learn a piece a week group
 

i tend to be very slow at learning new pieces, and it generally takes me a couple of months to learn a new piece of intermediate level. i also like to arrange pieces, but am also slow at that, so it might take me a month to arrange a piece, the another couple of months to get it under my fingers.

anyway, i thought it might be fun and rewarding to step back and learn more simple pieces. pieces that i can get up to speed on about a week, give or take, without pressure. so easy pieces. or short pieces. i might even learn a set of variations, one variation per week.

i'm wondering if anyone else is interested in participating. we might be able to suggest tunes, or help each other with technical difficulties, recording issues, or just giving positive feedback and encouragement.

i think players of any level could join in. and while i am not a teacher or expert, i'd be willing to help any beginners with finding suitable tunes or with fingerings or other issues. there are huge online collections of pieces available (here's a thread right here with lots of music). there are also many easy lute pieces available, which can be played right from the lute tab by retuning the g string to f#. but that's just if someone doesn't already have pieces to play.

is anyone interesting in doing this?

edit:
join anytime, stop anytime, don't worry about taking longer or shorter than a week.
if you would like some help or a for me recommend a piece, just ask.

I think this is a really cool idea!

I'm in! Your style sounds like mine. I tend to be very non-intense and deliberately slow-paced when learning a new song.

I was just telling a friend that it took me a week to relearn a piece that took me about 3 hours to learn in 1991

stanley myers cavatina is a beautiful piece to play

thats next

I think it's a great idea... though pieces would have to be pretty easy for me to learn in a week! If this thread is still going after mid May when I don't have to practice for the orchestra any more I'd love to join in

I'd be interested. What' the first piece? It's Tuesday already, I only have 6 days, need to get started!:)

hey, that's great - i'm excited. :guitar:

creamburmese, there are lots of pieces you could learn in a week. pieces by sor, or aguado, or gaspar sanz.

here is a pretty little piece by gaspar sanz, espanoletta:
http://www.delcamp.net/gif/gaspar_sanz_espanoleta.gif



if that's a little bit tough to learn in a week there are other pieces.

since everybody is probably at different levels, they will probably be doing different pieces. also, i don't thnk it need to align with the calendar too strickly.

i found a nice, fairly easy arrangement of dvorak's "songs my monther taught me" in a book the other night and plan to work on that. i could send it to you if you would like.

if you would like for me to help you find a piece, let me know your interests and skill level.

glad you are interested. :)

i'll go ahead and post the piece i am working on, in case anyone wants to try it or discuss it. it's by antonin dvorak, and is called "songs my mother taught me". it's was originally written as a song, very overwrought with sappy emotion.

the arrangement is by joseph castle and is in the mel bay book "romantic period music". for educational purposes, here is the arrangement:

page 1:
http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/a...b.jpg~original
page 2:
http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/a...l.jpg~original

a score of the original is available here:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Special:ImagefromIndex/225666

a nice version on violin and piano (instead of voice and piano) is here:


the arrangement by joseph castle varies quite a bit from the original: the key; the melody, the accompanyment; the number of bars, etc. however, it is a pretty piece, nicely arranged for guitar, and just at the right difficulty level for me (if i practice it every day). i remember this song from when i was young, so it is very nostalgic for me.

i found a version of someone playing the castle arrangement, and it is here:


i have made a couple of minor changes to the fingerings and notes, which i can pass along should anyone be interested. but that's enough for now.

Ha! I could probably manage that one - it's going to be a few more weeks before I can get distracted though .. Have a couple pieces I'm working on that are considerable challenges for me in addition to the orchestra stuff- which is another challenge because I have to read the music so can't stare at my left hand :-0

I like the idea of simple pieces to intermix between pieces that only come together slowly. I hope this continues ...

learn a piece a week group
 

- I meant the easy piece of course!

i just added a video to that post if you want to hear it. :)

No tab so I'll sit this one out :(

ha, careful what you wish for. i can find you a tune with tab - or, i'll tab out "songs my mother taught me" for you if that's the tune you want to learn.

lol well I just think that having tab will allow more people to participate - hobbyists like me who do not read music. That being said, for myself I will have to pick which songs to attempt, as I don't think I could learn Songs My Mother Taught Me in a week - a month maybe. So don't tab it on my account.

Summary - I'd like to follow this thread, and if there is a song I think I can master I'll jump on in, as long as there is a tab option. Thanks for the offer to tab this song though that is pretty cool. From my vantage point you must be a very accomplished player!

TK