Participate in the March 2023 Member Challenge: WIN Classical Ukulele!

[dianna]

@The_Bumble_Bard “There should be a ukulele anxiety thread,”. Love this! It blows my mind, how after practicing and practicing, the second I turn the camera on or try to play in front of someone, my fingers turn to mush…..how interesting, that I am not the only one, and it’s more common than I realized. I love the mental aspect of this practice.

[jgillard]

Not perfect, but this was my first take. If I have time, I’ll post an update later this month! Hopefully I can smooth some things out.
Thanks for watching!

[dividedsky]

Here is my submission of Theme from Swan Lake. I’m enjoying the classical ukulele course. For this piece, I focused on playing rest stroke. Sometimes I got some extra string noise.

Jane

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@dianna, I know exactly what you mean! I dare say most people feel that way, a lot of anxiety when performing and recording. And wanting to be perfect. I’ve realized that too. When you look at other players and see how incredible they are, but they feel the exact same fears, to me that’s helpful to know. Because it’s easy to idealize other people or feel like you’re not good enough–or to get really overwhelmed when trying to learn a new skill. But once you realize everyone struggles in different ways, it can be so helpful to share that and know you’re not alone. That’s part of why I just say if I’m struggling.

Also, the classical course is absolutely amazing and all the songs are stunningly beautiful. I never meant to detract from that. If anything, it’s a testament to how rich the lessons and songs are with information that overloaded my delicate brain. 😅🥺

@jgillard, @dividedsky — Beautiful playing!!

[leb397]

@dianna and @the_bumble_bard
When I entered my first challenge last April, I put in sooo many hours of practice and then the filming was a huge struggle with 50 takes at least. I was so frustrated I even mentioned to Andrew that the site had “professionals” entering… I had to realize we are all on the same journey and some a little farther along but we all took the same steps. @TBB I like that you are so honest and a previous post you showed your progress with foibles included 😉

@dianna had to laugh at your confession… the fact you have completed that many is great. I have to confess I went back on youtube and delete one of my entries because I was embarrassed looking at it after a few months of improvement!
I keep learning from all of you and it’s so much fun… off to practice. Loving the classical lessons and giving the Study in B minor a shot.

@jgillard sounds pretty perfect to me! First take – amazing
@dividesky very pretty
Louisa

[jgillard]

sounds pretty perfect to me! First take – amazing

Thanks! 😛 Usually it takes me many more takes to get something I don’t mind posting…

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@leb397, girl, same. I feel like usually I do fewer takes now and have less extreme anxiety with filming, but that’s defs still one of the hardest parts of these challenges. Ha, all the students here basically are professionals. 😉😂 I also have emailed Andrew “a couple” of times about my anxieties. Uke-xieties… 😳😅 but he is truly a gracious, kind, and forgiving human. It’s pretty amazing that was your first take, @jgillard!

[marianne]

Here’s Adelita. I tried a million takes to the point where my neck was sore… everytime something or the other would buzz or ring funny… perfection in tone and expression will only come with time and experience but I won’t give up. Until then, here’s the best take so far. Section B is beautiful but really tough 🙂

Thanks @Steven for these beautiful arrangements!

[leb397]

@marianne that was amazing. Beautiful

[marianne]

Thank you so much @leb397! ☺️

[ramiro]

Hi everyone! I picked Study in B Minor by Fernando Sor for this month’s challenge. I followed Steven’s suggestions for how to fret the chords for the most part but my picking hand kind of decided on its own to pick with 3 instead of 4 fingers.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by ramiro.

[Andrew]

@jgillard – Beautifully played! The only thing I’d do diff is put more emphasis on the rit. at the end of bar and 8, as well as, the end of the song.

@dividedsky – Bravo on the technique, Jane! Your notes have a fantastic punch with excellent clarity! One tip, try resting your thumb on the G string. It should help stabilize your picking hand, cutting down on any unnecessary movement.

@marianne – That was awesome! I’m going to let Steven chime in with his thoughts for you 🙂

@ramiro – Excellent fingerpicking 👏

[lhamilton]

Hi,

This month I tried Adelita. I couldn’t manage the A-string pulloff in bar 3 with the barre on 5 with a finger also on the 7th fret of the G-string (the pulloff finger refused to budge no matter what I did) so I used the thumb for the 7th fret of G.

I loved the arrangement!

Linda

[ramiro]

Thank you Andrew!

[gi_gi_]

@lhamilton @marianne That was so good. I enjoyed your performances so much. I’m working on Adelita. Planning on posting it this week hopefully.

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