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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Mallorca Feb 14
Here is another update on this piece. This time I silenced my phone first, so no interruptions! Just for fun, I decided to put some reverb on it. Let me know if you like it.
If you are interested, I have also been working on Jose Ferrer's Op 6, Brisas del Pernaso. Today, I recorded the third piece of the opus, a nocturne. Most of Ferrer's music is at a really good playing level for me - difficult enough to challenge me, but not so difficult that I lose motivation.
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Eric Phillips The Mallorca was excellent, Eric! your phrasing, tone and dynamics names were beautiful thru the entire piece. Really contrast on the B section.
Very impressive!
Very good on the Ferrer as well, though I find it less interesting than the Mallorca (not really fair of me to compare Ferrer with Albeniz).
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack! Obviously, the Albeniz is a much more interesting piece of music. I get great joy, however, out of playing smaller, lesser-known pieces, like the Ferrer. I feel a joy of discovery, and I’m not comparing myself with a thousand virtuoso guitarists who have played the music much better than I ever will.
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Eric Phillips Mallorca keeps improving in all respects. Great work on this piece, and the reverb sounds good at that setting. Are you using only "free stroke" is the piece? It sounds excellent, but may be enhanced with Rest stroke in places where you want more volume or emphasis.
What recordings are you listening to for reference on this piece?
I'm thrilled you are keeping motivated and persistent in your constant improvements on this piece.
Are you more inclined now to explore other Albeniz and romantic Spanish composers?
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Barney Thanks, Barney. I am only using free stroke, which is pretty much all I ever use. For a little while, right after Mircea's virtuosity challenge, I tried incorporating some rest strokes into my playing, but I have let it slide. It just does not come naturally to me at all. Maybe someday I'll work on it again.
As for recordings, I definitely enjoy Matt Palmer's and Tariq Harb's YT videos of it. When I started playing classical, I listened to a lot of Bream, and I certainly know his version of Mallorca fairly well. I can't say that I purposefully have tried to emulate anyone's playing on it though.
As for playing more romantic Spanish composers, I have already played the music of a fair number of them (Tarrega, Ferrer, Broca, Arcas, Cano), but probably not the ones you are thinking of (Albeniz, Granados, Malats), In the past, attempting the monumental transcriptions of these composers has just led me to feeling frustrated and inadequate. I find much more joy in the shorter, simpler pieces that I can get to sound good. But who knows, maybe I could revisit some of them. They definitely are crowd pleasers, I imagine (although I hardly ever play for other people).
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Eric Phillips this getting to a really impressive interpretation. Very pleasant to listen to. Great phrasing and dynamics. It was already said here, but no harm in repeating a compliment. Amazing job. The sound is also very good. And a nice Ferrer for dessert
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joosje Thank you, Joosje! I’d like to try to keep Mallorca in my memory so I can play it for a while. And playing the Ferrer is like dessert for me, because I feel less pressure when playing a piece like this. It’s also a little sugary sweet, with all those romanticisms in it.
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Eric Phillips
Wow. So amazing Eric, and with the reverb I could hardly tell the difference between this and my recording of Julian Bream performing it! I'm so glad you're persevering with this.
I didn't notice it on the other recordings, but it stood out to me, yet very subtly, on this one - I felt like you were trying to find your rhythmic groove within the first few measures, especially mm 4-6. It kinda threw me off a bit and made me go back to the score to see what's going on there. Just at that point. The rest was right on...until you came back to the repeat of this point again later. I know there is a rubato feel to it, but might I suggest running through just those few measures again with a metronome to see - maybe I'm off my rocker, but it might help.
That Ferrer sounds like such a fun piece! Love it! A nice jovial break from the demands of Mallorca!
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Steve Pederson Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate the comparison with Bream, but I still think his playing is light years ahead of mine.
I am not quite understanding where you think my rhythm is off. Is it in the opening bars of the repeat of the A section, when it returns to D minor? If so, I'm not really hearing it. I am not doubting you at all, though, as my sense of rhythm is often a bit wacky.
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Eric Phillips Well, here is an interesting thing. I just listened to the Ferrer again without listening to the Albeniz and I found it very charming. (I also noticed that 'spell check' made my parenthetical wonderfully cryptic by comparing Ferrer with Albania - though nonetheless true. Since corrected)
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Jack Stewart Yes, I caught that typo. Darn autocorrect! I have never been to Albania, but I am sure that the country would compare quite favorably with Jose Ferrer. Perhaps the comparison is a bit apples and oranges.
So, you found it charming? Sounds like you're converting into a Romanti-phile!
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Eric Phillips HEY!
Wash your mouthkeyboard out with soap! -
Jack Stewart I'm surprised that foul word didn't trip the algorithm and slap my post with the dreaded "pending review" tag!
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Eric Phillips I think what's happening specifically is that you're rushing the 16th notes in mm 5 and 6, possibly even a bit in m 7. This stood out to me especially because the of ritard that you took in m 4. The ritard was fine, and even beats 1, 2 and 3 in m 5 were fine, but when you hit that 16th note run you rushed it - so the combination of the ritard and the rushing back to back kinda threw me off. I think the same thing happens later in the piece when you repeat these same measures.
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Eric Phillips Absolutely beautiful Eric. You inspired me to refresh Mallorca this morning. I’ve played it off and on for about 40 years. You said so much with your interpretation. Bravo! The Ferrer was lovely as well.
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Marilyn Blodget Thank you, Marilyn! I'd love to hear you play Mallorca!
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Eric Phillips Ok. I’ll give it a go.
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Eric Phillips Wow! I'm really represented in the comments above, your performance is amazing, and you did a great job with this piece, but I guess that is usual in your recordings... I'll try Jack's tip and will listen to Ferrer later! Thank you, man!
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Really good, phrasing and sense. Just a very small insecurity in the end B section.
the only thing I ( and Segovia) miss is the Ab9 chord in measure 6 and 7. That is the Yates edition. it is the most difficult part of the piece so I understand he changed the chord to a A7.
Bravo!
PS I guess you referred to Segovia fingering because of the famous Michael Chapdelaine masterclass on Mallorca with Segovia. What a confident young man.
good luck with your works.
Unfortunately these days I only get to the guitar a couple of hours each week
Lars
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Update on Lagrima...and a new piece: Venetian Boat Song by Felix Mendelssohn!
I believe I am getting the mechanics down now for Lagrima. There were some fingering decisions that I've had to make that seem to have slowed the process down a bit. I'm still not at the point where I feel free from the mechanics to fine tune the interpretation and dynamics, but Rome wasn't built in a day!
Also, I was thinking that Lagrima wasn't "enough" for this challenge, so I decided to throw another song into the fire. Venetian Boat Song by Mendelssohn is a piece that I have always loved since I first heard Julian Bream perform it decades ago. I've attempted to start it before, but got distracted. This is a perfect time to revisit it. What could be more romantic than gliding along in a gondola in Venice?
I am just getting started with this, so this is a very rough run through of just the first 16 measures - which is interesting, since the entire piece of Lagrima is just 16 measures!
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Steve Pederson Beautiful performance of Lagrima, Steve. Very expressive. Great start on the Venetian Boat Song op. 19.6. I worked on that on a previous challenge (transcription, I think). I found getting the harmonics clear and consistent was really challenging. However, you have them down beautifully. Great job.
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Jack Stewart Thanks Jack!
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Steve Pederson beautiful lagrima Steve. Very lyrical and romantic, I like hearing it that way. And a great start for the mendelsohn. It's a very good transcription by Tarrega. You manage those harmonics so well. I hope you'll share the continuation of the piece here with us. It's worth it - and you can do it.
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Steve Pederson Somehow I missed there here, Steve! Great work! There were a couple moments in the Lagrima that were just incredibly beautiful. That’s what I always look for in that piece. And great start on the boat song. Like everyone said, your harmonics were spot on, which is really difficult.
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Steve Pederson Really beautiful performance on Lagrima, Steve! And "What's coming next" is a great piece too!
Thank you for sharing!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
