Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Harold, that was so cool! Love the drum beat! What an excellent way to help keep in time and groove 🙂 I made a little video to help you with some of the lick rhythms. Let me know if you have questions. Keep up the good work!
Hi Belinda! You are working on this course, correct? Do you mind posting a video of the exercise(s) you are working on. If I can see what you are doing, I’ll be much more able to help you 🙂
Welcome Harv! Timing is hard for a lot of people, but here is where I would start if I were you. First, check out our lesson on understanding rhythmic notation. Then, give this song a shot. Work on counting and playing at the same time. This will help reinforce the concept of quarter notes and eighth notes. I would play along with a metronome as well or use the on-screen tab viewer in “synthetic” mode, with the metronome activated. If you don’t know how to do this, watch the second video on this page.
Let me know how it goes and if you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask 🙂
My pleasure! I’d say be cognitive of it while you practice this week and if you have any trouble or issues, let me know and maybe we can figure out why it comes forward.
Brett, that was amazing! I loved your performance, great job! I shared this on our Facebook page today too 🙂 There’s only one thing I wanted to point out to you, and it’s something I’ve seen on a few of your videos; and that’s to try to keep your thumb behind the neck, as sometimes it likes to stick out in front of the fretboard.
Welcome Bernhard! Glad you found us 🙂 Travis Picking is a super useful picking approach to learn. Give this lesson a shot to help learn it: Fingerpicking Etude no. 5.
Hi Lesley,
Yes, option B. For single notes, the movement required can be minimal for a subtle effect and greater for a more pronounced effect. And yes, sideways for barre chords. I have a question for you, have you had a chance to read through the entire guide and watch the entire video lesson?
To be honest, I don’t think I have any additional tips, as that lesson covered all I could think of. It may be best for you to post a video and for me to provide feedback if you are struggling with anything. I’d be more than happy to do that.
Hey Kay, it’s a tiny variation on “island strum”. Only difference is an extra strum on the & of 1. Check out Cynthia’s lesson on IS strum, here:
Lisa, next week’s lesson is a Jazz blues that Stephen wrote; full band concept lesson. It’s super cool!
I am blown away by everyone’s submissions this month! This is my favorite challenge theme and we definitely are going to do it again this year!
I am proud of everyone and this month shows that hard work really does pay off. Bravo to everyone who participated! I have left feedback for those that submitted over the final days of the month below 🙂
But before we get there, we have to announce the winner of this month’s challenge!
**Drum Roll **
And the winner is… jlbross! Congrats, I’ll send you an email and we’ll set up a Skype lesson 🙂
Our February challenge is LIVE and it is Blues Themed! This will be another fun challenge, click HERE to check it out!
——
edward – great job! Notes are sounding clear and resonating. What I’d work on moving forward is to focus on one section or phrase at a time. Work on increasing the tempo, but keeping the notes clean. Then you’ll want to rinse and repeat. So, when you get that one section down, do the same with the next, and then piece them together.
Keep working on the strumming section, that part is the most difficult in this tune! It sounds like you have it memorized, so that’s always helpful when breaking down tunes and working one section at a time. Keep rocking!
—-
jlbross – awesome progress! I think your videos show how beneficial these monthly challenges are and prove just how far you can come in a handful of weeks 🙂 if I were you, I’d turn my focus towards timing. You’ve got a great base established and we want to work on making the piece flow more seamlessly.
So the same advice I left for Edward above, would be very beneficial for you as well. You can also use the on-screen tab viewer or a metronome to help you keep in time. If you use the tab player in synthetic mode, you can activate a metronome to play alongside the music. This is really helpful because it gives you the beat plus a guide (the music) to follow along with. Check out the second video on this page and jump six minutes into it, if you need to learn how to do this.
Keep up the good work, it’s exciting to see you progress!
—
Kay – this final video, I’m guessing it wasn’t the first take? You seemed a little tense and frustrated. Which is exactly how I get when I can’t nail a recording in the first few takes.
The problem that happens is that we start getting upset and it comes across in our playing. What I found that works best for me, is to record myself during the practicing phase and listen back to hear what is working and what isn’t. This helps me adjust as I go along to fix the performance until it is where I want it to be.
Now that doesn’t mean that I play perfectly. I put five to six hours of practice into Havana and still managed to mess up the beginning, hence the splice of two clips for that performance. The same thing happened for Canon, except that time it was the 2 last melodies.
It’s more important to aim to be a solid player over a perfectionist. For example, some of the most famous baseball players, like Babe Ruth, averaged a .3 batting average. That’s 3/10 balls hit. Far from perfect, but what they were, we’re solid players.
—-
Tony – very solid performance! The only critique I have is the same they gave us at music college for this piece, which was to perform it at a slower tempo and focus more-so on sustaining notes and playing every note at the same, equal volume.
I can’t remember how fast I did it in my performance, but I probably could use the same advice 🙂 I tend to play faster then I should.
—-
ser_ser – Wow, bravo! It’s awesome to hear how you’ve progressed on this piece. Well played and great job on the last two melodies!
——
James – great job! And no worries, I still get nervous playing in front of the camera. It usually wears off after a take or two 🙂 the only advice I have for you is that it sounds like the C string is being played a bit too loud. That string tends to ring louder than the others, and the goal for this piece is to play everything at an even volume. So I would adjust the attack of that note to be a little lighter, and it should produce a sweeter tone. Keep up the good work!
—-
Lisa – awesome job on the percussion! It’s a fun technique, isn’t it! One thing that stood out to me though was the strumming rhythm in the beginning was played at a different tempo than the percussion. So I’d work on keeping the timing steady, so that transition is a bit more smooth. But, great job overall!
Wow, and good job on Sultans! That’s a toughie, keep at it, it’s sounding great!
—-
ukuleleloo – I was looking forward to hearing this! First off, that uke sounds so much sweeter than the dolphin. And second, I’m always a fan of your playing because you have a great feel on the Uke. I think you did a tremendous job, well played!
—-
Rickey – you got it, more cheesy endings coming soon, LOL! You made a huge improvement on the slap rhythm, very good job! Here’s what I would do to get it to sound a bit more natural. First, it looks like you were reading and playing, so make sure you have it memorized. The blues follows a 12 Bar form, so you want to memorize that. The form is laid out in detail in this lesson.
Next, make sure you have the mechanics memorized. As in, the order of strum/slap/pluck, etc. Then, take four bars at a time (1/3 of the tune) and loop it in the tab player at whatever speed is comfortable for you. This should help you get it to flow a little more naturally. But very good progress this month, I’m impressed!
—-
foster_maclean – much better in that section! One thing I noticed this time around, and I’m not sure if I remember you doing it the last time, is that you seem to be laying your finger on the fret bar in the first walk up melody section. And that’s kind of what we touched on in the last advice I left for you, is to make sure that you’re not on the fret bar, so that the note rings crystal clear.
Also, watch out for the A minor chord in the second section, it looks like your finger curves down too much and is muting the third string. But overall I thought you played it quite nicely 🙂
—-
zukulele – well played Zion! You’ve got a good feel in your playing! And I feel you on that stretch, I was lucky to play it on a soprano, lol!
I think the only thing I can suggest for you is to touch up a couple sections that were tricky. If you look at the advice I left for Edward above, you can apply the same tips to help smooth out the tricky sections. Keep up the great work!