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Of mistakes. I have played through better but seems the minute the video runs I choke. I still submitted with the mistakes as I tend to be very hard on myself. This is reminding me that while it is not perfect, I have come a long way. In all truth I never thought I would able to play this song as well as I did.
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Sorry amigos but here is my paralytic snail version of that great song.
When i heard me playing, i think to myself “Well, i’m 94″…
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I chose to do the song If I fell by the Beatles. Thanks for doing these challenges. I hope to win! Here’s my video:Here’s everyone on Page 15:
gaevdl – Great work on this one! You are getting very close on it! On measure 9, those few frets in a row are tough to do with one finger! I know Matt does them super well, but it might help you to shift to the 3rd fret with finger 1, then play the 4th fret with finger 2 and the 5th fret with finger 3. Then there’s only one tricky shift to get the rest of the notes easier in order. Everything else is just a matter of having a bit more time than the challenge allows. Wonderful job, and thank you for submitting this song!
juwong – I love the outtakes at the end! You are doing a great job on this, it’s mainly just a matter of going back and practicing the rhythm of the first part with a metronome, and playing the middle section slowly to get the technique built up before playing too fast. I think breaking the rhythms down and playing them with a metronome at half speed will do the trick. With measure 28, this will help a lot, as you have to work up the speed of the right hand strumming in order to play this part. Keep up the awesome work! Thank you for being part of the challenge!
funtime2018 – The notes sound great! You’re close on the rhythms, too! Occasionally you are rushing through some of the held out notes (half notes and whole notes), probably anticipating some of the hard sections just ahead! To help pace the song a bit better, I would play along with the on screen tab player set to 50% speed and work on really matching up with Matt’s timing. If you need help understanding some of the rhythms, check out Andrew’s reading course on here for explanations of the rhythms. The ending was wonderful! Thank you for entering this challenge!
ukemaniak – Very well done! I think I hear a few changes that you made to the arrangement, and I like them! A few of them add beats to the rhythm, and I might leave those out to keep the song in the same time signature (and to keep the song danceable/foot-tappable). Between measures 7 and 8 is one of the spots where you’re adding an extra few notes to the measure, so I would leave the extra strums out when this part comes up. My only other concern is certain chords (like 0:48 seconds into your video) where your fretting hand wrist is at a very strong angle…I would try to bend it less than this to not cause a wrist injury after a lot of playing like this. Keep up the great work, and I enjoy the Instagram posts, too! Thank you for your entry!
chirimoya – I’m sorry to hear about you cutting your finger! I’m glad you healed enough to post this! The main things I hear that can help the song sound even better is to focus a little more on the rhythms and get to the point where you can play along with the tab player at 50% or 75% comfortably, and to play the notes a bit more legato (smooth and connected). The latter is a two part process: your plucking hand should stay off of the strings until right before it’s time to hit the next note so that you don’t stop a note from ringing out, and your fretting hand will need to hold the notes down a bit longer—leaving less empty space between then notes. This means you may have to shift to the new notes and chords a bit faster. You are certainly off to a great start! Thank you for posting even though you weren’t satisfied…you are doing very well, and you had obstacles to overcome!
stinyuke – Congratulations on the new job! You played this one very well, especially considering the circumstances! My only suggestion is to play a bit slower if you don’t have quite enough time to do as well as you want. You seemed to know the rhythms, there were just a few spots where you didn’t quite get to a note or a chord in time. By playing two thirds of this speed, you would have been able to play these parts smoother and think about exactly what notes were coming up next. It still turned out wonderfully! Thank you for making time to be in this challenge!
Here is everyone on page 13 and 14.
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timolnz – Well done, Tim! I think it’s great that you push yourself with a harder piece, that’s actually one of the best ways to grow as a player! So one thing that I noticed is that you have a really strong picking attack, try to lighten it up a bit, which will produce a softer, sweeter tone.
The other thing I’d recommend is to target your practice to 8 bar sections. Focus on timing. So if you listen back, you can hear one of the sections that you need to tidy up on is the refrain. Slow the tempo down, get the muscle memory down for the transitions, and work towards keeping it steady.
Overall that was awesome, keep up the great work!
morrieuke1 – wow Michael! Really Dig the ritardando at the end of the intro; makes for an awesome transition to the next section! Which by the way, excellent feel!
The only area that I’d recommend practicing a bit more is the end of the refrain. That’s a really tricky part. But bravo, very impressive!
rickeymike – LOL, I like the 64, no 74, no 84 re-write! First off, it’s incredible that you no longer struggle with where the vocal fits in the music. Second, love the poster. Third, as Lisa said, there’s a little bit that you can tidy up. And I have an idea for this:
lisamcc – Yikes, sorry to hear about the uke! But, hope your trip is awesome 🙂 I think you did a great job overall. The one area that I’d focus on is timing and I left some advice for, Smudge, in this post. There’s a video too, check it out, as I think it will be helpful for you.
santai – Wow, beautiful feel to your playing! Please post a video next time, it would be an honor for me to share it on our social media. 🙂
There’s not much critique I can offer, besides touching up the few rough areas. But really, that was awesome, def be proud of what you’ve done!
stianukulele – What can I say, fantastic picking skills, Stian! So much fun to listen to 🙂 Super happy I got to share it with everyone this week!
andracass – Hey MT! Your playing always has a nice tone, but the one area that I’ve given you advice on before involves timing. If you want to eliminate the sections that “drag”, you’ll want to focus your practice on a 4 or 8 bar phrase. Master that before moving to the next section. Check out the video that I left above for Rickey, as it shows me doing this with the on-screen tab viewer.
marni11 – That was awesome and congrats on memorizing it! One thing that I’d recommend is to slow it down a notch, as sometimes it felt a little rushed. Try to play along with Matt in the on-screen tab viewer. His playing will act as a guide, which will help keep you at a steady pace.
surfnrz – OMG, Ray! Your vocal tone is amazing! I’m dropping an email tomorrow for the June challenge. Def will put a link to your performance in it, SO GOOD!
Here’s everyone on Page 16 so far:
jlbross – I love the banjo-ukulele! This song sounds great on that! You did a great job in spite of the one spot where you paused! I love that you smile at mistakes, way to keep a positive demeanor! I noticed that your fretting hand wrist is bending up when you play certain notes and chords. Sometimes after a long time of practicing with the wrist bent in that manner, it can cause injuries. I would keep it as straight as possible, and only bend it slightly the opposite way when needed on certain chords. There might be a few rhythmic details that you can work through with the on screen tab player at 50% to 75% speed, but you are super close! Awesome job!
betsy_manning – You are doing a great job! The performance mindset is slightly different than the practice mindset: There’s no need to explain every mistake, it only pulls you out of the song even more, making hard to keep going. Sometimes we all make mistakes, but if we do our best to stay in time and don’t point them out, most people don’t even notice! My challenge for you on the next submission is to not talk at all while you are playing and not repeat parts a second and a third time. Let your playing speak for itself. You are playing wonderfully! In addition to all of that, playing a bit slower but still at a steady rhythm will help you make fewer mistakes and give you more time to get to the next notes/chords without stopping. I do like that you sing along with the melody to help carry you through tricky spots. I really like that you played through the whole arrangement as well! Keep up all the good work, and thank you for joining the challenge!
laurasil – Excellent job! Your notes and timing were spot on! Great feel as well, there was a bit of a nice “bounce” to your playing. There were a couple of spots where letting go of certain notes caused an open string to ring out, so there might be a little room for improvement on muting those strings as you play through, but I’m only saying this because I can’t find ANYTHING else to critique! Super job! Thank you for your entry!
fiat-lux – You are playing great! There are a few spots to work on rhythm a touch, but you have the notes sounding nice! I would actually recommend playing a good bit slower so that you can keep the rhythm steady rather than playing some of it fast and hesitating in other spots. And where is the last note, haha. Keep up the good work! Thank you for your submission.
casadot349 – Wonderful performance! You have a great sense of timing, and I can tell you spent a lot of time getting every detail down on this! My only concern is the angle of your plucking hand wrist. It sounds great now, and probably won’t hurt you in the near future, but playing with that angle for long periods of time might eventually cause some wrist pain. If you can figure out how to play with less of an angle on that wrist, and with the neck raised a bit higher, it might save you some pain in the long run. Outstanding job on the performance! Thank you for entering!
abaluyot – You are off to a great start! If you had more time on this one, I bet you would get to the point where you could play the whole thing without hesitations! To work those out, practice first in sections, but then isolate the transitions between the parts of the song. This way there won’t be pauses when you look to a new section. I hope this helps! You are doing well so far! Keep it up! Thank you for being part of this challenge!
kumakuma – You have a great sense of timing and a good feel for this song! The only spot I would spend a bit more time is the harmonic chord in Melody B. In measure 29, your finger needs to be right over the metal fret to get the harmonics to ring out clearly. The secret here is to change the angle of your wrist slightly to straighten the finger out (so that it lines up with the fret instead of being at an angle). Then just touch very lightly and feel free to let go as soon as you’ve strummed. You did a super job on the rest of this! Thank you for sharing!
odysseus – Great playing on this! On measure 21-23, just make sure not to rush through the plucked notes. Go back to this spot and practice a bit slower, and then the whole song will come together! Thank you for your entry!
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I couldn’t get rid of the string noise, buzzing or muting in random places. I still have to work harder on timing and feel (really looking forward to the next live lesson).
The chord changes were tricky on this one especially with how fast it goes. If I went any slower, it sounded sad and sleepy rather than the upbeat, happy tune that it should be. 😂
Not great, but it’s okay…
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Hey Andrew,
Thanks for you feedback last month. It was really useful but I’m still having some trouble holding onto my Uke … but I think I’m getting better.
This month I did The Beatles’ When I’m Sixty Four. This was so much fun to try to learn to play. I made a lot of progress but you’ll see it’s still really rough … timing all over the place and way too slow …
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