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@kanae926, I understand your frustration! I had similar issues while recording (smooth until the very end — WHY??, balancing between speed and smoothness, harmonic not working, etc). I recorded more than 130 takes over the course of 4 days, so needed a lot of patience by the end. Keep it up though! The more you work and evaluate, the better you’ll get. Allegro sounds like a beautiful piece! Will have to give it a try myself.
Thanks everyone for the kind words! My hard work and passion for the ukulele are paying off.
All the best,
~NathalieHere are the results of my work. First is the execution — improving speed/accuracy up and down the neck with Fingerpicking Etude no. 13. Second is the application of my practiced skill with Chopsticks. I’m not able to play it at 100% speed, but can play it reasonably well at 80%. I’m pleased with my improvements, though Chopsticks took many, many, many takes to get a good recording.
Stay safe, @robinboyd. Nice work everyone and good luck!
~Nathalie
Lovely song, @lisadmh!
@miztaken, you and I are in the same boat. I’m working through the same challenges with Chopsticks.Evaluation (cont’d): By the end of week 3 I can play Chopsticks relatively smoothly at 80% speed. My main struggle is getting bars 13-15 to sound out clearly. The harmonic is also hit and miss. I will focus on looping those sections this week, and hopefully get a good recording by the end of the month.
Evaluation (cont’d): There’s been good progress in week 2. I can play Fingerpicking Etude no. 13 smoothly and in time, with minimal errors. I’ve started to focus more on Chopsticks. I know the notes by heart and can play it relatively smoothly at 60% speed. I had to look up some tutorials on how to play harmonics — that was fun! The next two weeks will be about practicing to gain speed and smoothness in my playing.
Execution: I am working on gaining speed and accuracy with moving up/down the neck. I am somewhere between seasoned beginner and intermediate, hoping to solidify the intermediate title over the next few months. I plan to accomplish my goal of better movement by studying and mastering Etude no. 13. I will practice for 25 minutes at least twice a day.
Application: I will apply what I’ve learned by learning Chopsticks, hopefully playing it at full speed by the end of the month.
Evaluation: So far so good! In week 1 I watched the lessons for Etude no. 13 and Chopsticks. I focused on learning Etude no. 13, using the tab viewer to repeat bars until mastered. Some transitions (from one bar to the next) are a bit of a struggle still, as well as correctly playing the final chord, but overall I can play the whole song by heart with few mistakes at 80% speed. Next week I will start focusing on Chopsticks.
Thanks for the compliment, Andrew! I picked up the ukulele two years ago (it was a Christmas gift for my kids but I couldn’t put it down) and have been teaching myself ever since, thanks to YouTube and all the wonderful resources out there. It was mostly chords/singing for the first year and a half, but I have moved on to fingerstyle songs and am loving it! Your site — Rock Class 101 — as well as ukulelehunt.com and the book Ukulele Aerobics have played a big part in my learning. Thanks for all your hard work!
Thanks kanae926 and rickeymike!
I was disappointed with the low volume as well, though I just used the built-in microphone from my Nikon DSLR camera. The volume would surely improve with a better mic.
Wish I knew what the secret to sustaining was, but I just practice, practice, practice until the song comes out how I want it to. Maybe Andrew has better insights on this topic.
Wishing you all the best!