Week 4
Attention all tonebuddies! Are you ready to embark on a journey of musical creativity and exploration? Join our Arrangement & Transcription Challenge and discover the joy of reimagining music for the classical guitar!
Over the next four weeks, we’ll celebrate the art of transforming works from other instruments, ensembles, or even genres into stunning guitar performances. From Albéniz and Granados to Piazzolla, Bach, Scarlatti, or even your own favorite songs — everything goes!
🎯 Whether you choose to:
Work on a well-known transcription (Albéniz’s Asturias, Granados’s Danza Española, Piazzolla’s Libertango)
Create your own arrangement from scratch
Compare different versions and share your insights
…this is your chance to dive deep into the creative process and share your journey with the tonebase community.
This challenge is open to all levels — from curious beginners discovering their first transcription to experienced players refining their own arrangements. Let’s celebrate the versatility and expressive power of the guitar together!
📅 Challenge Dates
Start: November 11
End: December 11
👉 Join anytime by introducing your project in the comments below!
💡 How to Participate
Pick your piece – Choose an arrangement or transcription that excites you.
Share your goal – Are you learning, arranging, or refining?
Post your progress – Upload short clips, notes, or reflections as you go.
Engage – Encourage others, ask questions, and exchange arranging tips!
🎥 Watch Party Reminder
The Watch Party on December 11 will feature recorded submissions from this challenge!
So make sure to submit your final performance videos and showcase your creative work!
90 replies
-
Sometimes you are just a bit too ambitious. No problem, I keep learning. Some pieces take more than can be done in the time frame of a TB challenge. I wanted to record the piece in one take. And did it…. still a lot of work ahead. Tomorrow I’ll be traveling, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make a new recording in time. But working on this one was rewarding enough.
-
Here is the complete Calambre by Astor Piazzolla, arranged for guitar by Agustin Carlevaro. As I previously wrote, Agustin is Maestro Abel Carlevaro's older brother who was an architect by profession and an accomplished guitarist who is well known for his arrangements of Astor Piazzolla's music along with other tango composers. Still a work in progress but I am feeling it is coming together and just needs a little time to mature.
-
Just wanted to sneak this one in before the end of the challenge, since I have been giving it some attention. It's Angel Villaldo's fun and famous El Choclo, arranged by Dyens, who had a way of making you sound like a better musician than you really are, by virtue of his dynamic instructions. It's almost like cheating! Still a couple of glitches to work out, but this is as good as it will get in the short term.
-
I was hoping (as usual) to record a video but life seems too hectic to get anything complete these days so instead of trying to record something and trying to get the 'perfect take' I've attached a video of a live performance that I did at our local guitar club last week.
The piece is a traditional Scottish tune 'The Bonny Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond' arranged by David Russell. There are a couple of hesitations and mistakes but never mind
For some reason Youtube uploaded it as a 'short;
-
just in time before the challenge ends, here's my final submission of Rachmaninov's Prelude. I am still not happy with the result but I did learn a lot in the last 3 weeks. I really enjoyed arranging/transcribing because it gave me a lot of freedom.
I play the agitato section too slow in comparison to the many version out there but too fast regarding my technique. In the last section I demand a lot from my guitar but it refuses to become a bösendorfer :-)
Disclaimer: the final audio has 6 cuts, it was put together from 3 different takes.