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@muzikmama – Very cool, I thought you did a great job! But I would recommend starting with songs that have a simple melody and harmony. The one you chose is quite a complex song. Traditional songs like Aura Lee are great starting points when beginning to arrange.
@wannabgood – Bravo, Michael! Excellent feel and performance 👏
@morrieuke1 – You should pick up a copy of Guitar Pro. I never used Finale as it has a reputation of being non-intuitive to use. I did use Sibelius for years. I liked that one, but GP is so easy to use 🙂
@abster – My pleasure!@leslieb – Sounding really good, Leslie! Feel is spot on!
If you’re coming down with a claw/closed hand shape for the chuck, you’ll want to pluck the strings instead of doing an up strum. That is the method I prefer and taught in this lesson.
On the contrast, if you want to follow the chuck with an up strum, you’ll want to use Matt’s method which has you coming down with an open hand shape for the chuck.
This video shows the difference between the two:
@malku2603 – Beautiful! Nicely played 🙂
It’s hard to comment on the first question as I’ve never seen you play. If I had to guess, I’d say the pain is caused by a form issue or pressing too hard.
Try to take a break until the pain resides. Then, can you post a video playing? I’d be happy to check the above.
For the second question, time isn’t as important as what you are doing with your time. Our first lesson on day 1 of music college was how to practice. Check out that article, it shares exactly what was taught to us.
But to give you a direct answer, playing is the same as using a muscle for sport. If you don’t use it for awhile, you will have to work at getting your chops back. Taking a day off won’t effect you, it would have to be a prolonged break.
@jody_hendrickson – You’re getting there! Sounded spot on on the last take. Keep up the great work!
@maryjanew – Sounding good, MJ! Try looping those phrases in the tab player. That’s a good way to practice it 🙂
@morrieuke1 – Very pretty! Can’t wait to hear it all!
@The_Bumble_Bard – I really like the contrasting tonalities between both themes. Very beautifully written, Rachael.
@abster – Another beautiful performance, Abhay! The rest of my feedback is for your parents: This might be the most challenging tune he’s played. And it was very impressive! I do have some suggestions: Could you try having him play along with Evan in the tab player? Ask him to try to match Evan’s playing as best he can. Start with timing as the focal point. And only 8 bars at a time. When he can nail 1 – 8, try 9 – 16, then 1 – 16. Build the song that way.After that, he can work on the more subtle aspects of playing. Like matching the accent on beat 1 in bar 67.
@mysticrick – Very well played Rick! I do have a couple suggestions. First, I noticed sometimes you pull down or up on the string that you are fretting. For ex, ring finger at 1:26 or middle finger at 1:37. This causes the note to go sharp as it bends the string. Try to keep the strings as straight as possible.The first time, when the song goes to Melody B, you switched to a thumb picking approach. This change slowed you down a little. I’d keep the regular picking approach when that section comes up, just like you did the second time it went to Melody B.
Overall, excellent job! A great first post 🙂
@jedart – Sounding good, Jed! I’d recommend working on one or two phrases at a time with a focus on timing.
@dividedsky – Both techniques sounds great and timing is spot on. I do have one suggestion. With the pull-offs, tugging down is proper technique, but try not to tug as much. It’s more of a fluid motion, than an actual pulling down of the string. For ex, you can see in this video how little the actual string is pulled down:
@kelsey91 – That’s impressive Kelsey! You’ve got a great ear to work it out on your own! Keep up the good work 🙂
@lyndallk – Such a great tune, Lyndall! Gonna be fun to hear how the final version turns out 🙂Always enjoy listening to your songs, Patrick! The ukes look awesome, good luck on the new builds! Can’t wait to see them 🙂
@lhamilton – Excellent progress, Linda! I’m looking forward to hearing your arrangement 🙂
@The_Bumble_Bard – It’s coming together very nicely, Rachael! Love the haunting feel/vibe.
@jedart – Timing is sounding good, Jed! Try not to rush the triplets at 47 seconds.
@malku2603 – Wow! Great job on the speed and feel, Akansha!@jedart – Sorry about that! They got caught in the spam folder, which happens when 2 videos are embedded in the same post. Unfortunately, there’s not a way for me to relax that rule. But I approved the post and they are showing now 🙂
Glad to have you here with us, Jamie! I’d keep going. One thing you can do is use those exercises in module 2, unit 5 as a warm-up when you first pick up your uke to start practicing.
When you’ve got those down, I’d replace them with a more musical-sounding exercise, such as the beginner level units in modules 2, 3, and 4 from our Fingerpicking Course.
You should join us for this month’s challenge. Challenges help keep folks motivated. I’d recommend picking 1 of the 3 performance pieces from Module 5 (in the Beginner’s Course) as your goal for this month.
I’ve actually asked Matt about using the ghost strum before with a low G, and in his opinion, it doesn’t work. This is because the high G creates a drone, whereas a low G would stand out too much. With that said, if you like how it sounds on a low G, go for it! But his advice would be to save this strumming technique for a high G.