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I decided to learn Malagueña for the February challenge. Still working on consistency and this recording was the best I could get it in one go. I really enjoy the tune so I’ll keep working on it.
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Here’s my end of the month check-in. Got a little crazy with traveling for work the last few weeks so I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time as I’d hoped to this song. I’ve been working on better control and consistency with my strumming, while at the same time keeping in tempo. Started using a metronome through an earbud too. Here’s my latest of 12th Street Rag. I’ve been playing it on different ukes (tenor-sized Banjolele and a few different concert sized ukes).
I’ve been playing it at 150bpm, still working toward 175, while keeping in form. As you can see from the video, there’s still quite a bit of room for improvement. One thing I’m noticing from the playback is that I am drifting back and forth between the swing rhythm and a regular 4/4, so something else to keep in mind while practicing.
~1 week progress video.
I spent the week memorizing the 12th Street Rag arrangement, and evening out my tempo. I used a metronome for the first time (through my earpiece) while making this video, which was a bit of a learning experience in itself. You can see sometimes where I stared into space and this was when I was getting back on the beat.
This week I’ll pick up the tempo (this was 100bpm, working toward 175) while keeping in time, continue to work on strumming technique, and try to get those diminished bar chords near the end to ring out better.Thanks!
Watching it again, I think I could slow the tempo down a little and even it out, I think I rushed through it a bit due to nerves.
Happy New Year!
Here’s my challenge:
Execution- I’d like to get more consistent with the mechanics of my strumming (being more intentional about which fingers I use, stop occasionally hitting my cuticles on the string or unintentionally hitting the body of the uke in my strums), and I’d like to start learning more jazz & ragtime tunes, so I’m going to be working on those things.
Application- I’m going to work through the Strumming Techniques course and learn to play 12th Street Rag (which is one of the tunes that drew me to ukulele in the first place). I’m going to set aside at least 15 minutes a day to working on this, and add extra time when I can (and the family will bear it, haha).
Evaluation- I’ll record my progress weekly and post my performance of 12th Street Rag at the end of the month.Happy Holidays everyone!
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I picked Steven’s song, It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas for this challenge. Still working on using all of my picking fingers like Steven does in his video, but I’m more consistent when using just my thumb so I recorded that way. Forgive the flub in bar 14, this was as close to perfect as I could record at this point but I’ll keep working on it. Every time I nail that part I get excited and make a simple mistake elsewhere haha.
I think my biggest struggle while using all my fingers to pick was transitioning from that to the strums and back, so I’ll work on that also.
@The_Bumble_Bard, thanks for the encouragement.
@The_Bumble_Bard, thanks! I’ll see if I can find time to record some more this weekend.
I have a playlist on my phone if songs I play and songs I’m thinking of learning on the uke, and I realized one that I’ve been playing normally that would translate well to Clawhammer. If I can work it out and do it justice I’ll record that as well.
By “arranging”, I don’t really do anything formal yet. Some songs just have the right rhythm to go with the Bum-Ditty of clawhammer. I’ve pretty much done it by ear so far. I first figure out what the basic chords of the song are and see if there’s a note that works on the G string as the drone note within each chord and melody notes on the other strings. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to transpose the song to a different key to get chords more suited for the uke, but then you lose the ability to play along with the original unless it’s within a few half-steps up and a capo can be used.
That’s a funny coincidence. From Richard Hefner’s videos I can play Mountain Dew and Cripple Creek pretty well. One of my favorites is Big Rock Candy Mountain. That’s probably the one I’d be ready to record first.
From Pete Seeger’s library, I’ve been playing Rye Whiskey passably well (though I’d have to drink some before I’d record vocals with that tune haha), and next I’d like to work on Battle of New Orleans because it’s a fun and lively narrative, and then Strawberry Roan.
Thanks for the welcome. I started with claw hammer when I discovered some videos from a gentleman named Richard Hefner, and then found the RC101 videos and down the rabbit hole I went. I picked up a few books of tabs from Aaron Keim that I enjoy playing as well. My goal is to make my own arrangements in clawhammer style for some Pete Seeger tunes, but so far I’ve just been noodling around with a few of them. Might need to use a different tuning than GCEA to get them to work on the uke.
I’ll try to record some videos when I get the chance.
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This is my first time recording myself playing, having fooled around with the uke since COVID had me working from home, never playing any stringed instrument before that. Thanks for the motivation to practice!
I played Merry-Go-Round of Life, which is definitely the most difficult finger style arrangement I’ve tried, but Howl’s Moving Castle is my daughter’s favorite Studio Ghibli movie so I had to give it a go. Still needs a lot of work.
