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This is my attempt.
I have taken some ukulele lessons last year but then stopped. Just joined 10 days ago and want to give it a try.Heres my entrance to the challenge. I did the begginer uke song. Just in case, heres the link…. https://youtu.be/x8OO2vDMJdA
Wow Christy! You are rocking for 1 month of playing, great job! One thing that I noticed: when strumming, your wrist sticks out and then your hand curves in. We want to keep our strumming hand and wrist straight. Which looks like this:
Check out these two lessons from our beginners course for more tips on strumming:
Overall, I’m really impressed by you, keep up the good work!
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Well played ultramom! Timing sounds great! I’m glad you are back to playing the ukulele, it’s so much fun 🙂 A couple days ago I left some feedback for Quentin on this song. He was having some issues with the chords sounding a little funny. And it really comes down to muting the 4th string when you strum, as the open G note will clash with this chord progression. I’ll link the video starting at that spot below for some suggestions to help you clean up that section. But other than that, keep playing it sounds great!
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smokedcow1807, wow you’ve got some speed! Great playing! Moving forward, I would focus on polishing up the piece a touch. So actually, if you watch the video I embedded above, but start from the beginning, the tips in there will help you. For example one thing you can work on is to make sure that when you transition from the riff to the chords that your timing remains constant. And just double check that you don’t speed up in a section.
By the way, the YouTube link didn’t work but the download link did. Just an FYI for others that want to listen to your performance 🙂
Fur Elise.
As usual, it’s slow and had glitches, and sounds much better in my head. But the good news is that last time this song was featured it was way too hard for me, but this time I was able to make a little something of it. I must be learning!
Critiques welcome. I know that middle part pretty much sucks. I’ve looped it about a zillion times with little progress.
Thanks!
Hi, Andrew,
Here is my submission for the November Challenge.
It still needs a lot of work. It is not quite up to speed. It sounds very mechanical, almost plink, plink plink. I have difficulty getting the notes to ring clearly in the chords of the middle section. I do not think I am pressing the strings with sufficient tension. I find that playing with a metronome seems to make my playing very mechanical.
Thanks for the tip Andrew! I will certainly work on it. I appreciate you taking the time to watch and help!
Christy
My pleasure Christy 🙂 happy to help!
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Great playing Daniel! Timing and clarity of the notes sounds great! The video I left above with some tips for Quentin will also be helpful for you. Couple things you want to work on are the transitions: Going from the riff to the chords and back without pause. Also, in the video I talked a little bit about muting the 4th string when strumming. The reason to do this, is because that string clashes with the chords (sounds dissonant). Overall, great job I enjoyed your performance!
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Hi Lisa, here is a short little video with some tips to help you out 🙂
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Hi Vida, I actually watched your performance after Lisa’s. But, the advice I gave her can help you out a lot too. You said it sounded mechanical with the metronome, and that is very true, that can happen. And in this lesson, we talked all about how Marisa was so focused on playing the music, or should I say reading the music, she wasn’t paying attention to how she was performing it. The same could be true if you are so focused on the metronome.
This is a very beautiful song and the notes and the chords should sustain into each other. That’s what I talked about in Lisa’s video above. The other thing I would suggest for you, is to slow it down a little bit. This will help you focus even more so on the tone that you are producing.
Overall, I think you’re doing very well and I’m excited to see your progress with this piece. 🙂
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for your comment and encouragement. I really appreciate it. As I usually don’t have much time to practise and with zero musical background, when I first learned ukulele last year, everything was so hard to understand.
But I learn a lot from your lessons. There are so many helpful tips and so much easier to understand for me. And I can always go back and watch the video again 🙂
I’m really glad I joined as a premium member 🙂Thanks Andrew, for the feedback and the pep talk. 😀😀😀
I will work on sustaining.
The fingering change was actually intentional though after experimenting. No matter how many times I try, I cannot get from the barred 5th fret down to the Am7. My fingers just can’t find the chord. This new way, I end up with my index on the right string and I have a fighting chance of finding the chord sliding down. Fair cheat?
My pleasure ultramom 🙂
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Fantastic playing ukedumb! Bravo! My only suggestion for you is to keep your fingers curved at the first knuckle when fretting notes. This is vital for proper form. Keep playing, you sound great!
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Lisa, there’s no cheating in ukulele, oh wait, I meant crying lol!
Was hoping to try Fur Elise but was having trouble finding time so I tried First Song instead. I fumbled a bit – then forgot where I was and paused while trying to remember where I was. Was also using a new uke that was given to me as a present and have not added the fret marks (they dont seem to make very many cool ukes in left handed so I string right handed ones upside down and then have to had the fret marks on the edge). I did have a bit of sticky note stuck to the 10th fret so that helped.
Here is – ‘Our First Song’
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