together so well and so quickly. I will have to listen a few more times to see what musical ideas are in there that I’d like to borrow.
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Marilyn BlodgetEric Phillips Nice Marilyn!! I'm glad Eric asked you to resurrect this piece!
Let's never forget about these great old masterpieces. If you want some inspiration, just listen to Alicia de Larrocha ( i know you already know this Marilyn, as a pianist, haha).
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Marilyn Blodget Wonderful job Marilyn! I'm blown away by anyone who can play this piece (you and Eric Phillips ) with any degree of mastery. Thanks for bringing it to the table. This piece is on my wish list. Some day.
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Jack Stewart Thank you Jack! I have played this on piano. I love them both.
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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 Sounds great so far, Moyses! Love the bathroom tile acoustics. I wish my tiles weer as nice as those, haha. I like the work plan. Your playing has very smooth movements and great tone. Are you using Carlevaro technique?
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Moyses Lopes That is very impressive, Moyses. You have a great start. I am looking forward to your progress. It is always good to hear your work.
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Moyses Lopes Way to go Moyses! I can see why you love this piece! Nice work.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
