Participate in the September 2020 Member Challenge – Original Music!

[ukandrea]

Hi Ukulele enthusiasts,
I am also sharing my tab notation of my original that I had posted a view days ago.
It is really easy to play and you can just fingerpick quite all notes out of the chords.

I have a question to Andrew: Which software do you use for writing the notes down? And does it have gimmicks like transforming chords into notes or “listening” to what you play and transform it into notes? If you have a very expensive professional tool can you also recommend a cheap or free alternative for hobby players?

Thank you,
Andrea

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by ukandrea.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Andrew.

[ramiro]

Not Andrew, but I still have a software suggestion @ukandrea. I recently started using MuseScore. It is free and open source software. You can write tabs and standard notation and you can choose from a variety of instruments including the ukulele. It has support for input via a midi keyboard, which I have not tried.

Manual input can be quite tedious. I’ve tried a few other free tools and from those MuseScore is the one I find the most easy to use. I also did some research with regards to automatic transcription. As far as I understand it is quite a difficult computational problem. You may find something for transcribing melodies were only a single note is played at a time, but not for transcribing chords let alone songs with multiple instruments.

[Andrew]

@gmflin8 & @shmu88 – Awesome job guys! I left feedback for you 2 in the same video. Sam’s feedback starts at 2:36.

@ukandrea – I use Guitar Pro 7.5. It’s awesome! It doesn’t transcribe for you though. I think higher end programs like Finale do that, but only for keys. Also, not sure how accurate it is.

[gmflin8]

thanks, @Andrew, for your feedback. Once you pointed those things out, they seem obvious 🙂

Working on the sustain seems to be a thing that many of us struggle with. I will definitely pay more attention to it moving forward.

Mahalo

[johanna2509]

Hi all!

Here is Wonder Part 2. Even though it is considered a Beginner Song, I really struggled with bars 12 and 14… My fingers feel stronger now after I got it down 🙂

I’m impressed by your composing skills guys! This challenge reveals unknown talents.

[Andrew]

@johanna2509 – I thought you played it very well, Johanna! One tip to help with the 12th bar (and 14): Keep your index finger flat across strings 3 to 1. That’ll make it much easier to play outta the barre chord. If you pause your performance at 40 seconds, you’ll see how bent the knuckle of your index is. That’s what we want to correct. Swing by this lesson for a recap on proper left hand form for barre chords.

[johanna2509]

Thanks, Andrew! Now that you said it, I noticed the bent index finger, although I know it has to lay flat on the strings. However, I recently cut myself into my index finger with a kitchen knife. As soon as possible I started playing ukulele again, but still with a patch on my finger. I can imagine I used a wrong position so that the strings ring out without noticing the incorrect left hand form.
Well, I hope it fully heals soon 🙂

[andyrose]

I’m so impressed by the creativity and skill of the folks writing their own tunes! Congratulations to all!

For myself I’m just slogging away at the Classical Etude – quite a workout for those left-hand fingers. @Andrew I noticed what might be one tiny glitch. At measure 13, the little chart in the video (34:19) says to use fingers 1 and 3 but I think what you are actually explaining is to use 2 and 4. The fingering chart might have been copied from measure 2, where that E7 is made with 1 and 3. Thanks!

[Andrew]

@andyrose – Correct. My notation program only lets me input one fingering per chord. A slight limitation, but I always cover fingering recommendations in the video lessons 🙂

[brabbit]

Ditto everyone, awesome to hear people’s original pieces! Hopefully, I will get there one day too.

I took a stab at Wonder Pt 2 — I’m not sure if it’s cheating, but I’ve got a metronome at 90 BPM that I tried to follow.

[Andrew]

@brabbit – Sounds awesome, Brandon! And def NOT cheating. It’s a very good thing to play to clicks and it’s quite common for studio musicians to do just that when tracking professional recordings. Quincy Jones was a big believer in having his musicians track to the click.

Here’s my feedback for you 🙂

[brabbit]

Awesome, thanks Andrew – and for the quick reply too! I will definitely work on that. Cheers 🙂

[about2]

Hmmm . . . hopefully the above link will work. This is my first original song written for my wife, Kathy. In it I try to capture some of the unique things that make her so lovely. Thanks Andrew for the encouragement to write and share. Its played on a Baritone uke.

[Andrew]

@about2 – I like it a lot! Has a bit of a Spanish vibe, very cool 🙂

[mac1984]

@robinboyd Where did you get the music for the Interstellar theme? I love all the music in that movie!

[Author]

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