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This month I am practicing Dream State, Toss a Coin to Your Witcher and Puff, the Magic Dragon.
But I found that puff the dragon is so much fun to play! It combined both strumming and finger picking, I really like this arrangement.
Hi, friends!
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I’m a big Peter, Paul, and Mary fan so I loved learning this arrangement. Wish my performance was cleaner. I felt like I got a little sloppy the second time through melody B, but this is probably my best recording of the attempts I made this morning.
Thanks!
Here’s everyone on page 8 that I hadn’t gotten to yet.
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ealtman – Well done! Great job on the timing and TY for the kind words 🙂
tric_o_tronic – Great job! Try not to bend your left wrist inwards while playing – I’d actually recommend not playing on the couch – it puts your body in a weird position which makes holding and playing properly much more difficult.
I’d like you to work on note clarity a bit. Check out this exercise. It’s a good one for working on just that 🙂
oldan_ – Great job, Dan! Question: Where you reading while playing? Try this: break it into phrases – like 4 or 8 bars – and read/play 1 phrase. Then do it w/out looking. If you can’t, pay attention to where you forget and target practice there. Keep bouncing between looking/not-looking until you can play without looking 100% all the way through. Master 1 phrase before doing another.
marlongas – Bravo, brilliantly done!
lhamilton – Well done, Linda! I’d suggest working on timing, specifically keeping it a bit more steady. Try to play along w/ Matt in the tab player. That’s a great way to work on it.
smokealot – I thought it sounded awesome! Keep up the great work, Ulli 🙂
Apologies everyone. Some amazing submissions, well done all. I’m realizing what a beginner I am at this stage i think I cant improve on puff the magic dragon any more so here is my attempt at it.
FionaHi everyone,
here‘s toss a coin to your witcher. I played the beginning a bit more freely, because I had the original song in mind.
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Toss a Coin to Your Witcher.
Really struggled with bars 23-25 for some reason, so wouldn’t be surprised if my timing off! And gutted about that last harmonic fail, but think this is the one I’m going with so as not to be playing too last minute. My learning point is, if I haven’t heard a song before…listen to it much more before learning it to avoid teaching myself errors! But love love this arrangement, many thanks and happy November challenge all!
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Here is my recording of Toss a Coin to Your Witcher. Have wanted to learn this since it first popped up here so glad it was in this month’s challenge. A couple of little slip ups but I am happy enough with it. Looking forward to the December challenge!
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Toss a coin to your Witcher
A few mistakes in this entry, but ran out of time to try and record a better performance.
Chris
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Phew, another one in the can. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, that is so hard! A few little things just always seem to go wrong, also in places I thought i had really polished. So the learning curve is huge, and fun! Love the song and the arrangement.Thanks Andrew.
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I to choose between Puff and Dream State and picked the latter. They’re both nice tunes, but I thought I need to push myself and try the latter.
Here’s my contribution for the month of November.
Here’s everyone on page 9:
willymac – Very nicely played. Your rhythm, harmonics, and dynamics were great on this one! The only thing left to do is get it up to Matt’s speed. You have everything else down very nicely.
gstriph – You are doing a great job with the notes and techniques. Now you are ready to play along to a metronome or the tab player at a slower speed to work out any rhythms and hesitations. Having something to keep track of the timing helps you to know where you hesitate for certain chord shapes and passages you aren’t as comfortable with. You’re doing a wonderful job, keep it up!
morrieuke1 – Great job, and this sounds wonderful with the low G! It adds a nice balance to the melody, as it had when I wrote it on piano. You really did a great job on the ending as well. I’m glad you enjoyed learning my song, you played it very well. Cheers!
aksiomatic – Excellent job! Your timing, feel, tone, and speed were great! There’s not really much to add to it unless you want to experiment with adding dynamic swells for different sections to bring the listener in and give the song some extra emotion. Very well played!
karenj – I love the light up ukulele in a dark room, that was a very cool effect! That ukulele does have a bit of an intonation issue on the higher notes, but your playing sounded great! It’s hard to be as expressive on a plastic ukulele, so I would love to hear it on a wooden one, but all things considered, you played very well…and the visual effect was worth it!
kanae926 – Great job on this one, it can be extrordinarily difficult not to jump the gun, but you successfully stayed with it. One thing that helps for me and makes it a little easier to not overthink it is to sway a bit with the rhythm while I’m playing so that my body is helping me keep time and connect with the track more directly. Sometimes this can help dynamics be correct as well, as if you are moving with the song, you are less likely to hit a note harder than intended. You’re playing was great on this, and I love the tone you have on that ukulele!
hibiscus – You’re doing very well, especially for your first challenge! As far as holding the ukulele, it’s a bit tricky to stabilize the soprano ukuleles…one thing that helps is to use a strap. I prefer the tenor size so that I can partially rest the body of the ukulele on my leg in the case of not having a strap. Try reviewing some of the beginner course lessons on form to see if they help you with this. As far as stage fright, there’s something about recording that is even more anxiety provoking than playing in front of a crowd. One thing that helps is recording until you get a take you’re ok with, and recording a few after knowing that you already have one you’re ok with…then there’s less pressure and it’s usually easier to play at that point. Your playing is great, keep it up and you’ll work out all of the hesitations. Great job!
andrewvh – You are off to a great start! It seems like you have most of the notes and shapes down, there’s just the occasional string getting muted by either not pushing down hard enough or an extra finger touching the string in the first half. The upstrums with the thumb are a bit difficult, and I recommend using your right hand pointer finger to get less of the thumbnail sound, or working on getting a very consistent use of the right pressure and speed with the thumb. Matt is excellent at it, but it really takes a lot of work to have that finesse with the thumb. Keep up the good work!
akukes73 – Very nicely done! You had a great feel throughout most of the piece, and did a wonderful job on the first half! From 1:10 to the end of the piece, just spend a bit more time with the hammer ons and pull offs, and getting into the strummed B7 in measure 29. As far as the harmonics at the end, touch very lightly over the fret itself, making sure your finger isn’t slanted and accidentally muting any of the strings. If you were performing in front of an audience, don’t repeatedly attempt the harmonics, just let it go, and if you want to play a normal chord at the end instead of harmonics, that works too. Keep up the great work, you’re 90% there!
patparr – You are doing well on the notes and harmonics, and if you revisit this song later, it’s time to work on the rhythm. I recommend slowing the tab player to 50% speed and playing along with it to help feel the pulse of the song. You’re off to a great start, keep it up!
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Hey everyone. Here is my version of Dream State. I am a beginner but couldn’t help giving this one a go because it sounded so pretty.
Thanks heaps for your feedback on my last video Andrew. Will keep working on it! 🙂
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