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Hey Phil,
I would recommend to hone in on timing when you have a complete section or phrase down. You referenced mastering four bars at a time before moving on, that’s perfectly fine. Most songs are written in eight bar phrases, for example: A verse or a chorus. So splitting that in half, is an excellent approach for learning quickly. But I would also recommend to work on the transitions.
So if you master bars 1 through 4, then you master bars 5 through 8, don’t forget to go back and work on bars 4 to 5. I commonly notice people forgetting to work on the transitions. The same would apply when you are playing from one section to another, a verse to a course for example. So you would work on the last bar of the verse to the first bar of the chorus.
Hope that helps!
Hi James, that’s a great approach! Focusing on one song at a time, practicing it, and getting it down and memorized is a great way to build your repertoire. Keep up the good work!
Hey MT, great job! It sounds like you have just begun working on this tune. One thing they told us in college was this (and it applies to your comment about not knowing the SpongeBob Theme): Listen to the original song a lot, to help familiarize yourself with the tune. And couple that with listening to the arrangement too.
Since you’ve gone through the entire tune, I would break it into 2 or 4 bar sections, loop them, and work on playing them cleanly and in-time. Then work on the next couple bars and then the transitions. For example:
Nail bars 1-2
Nail bars 3-4
Nail bars 1-4Then continue same process throughout the rest of the song. Check out our Practicing guide for more tips too 🙂 Keep up the good work!
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Congrats to our winner Cindy_Le 🙂 Again, thanks to all who participated. This was an amazing Challenge because of YOU!
Welcome Laura! Love your write up and I just watched your performance and left some feedback. I’m happy to have you as part of our community here 🙂
Wow guys! We had 56 submissions for the challenge this month, that’s amazing! Great job to all. I really enjoyed watching everyone’s performances. Below I will be giving some feedback on the final submissions. If anyone has questions, please feel free to ask!
Check back tomorrow to see who won the ukulele for the May challenge! The YouTube video will be posted in the afternoon 🙂
Don’t forget to check out our June Challenge! It’s TV Show themed and a $400 Pono is up for grabs for this months giveaway ukulele 🙂
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petrichor265 – Great playing and timing 🙂
ukuleleloo – Great job! You’re almost there, Melody C is the tricky one. Check out this recent lesson for some tips I offered fellow site member Marisa on “ode To Joy”, particularly the “feel” and looping hard bars.
bjblue2 – Nice playing!
hyzenthlay – Great job! I would suggest what they told us in college when we played this song: to play at a slower tempo. Although, as your comment says, nerves might have sped you up 🙂
jacobturner127 – Very well done! I would suggest the same as I did for ukuleleloo, but only in the feel. Try to play with a little lighter touch which should make the tone “sweeter” sounding.
ukulelesam04 – Love it Sam! We featured your performance on our Facebook page the other day 🙂 My only tip for you is to slow down and loop the second section, the chords that walk down, and work on the transitions of the chord shapes. They can be tricky, but your fingering is great!
rillke – Wonderful! I would suggest same as ukuleloo and jacobturner127. Great job, I enjoyed it 🙂
relaxinguke – Brilliant! Great job on getting it down on your own, keep up the good work!
timthecuber314 – Nice playing! Only suggestion is to watch timing on certain phrases as sometimes they seemed to have a sudden burst of speed.
sifkek – Loved it! I agree, just a little more polishing, but truly you are doing very very well! I would suggest to lighten up on the pressure on some chords, as I noticed sometimes the strings would bend, which will cause it to be slightly sharp.
owllady – Lisa, I loved it 🙂 Miss you guys! Naomi was drilled enough with what I would say lol, so I’ll give her a break here haha.
walter – lovely playing! Interesting sounding with that low G!
freeclmr – Excellent playing Brian! Job well done.
florian – I love that you are attentive to the fact that slow and steady wins the race. This is truly the way to get better and you are doing great! I would suggest to review our tips on the proper way to hold the ukulele, it should make playing more comfortable for you.
sebastian – Good job! I would suggest same advice as hyzenthlay.
ed_sanderson – Awesome! I would suggest same advice as florian (in speed) and check out the tips I left for jacobturner127 (lighter touch). Some chords were hit with quite some vigor, which clipped the audio recording. A lighter touch will produce a more even volume and sweeter tone. Keep up the good work!
theandersons – Nicely played! I would suggest same advice as florian.
skyoly – Great job! I would suggest to loop the harder walkdown section and to use a barre chord for the G7. This will make the transition to the next chord much easier. But, truly lovely playing!
cindy_le – Great job Cindy! I would only suggest to watch your timing, but very well played!
freeclmr – Round 2 lol – Ode To Joy. Great playing again! I would suggest to sub out that pull off of the D to C (string 3) for a plucked note as the pull seems to produce a harsher tone. But, that’s all I would change!
Compass Rose – Very well done! Keep up the good work!
ukukelley1 – Great playing Sheryl! I would suggest to correct the curve of your right hand wrist and try to align it srtaight, as seen in pictures in our proper right hand form article. But, your playing sounds lovely! I enjoyed it 🙂
tpoppen – Nice job! I would suggest to watch the timing from when one section ends and the other begins, in other words: the transitions.
Just in time Maria 🙂 Great job, you’re almost there, melody C is the tricky one with that tune. BTW, did you see June’s Challenge and the song that is on there 😉