- This topic has 302 replies, 90 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 5 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Thanks @ripley Its fun to play!
Here is my second attempt. I tried implementing dynamics and have to admit it isn´t easy, I always tend to focus on hitting the notes but have never given much thought to this, probably because I thought it was for professional musicians. I still have to practice, but I do kind of think this one sounds less mechanical than my first sumbission
@lyndallk and @cyukug – they sound great! very inspiring to hear more advanced players and their submissions. here is my newbie submission on sound of silence. plenty of mistakes here (i swear, my fingers get all nervous when i hit the record button), but the song is there. been a very busy october full of work travel so i’ve only had these past few days to play around with it.
I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER
@rickeymike and @nerdjenni: Thank you!
Here’s everyone on page 8:
laurakarr12 – You are doing a wonderful job! The first 22 seconds sound perfect! To get the next sections up to that level, I would recommend just playing them to a metronome until you aren’t hesitating on them anymore. Your tone sounds great, and there’s very little buzz, so it’s mainly just getting to chord shapes in time. Also, the vibrato at the end on the last chord was very nice! Keep it up, you’re super close to having the whole song down! Thanks for entering this challenge!
joannetala – I don’t know what it is about the little red light, but something about recording makes almost everyone tense up and overthink! You are doing a great job in spite of this! You have most of the song down really well. My main suggestion is to practice it a bit slower with a steady pulse. Here and there you are slightly hesitating and struggling to catch back up to your tempo, and playing a bit slower with a metronome will help with that. Your tone and playing position are great, so it’s just sticking with a constant tempo throughout. Thank you for your entry!
brettboy – That was super entertaining! I love how well you do the mannerisms of a ventriloquist doll so well! You never broke character! On such a difficult piece, I would find it very hard to do that. On such a hard song, I think the main focus should be finding the pulse and sticking to it, regardless of how slow you play it. There were definitely sections that you keep a solid tempo in, and definitely sections where you sacrificed the timing to get the notes. I would recommend keeping the pulse over all else, and fitting the notes in as best as you can. Even at 2/3 the speed you played this one, I think leeping the pulse is the right way to go. However, you did an excellent job working through those tough passages! Keep it up…I know it’s super hard in spite of how easy Evan makes it look! Thank you for challenging yourself in this challenge, and creating such a fun video.
barbecueblack – Wonderful job on this! You had a great feel, and a fairly natural pulse through the piece! I noticed that you gradually sped up a bit…this made the parts towards the end a little trickier, but you got through it! I would recommend playing the song with a metronome to know where you have the tendency to slightly push the tempo, just to make it easier in a performance situation to not let it get too fast. However, it was such a gradual push, that it sounded great and was hardly noticeable at all! Really nice job on this one! Thank you for being part of this challenge!
lyndallk – Very nice job! And you made that ukulele?! That’s very cool! You did a great job keeping a great feel throughout! My only suggestion now is to add some dynamics and really exaggerate the ritards for effect. Each phrase can start quiet and slowly crescendo, and then gradually get softer towards the ends of the phrases. You are already doing a wonderful job on this, and those embellishments will just add a little more of the mysterious vibe to the song that will draw people in. Thank you for sharing this, and congratulations on making a very nice ukulele!
Here’s everyone on page 9:
planetfink – You definitely got the emotion across! Paul Simon sitting on the floor is a nice touch! It seems like the chord transitions from 0:52 to 0:58 are the main ones that need a bit of extra work. I would loop that section at a slower tempo and just work on getting the notes to ring out clearly on that whole section. Then when you slowly build it up to speed, your fingers should remember the slight adjustments that you made to get the notes to all ring out. Wonderful work on this! Thank you for joining the challenge, and congratulations on a year on Rock Class 101!
andrewvh – Great job on maintaining the tempo throughout, except where you intentionally slowed down for effect! Congratulations on your first youtube video! It might be nerves, but you played this one very fast! I recommend slowing it down a great deal! This will give you time to get to all of the transitions without having to miss as many (or any) notes. If you have a metronome, try playing along with it at 90 beats per minute or slower. Your version was closer to 110. You are doing wonderfully! Keep it up! Thank you for your entry!
tastyshrimp – Nice work! You’re playing this one very well! There seem to be a few spots where you are hesitating (mainly toward the end of Melody B and at the very end), but over all there’s not much more to say! With the thumb, sometimes having to strum through all of the strings can slow the tempo down even though it creates a cool effect. Try the way that AJ did to give each note a slight attack to each note, and see which sound you prefer afterwards. Thank you for entering the challenge!
nosferatu – Very nice feel and tone! There were only a few spots in the middle where the chords caused you to hesitate, so I think you are doing a great job with the changes! Try going over that theme 2 a bit slower. There’s a tendency on this one to speed up on the strummed chords that is also making it a bit harder to get to the chords in time. Try to hold back on the tempo while strumming to make things a bit easier. You’re sounding great, keep it up! Thank you for your entry!
cyukug – Great playing! I think you have it down very well, but here is the one thing that I would be working on: Dynamics.
When I listen back, your playing stays even throughout. Try to experiment a little bit with playing softer and louder. Did you see this video feedback I left for Robin earlier this month in this post? It’ll give you a few ideas on how to work on this and structure it.
Last tip, keep finger pressure held down when doing the barre chord slide up to the 7th fret. Gives it a really cool sound!
@laurasil – Def, nice improvement! Very pretty tone overall. 🙂nerdjenni – Great job for only a few days! First time through sounds great. Keep working on the second time through. And as you continue to practice, work towards memorizing it, that way you can start thinking about the subtleties in your playing; which for those of you who are reading this feedback, is the big takeaway of this lesson.
I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER
This was a first take but I rehearsed this 10 times before recording with varying results. How do I make a 2 minute song into 4 minutes? Geez! I thought I was close to getting to the intermediate level but it looks like I am just not there yet. Please, don’t hold back on the critique.
Rickey, you’re making great progress. Go back and listen to one of your early uploads and you’ll hear the progress. This is really good!
I have to record today. It won’t be what I wish, but hopefully I can get a take without disasters.
I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER
This is imperfect, but it’s representative of how I’m playing. I was hoping to really nail this one and make by teachers proud, but let’s be realistic.
Tweaks: I changed the strum pattern because under Andrew’s influence ☺ I’ve come to be bored of the island strum. It’s a simple substitution but I think it works. I also added a middle run of the tune which combines the picking and strumming versions, so three rounds.
The good: I actually have dynamics in here. Not sure how well the crappy mic picks it up, but there’s definite build. I rarely get dynamics in so this is good.
The bad: tough chord changes I can’t get smooth.
Critiques please. Help me find more bad so I can fix it. I love this tune and want to keep it up.
I am a premium member
I hope my spooky shirt counts as a Halloween costume 🙂 For bonus halloween points I’m sitting in front of a blanket I made to match the design of the iconic carpet in The Shining.Ok, I won’t have any more time to practice this month so here’s my not-very-polished ‘Sounds Of Silence’. There are a couple of pauses where I can’t remember what comes next (still working on memorising!) and a dodgy note or two but I was happy with the last three bars 🙂
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.