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Here’s everyone who did “Crossing Hemispheres” on page 3.
mark1256 – Bravo, Mark! This is the best performance I’ve seen from you to date. All four techniques were excellently performed. And your feel and tempo where fantastic too. Well done, I was really impressed 👏 👏
lisamcc – Your speed is impressive! But I think if you slow down a little bit you can work on some of the intricacies. For example, the main melody was more of an interpretation than a note for note playback. Also, try to keep the same tempo throughout or if you’re going to speed up, maintain that faster tempo throughout the rest of the piece.
brettboy – I like the hesitation effect that you added the first time through the progression vamp. Such a cool idea! As always, great feel and great performance Brett!
gi_gi_ – Way to go, Gi Gi! Excellent take overall. So to my ear, it sounds like you’re playing at your max speed. I’d slow it down a touch because I think you’ll be able to play with a little bit more fluidity. Also, the last two techniques were played at a slower tempo. Try to keep the tempo steady throughout all four techniques.
smokealot – Excellent take overall, Ulli! Only thing I want to hear is a bit more of that sweep strum attack. The key for that technique is finger independence in your strum attack (i.e. flicking the pinky followed by ring, middle, index).
evapaju – Bravo Eva! It shows that you’ve gone through the course 🙂
The main melody and each technique sounds wonderful. The only technique that I would work more on is the sweep strum. If you watch Matt’s right hand during the Crossing Hemispheres performance, and you slow it down to 50% speed, you’ll see that he maintains an independent attack in each digit (finger). When I watch your performance, your attack is more of an accented strum because you aren’t deploying each finger independent of each other.
So I’d revisit that lesson. I remember Matt talking about starting super slow to develop finger independence in each “flick” attack.
lhamilton – Well done, Linda! My only suggestion is to try to hit the G string a little bit lighter. We want that note to add depth and color to the harmony and melody by being layered in the background.
wongbrown – Well done, Sheila! I’d offer the same advice I left above for @evapaju. Other than that, continue working on it to keep the tempo steady throughout all four techniques.
Here’s everyone who did “Crossing Hemispheres” on page 4 (so far).
concan – Excellent take! I’d offer the same advice I left above for @smokealot. Other than that, continue working on bringing the last two techniques on par with the tempo of the previous two plus main melody.
biancak – Wonderfully played, Bianca! Each technique and the main melody sounds great! Only thing I’d say is to practice along with a metronome. I want to hear the tempo kept a little more even throughout the entire piece. Practice at a slower tempo than what you did here, because this sounds like your max speed.
andrewvh – Great job, Andrew! So the first time through the main melody you played at a slower tempo than the second time. But you maintained that faster tempo throughout the rest of the piece, which was super impressive! Anyways, the point I want to make is to try to start and end at the same tempo. One tip that always works for me is to tap my foot for a couple measures before I began playing so that I can feel the beat that I want to play at.
Other than that, each technique sounded great! The only one I’d work on is the sweep strum. Check out the advice I left about for @evapaju.
But again, great job this month! Keep up the good work 🙂
Here’s everyone on page 2 I haven’t gotten to you yet.
maryjanew – Excellent job on the timing, MJ! For the ending lick, the first single note falls on the & of 1. Try playing along with the tab player in “synthetic mode” to help get that rhythm tight. It’s tricky because the lick is fast at that tempo that you’re playing at.
ccwuke – Playing sounded great, Chris! Only thing I’d say is to play along with a metronome to help strengthen your timing. This is a really tough tune because it has a lot of syncopation.
misterbones – I thought that was a really unique take on both Matt’s tune and the ghost note strum. Matt’s got more of a constant strumming motion to his right hand technique, but the way that you played the chords with a flick of the index and the thumb stationary on the G gave the latter a more prominent role in the overall sound. I liked it a lot, it’s like you took it and made it your own 🙂
ukandrea – Andrea, placing the uke in between the legs like a classical guitarist seems to be a difficult position to hold and play in. I’ll include a short video below which detail 3 steps on how I hold the instrument.
As far as your playing, listen to the section that you did starting at 1 minute. Notice your right hand has more motion when strumming. If you compare that to the opening of the song, you’ll see that you’re much more stationary. The former it gives it a more natural and fuller sound. So I’d copy that approach for the first part of the song.
Overall it was great! Keep up the excellent work 🙂
@misterbones is correct! It’s easier to see the harmony when looked at as a lead sheet, like in the “Ode To Joy” lesson from our reading course.
So Toni was asking about bar 5 and 6 from the excerpt of OTJ from this lesson.
Which correlates to bar 1 and 2. Traditionally, this 2nd bar’s harmony is over a C chord. So I went ahead and updated/simplified our chord melody version of “Ode To Joy” to reflect this. I’d call it C6 for 2XX3 in bar 2.
As to your second question, Toni. Chord shapes can look like shapes we recognize, but their function can be different depending on the key and progression of the piece. I’d recommend jumping into the introductory theory lessons here as it’s a great starting place for studying harmony.
Hi Toni, so the melody notes in bar 5 center around the harmony of an F chord. Likewise, bar 6 centers around a C chord.
The chord melody embellishes the chords with a couple color notes to fill out the sound. I did not notate the voicings you circled with a chord graph. But you are correct, the 2 notes should be plucked together.
@karenj – Excellent timing throughout! It was great overall! You played it with a lovely feel. Only tip I have is to focus your practice on the pull-off licks in bar 9. Slow the tempo down to practice getting them a little bit cleaner.
But again, well done Karen! Keep up the great work 🙂
I think it’s everyone. Most gigging musicians have a set list of at least 40 to 60 songs. And when you’re gigging every week, it stays fresh. But that’s the trick – which is to continually practice the song(s) to keep your chops up and your memory sharp.
@bibilele – Next time he asks how many you need, just say: YES! lol
Bravo on the performance, well played!
@katazumiri – I loved it! So much fun 🙂Welcome, Toni! Glad to have you on-board.
Hope you join us in this month’s challenge. It’s a great way to stay motivated, make friends, and have fun 🙂
The blues strumming tune from the Beginner’s Course is one of the songs you can pick for this month.
@taylor22jane – Beautifully played, Taylor! Great job on nailing the change in feels too. And yes, I could use a summer day just about now LOL
Hi @xerxes, Robin wrote a brilliant response which I agree with and hope you found helpful. Our lessons are geared more-so for the fingerstyle player than the singer/strummer. While we do have quite a few singing and strumming lessons up, most will be geared for folks that want to do something beyond the beginner level.
Robin mentioned UU and the Uke Teacher, but I’d also recommend Katie with One Music School and Bernadette Teaches Music on YouTube for beginner-friendly singing/strumming lessons.
Our Beginner’s Course will prep you from day 1 (how to hold the uke) all the way to playing your first fingerstyle songs (using: fingerpicking and strumming). I recall offering some advice for you in this forum post which was related to the Beginner’s Course.
Which BTW, I see you’ve made excellent progress! You’re into the performance song modules now. That’s where the fun starts 🙂
In that post, I recommended setting up a practice schedule that consisted of 3 parts. The 3rd part was songs. Besides the tunes in the Beginner’s Course, I’d add this lesson to your song list. It’s our beginner-friendly lesson that teaches you how to sing and strum.
As far as warm-up exercises, check out this lesson. It’s a great warm up tool that builds dexterity in your fretting hand. Plus, you can do it to a metronome to work on timing 🙂
You mentioned:
I was gifted a number of ukulele song books they have the chords and notes of the sung notes but most don’t have strumming patterns.
A lot of simple songs can be played using the Island Strum. But it doesn’t work for every song. If you need a bit of help with the tunes in that book, this is something Stephen can help you with in a one-on-one private lesson.
I’d also encourage you to join our February Challenge. The beginner blues strumming tune from the Beginner’s Course is one of the songs you can pick for this month. Challenges are a great way to stay motivated as it gives you a goal to aim for, which is to learn a song within a month and share your performance with our community 🙂
@zongozongo – Great job on the feel and vibe of this tune! Only thing I’d say is to work on timing and keeping it steady. Try playing along with a metronome or switching the tab player to “synthetic” mode. Tackle one theme at a time.
Here’s a couple that come to mind:
1) Ode to Joy
And here’s a more challenging one that uses a pedal tone in the A melody: