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June Live Stream: Monday, June 10th at 7:00pm EST (check your local time zone)
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Hey guys, we are back with Live Lesson EP007! This month’s topic is: Playing with Finesse.
Have you ever learned a song note for note, but it just doesn’t sound right? Oftentimes it’s not only about playing the correct notes, but rather how you play them. In this session, you’ll learn to train your ear to identify the overall timbre of the piece, as well as, tips and techniques to recreate the feel in your playing.
This month’s topic should steer up some great questions! So please post all that you have below and I hope you guys join us for the live stream. 🙂
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For details on how to join the live stream and chat live, please refer to the FAQs HERE.
Yes, everything about this topic is yes!
Unfortunately I will miss the live lesson but I will study it closely after the fact.
First question, how do I learn to lighten up? I’m always getting the feedback that I’m tense, not laid back. True. No matter how hard I try to relax, I’m clamped down and tight. How do I learn to be relaxed and laid back without being sloppy?
I’m unable to recreate a feel I see used a lot by Taimane and Jake.
It’s a technique where the thumb nail moves very rapidly back and forth over a single string. I’m not sure what it’s called. I tried using a thumb pick, but always got caught on the strings. Is there something I’m doing wrong?
Thanks! 🙂My question is about staccato chords, like they happen to be played throughout the current challenge “Tonight You Belong To Me” (G-chord in melody A, and various chords throughout the whole melody B). I don’t know the real name for it, I’m just calling it staccato chords, because in the tabs it’s designated as staccato.
This technique, to stop chords from ringing by relaxing the fingers but still keeping them on the strings, is incredibly useful not just to give the piece character and underline the rhythm, but also to keep my playing tidy and reduce the ringing of strings when changing chords – so I definitely want to incorporate that more into my playing.Now here’s my problem/question: I tend to lose a steady grip on the neck of my ukulele when softening my fingers to dampen the chord and get the slight feeling it might slip – especially when using the U-shaped left-hand form 1 (which I understood should be used for barre chords)… How can I make sure I do still have a good hold on my ukulele while using this technique – even when playing while standing, where I can’t rest the uke on my thigh?
I finally got to a live lesson!
Very valuable and lots of info and technique to keep in mind moving forward.
Thank you all for this site!
D’oh. I forgot about it. I decided to go for a walk to de-stress after the valuer came to look at our house, and I could have just logged on to the lesson. I’ll have to catch up later.
If you missed the lesson yesterday, it’s up today! You can watch it HERE. Here’s a little snippet of what it covers. 🙂
Great lesson! Missed it live. As soon as Matt mentioned ‘tone’ I was wondering what he’d pick to cover since it’s vast. 😁 (and fun)
I’m going to investigate finger angle more, i’m having problems where suddenly i’m playing really dark sounding and it’s hard or impossible to fix once it happens. Don’t know what i’m doing that’s causing it. Finger angle might be able to help isolate what in the world happens.
I learned that something as simple as changing the angle of your thumb (or finger) can drastically change the timbre of the strings when they ring out. It would have taken me a long time (if ever) to even think to experiment that way, but what a difference is makes in the sound!
This lesson definitely gave me lots to practice on. I’ve always found it difficult to play with emotion and dynamics, so it’ll be a work-in-progress for a LONG time.
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