Participate in the January 2020 Member Challenge – Original Music!

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Viewing 15 posts - 76 through 90 (of 129 total)
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  • #35219
    lisadmh
    Participant

    Here it is. I wrote this this month. It is pure noodling on a basic chord progression. I haven’t gotten beyond page 10 of music composition for dummies.

    I’ve written 4 songs for my cats, so I was told this one had to be for my partner.

    I know Andrew, I’m tight. I’m working on it, but this is the last weekend of the month. Just pretend my execution is better than it is.😀

    It’s got bar chords and partial bars. I really worked that A shape that troubles me so much. It’s got a melody run that’s actually not just up the a string. It’s got harmonics. It’s very basic I know, nothing like some of the originals y’all ate posting, but it’s my 8th original song and I just love writing little originals.

    #35223
    brenna
    Participant

    #lisadmh, I like it!!
    It’s perfect for a Sergio Leone’s film.

    #35225
    andrewvh
    Participant

    Here’s my entry for the month, just to show I’m trying. Unfortunately I’m sure Grace wouldn’t be able to get to sleep with all the noise in the background.

    It’s quite late in the Month but my first post this year, and also the second day of the Chinese New Year, so Happy new year to you all and I wish you all lots of Music success for 2020 and the year of the rat.

    #35235
    nitsur
    Participant

    Grace’s Lullaby

    #35247
    stinyuke
    Member

    Wow I’m so impressed with everybody who wrote an own song. That’s very cool well done! Here is my performamce of Fingerpicking etude No.19. Maybe I can do another (better) performance next week but here is the best what i got from today:

    #35287
    ukeher
    Participant

    Getting my courage up to post for January. But I have a technical question… can I set up YouTube so that the whole world doesn’t see my video? Definitely not world-worthy level of playing….
    Thanks!
    ME

    #35291
    robinboyd
    Participant

    Hi Ukeher,

    Yes. That’s exactly what I do. When you publish a video, it gives you the options of “public,” “private,” or “unlisted.” Choose “unlisted,” and then only people with the link (which you will post on RC101) can see it.

    #35303
    surfnrz
    Member

    Everyone is doing an awesome job on this challenge so far! Brilliant originals and beautiful covers. #stinyuke, I loved yours beautiful playing and the Kanilea sounded so warm and sweet!

    #35305
    iyers408
    Member

    I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER.

    I decided to take the plunge and get a home studio up and running. I got a Roland Rubix22 (the QuadCapture is no longer available and the used ones do not come with the Ableton Live Lite). Used a Sennheiser dynamic mic to record the ukulele. I have a pickup for the ukulele but have not had the time to get it installed.

    Also uploaded the backing track to Ableton and set it to 100 bpm instead of 110 bpm. 75% was a bit too slow for me and 100% was a bit too fast. This is approximately 90%. This has been a wonderful learning experience. Thanks Andrew for your reply about the QuadCapture. Although AUTOSENS is not available on Rubix, it seems to have a compressor which can be used to limit clipping. I need to try it out.

    #35344
    lyndallk
    Participant

    I enjoy coming back to the site to catch up on everyone’s submissions. I love the compositions

    Lisa – Glad your partner got a look in – its an excellent first partner song! Lovely
    Wow surfnrz that’s so great. Such a good feel. I like the little solo in the middle and everything else. Good luck with the surgery
    Anne – that’s a gorgeous piece.
    Brettboy – that is so great. . Really changes throughout – tells a story. I will have a listen to your other pieces

    #35383
    Stephen
    Moderator

    surfnrz – I really like the upbeat chorus section! The song sounds great so far, and I hear a lot of Classic Rock/guitar influence! My one suggestion is on the solo at 1:50, try bending just slightly less. This style works on guitar very well, but much less motions on the vibratos will keep this section in tune a bit more. I love the energy, passion, and direction your song is going in! Keep up the great work, and I hope your surgery went smoothly! Thank you for sharing your song!

    kelsey91 – You’re off to a great start on this! AJ’s melody on this is very cool! You’re playing the notes great, so now it’s time to work a bit on making the notes more legato rather than staccato by allowing each note to sustain more. You can do this by leaving your fretting hand fingers down longer on each note rather than lifting them early as move towards the next notes. The latest lesson is all about this, so check it out here. Thank you for your entry, and keep up the good work!

    ccwuke – You did a great job capturing the lullaby aspect of this song: a very relaxing vibe, and I like the tempo you chose to do it at! My only advice on this one is to work on shifting with a little less string noise in spots. When you lift your fingers off the strings to move to certain chords, sometimes you are lifting your fingers in a way that causes the open strings to sound. Work a bit on muting during these transitions. If that’s not solving the issue, it may be that your hands are sticking to the strings a tiny bit. Sometimes wiping the strings down after each use can fix this. Thank you for your entry!

    ealtman – You are doing a great job on the notes and getting a wonderful tone out of your ukulele! Now it’s time to tighten up the timing a bit: those pauses in the intro melody are just slightly longer, and cutting them short slightly interrupts the soothing vibe of the song. Then there are just a few spots like 1:23 where a little bit of extra practice will help you get to the shapes a bit quicker and avoid some fret buzz. I highly recommend playing with a metronome at a slightly slower tempo to fix these small things. You are doing a wonderful job, these are only slight things. Thank you for joining the challenge!

    smokealot – Excellent job on this one! You seem to have the notes down very well! I recommend playing the whole song at the tempo you played the Chorus. It has a very nice relaxed feel, while the first section just seems a tiny bit too fast. Pick a tempo that you can play the Chorus section smoothly at, and then make sure to start at that tempo. A metronome might help you for now. Then, you can add in some dynamics (volume swells) into certain sections to really get the emotion of the song across. You are doing very well, keep working on this one! Thank you for entering this month’s challenge!

    lisadmh – This sounds like a fantastic start! I think what makes it different than noodling and more of a song to me is your strong rhythmic theme throughout. By allowing each phrase to breathe at the end, it sounds very defined. The phrase between 0:30 and 0:36 is very catchy! I would recommend repeating how it starts, and following it up with a different ending…like a “call and response” kind of thing. This will give that section a pattern for the listener’s ear, and a development that really moves things along and ties things together. Keep going with this idea, I can’t wait to see where you take it! Thank you for sharing your song.

    andrewvh – I really like the speed you chose to play this at. You have a great feel on this, and captured the lullaby vibe very well. There are just a few spots in the chorus to practice the shifts a little more, and then you can experiment with dynamics (like volume swells into and out of phrases) to add more emotion. Very well played! Thank you for your entry.

    nitsur – Very nicely done! The Intro and Verse parts sound very good! There are only a few spots in the Chorus to isolate and work on slowly to have the whole song flow smoothly. spots like 0:55 to 0:58 are tricky to play in time. Coming out of the melody and back into a chord smoothly is difficult. Try playing just this part at half of the speed you were playing the song here until your hand is comfortable with the shift, and then work it up to full speed in increments. Just a few spots like this to work on, and you’ve got it! Keep up the great work, and thank you for taking part in the challenge!

    stinyuke – Wow! I’m impressed with your performance all around on this one! Great tone, smooth transitions, and great feel all the way throughout! I noticed that your fretting hand wrist is bending in an interesting way when you have to barre chords. If you aren’t doing this too often, it’s most likely not going to cause and wrist problems, but keep an eye on how you are doing those chords just in case. Very well played, this was wonderful to listen to!

    iyers408 – Great work on this one! The backing track is just a tiny bit too loud for me to hear every note of what you are playing, but what I can hear sounds good! If you record this way again, just make sure the ukulele melody is standing out above the track. Great job on all the nuance with the slides and embellishments! Melody B sounds great, I think there are a few timing things in Melody A to work on. The syncopation is tricky! Try slowing it down a tiny bit more, but really line up with the piano. Keep up the good work! Thank you for your entry.

    #35384
    lisadmh
    Participant

    Thanks Stephen! I’m not sure how to do a call and response, but I’ll see if I can figure it out.

    #35385
    surfnrz
    Member

    Stephen, thanks so much for the excellent feedback! I’ll work on that.

    #35390
    Andrew
    Keymaster

    Lisa, check out this video. It’s guitar, but it explains call and response well:

    #35392
    ramiro
    Participant

    Here is my entry for this month. It is an original song based around the Andalusian cadence in Am, Dm and Gm.

    I wrote down chord progressions and short melodies I came up with while playing in the past but never a whole song from beginning to end. One thing I found challenging is striking the balance between repetition and variation. The first version was basically the first 4 measures repeated twice for each key followed by the strumming part and the first 2 measures again. This sounded very predictable and the strumming part didn’t fit in at all. While making it more varied I sometimes felt that it was too much and sounded random so I removed quite a few melody notes. Another reason to reduce complexity was being able to play it myself by the end of January.

    Something I like to do in the future is writing a chord melody arrangement for an existing song. Maybe this could be an option to choose from in a future Rock Class challenge.

Viewing 15 posts - 76 through 90 (of 129 total)
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