The Accountability Thread – Participate in the September 2017 Member Challenge

[philrab66]

Thanks for the feedback.If possible Drew could you please recommend a song just a bit more challenging than Yankee Doodle so I am not trying to learn something that is too difficult .
Thanks Phil.

[Andrew]

Give Norwegian Wood a shot. It’s a cool Melody and a fun strumming tune. There’s a stretch in it and it’s going to force you to break the thumb hugging habit in order to reach it. Check out this lesson if you need help on increasing your left hand reach. One helpful tip too, in the B Melody (bar 12) it switches to a Gm7. I wouldn’t play that chord change, instead I would play the regular G minor (seen in bar 11), it’s a lot easier and sounds just as good.

[lisadmh]

Thanks Andrew! I’ll work on my chill. Maybe the constant metronome in my head needs to lighten up a tad. I think my next effort will be to loosen up my left wrist. Maybe that’ll help everything flow a bit better.

And maybe I’ll take my cheap little uke in my suitcase. Can’t be away from my baby for 10 whole days. 😊

[rickeymike]

Sorry about the background TV noise. Forgot to turn it off.

[Andrew]

Hi Rickey, thanks for sharing this video. So it looks like you have a lot of movement going on. So when you switch to the 5 – 6, your hand lifts up, then drops down a bit, and then positions into the shape.

If you watch how I do it below (and I’ll start the embedded video at that moment – 0:25), notice how my middle finger shift up to the 6th fret and the index finger comes down on the 5th fret, but my wrist remains straight and my hand does not lift up or move down.

So give that approach a shot and let me know how it goes. Also, let me know if you have any questions.

[philrab66]

Hi Drew
Could you please look at this video. Just showing my thumb placement for you to have a look at. This position feels very unnatural and uncomfortable for me am I in correct position with wrist etc
Thanks Phil.

[Andrew]

Hi Phil, see if can straighten out that thumb, like this:

That should make it much more comfortable. Let me know how that feels/works.

[philrab66]

It feels a bit better but I notice my thumb goes to an angle and not straight when playing chords especially g chord.Is this a problem?

[Andrew]

For what you played in the video, I would keep it straight. It’s probably reverting to angle as that’s closer to the habits you are used too. Try to be conscious of it this week and let me know how it goes.

[kayleighb]

Update on how I’m doing with the ‘3 finger’ finger picking style.

Currently working on the immediate piece – think I have the 3 finger approach down on this one, my challenge at the moment is transitioning seamlessly between the 2 chord shapes, still a week left to master this though so practise practise practise!

[Andrew]

Keep up the good work Kay! Let me know if you need any help 🙂

[ukuleleloo]

Hi,

Here’s a video of my progress on Waimanalo Blues. I’m having trouble with the neck slipping when I move up and down the neck at a faster speed. Any tips? Or does that just take practice. I’m struggling with my hammer ons. They don’t ring out clearly especially when I’m in the g chord. And when I have two pull offs in a row, especially when I’m playing the g chord, the second pull off doesn’t always ring clearly.

[Andrew]

Here is a video to help you out, and btw, great job! Let me know if you have any questions ukuleleloo. And email me about the last thing, if your interested 🙂

[lyndallk]

Hi Andrew

My challenge was to develop a good strategy for practicing, including new songs, new strumming patterns, and other areas. Sadly this hasn’t gone so well – although I have thought about what to do, I haven’t actually developed a plan.

That said, it has meant that I’ve actually been more concerted in my practice while still being a little random. I tried to develop a percussive strum for this song, Gatekeeper, and although I can’t keep up the two different strums, I’m quite pleased with where I got to.

I also tried different inversions of some of the chords in different parts. I think I have to listen to them all and decide what goes best where.

I have a question – is the strum percussive enough? And how to get that? Do you have any advice on the strum for this song.

By the way, excuse my voice, I’m getting over a cold and cough!

Thanks again for the challenge
Lyndall

[Andrew]

Hi Lyndall, looks like the video isn’t working. It might be set to private?

[Author]

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