[Andrew]

Ouch James! Sorry to hear about the finger, but at least it wasn’t too bad 🙂 That Pono looks awesome, congrats! I loved the Pono I played at Uke Republic that we gave away the other month to Luke. It was such a great uke! I want one too, lol.

[Andrew]

Hi Lisa, I would not omit that section, instead I’d recommend to play the rhythm part instead of the lead. Great practice for rhythm/backbeat playing in that section 🙂

[Andrew]

That practice spreadsheet looks awesome Jon! Thanks for making it 🙂

I’d suggest to post a video of that tune when you feel like you have a good handle. I’d be happy to give you feedback too! Looking forward to watching your progress!

[Andrew]

That’s awesome, congrats on the success! You should start a new thread asking for volunteers, it will be easier for them to find it that way. I’m sure some of our members would love to try it out and give you feedback 🙂

I’m looking forward to your post this weekend. Remember, there’s no pressure, but everyone’s counting on you 😉

[Andrew]

Our 10k subscriber giveaway winner Laura sent Mike (@ http://UkeRepublic.com) and I a fun video of her playing her new Kala uke! Congrats on winning and thanks for the video! I hope you enjoy your new uke 🙂

[Andrew]

Welcome Jon! And no way, you are behind the Ukulele Teacher‘s app. That’s so cool! I hear it’s extremely popular, congrats on the success!

So this is actually one of the most common questions I get asked: Where to start? I’m planning to create what I’ll call: Learning Paths. Which will be guided step-by-step plans for where to start in regards to beginner, intermediate, and advanced players. It’s much needed as we currently have over 215 lessons 🙂

But, in the meantime let’s see if I can help you out.

It sounds like you are a seasoned beginner. So a great place to start would be our Beginner’s Course. There are two lessons in module 3 you should check out:

Chord Library: Basic Chords
Barre Chords: An Introduction

Now I’m sure your app contains these chords, but how you approach practicing them is what’s going to make the difference in your playing. A great way to work on chord changes is to take two chords at a time and add a simple rhythm. So for example, if you were to play the basic G to D chords. Strum the G chord on beat 1 and switch to D on beat 3. Start slow and loop this. In those lessons above, I talk about moving all three fingers at the same time instead of one at a time. That’s one of the most important things to grasp when working towards increasing your speed. If you’re new to barre chords, check out our lesson on Proper Left Hand Form.

I’d also recommend to check out our Fingerpicking Course. The course teaches you three approaches for fingerpicking (using thumb, 3 fingers, or 4 fingers). This course will help you build dexterity and fluidity in your playing.

Furthermore, we have beginner level songs at the very top of the Ukulele Songs page. I would recommend to start with these songs before diving into levels 1 through 4.

—-

So you asked about achievable targets and tracking your progress. First, check out our guidelines for Proper Practicing to get an idea of the best way to approach practicing. Now the timing couldn’t have been better as I just created a new thread: The Accountability Thread. Here you’ll be able to join myself and other members as we continually track our progress over the next weeks/months. Take a look at the thread, because it lists a few steps that you can follow when you pick one or multiple items to work on.

Don’t hesitate to post on our forum or send me an email anytime you have questions or need help, that’s what I’m here for 🙂 Glad to have you onboard Jon!

[Andrew]

No need to be embarrassed Lisa, we are all learning and you are doing great! Looking forward to seeing your progress!

And wow Dave, if you got 76% you are kicking butt! Great job 🙂 Give the descending intervals a shot, they are tricky!!

Here’s an application idea: In our lesson for Yankee Doodle, I wrote the arrangement using thirds. Take a simple melody like that one and harmonize it. You can share it here 🙂

[Andrew]

Glad it was helpful 🙂

[Andrew]

My pleasure! Looking forward to seeing what you post 🙂

[Andrew]

Hi Kay, Lisa pm’d me a video. She was lifting her hand up after the slap, then putting it back down to pluck. Which created a time gap, furthermore makes it harder to pluck evenly – as you have figured out 🙂

If it’s helpful, here is what I sent to her:

[Andrew]

Boom! I started it: https://rockclass101.com/forums/topic/the-accountability-thread/

I’m in it with you Dave 🙂

[Andrew]

Glad it was helpful ser_ser 🙂

[Andrew]

You’ve got a great handle on knowing what to do/work on. But let’s dive deeper. We can divide improving into three steps:

1) Execution – this includes everything that you listed above.

2) Application – this is where I think you need work on. This involves applying the theory and technique you are working on to your playing.

3) Evaluation – analyzing if the above steps are improving your playing and musicianship.

—-

Let’s look at some of the things that you listed:

#1 –

A) Very specific practice routines that focus on areas of weakness (picking techniques, transitions between difficult chord shapes etc)

B) Taking a song based approach and working on the sections that I struggle with.

Let’s say you are working on hammer-ons and pull-offs. If we outline a practice schedule tied to the above 3 steps, it would look something like this:

1) Execution – running exercises, licks, phrases that involve the technique.

2) Application – putting that technique to work. Find a piece of music that is heavy in the use of that technique. Our arrangement of Amazing Grace is a good example.

3) Evaluation – record yourself performing both the song and your practice exercises. Listen closely to determine if you are executing the technique properly. Make adjustments as needed.

—-

#2 –

A) Trying to work on playing by ear.

B) Playing by ear is something I’d really like to develop more. I’ve tried ear training to recognize intervals (I’m ok in isolation with these) and can usually work out riffs and licks but struggle with chords (quite a lot).

1) Execution – you are off to a great start with recognizing intervals. One of the best tools online can be found here: http://www.musictheory.net/exercises/ear-interval

Furthermore, you will want to venture off into scale and chord ear training (bottom of page): http://www.musictheory.net/exercises

I’ll give you the recommendation they gave us in college: 500 a day.

2) Application – the ears are the most important aspects of a musician. But, you also need to be able to correlate what you hear onto the fretboard. In other words, you need to not only be able to hear a minor 3rd, but also be able to play a Minor 3rd. You probably see where I’m going, venturing off onto scales: You want to be able to play them in multiple positions throughout the neck and be able to call out their formulas. Then you want to apply the intervals and/or scales to your playing.

This was the idea behind our newest course: An Introduction to Music Theory & Jamming. For example, the course has a few lessons on major and minor pentatonic. It teaches you the scales, explains the differences between the two, shows you where to play them throughout the neck, and recommends why you should use one over the other. Then it gives you a song to learn that has two solos (one major and one minor) so that you can apply the scales to a real life playing situation.

3) Evaluation – let’s look at chords for evaluation. If we look at one genre in specific: The Blues. Then we know that it only contains three chords all of which are dominant. If you have a good handle on recognizing a dominant chord you can start to apply it. Turn on any straightforward blues song and jump to a random point in the song. Call out which chord it’s on (either 1, 4, 5).

This is a great exercise for recognizing chord progressions by ear. If you can nail it with the Blues, you can move on to harder progressions.

—-

One more point we can hit on, you said:

#3 – When strumming through a progression I’d like my strumming have more embellishments that make it sound much more interesting.

Start with something simple. For example, I get a lot of questions about my accented melody note strum technique. It’s a rather simple technique to learn, but can really help to highlight a chords Melody note. Check out this lesson: https://youtu.be/-RMlp31R5PE?t=6m18s (starting at 6:18). Here I talk about this specific strum attack. And as you can see below, one of our members used it in her performance of Aura Lee. It’s such a subtle technique, but it goes a long way in adding a unique Dynamic to the performance.

—-

If you are down 🙂 let’s have some fun and give you some accountability. Take one thing that you want to work on and post a video of where you’re at today in your playing. Apply the three steps listed above to it and let’s monitor your progress. I’d be happy to help anyway I can as you work through it.

[Andrew]

Tessa, that was fantastic! I wouldn’t call you a beginner anymore 🙂

Lisa, can you post a video? I’ll be better able to help if I can see/hear what is happening.

[Andrew]

This is a great question Dave. Hitting a plateau is something that we all have felt at one or more points in our playing careers. But, I can tell you there is a way to rise above it.

So before we get into that, I have a few questions for you.

1) You said you have tried all the usual advice. What does that entail?

2) What are your goals? What do you want to be able to do? (Dig deep – let me know specifics)

3) What is your practice routine like? What do you do?

[Author]

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