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How on earth does Katie (or Taimane for that matter) manage to sing from bar 13 to bar 20 in one breath? Serious props! My wife and I both have to take a breath at the beginning of bar 16. We’re still working out which of us will sing it in our final version.
I admire everyone’s finger span. The boutonniere deformity in my left little finger really doesn’t help. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boutonniere_deformity)
Hey Vida,
I’ve been struggling with a number of the same things as you but I’m probably a bit further along, so I’ll see if I can help, too.
1. Re memorising, that section you are on is really really hard for me to memorise too. If it helps, the rest of the piece is easier, but the rhythms in that section are all over the place and there is no distinct tune, right? The only suggestion I have is to not get too hung up about playing the rhythms exactly right. I find that if I play the right chords and stay in 6/8 time, then it all kind of works out in the end.
2. Re the chord, you are talking about the 4675 Bm chord, not the barre chord, right? I just tried to recreate the effect that you were talking about, and I think you need to relax your wrist. I’m going to guess that your wrist is curved at the moment. If you relax it, it will straighten out and you won’t get such an extreme angle on your fretting finger (not to mention, your wrist won’t hurt as much). What do you think, Andrew?
I’m using this as kind of a visualisation exerise, which helps me deconstruct people’s form when teaching martial arts. I’m not claiming to be any sort of a musical expert but effective and pain-free body positioning is right up my alley.
At the beginning of the month, I thought I might be biting off more than I can chew, but it looks like I might actually make it with Moon. Here are themes 4 and 5. I’ve been practicing transitioning between the themes as I go, so once I get theme 6 sorted, it shouldn’t take too much more effort to put it all together.
You can definitely buy solid spalted mango instruments, but I think they are less common than laminates because the wood is a bit tricky to work with. (I could be wrong about that, though.) Here is an example https://www.theukulelesite.com/romero-creations-gts-solid-spalted-mango-grand-tenor.html
FWIW, I play a solid mango uke, with a tiny bit of spalting on the back and sides, but none on the sound board. https://meleukulele.com/product/mele-mango-concert-2/
Hi guys. Here is theme 3 and part of theme 4 of Moon. Before anyone comments, I KNOW I didn’t hit the harmonic cleanly, but I can do it. I just happened to stuff it up this time. Given that this isn’t the final product it’s not worth re-recording.
If it helps, I’m struggling with theme 3 as well. The chord change between bars 35 and 36 is hard, but what really gets me is the variation in rhythm from bar 38 through to bar 42. I’m getting there, though.
I play it slowly so that I can get it 100% correct at a slow speed before building up the pace. That’s only part of it, though, because I need to incorporate the tricky bar into the rest of the piece without any change in pace, so I need to play the rest of the piece just as slowly for a while so that I can get the transition smooth before building up the pace again. I’m hardly an expert in practicing music, but that’s how I do things for martial arts, and it seems to work for the uke as well.
Hi Andrew,
I’m up to bar 46, where you are playing the harmonic on the 12th fret as though it were an artificial harmonic (which makes total sense because you can leave the Fmaj7 intact). My question is about technique. I don’t even remember where I learned it now, but I learned to play artificial harmonics by releasing my index finger from the string while plucking with my ring finger rather than releasing my index finger while plucking with my thumb. I find it gives me a clearer sound, and it’s easier, particularly as I can’t grow my fingernails because I also practice a martial art. (It’s dangerous for myself and my training partners if my nails are long.) Is there a good reason to practice the thumb technique or should I just play it as I have been playing it?
Robin
