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@Gaby – metronome is in headphones and I am maniacally counting the beat. My music teacher has told me that I must work with a metronome, Andrew says this too.
I am trying hard to stop the mouth going too, and just count internally – but often fail 🤣🤣🤣
@donovan – OMG I am going to love watching you learn through the year. You are awesome!!!!Here’s some folks from page 7 and 8
citznmag – I love the banjolele version! You are playing the song quite well! The part at the end is a little tough to get smoothly up to speed, and you are doing a great job eye-balling the slide up to the higher note on the neck. I would take that section (measure 16 to the end) at a slow tempo with a metronome and really work on getting the notes consistently in time. Also, double check your fretting hand technique to make sure your wrist is not bending outward and your hand is almost making a “C” shape. Keeping this form while playing the section at the end is tricky, but you can do it! Great job, and thank you for your entry!
johanna2509 – Very nicely done! John William’s certainly knows how to write beautiful melodies! My advice on this one is to loop the section from measure 16 to the end with a metronome and practice getting that slide up the neck in time! You’re so close, it’s just working that hesitation on the slide out. You’re doing great, keep it up! Thank you for entering the challenge!
22best_miranda – I’m glad you are enjoying the finger picking songs! You are doing a great job of getting the notes, and the part from measure 16 to the end sounded great. Now it’s time to clean up the rhythm on the first few measures a bit: The first chord is a dotted half note rhythm, which means it gets held out for the 3 beats before moving onto the 2nd note. Just holding those chords out the right amount will help the song sound much more like the original. Keep it up, your tone and notes sound great!
brettboy – I love how expressive you are when you play! It sounds very good, especially on this medley! On Measure 6, you are turning the eighth notes into triplets. It sounds cool, but to make it sound like the original, make sure to keep those as eighth notes until you get to measure 7 so that the triplets in measure 7 really stand out. Awesome job on this one! Thank you for entering this month’s challenge!
ukandoit – Wow! I can tell you spent a lot of time on this one, and your dedication is paying off! You sound very solid on this one! I don’t have much else to say, keep up the great work! Try experimenting with dynamics within the melodies to add your own stamp on the medley. Thank you for your entry.
laurakarr12 – Wonderful job keeping a steady tempo throughout! My only advice is to try to keep the notes smooth and connected (legato) throughout. To do this, try to keep from stopping the string early with the plucking hand, and make sure to hold the notes down with the fretting hand as long as possible before switching notes. Try taking the section from 16 to the end of the song slowly and focus on having the notes sound as connected as possible. Another thing that can help with this is to get as many notes as possible out of one hand positions before shifting. You’re doing great, this will just add to the musicality. Thank you for participating!
mac1984 – Great job on this! Your rhythm and the notes were great! I think spending a little bit of extra time getting your ring finger to move in time to play smoothly will go a long way! Try just playing the 2nd and 3rd fret on the A string back and forth with the middle and the ring finger at a medium speed, and slowly build up to a fast speed. Getting that smoothly while plucking with the other hand will help you get the coordination for that timing stronger. You are doing an excellent job, especially as a beginner! Thank you for entering the challenge!
miztaken – You are doing well on this! The notes sound clear and correct! Have you tried practicing this one with a metronome? There are just a few notes here and there that are getting cut slightly short (2 beats long instead of 3, 1 and a half instead of just 1). I think that working through those rhythms with a metronome can add a lot! Keep up the great work, you’re almost there! Thank you for participating!
noemie – Awesome job! That’s not an easy arrangement to get through! Each section sounded great! I think playing the first 2 songs in the medley slightly slower and focusing on getting a super smooth sound transitioning between the notes will go a long way. You’re super close already! Also, for measure 7, it might be easier to play those fast notes in a row smoother by using more than one finger to pluck. This is just a suggestion, it sounds great as it is. The last two songs in the medley sound spot on! Wonderful job! Thank you for your entry!
Stephen – HA!
Thanks for the feedback, and you are so right: I didn’t use the metronome on that take 😁
…and I know better than that, so this is a great reminder.
Thx.@miztaken – whatever you did on that second recording seems to have fixed the problem!
@robynboyd – I used a microphone with my laptop to record. That was all.
So I won’t take shortcuts again.Lots of mistakes but after a thumb injury I’m just happy to be turning in anything!
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Listen to War of Stars by kirpuff on #SoundCloud
@kirpuff – That was excellent! Great feel and timing. I think the “mistakes” you referenced are just little notes or chords that aren’t 100% clean. I’d go back and listen through and target those areas in your practice.
The only thing that stood out to me is the 3rd melody. I’d boost the tempo a hair, it’s very slow atm. Playing sections too slow sometimes makes it sound like it’s dragging.
Wow, so many submissions already! Can’t wait to watch and listen to them all, now that I got my own entry out of the way. 😉
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– but I believe it doesn’t matter this month? ^^;Such a great arrangement for a beginner like me! Thanks a lot Matt!!
@santai, that was awesome! The biggest takeaway of this lesson is performing it with a laid-back feel. Well done there!
The one area that I’d work on is cleaning up your barre chords. There are generally two reasons that a barre chord does not ring out properly:
1) finger strength – not enough is applied.
2) form – incorrectly applied.In your case, it looks like the issue is #2. Work on getting the index finger straight, no curve.
We dive into both of these areas (in complete detail) in our Beginners Course lesson on Barre Chords. Review that lesson and see if you can apply these tips to help clean up the chords.
It’s also touched on in this lesson.
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Hi I was hoping for any constructive help or comments. I’m nine. I spent about a week on each piece, and recorded myself with a borrowed phone and lavaliere mic. I’m still a beginner and only started here in June with Tonight You Belong To Me and I did that one as a duet with my grandmother. All the editing on these I did in YouTube with their fun filters. Please tell me what you think.Sponge Bob
Stranger Things
Hey Donovan, Stephen left you feedback for Stranger Things in this post.
You did super well on SpongeBob! So listen to 47 seconds till the end – timing is spot on. What I would work on is the timing for the first part of the song. Slow down the tempo and loop a couple bars at a time. Work on keeping it steady, as you did with the ending of the song.
When you get those 2 bars down, try the next 2 bars, then those 4 bars. So for example, that would look like:
Bars 1-2
Bars 3-4
Bars 1-4Breaking songs down into chunks is a great way to practice 🙂
Thanks for the beautiful arrangement! This is my first time submitting a video so I started with the beginner song, Jurassic Park. I have fallen in love with arrangement. So pretty. Thanks for making all of the wonderful content on this site. So far, this is favorite place to learn fingerstyle uke!
Here is my video:
Last month Stephen pointed out my left hand wrist problem (Thanks very much for that!), so this month I paid more attention to this and tried to straiten my wrist more.
However, in my video, my left hand still seems to be very intense although I feel very relaxed while playing. I dont know is there still something wrong with my hand form?
@miztaken, Nice performance! the sound from the Concert and the tenor are really identical!I was all about Stranger Things this month even though I love John Williams. The theme to Jurassic Park is one of my faves.
I think I need to practice with a metronome a little more. My timing is a bit all over the place.Scoops Troop Rules!
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Here is my latest attempt to play Jurassic Park for my iPhone video monster! Lol
I should have practiced more on this but am flying to the US in a few days and have been busy finishing work commitments.
However I have two happy things to report. One is that I have finally been able to practice with the metronome more and I plan to make it the rule. I hope it will improve the flow. The second thing has a good and a bad side. I suddenly started to notice my ukulele is out of tune. Turns out the intonation goes sharp as I ho up the fret board. Particularly with the A string. This is not a happy discovery but I think the positive thing is that my ear training has improved to be able to be suddenly aware of it.
Happy August to everyone! Thank you Andrew for all of your help and the great classes!
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