WEEK 2: What we've experienced!!!
WELCOME TO THE MAIN THREAD FOR THE SECOND WEEK OF "End of the Year" PRACTICE CHALLENGE!
- Select Your Piece(s): Choose one or more pieces that you've learned this year. It could be something you've practiced through our live streams, a personal favorite, or a challenging piece you've conquered.
- Record Your Performance: Film yourself playing your selected piece(s). Quality doesn't have to be professional – it's all about sharing your progress and passion.
- Share Your Journey: Post your video in our community forum under the "End of the Year Challenge" thread. Include a brief write-up about your experience learning the piece – what challenges you faced, how you overcame them, and what this piece means to you. If you don't want to record yourself, show us a video of a piece you plan to take on in the next year!
- Engage with Others: Watch, comment, and encourage your fellow community members. Share your feedback, experiences, and celebrate each other's progress.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Giuliani - Six Variations on Folies d'Espagne (Thema, Var. I, II, III, IV)
After the Sor's music challenge last month, I've continued my Folies journey and returned to practicing Guiliani's version. Guiliani's version is no easier than Sor's, and for me, it might even be more challenging. The octave playing in Var. IV is a real pain (I wondered how Wes Montgomery would have sounded if he played this one
). Currently, I can only manage to play the first four variations at a slower tempo, but I'm hoping to speed up a little bit next year.It's my third Christmas with Tonebase, and I wanted to express my heartfelt appreciation for this lovely community that shares and plays guitar together. You guys have brought so much fun to my guitar journey, and I'm truly grateful. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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Wai Excellent, Wai. Your playing this past year has really made excellent progress, very impressive!
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Wai Bravo, well done Wai. I enjoyed them very much.
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Carlo Martins Thank you, Carlo. I found both the 3rd and 4th variations quite challenging (and the 5th and 6th variations are even more difficult
). Nevertheless, Folies remains one of my favorite pieces, and one of my resolutions for next year is to explore and play more versions of this wonderful composition.
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Andre Bernier Thank you, Andre!
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Stefanie Mosburger-Dalz Thank you Stefanie! It's hard to play them fluently, I hope I can play them better next year.
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Dale Needles Thank you, Dale. Any progress I've made has come from this supportive community. Without joining Tonebase, I would never finish playing a piece, let alone making a recording, so thank you to all of you.
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Jim King Thank you, Jim!
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Wai Bravo Wai, this sounds great! I'm impressed by your continuous progress since I've met you here. You remind me how beautiful is this piece by Giuliani, one of the first score I bought (but never played
). The 5th variation is definitely my favorite, can't wait to hear you play it!! As a side note, in variation 3 take care when you switch chords (with the same position) to not switch your left fingers in block on the beat as it makes them ring before you play them, I suggest to move fingers as you play them with the right hand or to prepare on the beat (but breaks the legato). Also take care to play all notes equally one after the other in variation 4 and not pluck the octaves almost together. Great work!! -
Blaise Laflamme Thanks, Blaise! You correctly pinpointed the technical problems of both variations 3rd & 4th and those were the more difficult parts to play.
As for the 5th, I am afraid I will never be able to play it because my small hand cannot hold all the notes in the following bar: 
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Wai you're doing great Wai, no worries. The last variation has also it's drawback with pointed rhythms at tempo, but for the 5th I would propose you a quick exercise to ensure progressive elasticity for the left hand fingers extension. Start with the top thirds as quater notes (as written), then after a block of at least 4 repeats play the top thirds as eighth notes and then sixteenth notes (on each bass notes). Be sure you already have a bit of practice in your hands before doing the exercise, I don't want you to hurt yourself!!
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Wai Beautiful Wai! I loved your performance! Las Folias was danced to a set choreography in the court of Louis XIV. This was notated by Feuillet. My daughter studied Baroque dance with a leading French Baroque dance master. One of her fellow dancers performed all the variations.
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Wai This is beautiful, Wai. It is an interesting contrast to the Sor set. You have made amazing progress over the year(s) and it has been wonderful watching it unfold. Now all you need is to pick up Ponce's little set of variations on Folias to complete the trilogy.
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Marilyn Blodget Thank you, Marilyn! I often wonder if people in the past would dance to guitars like they do to flamenco today. Regardless, my favorite version is Arcangelo Corelli's Op.5 No.12 'La Folia.' I could listen to it all day.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack! I've never heard Ponce's version before, but after listening to it on Youtube, wow, it's more like a hand-wrecking variation of Folias. I still want to keep my fingers intact, let's let other brave souls try it.
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Wai Happy New Year Wai! It's been a pleasure having in our guitar community. Always nice to hear your performances, including this one. Beautifully done; part of the fun is working out the difficult passages and then incorporating them back into whole piece. Keep up the great work!!
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Yes, Christmas presents for my 9 grand kids done, and new year resolution almost fulfilled. So I can relax.
here 3. Mvmt. A little desperate and unpolished, but gonna get it thru a couple of hundreds runthroughs next year, so I feel I have fulfilled my new year resolution satisfyingly. This is a technical challenging piece. This is best of 4 imperfect. But not really better than 3 months ago with whole sonata in one shot…
..Dec 19 update..
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Lars Kjøller-Hansen Oufff, what a preformance Lars. This is such a difficult piece to play. Well done, bravo
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Andre Bernier Thank you and bonne noël
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Lars Kjøller-Hansen The monster returns! Your performance is always impressive, Lars, even in an 'unpolished' state. I hope you continue to share your progress on this. This is a really impressive piece and you are very close to mastering it.
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Lars Kjøller-Hansen Well done Lars. If this is unpolished, I hope you will post your more polished version when it is ready. Merry Christmas.
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Jim King Thank you Jim and merry Christmas and a happy new year on your guitar journey
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Jack Stewart Thank you Jack, can always count on you
. Merry Christmas and a enjoyable new and happy guitar year -
Lars Kjøller-Hansen This quite a challenging piece, and looks like it's progressing nicely. I know you will master it at your own pace(as I've enjoyed some of your other beautiful submissions). It looks like we have similar taste in the Spanish repertoire. Thanks for sharing it!
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Thank you, Barney. Yes those spanish pieces are number ones. I have been away from TB and my guitar for a whilem but now discovered and enjoyed your beatiful rendition of Torrobas Sonatina. Another “classical” piece. As always with you beautiful and expressive. And I remember simular excellent mvmt 1 and 2 from earlier.
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Here is my recording of Landslög 1 to compare to my recording of last january. This time, I did not use a metronome in order to introduce some speed variations like the wind blowing on the beach of Iceland. Also, I tried to follow the score indications for the tone intensity.
I am not sure yet of the results. Well, comments (good or bad) are all welcome. I will use them and try for another recording before the end of the challenge.
Merry Christmas to All
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
