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Thanks everyone for the kind words! My hard work and passion for the ukulele are paying off.
All the best,
~NathalieSo as far as the challenge, My goal was to be able to piece together something by ear then put it on paper. I chose Metallica “ Nothing Else Matters”. Well… it was much harder than anticipated! Giving me a great appreciation for what Andrew and Stephen do! I did manage to get the introduction of the song as done as I could given the fact that my husband and I moved 1000 miles away from where we were. My time became limited. I’m sure this will disqualify me from the prize and that is ok. I just wanted to show that I am still working on my goal. My next step is learning how to play it fluently. I can only play one measure at a time so I will spare all of you but the work I have done is attached. {hopefully the attachment works) Good work everyone else, I’ve been enjoying the progress!
Ok. Attachment didn’t work. Let’s try a photo.. I’m not sure how to get this to work but last attempt… sorry I’m having trouble
Andrew, thank you for a great challenge.
Execution: I completed course on HOW TO WRITE A SONG. Your teaching principles of melody, harmony & rhythm are very helpful.
Application: Your song, DAYDREAMING, is so much fun. It was not difficult to memorize but execution, for me, another story. Playing the triplets in Melody B is still quite a struggle! Chord transition remains very difficult for me to do, especially in rhythm. Measures 12 & 13 are fascinating to watch you perform; for me, a major stumbling block!
Evaluation: Hopefully, I will attach a piece of James Ingram’s JUST ONCE in which I am attempting to use a lead sheet from various sources but substitute chords by way of learning your explanation of the CAGED METHOD.
I do not expect to have my name in the draw this month because I cannot perform DAYDREAMING at this time but thank you for an amazing challenge of which we have all learned so much.
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I’m putting up two videos. One is my attempt at the written solo in EP002. I had a lot of difficulty with the pull offs, especially if it wasn’t to an open string. The second is me trying to solo off the same chord progression. I really don’t know what I am doing, but you can’t learn if you don’t try.
Here it is, certainly not as finished as I was hoping for. My goal this month was to work on back beats and be able to play Fly Me to the Moon. I used Andrews two lessons on slaps and taps, and practiced a minimum of one hr per day. I applied what I learned to the song. Despite hours and hours of practice it still needs a lot of work!!
@nthibode I think one can really see the passion while you’re playing! ❤️
Hello ukulele fellows!
Woah, what great entries and amazing progressions of you all! I really like the community here. Very kind and I get a lot of inspiration what to practice.
My goal was to learn some percussion on ukulele. While I reached my first milestone to perfom like in Andrews tutorial video in the middle of this month, I wanted to learn more and play a complete song.
So here it is. Its a song of a famous Band from my hometown here in germany. You can have a guess 😉
(I tried out the low-G string on my “backup” ukulele. It fits to this song I guess)Hey guys,
I achieved my goals this month, even though my exams are keeping me very busy!
I finished my fingerstyle arrangement of This is me from The Greatest Showman, which was very difficult for me and it took me almost the whole month, but I’m very happy with the result. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to record it with my microphone yet and make a “real” cover out of it (that’s coming in the next few days), but I shared my progress on Instagram. Here’s the first part and you can also find the chorus on my page:
I also took the Standard notation course up to the point I planned. So I achieved that, too, and I can record my entry for the February challenge soon 🙂
Hi guys! Sorry to be MIA – since returning from NAMM, I’ve been bed ridden with the flu. It’s been a blast (not). So Stephen will get us started on feedback soon.
FYI: I’m seeing 18 second posts submitted (with 40 members participating on this thread – so a bit under half are in), to be entered into the Skype drawing and to receive feedback, you must submit your second post by 11:59pm EST tonight. This year we are adhering to strict cut-offs.
Here’s the last of p.8 through p.10
lisadmh – That’s a very beautiful song! I like the use of strum/fingerpicking/vibrato/slides, and your use of chord shapes further up the neck. Your rhythms are very clear, and the melodies are very nice! My only advice (judging by the camera angle…) is that you might be bending your right wrist a bit more than is necessary. After long periods of playing with your wrist at that angle, it could cause your wrist to hurt. Keeping less of a sideways angle with the wrist would help with that, though you might have to alter your technique for finger picking slightly. But I love the song! Please continue to write more! Thank you for sharing this!
edward – Great work, this sounds like a hard song to play. I looked up a few versions on youtube to give you some better advice, and it sounds to me like you would benefit from taking a very small piece of it, like a 2 or 4 measure phrase, and spend a lot of time playing it slowly, then play only that part with the metronome and slowly work it up to speed. then do this with the next phrase, and piece it together slowly. You’re off to a good start! Thank you!
rickeymike – Your voice sounds wonderful on this, and you are doing a great job jumping up to the high notes! I know that some of the rhythms are different on purpose, but it seems to me like some of the pauses between parts are a bit longer, as if you are gathering your thoughts between sections. I like that in general this happens at the end of the phrase instead of the middle, but with a little more familiarity, the pauses will feel shorter and a bit more natural. Great work, and keep singing with it, it sounds great!
zukulele – Very awesome! This is a challenging piece with all the fast notes…especially at the beginning. The main thing that I notice that you could improve slightly is knowing how long the rests are in the verse: If you practice with a metronome that counts 4 beats with beat one being marked as a different sound, you can hear if you are ahead or behind when you come in after a rest. If the first note of the next measure doesn’t line up with the click, then you know you are either cutting the rest too short, or making it too long. You did a great job of keeping the rhythm during the parts with backbeats, though. Excellent work!
lyndallk – Wow! I’m sure you spent a ton of time on this! It sounds wonderful and I enjoyed it very much! Great playing, wonderful dynamics, and very few mistakes! That’s something to be super proud of! There’s not too much to add, as you are playing at a very high level! on a couple of sections where you have to go higher on the neck, it’s hard to get the chords to sustain while playing the melody…I would recommend practicing those parts a bit more, to see if there’s an angle you can get into just before those spots to get it just right. Other than that, there’s nothing to add, you played wonderfully!
mheiden – Great job on getting the Waltz feel! That is a huge improvement from the other version! Some spots are still causing you to hesitate a little bit, and I think just playing the song slower would make the performance even better! Try playing the whole song to a metronome (set to 3/4 at 100bpm) and I have a feeling you would play it spot on! Thank you for entering this challenge!
wongbrown – Very nice finger picking! My main recommendation, like for mheiden, is to practice slower to give your brain time to remember what comes next. My rule of thumb is that if you can’t play a section in time after 3 tries, it means you’re playing to fast, and it’s time to slow it down a bit. Great playing, and I totally understand how etudes like this can get frustrating fast! Thank you for sharing!
uku_on – It takes a lot of courage to try to tackle this one! You are doing great, and getting a great tone out of your uke! The part at 2:38 is quite demanding…but one thing I notice is that your strumming hand is stopping after certain strums, instead of continuously moving…when most people strum parts like this, they keep their hand moving, and miss the strings in-between strums to use their hand almost like a metronome. I would recommend working on this at that super fast tempo to get the feel that Jake does on his version. Wonderful work, though! I couldn’t do it half as well at the moment…but now I want to try! Very inspiring! Thank you for joining the challenge!
Wow – great submissions so far, well done guys!
Here is my offering…. I’m posting my first take (when I was just testing the mic and was absolutely freezing – hence the jumper which fills the room!) It’s got mistakes which make me cringe – but seemingly, the second that I’m ‘recording for real’ my fingers tie in knots!!! I’ve been working on this for a bit and have it memorized and have continued to try to improve it this month to hit my target of ‘top of the neck’ stuff. I’m also working on Danse Macabre, and I’m nearly there, but I keep forgetting bits, so I’m just submitting this now and I’ll submit that when I’ve got better fluency – it’s very hard on a concert not to be thuddy at the top. (my bass submission will be another month – I’ve got the notes but not the drumming – maybe too ambitious this month!)
Happy playing everyone!
x
@lisamcc, color me impressed! That was a lot of fast movement up and down the neck!! Awesome.👏🏻
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