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Hmmm. My store tries to keep them tuned and they trot over pretty quickly with a snark if they hear you playing one out of tune.
What were the brands of the ones you were trying? There are a few main makes my store generally keeps in, so you can Google reviews on the make as a whole. Kalas are super popular, come with aquilla strings, and are supposed to be decent for the price, although I’m not generally a fan.
Maybe a smaller store would be better, if you’ve got them. Or uke republic if you can figure out what you want and are good with ordering online – trying them is so good though.
Yeah, concerts have wider spaces and it messes up my muscle memory too. I’m a soprano sort, although I suppose one gets used to it after a while.
Sorry you didn’t have a better shopping experience.
Miz, could you have a tuning or intonation problem? That’s how I check intonation. The same note on a different string should sound the same with just a slightly different feel.
My beloved other doesn’t argue because the poor guy can’t even clap the beat of happy birthday without messing up. Lol, he’s no help at all.
Ok, off to the theory course I go…
Hmm. I’ll try that gahanby. I wanted to use them to create chord melody…
Andrew, thanks for all the links. I fear I might be at the point where I have to learn some theory. It scares me and makes my head spin, but we’ll see how far I get before my head falls off!
Update for anyone who’s interested in the guitar pro Android app, it’s cheap and had limited functionality but it works well. The biggest limitation at this point is that you can’t export to PDF. You need to send the gp file to desktop guitar pro to get a PDF, which i won’t be able to do. I can still use it in the software though.
The standard notation also comes out an octave high. Not sure if I can change that at this point.
You also can’t change time signatures part way through.
However, it let me play around with note values and I managed to figure out that I am legitimately in 4/4 time all the way through. I had dotted quarters that were throwing me off. Who’d of thought I could write a song with dotted quarters??
Even though I’m just messing around with almost no theoretical knowledge, it helped me understand my song and is helping me refine it. And I now have an on screen tab viewer for my very own song! A morning well spent.
I downloaded it and it’s a hoot! I was worried that I didn’t have a challenge this month as I was already good with my song but this is a whole new level.
I can’t seem to change the time signature part way through on Android, which is a problem because I’m pretty sure I switch from 34 to 44 and back a couple of times. At least I can get the notes down. Thanks!
Thanks guys. I’m check out guitar pro. There are lots of negative reviews for the last Android version but I don’t see other Android options. It’s gotta work. 🎶
Ricky, music stores around here rarely have a low g strung uke I stick to try out but they all know what it is and can order if they don’t even have strings in stock. Regardless, going to the stores and playing RC101 songs on a bunch of ukes is tons of fun.
I picked up a book on reading standard notation and it was for low g too. I was surprised then, and now it’s the same here. Curious.
Heads up, the jump from a little soprano to a huge tenor has been a challenge for me because the frets are spaced farther apart so my muscle memory suffers. Concert is less of a stretch from soprano so try them all and see how they feel to you.
Also heads up, ukulele acquisition syndrome is a real thing. You might want them all, lol. I have my standard go-to soprano islander that I play most of the time, plus a plastic ukadelic for the beach, plus an amazon.com cheap electric that’s very quiet when not plugged in (so I can practice without bugging people, I get a lot of extra time in on this, e.g. looping hard bits over and over while watching tv) plus a tenor low g that I haven’t figured out what to do with yet. I have to stay away from music stores for a bit!
Happy hunting!
I just tried to play my song with a metronome and it’s a bust. I like it but it doesn’t seem to fit in a consistent time signature. 3/4 at the beginning, then it falls apart.
But the notation is just a tool to transcribe the real music, which is the sound, right? It doesn’t matter if my creativity doesn’t fit in the box? Kali won’t be put in a box.
Thanks for all the kind comments folks.
This is a fun challenge. It’s great to see all the different things people are working on!
Wow, reading from the bottom of the thread up, y’all had me confused and a little worried. I thought you were talking about me. Lol.
It’s a great idea though if it’s not too much work.
I decided to post where I’m at since other people are. It’s not great, and I didn’t get to the end because a certain kitty cat in whose honor this song is written interrupted me. But it’s her song, and she doesn’t have much time left in this world, so she can do whatever she darned well pleases.
Written in the past few days by lisadmh for Kali, my little love who has cancer. May she live to hear me master her song.
Great start robin! That’s a lovely song.
I’ve written my new song. I might make some tweaks along the way, but the basis is there. It turns out that it is loaded in bar chords. Jeez, who composed this darned thing?? I guess this challenge is also going to be about getting clean bar chords with that E string ringing out, without three stringing it and skipping the G string if I can manage it.
It is a sad song as it’s dedicated to my much beloved 15 year old cat who might be in her final days of life. If I lose her before the end of the month, I might not have it in me to get it posted. If that happens, I’ll still post it eventually. She deserves it.
Ok, so I think I’ve committed. There are so many things I could do.
This month I’m going to compose a new original. I have three original songs and it’s such a hoot. I’m going to add a 4th.
I am a total beginner at composing. On the uke in general, I think I’m a seasoned beginner or early intermediate. I’ll let Andrew be the judge of that.
I’m at the beginning of this song. I just started trying to pick something basic out this morning. I’ve got a bit of something musical going on.
Execution. I will write the song, including some form of written notation (I’m bad at this). I want it to have the same chords at different places on the neck and I want to know the names of those chords. I want it to have some slides because I love slides more than words can say. I want it to sound pretty. I want to give it a name.
Application. I want it to be within what I can actually execute cleanly, but to push me in some ways. I will play it cleanly by the end of the month.
Evaluation. I’m going to record myself weekly or more to hear how I’m doing and correct any playing glitches or notes that need fixing.
