Thread: What Are You Working On Right Now? (Strings Version)

This is another thread like the one of the same title in the Keyboard forum for all string players to discuss the pieces they are currently working on...

Right now I am working mainly on 3 things (on classical guitar):

J.S. Bach - BWV 1006a
Falla - Asturiana (for voice and guitar)
William Beauvais arrangement of I Will Give My Love an Apple for voice and guitar.

Good work, tdc.

Well, I was working on bwv1001 for a couple of weeks until I learned that one of my bands lost three members including bass player, guitar/vocal and another vocal; leaving me alone for the vocals. So, since then I've jumped into high gear immediately employing keyboards and bass player (it's good to know musicians) but leaving me as the sole singer. That's why I've been learning more and more songs over the last week; cramming as many lyrics of songs the other singers would sing. Also learning some of their parts as I played more of an accent/lead guitar and now I'm the only guitar. Anyway, sorry for the rant.

Was just curious. Only classical or do jazz and other styles like rock count?

Bach First Cello Suite: Prelude.

Dvorak's 9th symphony. It's a beautiful pice but the violin sounds so lonely when played alone though.

A guitar transcription of the fugue from Bach's Violin Sonata No.3 BWV 1005. I, too, play the fugue from BWV 1001. In fact, at one point I learned the entire Sonata, but I could not get the Presto movement as fast as I wanted it. Next up will be Konstantin Vassiliev's Berg-Rhapsody--he takes the main themed and many virtual direct quotes from Berg's Piano Sonata No.1 and weaves them into quite a powerful guitar piece. Parts of it look very nasty to play!

Originally Posted by kv466

Was just curious. Only classical or do jazz and other styles like rock count?

Well I'd say that I'm mostly interested in hearing about the 'classical' pieces people are working on, but its not a strict rule - and talking about other styles certainly isn't off limits or anything.

Works for me...I'll make sure and check back when I'm working on Bach again!

Originally Posted by kv466

Works for me...I'll make sure and check back when I'm working on Bach again!

Nice. I'm thinking I may eventually start another thread like this in the 'non-classical' music section for any of us to chat about our other musical projects. Or if anyone else does I'll surely participate in such a thread.

I've started plunking away at Leo Brouwer's Danza Caracteristica a little lately and I'm finding it darn near impossible so far to get the intro sounding good. I have so far found no one on youtube who can make the intro sound good either EXCEPT GFA winner Ricardo Cobo.

Beethoven D major violin concerto

BWV 1004 (excluding the Chaconne movement) and Max Bruch's Violin Concerto in G Minor..

Originally Posted by grixxviolist

BWV 1004 (excluding the Chaconne movement) and Max Bruch's Violin Concerto in G Minor..

The Bach suite (especially the Chaconne) is something that is definitely on my 'must learn to play before I die' list.

Bach Partita No. 3 (Prelude is quite challenging) and Vivaldi Concerto for 2 Violins.

I dropped the BWV 1005 fugue--I can't get past the "London Bridge is Falling Down" association with the fugue's subject! So, I'm taking a brave stab at Philip Hii's transcription of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (transcribed in A minor). It definitely stretches my technique, but it's such a cool and powerful piece. Since many critics/historians now think Bach composed it originally for lute or violin, the idea of playing it on the guitar is not as ludicrous as one might think! Here's a video of Hii playing it:

Originally Posted by tdc

This is another thread like the one of the same title in the Keyboard forum for all string players to discuss the pieces they are currently working on...

Right now I am working mainly on 3 things (on classical guitar):

J.S. Bach - BWV 1006a
Falla - Asturiana (for voice and guitar)
William Beauvais arrangement of I Will Give My Love an Apple for voice and guitar.

I ended up abandoning all of these ( I did memorize the first page or so of the Bach and plan to return to it). I also finished up Brouwer's Danza Caracteristica - but its a short piece and very easy to memorize, and the only new piece I've learned so far all year. I am currently also about half way through Walton's 4th Bagatelle. Part of the difficulty for me right now, is I can't bring myself to stop practicing all the pieces I've learned over the last 5 or 6 years, which is up to over 20 now, and just getting the time to practice all of these in a given day this year I've found challenging - never mind finding time to learn anything new.