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Thanks @leb397! Your entry is lovely as well!
I picked up the uke in 2019. No prior guitar experience but I have played the piano and the violin 🙂This is my last minute submission, Minor Blues Jam Mini lesson 016.
I love this but lacked the time for practice this month.
Friendly Reminder – The deadline for receiving feedback and an entry into the giveaway is tonight at 11:59 PM ET (check your local time zone).
@nelsonlin2021 – LOL! I like your dancing friend 😂
Performance sounded great! Great job on the timing! Only thing I’d suggest is to keep practicing at a slightly slower tempo, gradually increasing to full speed. I think that’ll help you play the main riff 100% clean every time.
@morrieuke1 – Love the chill vibe! Excellent performance, Michael! And TY for the kind words. “Summer Nights” is one of my fav Van Hagar tunes!
@lynnzo – Great playing, Lynn! 2 suggestions: First, try playing along with Matt in the tab player, but loop 4 bars at a time. Focus on keeping the tempo steady. When you’ve got 4 down, move on to the next 4 (bars 5-8) then go back and practice 1-8. Repeat the same process for the last 4 bars.Second, let’s see if we can get that barre chord (9777) to ring a little clearer each time. Check out the advice I left for @denisedistefano in last month’s challenge.
@andrew that you for taking the time to create a video lesson for me. Yes, that section on my performance does sound very staccato-y. I have managed to smooth it out a little bit. I had to slow it down a tad to accomplish that. I have looked up , but not contacted, a luthier in my city. I am a bit worried that they my not be able to lower the strings as it already looks very close to touching at the first fret (but VERY high at the higher frets). But, am willing to call and get an experts evaluation. I am wondering, in your opinion, while this is being done, are there different strings that might help? Current are Aquila nylagut.(spelling?) if so, I could also request that he switch my strings. Also, please do not include me in this months drawing. I saw that @leb397 commented on how much she liked this months prized and that she would like a tenor. I’d like to improve her odds of winning.
@misterbones is the uke you are playing
a cedar bird or is it a moon bird and lighting making it look like cedar bird? I have been eyeing the cedar bird and am thinking that I would like to get one eventually. If yours is the cedar, how do you like it? What are your thoughts on it? Would you purchase again?@ldarrow – My pleasure! I updated our list for your request. I’m not sure if changing the string brand would help. Maybe the luthier has a better answer for that though.
@ldarrow I have the cedarbird and love it. I bought the moonbird first, sent it back and got the cedarbird instead. Reason: the moonbird was very loud and not as warm to my ears as the cedarbird. It prob depends on your preference. You may want to try them both out before purchasing.
@ldarrow: It’s a moon bird, so unfortunately I’m not able to tell you anything about the cedar bird, other than that the build quality and playability of the moon bird are spectacular, and as the birds are all identical except for the wood, the same should apply to the cedar bird. I also love the sound of my moon bird, and yes, as @gi_gi_ pointed out, it is loud, but that’s exactly what I was after. At the time I decided to upgrade and get my first serious uke, I was just working my way through the arrangements from James Hills Duets for One book (and I still love them and play them a lot). All of those arrangements are played with the thumb only, which takes on double duty playing the accompanyment and the solo part at the same time. That works particularly well if you have a wide range of dynamics, i.e. a big difference between the loudest and the softest you can play. And with a little practice, you can always play a loud uke softer, but you can never play a quiet uke louder than it naturally gets. So that’s why I was particularly looking for a loud uke, and why I’m very happy with my moon bird. But probably not the greatest choice if you want to use it as a strumming machine. So as @gi_gi_ said, really a matter of personal preference.
But the birds always seemm to be on backorder anyway, demand exceeds supply constanly. When I got mine two and a half years ago, it retailed at 1.249, it went up 200 bucks shortly after, and is pobably only going to go up more in the near future. So if you’re lucky enough to find one in stock, and have the funds available, I’d say go for it. In the unlikely event you don’t like it and it doesn’t grow on you, and you can’t return it, you can always flip it at little loss or even for profit.@ldarrow: don’t worry about the action at the first fret, if it’s very high at the 12th fret, the luthier will definitely be able to lower it to make it easier to play. Different strings might improve the sound and even the intonation, but they will hardly affect playability. Actually, the string action was the one thing I didn’t like about my moon bird out of the box, it was too high for my taste, so I took it to the luthier, and he told me that it’s at 3mm over the 12th fret, which is still acceptable, but lowering it to 2.5mm made it significantly more playable, even though the difference is hardly noticeable visually. But usually those places that retail high value ukes such as the Anuenue bird series, will also set up the action according to your preference for free before shipping it to you. Just ask for it. Most ukes out of the factory tend to be set up with a string action on the higher side, as some players who strum real hard prefer that in order to avoid buzzing, and as it’s always much easier for the retailer to lower the action than to raise it.
Thank you @andrew for your positive comments and I’ll keep working on cleaning up each note- constant challenge.
@the_bumble_bard appreciate your kind words. I’m always impressed by your posts and keeping this site fun and “real”.
@marianne still impressed with your entries and your choice to play baritone( love the sound/tone). @ldarrow wow what a kind gesture to forego your entry because of my comment. Very kind of you. ❤️☺️ good luck everyone. Oh @nelsonlin2021 enjoyed your helper and is that your new bamboo Uke from challenge? Looks good! LouisaP.S. one last comment, I’m impressed @misterbones on 3 years of entries. They are always so good.
This month I went with Summer Nights. Not only is it an awesome tune and fun to play, but it is for the low g and so I could perform with the new ukulele! Thank you everyone for your support in me winning the new ukulele! I hope you enjoy listening to it. 🙂 Everyone’s submissions were really great this month, and as usual it was a pleasure listening to what everyone performed.
@Andrew Although I love the ukulele for this monthly challenge, I feel must bow out again this month.Mini lesson months are always fun! I chose Minor Blues Jam, it really appealed to me and was fun to play with the backing track. Thanks Andrew and RC101 teachers for creating so many awesome lessons for us. It’s always hard to narrow it down to just one to focus on for the month! So many songs, so little time…:)
Best,
Jody
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