Participate in the October 2017 Member Challenge – Halloween Themed ($300 Prize)

Home Page Forums Monthly Member Challenges Participate in the October 2017 Member Challenge – Halloween Themed ($300 Prize)

Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 94 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #14219
    giulianah
    Participant

    Hi Andrew, Sorry for my English (just ignore it haha), I’ve been training SO MUCH, sooo, hope you enjoy it, xoxo

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by giulianah.
    • This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by giulianah.
    #14231
    charlene
    Participant

    #14234
    joshwah
    Participant

    My best attempt at this! This song was hard to learn in the beginning. After listening to my first attempts of my recordings, I could say that practice and patience really helps at getting better.

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by joshwah.
    #14236
    Andrew
    Keymaster

    Way to go Lisa! That was really really good 🙂 If memory serves me right, you recently bought that uke correct? Where did you buy it from? It looks like the action (string height) is pretty high, is that something you noticed?

    —-

    Samuel, I dig the variations you threw in there, very cool! My only suggestion for you, is to watch the timing at the beginning as you boosted the tempo quite a bit for the first melody, but then the rest of the song kept at a solid pace.

    —-

    Great job annemarie! I love this theme song, so 80’s, a decade I can’t seem to leave, lol. I have a couple tips for you. First, the intro strum, try to push it a little bit faster. It will help to build the dynamic feel of a powerful intro. Second, some of the chord changes are tricky in this tune. So I would focus on looping those sections and working on the transitions. Practice going from one phrase to the next. This article has some great tips on how to focus on the tricky sections.

    —-

    Linh, that was awesome! Don’t be too hard on yourself, because you’re already playing very well! I have a question for you. Are you double-jointed? It looks like your thumb on the back of the neck is curved in. It’s always best to try to keep your thumb straight, as seen in this picture below. Let me know about your thumb, perhaps I’m just seeing things in the video 🙂

    null

    —-

    fedindark, you’ve got a great foundation for this song! Tell me about how you’ve been practicing? Are you following the three steps? If I were you, I would work on mastering one melody before working on the next. Then, I would work on playing the first to the second melody perfectly. You can keep up this practicing approach throughout the rest of the tune.

    —-

    giulianah, I loved it! You’ve got a lot of talent! Your timing and your feel sounds great. You said you practiced a lot, and it shows. I wish I was that good at 11 🙂 keep rocking!

    —-

    charlene, wonderfully played! And you nailed that outro! My only suggestion for you, is to play along with the metronome a little bit to smooth out the timing. I gave Deb a few tips on this in this post.

    —-

    Josh, great job! I’m a big fan of listening to your performance, reviewing it, and going back and practicing the areas that need to be touched up. That’s a great approach for practicing. I think the only area that you need to touch up on it is the outro. Other than that, I would recommend to cut the nails of your left hand fingers. It will make fretting notes much easier and you’ll be able to get on the fingertips better. Keep up the good work!

    #14240
    ambre_uke92
    Member

    Didn’t get that last harmonic right! 😑☹️
    So here’s my video for the Hedwig’s theme. I tried my best, there are some mistakes but anyway 😄 :

    Thank you, have a nice day 😊

    #14241
    ser_ser
    Member

    Here is a try for Halloween Theme.

    #14242
    debber90
    Participant

    Adams family final take…I really enjoyed this challenge. Looking forward to the next one…

    Trying to get a good take was hard. Any advice. Thanks…Deb

    #14246
    vidafntn
    Participant

    Hi, Andrew,

    Once again, I am entering this challenge just for fun, not to win anything. I could not get youTube to work, so tried uploading to Vimeo. I do not play this piece quite up to speed, but that will take more time. I will be posting another song shortly.

    #14248
    dinhlien
    Participant

    Hi Andrew,

    Thanks for pointing that out! And yes, my thumb can naturally bend 90 degrees backward by itself so it’s a little more effort to keep it straight. I never really thought about that!

    #14250
    lisadmh
    Participant

    Andrew, interesting. I wouldn’t have clued into an action problem unless they were six inches too high. Thanks for pointing it out. Does that make it sound out of tune to you?

    I actually like the bit of lift for the plucking hand as it’s easier to grab the strings. Is that bad? Should i get it fixed?

    It’s just from the local music store, Long & McQuade. They have a good reputation around here and should be able to help if needed.

    #14251
    kduran
    Participant

    I am new to using Youtube and to playing ukulele.

    Please reply if you cannot access this.
    (Unfortunately, (of fortunately for you–ha), I could hear the ukulele better on my phone than on the computer.
    I hoped to get a littler more confident and quicker, but this the best recording I have.
    Thanks for the challenge! I love my initial ukulele, a Mahalo soprano, but would love to invest in a 15+-fret soprano. (Any recommendations?)
    Again, Gracias!

    #14253
    vidafntn
    Participant

    Hi, Andrew,

    Here is the link for my second piece.
    I loaded the video from my ipad air 2 to my laptop, then uploaded it to youTube from the laptop. To my relief, that worked well. So, there was an issue with my upgrade of ios on the ipad that caused the problem.
    This performance of ‘Halloween’ is not very good. I have an awful time with nerves when I am recording, so make a lot more mistakes than I would otherwise. I found the D melody the hardest to play cleanly, especially the first measure of it. Perhaps I should have tried muting the 4th string with the thumb. I just thought of that now. But that seems to give an unwanted click when I strum the chord. I seemed to trip over the strings with my fingers when I tried strumming this section quickly. I still have some issues with hand cramping when playing melodies A and B. The pinkie does not want to stand up perpendicular to the strings. My right hand seems to want do drift south and not stay in place near the top of the sound hole. Over all, I found this piece tedious to learn. I think it will make a good warm up exercise, so I will keep working on it.

    #14258
    Andrew
    Keymaster

    That was awesome Ambre! I can definitely tell you put a lot of work into this, great job 🙂 My only suggestion for you is to go back and work on the last melody. I would approach practicing it by slowing it down and honing in on the timing to get it to flow a bit steadier. Also, the rhythm of the outro is: 1 2& 3.

    I really enjoyed your performance, that was fun to watch!

    —-

    Excellent playing ser_ser! Great use of dynamics on that last buildup section. Keep up the good work!

    —-

    Deb, wow! If there is an award for most improved, then you definitely won! I’d highly encourage everyone to go back in this post and watch all of Deb’s performances. It’s a testament to how hard work and practice pays off.

    To answer your question, our nerves can get the best of us when we put a camera in front of us, or playing in front of people. The best advise I can offer you is: The more you do it, the easier it gets. Also, being prepared can exponentially ease nerves. If you’re ready to perform the piece, then there’s nothing to worry about. The bottom line when performing is that people want to be entertained and have a good time. Trust me, they’re not sitting there saying I hope she messes up, lol.

    —-

    Vida, awesome job on The Addams Family theme! Great feel and timing 🙂 It sounds really cool on that uke too.

    It’s great to hear the halloween theme come together. I think you did well on it! Couple suggestions: First, I would focus on holding down the chords so that they sustain over the melody. Now I remember us talking about the action of your ukulele, and that you find it difficult keep pressure down on some chords. Did you ever get it looked at?

    The other thing I would work on is the rhythm for the strumming section. I would use the on-screen tab viewer to work on this. Put it in “synthetic” mode and turn the metronome on. Slow it down to whatever speed you need and loop one bar at a time. Try to get the rhythm stuck in your head too. If you can sing it, you can play 🙂

    —-

    kduran, excellent job for being new to ukulele! I enjoyed your performance 🙂 Give Mike @ Uke Republic a call or email. He’d be able to suggest a great ukulele based off what you are looking for and/or interested in. Tell him I sent ya!

    —-

    Happy to help Linh 🙂 try to be conscious of your thumb positioning these next few weeks and see what difference it has on your playing. I think it’s going to make things easier for you.

    —-

    Lisa, it doesn’t sound out of tune to me. Actually, if you’re happy with it then it should be fine. But, it may be worth your time to play one with lower action so you can compare how it plays to yours.

    #14269
    vidafntn
    Participant

    Hi, Andrew,

    Thanks for your comments about my pieces. I am a little puzzled about the comment concerning the piece ‘Halloween’ where you recommend that I hold the chords so that they ring out for the whole duration that they are supposed to. I keep full tension on the chords for the allotted time, but the notes seem to decay fairly quickly, so do not last as long as I would like. Could it be the strings that I am using? They are Aquila red series. I got a set of Kala Pearls from Uke Republic. I plan to put them on after these wear out. The Kala Pearls are supposed to require less tension to fret the notes.

    #14270
    Andrew
    Keymaster

    Vida, to clarify its only a few of the bass notes that are being cut short and not lasting the entire length of the bar(s). The melody sounds fine. I’m not familiar with those strings, but if Mike says they are easier to fret with then I would give them a shot.

Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 94 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.