Week 2: Rhythms of Brazil
GREETINGS, ESTEEMED TONEBUDDIES!
Are you ready to embark on a musical journey through the enchanting realm of Villa-Lobos and his South-American roots? With the new release of Douglas Lora's Preludes this Friday and the whole Suite Populare Bresilienne with Fabio Zanon in the making, we are thrilled to present the revamped "Villa-Lobos Voyage Extravaganza," an extraordinary experience celebrating the works of Villa-Lobos and composers influenced by his heritage. Over the next four weeks, dive into captivating compositions, exploring the rich tapestry of sounds and rhythms.
WHEN 
- Challenge Start: Official Kick-Off on July 30th
- Challenge Duration: July 30th - August 30th
- Watch Party of Selected Submissions: August 30th
HOW TO BEGIN 
Select a Piece:
- Choose a mesmerizing piece from Villa-Lobos or a composer connected to his South-American heritage. Options include soulful Villa-Lobos compositions, rhythmic Brazilian-inspired works, or pieces by other artists inspired by South-American musical traditions.
- Choose a mesmerizing piece from Villa-Lobos or a composer connected to his South-American heritage. Options include soulful Villa-Lobos compositions, rhythmic Brazilian-inspired works, or pieces by other artists inspired by South-American musical traditions.
Practice and Share:
- Commit to regular practice and share your progress with the community. Aim for daily practice and upload at least two videos per week to showcase your musical voyage. This keeps you motivated and allows you to share your artistic journey with our tonebase family.
- Commit to regular practice and share your progress with the community. Aim for daily practice and upload at least two videos per week to showcase your musical voyage. This keeps you motivated and allows you to share your artistic journey with our tonebase family.
Submit Your Performance:
- Share your favorite performance or recording that captures the spirit of the "Villa-Lobos Voyage Challenge." Your submission will inspire others and create a vibrant collection of potential pieces for fellow members to explore.
- Share your favorite performance or recording that captures the spirit of the "Villa-Lobos Voyage Challenge." Your submission will inspire others and create a vibrant collection of potential pieces for fellow members to explore.
The heart of this challenge lies in exploring the rich cultural heritage of Villa-Lobos and his musical influences. So, pick a piece that intrigues you and embrace this journey with enthusiasm and curiosity. Together, let's celebrate the captivating sounds of Villa-Lobos and his Brazilian roots. Get ready to practice, learn, and immerse yourself in the Villa-Lobos Voyage Challenge! 
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HVL is one of my favorite composers and Prelude No.1 a favorite piece. I have not played it for quite a while , here is rough recording, many mistakes, planning to polish it during this challenge .
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Dale Needles thank you, will definitely be paying more attention to squeaks in my practice next. This is a very "squeaks prone" piece..
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Calin Lupa thank you for this Calin, your melody on the bass is sounding great. Many of HVL's pieces are indeed 'squeak prone'. I myself have faced challenges with squeaks while playing his etude no.1 ( which I hope to post soon). Hoping to watch more of this prelude.
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Calin Lupa Glad to have you join in, Calin! Being able to play that so well already shows how much you must love it. I am really looking forward to hearing it polished up!
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Calin Lupa You have a great start (restart) on this, Cailin.
You seem to have a bit of lag between the video and sound.
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Gavotta-Choro (Aug 12)
Here is an update on this. I am playing without a score now. I didn't really sit down and try to memorize, it just happened after playing it enough. I had a few momentary lapses during the B section, but I am confident that will get ironed out with time.
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Eric Phillips Very good, Eric. This seems to be an odd piece for VL. It is almost 'pop', not as musical as the Mazurka in my opinion. However, your playing is excellent.
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Jack Stewart Thank you, Jack. I agree that this piece is a bit pop, akin perhaps to Andrew York’s “Home”. That said, I doubt we’ll be hearing it at a Taylor Swift concert anytime soon
(especially since neither you nor I would attend a Taylor Swift concert I’m guessing). -
Eric Phillips Agreed. At the current prices I doubt I will attend any rock concerts anymore. I did take my daughter to see The Rolling Stones in 2013. We were in the nose bleed section for about $150 each I think. Compare that to the $4.50 / ticket I paid to see Jimi Hendrix in 1968. Different times!!!!
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Hi, everyone, I've finally jumped into the challenge. Fast pieces are really daunting for me, but I took it as a great challenge to face it head-on. I tried to play it as fast as I can. This was intentional as I wanted to find out as many mistakes as possible and the mistakes are everywhere! So, I need to practice much slower to iron out the mistakes.
Things to improve:
- Variation in dynamics
- Cleaner shifts between chords. I should really focus on this.
- cleaner sound on barre chords without muting any string.
- harmonics
- and of course, less squeaks
Btw, I'm wondering which notes to accent in this arpeggio. I'm trying to accent the B string (both while ascending and descending). Any suggestions?
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary Very nicely played. Here are a couple suggestions. When shifting positions, it can help to reduce string by using your arm to lift off the strings. This is a technique that Carlevaro taught and if you ever have a chance, check out one of his YouTube videos. He plays with zero string noise and very legato. Another suggestion would be to think about the repeat of each arpeggio as an echo and to play the first arpeggio dolce and mezoforte and the repeat claro and a little piano.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary This is excellent, Nijwm! I don’t think it needs to go super fast to sound good. More dynamic variation would certainly be good. Dale’s idea of playing each repeat differently makes a lot of sense. A “hairpin” dynamic (one that crescendos and decrescendos repeatedly and looks like <> on the score) might be nice.
As for accented notes, I think it can be a great technique exercise to accent a particular note, or even a particular right hand finger whenever it plucks any string. Musically, though, I’m not sure it makes sense to do this, so I would not do it in a performance. Maybe that’s just me, though.
As for the squeaks, the part where I hear them the most is in the section when the diminished chord keeps repeating one fret lower each time. It’s actually not too difficult to eliminate the squeaks here, since only half the chord is on the wound bass strings. When shifting the chord down each time, just lift up the middle and ring fingers, leaving the index and pinky fingers down for stability. Practice it very slowly at first, carefully lifting the two middle fingers on the bass strings, then sliding down with the outer fingers “skating” on the treble strings, and then after the shift, lower the middle fingers back into place. When you lift the two middle fingers each time, be sure to lift them straight up so there is no squeak. Like I said, do it very slowly at first.
If you can’t figure this out from what I have written, just tell me and I’d be happy to make a quick video demonstrating it.
Great work, and I’m glad you joined the challenge.
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Dale Needles Thank you for the suggestions, Dale. I think there's a TB lesson on some of the Carlevaro techniques by Gael Sollal. I'll revisit that lesson and get some tips from there as well.
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Eric Phillips Thank you, Eric. These are great suggestions. Thanks for taking the time to help me with them. For the squeaks in the descending arpeggio sections, I'll try a combination of your suggestion of lifting the fingers on the bass strings. I think moving with the elbow and arm and angling the fingers slightly towards the right before shifting also helps. I'll try them both.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary Great, the Gael Sollal lesson is a good introduction to Carlevaro's left hand technique. I would recommend that you also check out the two Tonebase live streams by Alfredo Escande, Carlevaro's long-time Uruguayan assistant. Also, if you become interested in Carlevaro's School of Guitar, there is a Tonebase Discussion Forum on Carlevaro with some interesting discussion threads and links to some great resources.
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Dale Needles Thanks for that, Dale. I'll bookmark them and watch later.
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Nijwm Bwiswmuthiary This is very good, Nijwm. I use this piece as a technical exercise (up to the end of the descending diminished 7 chords). I have accented the 'b' string on the descending dim7 chords but I wouldn't do it more than that, and even that might be too much. One idea I have had (never fulfilled so it is nothing more than an idea) is to see if there is a short phrase that you could accent over several chords. The ideas that Eric and Dale have presented are excellent.
BTW, I will practice this in 3/8 so that the pattern doesn't line up with the measures. This seems to help with RH finger independence.
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Jack Stewart Thanks, Jack. Some great ideas. Yeah, accenting the B on the diminished chords makes a lot of great sense. It seems to bring out the dissonance as I descend back to the Eminor at the end of the phrase.
Practising in 3/8 also seems a great idea. I still have a poor understanding of time signatures, but you made me explore and learn more
. The livestream that Martin did and his recommendation on speed bursts has also helped greatly. I've also eliminated the use of my M finger and I use only Piai as my M finger is slows me down in this arpeggio. Sanel Redzic also does the same.
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