Participate in the May 2018 Member Challenge – Children Song's Themed!

[tessa84]

I always seem to make little mistakes only when recording lol.

[Gaby]

Nevermind a few mistakes whilst recording, i do tons of them even without a camera or microphone near me :p

i just can’t get it right but i’m glad that you all seem to do fingerpicking on this one to be honest. I’m just useless with a pick and I thought I would be the only one who wouldn’t use one 🙂

[tessa84]

I tried with a pick at first but fingerpicking is easier for me.

[Andrew]

MT, great job on the timing! You did very well playing alongside the click 🙂 I hope you have time to record another one, here is what I would focus on: Practice (loop) bars 12 to 16 in the tab player in synthetic mode, with the click turned on. This will act as a guide and help you get the rhythm, timing, and transitions down for this section. And double check the ending of the tune, so that you have the form correct. But overall, really good job! I think this was some of your best playing that I’ve heard!

Tessa, great playing! Sounds like you had more time to practice for this month, which is awesome! I only have a couple suggestions for you, and the first is that I hear hesitation in your playing. As in, with a little more practice you will have the form better committed to memory. Since the song covers 16 bars in length, you could always break it into chunks and loop them to help commit it to memory faster. For example, 4 or 8 bars looped at a time.

And for bar 15, I’d play the open A instead of the 5th fret of the E string. It should be much easier that way.

[vidafntn]

Hi, Andrew,

Here is my submission for this month’s challenge, Down by the Bay. As usual, I am not posting in order to win anything. It is just for fun.

The thing that I have the most difficulty with in this song is playing swung 8th notes at high speed. They tend to want to even out and lose the swung timing.
I am certainly not playing it anywhere near the posted speed of 180 bpm. I saw Tessa playing this song on Friday’s posting, so I thought I might as well submit my attempt too. These challenges are very enjoyable.

Hope you are having success getting your hands to heal.

Regards,
Vida Fenton

[Gaby]

I am really impressed by all of you. I just cant get though the whole song at once. As soon as im trhough the first half, i get so exited, that i mess up the rest :p

but i will keep practicing. This is the first longer piece i have learned which i wasnt able to memorize so far, but i have to look on the sheet paper all the time. Maybe i can fix that over the next week to concentrate more on my playing instead of the sheet 🙂

[Andrew]

Hey Gaby, I just recorded a performance today for an upcoming lesson and of course I managed to mess up the ending LOL. So you know what, I punched it in. I am FAR from perfect and while I strive to improve, mistakes happen and I learn from them.

I too get nervous towards the end and I have a BAD habit of rushing or speeding up at the end of a performance. So while I try not to punch in performances, it happens and you know what, not 1 single person has ever called me out on it. As long as you try your best and make note of what you need to work on, that’s all that matters 🙂

Some of my edits include:

Canon in D – Punched in the last 2 melodies as I flubbed them at 1:19, notice the fade to black

Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Rushed the ending and punched it in as new take at 1:50.

[Gaby]

Thank you Andrew 😀

[krystlekuhs]

I loved taking on this challenge. I still need to work on my B flat, but I’ve only been playing for 5 months.

[uku_on]

I choose Down by the Bay for this contest. I think I did okay? Something about the melody after the quick strums sounds off to be, probably on my end. I am useless with a pick so I played without it.

[kmelton]

Here is my entry for this month’s challenge. Thanks again Andrew for putting these contests together. Great way to stay motivated and keep improving!

[Andrew]

Vida, thanks for the sweet words, much appreciated! I’m not hearing much deviation from a swung rhythm, I think your timing and feel was great. I’d work on the same area that I left feedback for MT, which was to: Practice (loop) bars 12 to 16 in the tab player in synthetic mode, with the click turned on. This will act as a guide and help you get the rhythm, timing, and transitions down for this section. Also, it seems like you’re getting a lot of finger noise when plucking, new strings?

Krystle, amazing job for 5 months of playing! Really impressive, I actually shared your performance in our weekly email this past Friday 🙂 Take a look at the advice above, I’d work on that one section. But I think your greatest focus should be on how you are performing the piece (your overall feel). Here’s a great article/lesson on this subject: https://rockclass101.com/copying-good-thing/.

So for this song, while the tempo is brisk, it has a laid-back charm to it. Now you’ve got speed, but I would lighten up on your attack. A softer attack will produce a sweeter tone and should help to better match that laid-back groove. So take a look at that article and let me know if this concept makes sense.

uku_on, great job! I think you have a great base established and here’s what I would work on: Take 4 bars at a time, loop them in the tab player and start slow. Watch your timing. When you can nail those four bars, move on to the next four, and then practice 1-8. Breaking it into sections will help with your timing and make it easier to get the entire piece down.

Kevin, I think this is your best playing that I have heard! Really great job, how much time did you put into this? Everything looks great, from form to feel. Watch out for that last part of the last Melody, and keep working on the last Melody to clean it up a little. But, bravo! I shared this on our Facebook Page 🙂

[kmelton]

Thanks Andrew! These songs ended up not a big hit with my six year old, but my three year old daughter loves them! Now if you could put together a new song from Trolls or Sing, you’d really be doing me a solid! 🙂

Doing “Daydreaming” in April was really a stretch for me. You gave me a lot of constructive criticism last month, and working on those techniques/fixing bad habits ended up being my focus this month. Brahm’s lullaby definitely took some time, but I was mostly trying to focus on tempo, finger position, etc.

Thanks again for taking the time to review and instruct, I feel like it makes all the difference. Looking forward to next month’s challenge!

Kevin

[Andrew]

Glad the advice helped Kevin! You did very well 🙂 And I’ll be happy to add that to my request list. Wasn’t the Cyndi Lauper tune in that movie? I’d like to do that one, one day.

[krystlekuhs]

Thank you so much for the feedback Andrew! I really appreciate you taking the time. I’ll definitely work on giving it a softer feel.

My 5 year old son LOVED this song — it was a big hit. Looking forward to next month’s challenge. Thanks again!

[Author]

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