WEEK ONE Updates: Main Thread - Where the magic happens!
Hello and welcome to the WEEK ONE Main Thread for this challenge! 
Since Week 1 is over, this thread is now closed for update submissions
Feel free to continue replying to people's existing submissions, but if you would like to post an update, use the current Week 2 thread.
Alright my friends - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between January 28th and February 19th, I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Download the music:
- Exercises 1 - 12 (← click)
- Exercises 13 - 24 (← click)
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Etude you worked on:
- One thing you found easy:
- One thing you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
Sample daily update:
- Etude you worked on: No. 1
- One thing you found easy: The polyphony between bass and treble flowed very naturally, I had an easy time playing each line like it belonged to its own voice.
- One thing you found difficult: I had a hard time creating enough variety throughout the repeated measures.
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
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- Etude you worked on: No. 4
- One thing you found easy: The switch between "arpeggio mode" and "melody mode" was very easy due to Sor's masterful writing! Never had any trouble with this transition which can be so problematic in other works!
- One thing you found difficult: I needed a couple of tries to come up for a good balance between free stroke and rest stroke in the melody. I'm pretty happy with the result there, though!
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Mircea Hi, like a small piece, it can become big
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Mircea Bravo!
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Mircea beautiful performance Mircea!
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Mircea beautiful!
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Mircea Great performance Mircea. Not one of the studies I'm familiar with
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Mircea Beautifully done!
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Mircea beautiful Mircea
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Giuseppe Gasparini Marek Tabisz Jaime david robinson Ron Eric Derek Thank you so much, guys!!! So happy to see you liked it!
Great job on your own performances, Giuseppe, Derek, and Eric! Will reply to your and everyone else's updates tomorrow, too!
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Mircea nice! Don’t be surprised if you see I’ve stolen some of your ideas!
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Debbie That's what they're there for
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Mircea Inspiring to listen and watch, thanks!
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- Etude you worked on: No. 1
- One thing you found easy: A nice catchy piece
- One thing you found difficult: the difficulty was the fingering of the right hand
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Giuseppe Gasparini bravo Giuseppe!
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Jaime Thanks
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Giuseppe Gasparini Well done Giuseppe!
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Ron Thanks
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Giuseppe Gasparini bravo Giuseppe. Bella!
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Derek Thanks
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Giuseppe Gasparini Beautifully done, Giuseppe!!! Thanks for posting this! I loved the subtle articulation you sprinkled in there throughout the piece (and the little transition at the end!
) Keep it up! -
Giuseppe Gasparini Well done, thanks for sharing it with us here.
In general: I do like this idea of having this "challenge" and to have and being part of this strong and very nice community.
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Great to have another challenge. Just seen the email. Will start today!
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Hi!
Amazing idea! Please do more of that!
Now, back to the topic. :) As a beginner, almost everything is new, so I never even heard these studies (only number 22, which I find REALLY beautiful), and my idea was to try to play it from the score without having an audible reference. After I was able to play the correct notes, I went to Youtube to listen to some recordings. And that
- Etude you worked on: No. 1
- One thing you found easy: I was able to play the correct notes/tempo without much trouble. I was able to separate melody and bass nicely using the rule of note pointing up = melody, note pointing down = bass
- One thing you found difficult: The score says Andante, so I was thinking about a tempo about 60/70, but the recordings that I heard play it much, much faster. How was I supposed to find the correct tempo? On the measures that have 3 Gs in sequence, I was playing it like it belonged to the melody, but from the recordings that I found, that's not the case. Again, what information do I have on the score to tell me that?
I'll try to make it like the recordings that I found and record it for the next update in a few days! :)
Thanks!
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Walter Walter, this is great! Thank you for joining the challenge - very glad to hear you've been enjoying the process!
Great idea, to sightread the pieces before you go check out how it sounds when others play it - I've been using this method for many years to improve my sight reading ability, and it has been working!
There are three things about tempo markings that I think are relevant here - I do apologize if you already know this, just wanted to share my thoughts.
- "Andante" is often associated with rather slow tempi today, however this was not always the case. In the Baroque and Classical period, which this music aligns with (Sor was a classical-era composer, although he was a few years younger than Beethoven), andante was understood to be a rather more lively tempo marking.
- More importantly, before the modern era began standardizing everything into neat little categories, tempo markings were often not pure indicators of speed, but rather "affect", a combination of speed and mood. Andante translates to "walking", meaning "at a regular, comfortable pace". As you can imagine, that is a very subjective definition, and its meaning can vary widely depending on the performer's taste, abilities, and even acoustic space the work is being played in.
- In pieces written in "common time", such as this one, there are situations where you would not treat the quarter note as the beat, but rather the half note (or, in rare occasions, even the whole note). If you treat the half note as the beat, then playing this at 70 bpm is the equivalent of playing the quarter note at 140 bpm.
Basically, tempi are often made up and in this kind of music, you can go with the flow
as long as it is "at a regular, comfortable pace", you're doing it - you're playing it andante! -
Hi! Thanks for the info, I didn't know much of it :)
After listening it from some recordings, I realized that I was perceiving the pulse as the half note, not quarter note as notated, so I started thinking of the metronome pulses as half notes, as you suggested. The thing is: without listening to other recordings, just by reading the sheet I would not have come to that conclusion.
I'll try to record it today and use some skills from martin 's course to make it sound a bit better. :)
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
