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1) Execution – Will be working on A Thousand Years. I have been playing for a year and a half. would like to improve my counting and timing and figure out the loudness of the background vs the melody.
2) Application – Have been listening to how the different volumes and trying to work on the difficult rhythms.
3) Evaluation – I have learned most of the song, but it is really long with the repeats. Will continue to try and spend at least several hours a week on this.
Happy New Year!
BTW- it’s still the 15th in California 😜1) Execution – last week, I just started learning/working on an arraignment of “Dream A Little Dream” taught by Perry Stauffer of Starlight Ukes. This arraignment uses 3 string chords which makes these Jazz chords a bit easier to tackle. I have tried to learn this tune a few years ago but couldn’t master it. Since then, I have identified some issues that have kept me from retaining what I am trying to learn. 1). Memory. 2) short amount of time to play the Uke. I believe my playing/musicianship ability is halted at Beginning/Intermediate and I’d like to improve that. My goal is to memorize the chords, song progression/arraignment and the lyrics. My goals are to play and sing the song by the end of the month without relying on the lead sheet. Later I want to be able to play the whole arraignment with the intro, outro and lead/solo part included.
2) Application – I will set aside time at least 5 days a week to memorize the chords and arraignment first, then the lyrics. I will start with 4 measures at a time. Learning lyrics, I will go verse by verse and use key words in each verse to remember which words come next.
3) Evaluation – I will evaluate myself week by week. I will test myself by doing some “practice” recordings. I don’t know if I will post progress videos along the way, but I will definitely post by the end of the month showing my progress.
Cheers
-MJOkay, I’ve been following with my application for the past one week. Along with the technique practices, my challenge song of Fingerpicking Etude #1 is coming together EXCEPT I’m having a hard time playing B Melody clean. My problems are:
1) It’s difficult to press down 1st fret on 2nd string with my index finger while pressing other notes.
2) Because my middle finger on the 4th string on 2nd fret keeps touching the 3rd string, C note doesn’t come out well. I wish my fingers were as thin as a stylus. -KayWeek 2 Progress Report:
Most of this past week was spent on Module 3 Unit 1 ofThat Unit
involves learning the C Scale in 5 patterns that relate to the Forms learned in Module 2. It is still unclear to me how those patterns relate to the Associated Form but I am sure that will come. It took the entire week to practice and “call out” Scale degree while playing the notes. The Unit also clarifies The C major and A minor pentatonic scales. Thanks for that!
I have moved on to the next Unit (M3U2)
Analyzing Concept Lesson EP006: Soloing with Major and Minor Pentatonics
These concepts are not new to me but I need exactly what this course offers. When I try to create solos in a Jam I am unsure and have little direction for what notes to play. I can already tell that learning these scales and patterns will provide a deeper understanding of the fretboard and tonal relationships inside a Major or Minor Scale. This will lead to solos use notes that follow the chords of the progression.
Only 14 days left in the month. I don’t know if I will complete the course but that is not important. The learning that has already been realized is a big jump. Grateful for this program. UKE ON!
@leihali – Kay, can you share a video that shows your left hand?
@mysticrick – Try to learn as many licks/solos as possible. Most improv is a reconfiguration of what you already know how to play. This can be seen in the most famous lick meme compilation:Hi Andrew, this is my left hand video. https://youtu.be/J-ch00uXEDs?feature=shared
Thanks for the 2nd video, Kay! Here’s a video to help you. Let me know if you have any ?s. And here is the article I mentioned.
One last thing I’d suggest working on is lightening your right hand attack when fingerpicking. This is a concept I demo-d and explained in this video a few years back for another member who was learning this song. You can ignore the comments on the left hand in that video. Make sure you have no pressure in your right hand, as in, it’s not tense. Being relaxed is key 🙂
Hi Andrew, thank you for the video comment. Yes, I’ll try practicing that technique and will post the progress again. -Kay
Ohhhhh, there was a C-Davey Shans sighting here on the forum!! :O A rare sighting indeed! That was fun / interesting to read through that comment. 😊
@leb397 @the_bumble_bard thank you for concerned comments. All is better. Lots of family stuff to manage.
Nice tremolo start. Since I’m left handed, the tremolo tends to go wonky after 4 times 😕😆. Nice start. Hope you can play one of your originals!I’m really glad you’re doing better, friend! 😊😍 Like I said, I know so much how you feel. I have a lot of trouble this time of year with “the darkness.” If you are predisposed to those kind of depressive feelings, it makes it hard as well, but you just push through the bad days, as one does. To quote the movie Space Balls, “welcome to real life.” 😂😂 Literally no one is going to know the context of that quote except me, probably… 😂
Agreed, the tremolo technique is so tricky. I will keep working on it even after this month. It does seem like something that you need to build up strength / agility with over time. 😊
That kind of all relates to this challenge because, even though I really wanted to work on the tremolo technique, I was feeling so sad and uninspired, if I’m being honest. I didn’t feel I would be able to create something with the technique. So then I felt like I wasted the creative opportunity that comes with this challenge…
But then the lesson that was released this week with a song by Marianne – absolutely amazing song and so cool that she was featured in that way in a lesson! – the beginning section of that song uses the tremolo and sounded sooo beautiful. So, I immediately started learning it. I tried to learn it so fast that I might’ve mis-learned it, but I’m pretty happy with how it is for the time invested. I also know that Steven taught specific fingering (I’m sure I messed that up) and I may have accidentally inverted some of the chords (which is something I struggle with on uke), but yes. It just was so inspiring to hear that and have something so amazing I can practice this technique with. So, thank y’all for that. 😊
If this is one of the song options for next month, this is definitely the one I’m going to pick. But for this month, if I still can, I will try to create a little original (a snippet at least). I’m just so happy that song happened to jar me from the funk I was also in. So again thank you. 😊
@leihali – My pleasure!
@The_Bumble_Bard – Sounding great so far Rachael!Thank you, Andrew! 😊 Hopefully I can at least improve the speed and accuracy with it this month. Steven offered some good tips on the tremolo in yesterday’s lesson, too. 😊
@Andrew Most improv is a reconfiguration of what you already know how to play. This can be seen in the most famous lick meme compilation: The Lick
I haven’t seen this video with a lick meme compilation before.
But I really liked “this lick” in the following video:
First of all, I like that lick was adapted for certain instruments and the accompanying voices were added.
This month I wanted to try and work on my rhythm and timing as this has been a theme in feedback I’ve received in previous challenges. I thought a good way of doing this would be to work on a duet piece where I play both parts. I chose Autumn’s Dance, It took a few attempts but I think it’s come together quite well! I also took the opportunity to try and incorporate vibrato on the “lead” part.
Here’s the second raga I’ve learned, and this was a lot easier since I got the basic ornamentation techniques down from the first one. One benefit of learning this stuff is that you really practice your slides and slurs, and practice doing them in time. The other one is that it makes you think about fingering a lot. Since there are so many slides across two or three frets, the usual technique of “one finger per fret within a position” doesn’t always apply automatically. You always have to think ahead where your slide will end, and what note or slide will be next from there, to decide about the best fingering. Anyway, there are five ragas in total in this course, I’ll continue to learn the remaining three eventually, but for the purpose of this challenge I’ll call it a day.
@willw18 wow that sounds nice! I love seeing the variety of things everyone is working on!
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