Hello from Australia

[leggoles101]

A warm hello to all uke enthusiasts. My name is Les, a late starter but enthusiastic. Like many I have tried numerous online and one to one lessons, to no avail. I am beginning to believe that there are people in this world who are not meant to be a musician, myself included. I practise religiously every day for no less than an hour but just going around in circles. I came upon Rockclass 101 and loved it and am willing to give it 12 months. I started my love of the ukulele by making string instruments, Uke’s included. I feel if you make them you should play them, that’s my challenge.

[Andrew]

Welcome Les! That’s awesome that you make ukes, what a cool hobby 🙂 I’d be happy to help you in your playing. I know what it’s like to feel stuck. So, my first question for you is: What do you do in this hour of daily practice? What does it entail?

[leggoles101]

Hi Andrew,Thank you for such a prompt reply.In my hour of practice i tend to playalong with “Jill Reece” online headphones on. So i sound much better than i actually am. I try basic 4 finger picking and basic strumming, down down up up down up. My big problem without playalong is tempo.I just cant get the beat. So i guess my practice is not very well structured, I want to play every song now.

[Andrew]

I wasn’t familiar with Jill, so I checked out that YouTube channel. The reason you find it difficult is the same reason that people struggle with lyric sheets that contain chords above them. That type of “sheet music” does not tell you how many measures to play each chord for.

The strum pattern you described is this rhythm: 1 2& & 4&. Does that make sense to you? If not, I would suggest you check out our beginners course. There’s a lesson on understanding rhythmic notation which will help you understand how beats fit into a measure and how to count them. That lesson is followed by a lesson that has you fingerpicking and strumming simple rhythms while counting.

As a premium member, you have access to the on-screen tab viewer. So for the above lesson, you can play along with the exercises. You can even turn on the metronome and count along while you play.

Start out with these lessons and let me know how it goes. I’d like to see you participate in next month’s challenge, which will be beginner themed. Details will be released tomorrow, so check back on the forum 🙂 Don’t hesitate to email me or post here if you need any help.

Cheers,

Andrew

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