Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue

[holly1]

Just finished the strumming course, and really enjoyed learning the cool new ways to add some flare to strumming. I was super excited to reach the end and get to Five Foot Two to showcase my new strums. But curse my small hands! My pinky just can’t stretch that far. In measure 3, I could maybe just barely fake it, but when I reached measure 21… forget about it. No way that one is gonna make it. I’m on my concert ukulele, but I don’t think a soprano will help much. Maybe another strumming song will come along where I can try again.

But thanks for the course!! Loved it. : )

Holly

[holly1]

I pulled out my daughter’s little soprano. I’m not giving up yet! LOL.

[recdog]

Hi Holly,
When I studied classical guitar way back in high school I had a teacher with much smaller hands than mine. I have really long fingers. My teacher could execute stretches that I could not at that time. Those stretches that seem out of reach may become very possible with time.
Ron

[Andrew]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Feel free to post a video and I’ll be happy to take a look to see if there’s any suggestion I can make to help with the stretches 🙂

[holly1]

Thanks Andrew, I will give it some time using the soprano ukulele and see if I can come up with something close. I need to crochet a strap for the neck first so the darn thing doesn’t slip away from me! LOL!

And Ron, I hope you are right!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by holly1.

[becky7777]

Thank you Holly. You pointed out I can probably crochet a strap pretty quick. I’ve been taking my strap off and moving it as needed. 😫 (I want to tablet weave one at some point though.)

If you’re still having issues make a video that’s the #1 Fastest easiest way to get help.

Not sure if this will help you. First, if the stretches are hard take your time! (Grats on the coarse btw!) You totally don’t want to hurt your fretting hand.

With chords or finger positions I have a hard time with (but that I can do) I hold it for a bit and just play out of it. Either what im working on or just made up picking patterns, till it starts getting uncomfortable then I rest. Massage my hand etc.

If it’s a hard stretchy shape like the G7(1)? Try the shape up near the 12th fret (small frets) on your concert. Move down a fret until you feel stretchy but not too uncomfortable and see if you can hang out with a couple chord shapes around there.(anything that covers all the strings and maybe helps stretch.) I’m doing that with a hard chord on ukulele right now. It’s moving slowly down towards the nut.

Another option is to look into different fingerings like with G7(1) in 5’2 as an example. If you can, try barring the 4th fret? and it will free up some finger reach.

Anyway ty for the reminder that crochet can make straps too. 💖

[holly1]

Thanks Becky, Glad I could inspire a little crochet in your life, haha. I will probably try to post a video after I try practicing with a freshly crocheted strap. I think that will help, and as I get used to the chords some, and I will see about practicing out of the skinny frets too. It may take me some time but I hope to get something to share.

[holly1]

I am currently fixing up my Grandfather’s Ukulele, its a little toy soprano, its small and will hopefully have the spacing I need for those stretchy chords. And I hope it will have a good old-timey sound that this song will love. So far I’ve only glued it back together front and back, bought strings, and I’m looking at tuners now trying to find the right look. It’s a project indeed but the right size for this song I believe. Stay tuned…

[andracass]

I just finished the strumming course and really enjoyed it. Now I have to practice, but that’s exactly what I was looking for because it seemed to me that I played in a really boring way and I couldn’t use the potential of this instrument.
Thanks Christopher and thanks Andrew, of course.

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