WEEK TWO Updates: Main Thread - Enjoying G major (and G minor)!
Hello and welcome to the WEEK TWO Main Thread for this challenge! 
Awesome job everyone! You are doing so great, and I am loving the videos + all the hard work! It is inspiring see the level of commitment/enthusiasm you all have for this music!
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between June 17th - July 8th I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Download the music:
Handel: Chaconne in G major HWV 435
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Variation you worked on:
- One thing you found easy:
- One thing you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
Sample daily update:
- Variation you worked on: No. 1
- One thing you found easy: Learning the notes, and rhythms were rather straight-forward, and not challenging!
- One thing you found difficult: Playing the trills/ornaments in an elegant way was what challenged me the most.
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
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- Variation you worked on: Working diligently on just one variation - but loving it #9
- One thing you found easy: Falling in love with this beautiful music.
- One thing you found difficult: Pursuit of perfection - watching everyone working through all the different versions has made me want to stop perfecting and move on to other variations - but really, I'm not there yet... but so enjoying everyone's videos and feeling inspired.
I chopped off my head in the video and couldn't get another one I wanted to upload... so just audio this time.
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Tim That is beautiful sensitive playing and sounds perfect to me !
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mariannejhampton wow, you made me tear up, thank you, that means the world to me.
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11. needs more practice, but nearly there
Difficult: after the two adagios, 9 and 10, 11 picks up the pace, and finding the phrasing, and rhythym, that makes sense for 11 is not easy. Also I think how you play 11 will affect 12 to 17.
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Variation you worked on: continued work on no. 10 (G minor) and starting no. 19 (G major)
One thing you found easy: having the repetition in no. 10 sound more 'distant' (like the Perahia recording - not saying I can do it like he does but it wasn't as difficult as I expected)
One thing you found difficult: On no. 10: ornamentation is still something to work on (and not that easy - found it way more easy back in the days when playing the organ ;-)) On no. 19: trying to have the left hand like an ongoing flow of notes while the right hand distinctly sounds as the melody.
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Edwin Schalk Sounds great, I guess I should probably do repeats too .. but I'm just so happy to get one good recording. I really love the tone on 10.2 sounds really good. Also like 19.1 - I think I'm going to be living with this piece for a while, so thanks for the beautiful inspiration.
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Edwin Schalk really beautiful and delicate sound in the slow variation, the repetition well pondered too.
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Tim thx. Recognize what you say: I've deleted too many recordings because I messed up in the repetition
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- Variation you worked on: #9 - getting better... loving this one, excited to start #10.
- One thing you found easy: Finally... parts that were impossible are getting easier and even dependable and not just lucky.
- One thing you found difficult: Giving each note the time it deserves and not rushing.
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Tim I like your embellishments in the beginning, have you figured them out by yourself or did you hear them by someone else?
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Elena Nikitina I wish they were my idea
my piano teacher added them though... there are one or two more that are going in, but I can't do them well yet. -
Tim Coming along nicely, Tim!
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Steven Ellner Thanks man, I appreciate that! Now adding trills and wrapping it up for the final week. I'm going to keep working on other variations as I'm really liking it.
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Elena Nikitina Spoke with my teacher - they are from the Barenreiter edition.
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These days I’ve been trying the slow variations 9 and 10.
The most difficult is to overcome the hammer nature of our instrument and “sing” the melody and contrapuntal voice.
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The Variations in g minor of yesterday.
The most difficult for me here is to get grip of all the twists in cadence and between the variations, making them flow into each other smoothly.
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Variation I worked on: 1
One thing you found easy: playing through the melody deciding on articulations to give it a sense of shape
One thing you found difficult: getting the ornaments right without interrupting the flow of the melody and deciding if I want to add other ornaments to add in some improvisation
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12
Difficult. I struggled to make it sound ok and I ended up playing it as a gentle piece of music, with a light touch, so as far as I am able...
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I didn't know there is another thread going on here.
I found Variation 7 very interesting, and made a quick recording by my cellphone.
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I worked on Var 3, 4 and 5 this week. It got too late and I ran out of time to make the Var. 5 video. I think I will jump forward to work on the g minor vars. next after listening to the other beautiful recordings that have been submitted here.
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