Participate in the February 2019 Member Challenge – Music Reading Course!

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Viewing 15 posts - 61 through 75 (of 158 total)
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  • #25164
    rickeymike
    Participant

    This huge light bulb just turned on in my head….. For a solid week I’ve been studying the A string then I tried the first 2 bars of Ode. For one solid week, it sounded so “off”. I would play A-A-B-C C-B-A over and over again and it sounded terrible. So today I started the E string and just skipped to the 5th bar. It sounded perfect!!! THEN…. I looked at the first bar again, I didn’t see the flat on the B line before the timing signature, so all this time I was playing the natural B on those first couple of bars..GRRRRR. Back on track and 10 days to go.

    #25165
    annefgodfrey
    Participant

    Andrew, this is only A Melody of Bouree. I am giving my all to learn the complete piece & am reading actual notes vs. ukulele tabs. Will keep going but February is passing quickly.

    I realize to qualify for entry for this month’s challenge, the piece must be played in entirety.

    #25166
    annefgodfrey
    Participant

    This is played from memory. Finding notes & playing picado is akin to “rubbing head & patting belly” then, switching back & forth!

    #25177
    smudge
    Participant

    Hello! I am in the same boat as planetfink. I know how to read music, but I haven’t learned how to translate that to the ukulele fretboard. Sooooo, I am working on that now!! This is my entry for February with Ode to Joy:

    #25183
    ayin08
    Member

    Thanks

    #25185
    lynettejd
    Participant

    February Challenge – Ode to Joy

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by lynettejd.
    • This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by lynettejd.
    #25189
    Andrew
    Keymaster

    ayin08 – well done! Great job on the timing too. The only suggestion I have for you is to scoot your right hand back just a little bit. Check out this guide to see where we recommend hand placement. And keep up the great work! 🙂

    cncamacho – great job and glad to hear you enjoy the Low G content! What I would turn your focus on when practicing is timing. Now that’s not to say that your timing is bad, because it’s not, it’s pretty good; but it can be a bit tighter. When you practice try to always play along with the metronome or the on-screen tab viewer. That’s the best way to strengthen it.

    annefgodfrey – you are rocking it so far! Excellent job on the picado technique and your plucking attack sounds great – strong, yet warm. I know we talked about that and I can see you’ve been working on it, that’s awesome! Keep at it and I look forward to hearing where you end up. Don’t worry about playing the entire song, if you can get the next section or two as strong as this one, that’s what really matters 🙂

    smudge – Alright, so let’s talk about the chord melody first – it was awesome and I really dig the changes you through in there! Your timing is excellent too.

    So here’s the thing with the first part (single note melody), you started out really strong and then had a fumble in the third melody, but you never quite recovered. So if you listen back you hear that you continue playing, but if you tap along, you’ll notice that the beat was lost. So if this was to happen and you were playing in an ensemble, what you would need to do is fall out and come back in. The key here is to always know where the music is relative to the beat/bar. Now as a solo performer, you would want to keep going and play through your mistakes, but again always know where the music is relative to the beat/bar.

    lynettejd – great job! I’d actually recommend the same advice I left above for cncamacho for you. The only thing to I want to suggest is to try a lighter pluck attack. A lighter attack will produce a softer, sweeter tone. But overall great job, keep up the good work!

    #25191
    lyndallk
    Participant

    Had a little catch up on your posts, and am enjoying the creativity.

    Here’s my submission – not doing the music reading. I generally read both the tabs, and the music for the timing etc. I can’t get the guitar out of my head when reading music

    So here’s my version of “Bourée” One day we may play ukulele like the cellist in Becky7777’s video!

    Cheers
    Lyndall

    #25192
    becky7777
    Participant

    Really great playing Lynda! Your sound is really relaxed when you play. I’m trying to get there.

    Those students in the video.. I’m just trying to keep getting better. 🙂 I won’t ever be on that pro level. Glad you got something from the Ben Zander master classes though! I am completely blown away by them. If I didn’t catch a bad case of music nerd-itis from the ukulele, YouTube probably wouldn’t have ever suggested them. REALLY powerful stuff. (imo…)

    #25193
    rickeymike
    Participant

    Questions: I’m working on Ode to Joy in the music course. Do I need to play while reading the notes or do I have to memorize the piece (either way, I’m not looking at the tabs).

    And since I’m not looking at the tabs, Do I stick with the notes on the A and E strings or when a C note or G note appears, do I have an option to play the open C or open G. I’m educationally guessing that for instance the 3rd fret on A string is a different octave than the open C string and so on.

    #25194
    Andrew
    Keymaster

    Rickey, ideally you want to read and play. Though, the more you practice, eventually you’ll just have it memorized.

    Correct, C would be an octave. G would be interchangeable if you were playing a high G, but the course isn’t written for high G, it’s intended for low G. You will learn the lower pitched C in the unit, natural notes on the C string. For now, keep focused on strings 1 and 2.

    #25198
    rickeymike
    Participant

    Andrew, thanks for the quick reply. I’m using my newly low G strung soprano for this course. So right now I know to stay away from that strange sounding “steel” string. I’m working on the practice exercises of the A and E strings but I printed the Ode to Joy sheet music to visually study the notes as they appear on the “lines”. I end my practice sessions by calling out the notes on the sheet music. Then reading it backwards to get better at knowing the notes on sight.

    #25216
    huckfine
    Member

    Great job Lyndall, it was fantastic!

    #25219
    rickeymike
    Participant

    Lyndall, sounded like a symphonic solo to he. good going.

    #25220
    kayleighb
    Member

    My plan to be back in Feb didn’t go to plan. I haven’t picked up my ukulele since before Christmas. It’s been a rough month so far but hopefully I’ll have moved into my own little safe haven in the next couple of weeks and will be back on it. See you all soon my little uke family <3

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