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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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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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric for your comments. I know that my sound volume was low on this recording. In this case, this was essentially related to the volume level set on the Audio interface. I am not very good at that technology..... Next recording, I will make a sound test before to make the full recording
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Well, this is my very fresh start on the piece, ‘Images from a sea’, composed in 2021 by Thodoris Theodoroudis from Greece.
First, sections A and B . Only a few bars (no bar or tact indications), but the point is to explore colours and dynamics that make sense.. The given pulse is 48.
I’m always quite timid when starting a new piece. It will need time to grow in my hands, and hopefully sound more secure and convincing, with a few weeks. I hope to have the whole part 1 (‘into the sea) more or less controlled within the timeframe of this challenge…..-
joosje
A really impressive start, Joosje. You have created a wonderful mood with this so far. I am anxious to see your progress.
I checked out Emilie Fend's YT channel. In addition to this piece she has wonderful performances of an Etude by Gilardino and by Regondi and a piece by Piazzolla. I haven't had a chance to listen to the others.
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Jack Stewart thank you Jack. Isn’t it fascinating to be surrounded and inspired by all these young talents. I’m in awe of their technical skills as well as their musical expressivity. If I recall the times that I first started playing guitar, this level was just unthinkable.
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joosje It's already very expressive Joosje and it also looks to be quite secure already. I'm looking forward to hearing more of this piece.
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joosje sounds wonderful already. Looking eagerly for the whole piece.
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joosje Very nice, love the mood! Looking forward to hearing more.
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joosje This is really coming along nicely. So moody. This piece has so much range and employs so many techniques, I'm surprised it's not used more as a showpiece and that I've never even heard it. Really impressive.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary Dale Needles Steve Price Derek thanks for your encouragement . I enjoy working on it but it’s not so simple. Very fragile . Need full concentration on very few notes. Rhythm, dynamics and colour need to find a perfect balance and be expressive. I’ll be back here, later this week.
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joosje Very nice and impressionistic. Will be a really nice repertoire piece for you. (I tend to shy away from pieces that demand percussive effects; they never sound right for me, but you've got it).
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joosje Wow, great start, Joosje! I love the dynamics, timbre, and vibrato. It really sets a tone.
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joosje very interesting music from a composer I've never heard music from, just knew the name... you already manage very well most of the sections and also have a very good arc direction, can't wait to hear it by the end of the challenge!
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Thanks Jack Stewart Andre Bernier joosje and Eric Phillips for your comments! Just for fun, I've decided to dive into the F# Major version of this piece!
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martin This was so interesting Martin. It is for sure way beyond my skills but I really enjoyed listening to the piece played in different keys.
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martin Very nice Martin. Years ago I heard David Russell play it on his Torroba album and it didn't sound too difficult so I ordered it. I didn't even make it to the second measure before I quit, lol. It's deceptively difficult. Nice work on this. Your lesson might help me get back to it.
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martin Great work, Martin. It's amazing how the two versions give such a different impression. I'm not sure if the difference comes from the different key, the different arrangement of notes, or the different resonances from the guitar, or all of the above.
I think you're one of the few people who would say that you are playing a piece in F# major "just for fun"! You are correct, though, the key gives it a freshness. Maybe play it in E but with capo 2?
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Martin It is impressive watching your facility to try various fingerings 'on the fly'. Your comments, as always, are very instructive. Thanks for this.
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martin thank you for doing this comparison, that definitely brings a different way of thinking about it. I don't have a strong opinion, while the F# version is the original key and sounds different, the E version has some openness (probably due to open strings and sympathetic resonance) and more fluid fingerings.
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martin Hey Martin! I got a late start on this challenge , and just saw your Burgalesa. I love this piece (I think it is one of the most beautiful in our guitar repertoire). Torroba has so many great guitar pieces, it would be nice to have a Tonebase Challenge for this composer!
I just wanted to mention that the version in Emajor (as recorded by Andres Segovia) is quite beautiful; I recall Angel Romero playing it in this key as well. I believe the sound is better on the guitar, and Segovia's Emajor version is also "simpler" than Calevaro's. ( Note: I recorded the Emajor Segovia version for Tonebase sometime back, and enjoyed how it felt under my hands and the sound. Just my two cents...
Enjoy this piece--it is a gem!
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Today, I practiced a few times at slow speed the Andantino in C major, Op. 59 by Matteo Carcassi.
The goal was to see what kind of tone I could get with the Alaska Picks and see if I can control better the tone of the thumb.
With the recording, I realized my RH is too close to the bridge. I need to pay attention to that aspect. I also noticed I have to keep my RH fingers a little bit farther off the strings as I can sometimes hear the buzz of the picks on a string. I will keep working on it in the following days and get another recording at a more normal speed.
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Hi, everyone!
My name is Leonid, and I am new at Tonebase.
I had decided to learn "Invocation y danza" by Joaquin Rodrigo, but I wasn't sure which revision I should follow. There are many different revisions: Graciano Tarrago (1962), Alirio Diaz (1973), Pepe Romero (1993) and Pepe Romero (1997), and couple of others, for example, Jorje Luis Pastrana (2001) and João Diogo Rosas Leitão (2014). And there are so many differences between them... But, fortunately, I have found edition with Rodrigo's manuscript (it is debatable is it true manuscript, but likely, yes), it was published in scientific article “Invocación y Danza – Homenaje a Manuel de Falla” - a new light on the piece brought by the manuscript by João Diogo Rosas Leitão (2014). I am not sure about copyrights, so I won't post it here, but it can be very easily found in Internet.And yes, this version is pretty unplayable;) Firstly, in the beginning there are harmonics also in the bass line. In the arpeggio section there are sextuplets, not quintuplets. And everywhere there is extreme stretching.
But I don't want to give up!
I retuned not only 6th string of my guitar to D, but also 5th string to G, because there is one bar, that cannot play by another way.
And I use a lot of alternative techniques: my left thumb, my lips, and my right index finger to pressing on the strings. They are not very common techniques, so I can share some videos, how another guitarists can manage them.
Lips technique by Mehrdad Mahdavi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F88ci6ggp5IRight index technique by Paulinho Nogueira: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E6Bkz4W2YA
So... It was only the first week of this journey... I hope, someday I will handle it...
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leonfazulin Welcome Leonid. Invocation y danza is one of my favorite pieces for guitar so I look forward to your progress on it. You have a very good start so far.
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leonfazulin Welcome to Tonebase, Leonid.
What a beast! A very good beginning on this really challenging piece.
My personal approach to selecting an edition would be willing to emphasize 'playablity' as well as the composer's manuscript, especially considering that Rodrigo was not a guitarist. Perhaps try to find the edition by a performer whose rendition you prefer.
I happened across this performance which I thought very good, though there are many that I have not heard. In addition to liking the performance it has the advantage of showing his hands which I find useful in trying to figure out how to approach something that is challenging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSCJLV16duY
Really interested in seeing your progress. Thanks for sharing this work. It got me to explore it on Youtube.
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leonfazulin молодец! bravo Leonid, and welcome to the Tonebase Forum. You made a good and brave start. It’s a very demanding piece, whatever version you choose. Especially the rapid arpeggio movement is hard to solve, and also the polo section is difficult. Looking forward to following your progress You did some research already, It might be interesting for you to check also Rafael Andia’s YT masterclass on this piece. It’s in French but English subtitled, Rafael is an authority on Spanish guitar and techniques. The setting is somewhat old-fashioned but his insights aren’t.
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joosje Excellent suggestion, Joosje. I don't know why, but I didn't even think to check the tonebase library.
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