Week 1: A Fresh Start 
WELCOME TO THE "A FRESH START" COMMUNITY CHALLENGE!
Embark on a musical journey with our latest challenge, "A Fresh Start". It’s time to dust off that sheet music you’ve been eyeing and dive into a brand-new piece!
CHALLENGE TIMELINE
- Challenge Start: Kick-Off on April 15th!
- Duration: April 15th to May 13th
- Watch Party: Join us on May 13th at 11 AM PST to watch selected submissions!
WEEK 1 ACTIVITIES
- Choose Your Piece: Select a new piece of music to work on. Share your choice in the thread below and inspire your fellow musicians!
- Video Submission: Submit a video of your practice this week. Highlight your favorite passage from the opening bars to showcase your progress!
GET INVOLVED
Let’s kick things off with enthusiasm! Share your progress, encourage others, and explore new musical horizons together. Can’t wait to see what everyone chooses!
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Sor – Le Calme Op 50 B section
I have continued to work on the A section, and I am now adding the B section. To be honest, I am not finding it to be as difficult as it looks on the page. My right hand fingerings are far from ideal, but they seem to get the job done mostly. For a while now I cannot seem to control my i finger, so I avoid using it whenever possible.
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Eric Phillips Ah, I got my fingers backwards. That might explain why I play the way I do, lol.
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Eric Phillips nice one, this part. Well played. These harmonies are just incredible . You have such a beautiful velvet tone. Sounds great.
Somehow, it feels kind of complicated to follow the rhythm at times. I have to check the score.
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Eric Phillips This continues to sound great, Eric. I hope your issue with your index finger is temporary. Despite your digital difficulties your tone is beautiful.
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Eric Phillips Wow, that was beautiful, Eric! Can't wait to hear the whole piece!
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Eric Phillips beautiful Eric. Keep going. What a great piece.
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Eric Phillips Very pleasing, as others have noted.
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I've decided to tackle this beautiful piece, Torroba's "Burgalesa," transcribed to E Major by Carlevaro. I'm also considering recording a tutorial on it! The main challenges include making the melodies sing while minimizing string squeaks and scratches as much as possible. Playing slowly requires a great deal of discipline, especially in maintaining legato!
Link to the Manuscript-
martin I am so happy that you found the time to participate in the challenge. You choose a very beautiful piece and your playing is already outstanding. Thank you for sharing. It is a pleasure to watch you playing so smoothly these tough chord shapes.
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martin Wonderful choice, Martin, and glad to see (and hear) you join! I think Altamira recently put out a video of Aniello Desiderio playing this and sharing some of his thoughts about the piece.
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martin so beautiful, Martin. It’s striking how different the sound is of such a piece played in E major or F# major. It sounds much darker. I didn’t expect that somehow. But the way you play it is so moving. Very beautiful!
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Martin As others have mentioned, it its great to have you join us mere mortals.
Your performance of this is really moving. I have never heard this piece, but then I am not that familiar with Torroba. Looking forward to hearing more.
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martin Very Beautiful, Martin. Great to see you working on a Carlevaro transcription. I really love how he arranges pieces to make the music fall so naturally onto the fingers. If you got this arrangement from Carlevaro online library, you will know the transcription was done in the late 1950s and that Carlevaro performed it about 35 times in public between 1960 and 1981. I am writing this from the beautiful Lot Valley of France. I return home on April 27th and hope to belatedly join the challenge with a fresh start on Carlevaro's Estudio #2.
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Dale Needles Wow! That is a spectacular image. Hope you and Suzanne are doing well and having fun.
Well I certainly wouldn't want to stumble out of that church after too much communion wine.
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Dale Needles wonderful. Where is this, Dale?
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joosje Saint-Cirq-Lapopie
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Martin Very nice; great control and phrasing.
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martin great choice and amazing start Martin, your fluidity is amazing! Carlevaro usually do great transcriptions with wise choices including fingerings (no biased opinion here!
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Dale Needles what a beautiful image, I'm eager to hear you back on Estudio #2
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Eric Phillips Neil Macmillan Steve Price This is always inspiring to listen to your music and the progress you make in your journey. Thanks all for sharing your music.
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Andre Bernier Thank you for your comment. Glad you found something of value in my effort.
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A Fresh start with ALASKA picks.
Here is a first video of F. Sor - Op. 60 no. 1 using Alaska picks.
It is progressing fairly well. More comments in the general discussion forum.
I will work on some other pieces and post more videos soon.
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Andre Bernier Well done Andre. A very good start. I really hope to hear a lot more from you, as you are discovering the rich repertoire of the classical guitar in your own hands. Thank you for posting.
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Andre Bernier You continue to make great progress, Andre.
BTW, I think your playing comes across very softly. Do the Alaska picks enable you to 'dig in' little more? I think your performance would be greatly enhanced if you could develop a wider range of sound. If the picks are not stable enough to increase your volume you might still be able to achieve some dynamic range, even if restricted, which I believe would help give greater depth to this piece.
Continue your great progress.
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Jack Stewart Very good comments and questions Jack. So far it is a learning process. For example, I have to learn to be very gentle with the thumb as the picks increase a lot the tone from that finger. Also, I noted that the ''a'' finger does not get out enough; I may need to use a pick slightly longer or change a bit my hand position. A lot to learn and develop which makes this experimentation interesting.
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Andre Bernier Always good to hear some Sor! The sound quality of the picks seems relatively good, but as Jack says, it is rather quiet. I'm not sure if that's in your fingering or just in the recording. It does look to me that your strokes are rather short, and could go a little more into the palm.
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