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@dividedsky – Both techniques sounds great and timing is spot on. I do have one suggestion. With the pull-offs, tugging down is proper technique, but try not to tug as much. It’s more of a fluid motion, than an actual pulling down of the string. For ex, you can see in this video how little the actual string is pulled down:
@kelsey91 – That’s impressive Kelsey! You’ve got a great ear to work it out on your own! Keep up the good work 🙂
@lyndallk – Such a great tune, Lyndall! Gonna be fun to hear how the final version turns out 🙂Extra goals I have: I strive to improve my memorization (endless), chord transitions and develop my ear. I’d love to be able to get feeling into it despite this simple arrangement but that’s beyond my reach right now.
I realize now I need to learn theory. But I feel like a month is too short anyway, with having the rest to do on top.Oh man! This is a tough month for me! So hard to pick something and how to tackle it. But do to the population I play for most often, I wanted to pick something I can use at work (nursing home), and so I am going with “Heart and Soul”
Execution: I struggle to put myself into a skill level. So I have to say right off the bat that I feel I’m in a similar boat to @The_Bumble_Bard when it comes to labelling my skill level… Some days I feel like a budding intermediate, and other days I still feel like a solid beginner. Definitely depends on the song and the techniques used. So I think Heart and Soul would be a great pick because it is referred to as a beginner friendly song, and yet I struggle with it quite a bit. It would be nice to get this song down enough that I appear to be closer to intermediate while playing it!
Application: I want to focus on a couple aspects of this song that I struggle with. The slap/tap move that acts similar to a chuck, and the switching between fingering a strumming, and of course the stretch. In the lesson Andrew says the hardest part of the song is the stretch, but I disagree! lol 🙂 I do need to work on my stretch, but I can tell that the slap/tap is going to be much more difficult for me to get down and smooth.
My plan is to practice every day after work for at least 15-20 minutes. And to also practice for a few of my more supportive residents lol.Evaluation: I am going to record several of my practice sessions and see my progress and also, play for some residents during the learning phase and seeing if they are able to see improvements as well.
I hope I did this correctly!! lol good luck everyone!!
Here is a video of my practicing the second goal of my January challenge, the intro riff to Purple Haze.
@jedart – Sounding good, Jed! I’d recommend working on one or two phrases at a time with a focus on timing.
Greetings from frigid Seattle!
I’m working to be able to play through St. James Infirmary at 60% speed without stumbling. Here is a “warts and all” minute of me practicing my “stickiest” couple of measures with a metronome…getting better but still lots of repetition to go. I also practice it even slower, just a couple of notes at a time, which helps.
Reporting progress on my original composition “heavenly light”. I have an idea for intro and “A” section. I will try to record it soon….
Second update:
I’ve basically got the arrangement done and transcribed (with minor changes still occurring) and am working on the incidentals and getting comfortable playing the piece. I’ll soon update the score with the changes I’ve made. I seem to be using a lot of hammers onto different strings and drones but it seems to suit this piece.
Linda
I thought I posted this practice session on Friday but it must not have gone through.
This is me practicing 2 of the many tuff transitions in Spanish Romance. I still have a lot of work to do 😜😍
So many songs to choose from.
Execution – I’ll be working on the Star Wars medley. I attempted this a while ago for another monthly challenge but switched to another song when I realised I couldn’t get it ready in time. I’d rate myself as a solid intermediate player. Have been practicing up to 30 mins most days and will continue that. Hope to have a lot of it memorised as that is something I struggle with and often run out of time to do.
Application – this song has many techniques including strumming, picking, triplet strum, harmonics, rubato, dynamics. I’ll focus on these. Will also work on memory by playing short sections without the tab.
Evaluation – Can play the piece through ok after 2 weeks, at a much slower tempo. Don’t think I’ll get to 100%. Have mostly memorised the first 2 sections.
Chris
Update/thoughts: I thought it’d be interesting to play along to the song (my first time) and as I needed to tackle timing, not having or knowing how to use a metronome. My syncing is not 100%. I’ll likely do this for the final recording. The process resulted in adding two extra notes. Useful for making any other future adjustments. I too found that minor changes (and considerations) still occur. Some spots feel too much of a squeeze for me to add to or like I’d have to make bigger changes for it.
Draft #2 of my composition Heavenly Light. Here is the B section in the parallel minor (Gm) still a work in progress…
@morrieuke1, that sounded really good! Really cool, kind of mystical sound to that! Lovely! 😊
@maryjanew, that’s sounding so lovely so far! I think it’s really interesting to see how other people practice. I actually find that rather fascinating. 😅 Also I loooooove that song so much, that arr by Steven is so gorgeous, one of my fav RC101 arr’s. I also really love Matt’s arrangement of that song. Really lovely work so far! 😊Okay, since I have a moment to breathe after a crazy couple of weeks, I thought I’d post an update on the original tune I’m trying to create.
I had two melodies that both had a major and minor version, but I ended up using the minor part of one melody and the major part of the other melody. Then at the end I play the minor melody again with the clawhammer technique – I was trying to do what James Hill called “melodic clawhammer,” if I understand what he was trying to do, because I just watched a video of him playing with it, not teaching it. I just observed what he did. But it’s something I’m very interested in doing with clawhammer, using the technique to play more kind of classical-sounding songs, less clawhammery songs, using the clawhammer pattern. I do like how it sounds but I think I’m still not creating a refined enough sound with the thumb, it’s still very bum-ditty-y sounding. So the rest of the month when I can practice I will focus on that and smoothing out my mistakes. Sadly there are a bunch in the major section especially.
I took this video at the “winter adventure” house that I retreated to when my house lost power days ago. It’s back on now, thank goodness. 😂
One last thing, I can say that the song is pretty much completed at this point, I just hafta smooth it out. So hopefully if I can’t film again this video will count as an entry. If not, we’ll see I guess. Thank you for reading and listening! 😊
Here we are Jan. 16th, two weeks to get the goals advanced. I may have been a bit aggressive in my self challenge, picking two pieces to work on. Fur Elise is coming along and I should have a more fluid version before January ends. Freight Train is more involved particularly in the strumming patterns and how different the B section is from A and C. I am enjoying getting ti know you guys and hearing your ukulele journeys. Lots of practice hours…good thing it is January and work is slow. Persistence.
here is a link to Fur Elise:
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