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In my first month when I took up the ukulele, strumming in general was really hard for me. My fingers would often catch in the strings and I had terrible timing. It took weeks of practicing to get a decent sound.
Keep working at it, @miztaken! It may take a while, but your hard work is going to pay off! Keep posting your progress. Then you can compare later how much you’ve improved within a few months’ time. I don’t have any earlier videos of me when I first began, but I wish I would have thought to do that.
Miztaken- congratulations again on your Christmas present! You will have to make sure your new ukulele is ok after it gets there, maybe hubby will let you test drive it briefly?
The la granita (cant spell it from memory) alternate song for november has tapping in it. I spent a few hours using my uke as a drum and found out I can get a few pretty distinct, interesting drum sounds from the front. Maybe you can dedicate the soprano ukulele you said was horribly out of tune up high on the neck, into a uke to practice tapping on? I don’t think I’d personally have the guts to beat on an expensive ukulele, but your “toy” might still be a lot of fun.
@kanae926 – no amount of practice will improve this dud! We tested it with the tuner, definitely not good high up the neck. Could be a good fruit bowl…
It is fine for strumming at the uke group on Sundays, they all sound out of tune anyway 😀
@becky7777 – I felt like beating it last night!!! So it could well become a drum.
And re the new uke… I just have to get there first…HA!@miztaken I was in the same boat last year. Phil ordered me an Ohana uke I had spent months researching to find the one I wanted. He wouldn’t let me have it until Christmas day. I managed to persuade him to let me ‘test’ it beforehand but only got 5 minutes with it 😋
@kayleighb – Ha! I will get the delivery email, so I will know when it is coming, AND I can re-book delivery for a time / day that I am home (hahaha 😀 ).
I shall definitely plan some way of getting my hands on it before Christmas.I started looking at Bad Moon Rising the other day… thinking “I am getting bored at times, and need something new…”
And it made my head spin on the first two chords!
OK so I am not up to that level yet, back to the beginners songs and finish the Finger style lessons.And then I looked at Evan’s videos for some inspiration – baaad move!!!
That lad obviously practices as much as I do, but he has the youth and natural ability which I miss out on. Sigh.So back to desperately wanting to do more, accepting current limitations and practice, practice, practice.
Bugger.
miztaken- Less than a week before you get your new Eucal-lele! 😇 (yeah bad pun) That should make practicing more fun at least! Do you have a song you plan on playing first on it?
kanae- I found a couple songs I recorded in October when I started. I have to admit I’m still terrible but I’ve improved a lot. I still cringe when I listen to my stuff but it’s getting better slowly. Going to try to do video in 2019 so I can get better help. But man I hate cameras on myself…
Watching your own playback is uncomfotable, for sure. I really notice all the good/bad technique from an objective perspective which helps me to fix bad habits. Also…it’s really the only way to get Andrew’s feedback and that’s worth the torture of having to record. I tried writing an email one time to get help on something and it’s easier for him to see/hear instead of reading a description. 😂
On a good note, it also tracks your progress and that always feels good knowing how much you’ve improved. So there’s that sliver of silver lining. 😝
I HATE thumb approach!!!
It is cumbersome, awkward and always sounds plain ugly.
I hate it with a vengeance, and every time I attempt to practice and improve, I just get so fricking angry and frustrated.
I just cannot get it to sound decent to my ears. Yes, I can hear and see slight improvement with endless frustrating practice, but it is still just plain ugly, and I do not want to play ugly.
Argh.
I have the dilemma of:
Do I keep practicing, and practicing (in endless frustration) – I cannot get past bar 2 in Thumb Approach exercise 3…
Or do I leave it for now (as recommended by Beloved Husband) and go back to it some other time (hopefully in 20 years).
I realise that I am just doing the usual childish rant when I come up against something (else) that is difficult for me.
But, I still HATE it. Grrr.If it were me, I’d take your husband’s advice. If things are too hard and I’m not enjoying them any more, I often set them aside and come back to them at a later point. That is exactly what I did with my January challenge!
OMG!!!
Today I took 3 of my ukes to THE best luthier in Sydney!!!!
An hour drive each way, and watching an chatting while he did 3 & 1/2 hours work.
He ended up doing set ups on four of them, because I took my beautiful eucalale to show him (because I am so proud of it), and I already needed new strings on it, and there were a couple of things he wasn’t happy with – so now, it is even better!
Beloved Daughter had picked that my banjolele wasn’t tuned correctly – that became an onerous set up job. Deering Goodtime banjoleles are not without some serious flaws (to a luthier of 40 years, at least. I thought it was fine!!!). Now – it is amazing, and even louder, and it resonates, and is in tune throughout the entire neck.
My Kala tenor, set up, new strings, new batteries for the pick up (because I keep forgetting to buy them), set with low G. Fabulous low action!!!!
But the miracle:
HE TURNED THE FRUIT BOWL INTO A BEAUTIFUL INSTRUMENT!!! He fixed my “Expensive Chinese Toy” Aeirsi concert uke. The bridge had been gouged too deep, the saddle was then cut big and sat ACROSS the bridge seating so there was no contact at all between bridge and saddle (argh), and it was crooked and way high. No wonder it was out of tune, and ugly to play up the neck. My Aeirsi now sings, and the action is even lower than my eucalele!
It will be my travel uke, and no more swearing when playing it.I am very, very happy with what he has done to my instruments.
And because I just don’t know which one to play tomorrow – I shall play them all – all day 😀
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