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Fingerpicking Etude No. 11 looks like a really good challenge that will address some technical aspects I’d like to improve on.
“I thought that was a great take! What are some of the nuances you hear that you are working on improving? And sorry to hear that you were ill, glad you are better now!”
Thanks. I’m hoping I stay well for the rest of the month – April’s challenge looks to be the hardest one I’ve tried yet.
As far as the nuances:
I’d like to have better control of dynamics, to keep the attack more consistent from one note to the next. I can hear moments where a given note goes soft or jumps out for no good reason.
My first time through on theme 1 sounds a bit stilted to me. I think I started to flow more around the time I hit theme 2.
When I go up to the high frets it sounds like there is a tiny delay. Not sure if I actually got behind on the beat or if I just dropped the preceding note early. Either way, it hurts the flow. Also the tone on those high frets isn’t ringing as clearly as I would like.
A lot of this has to do with general right and left hand technique, not necessarily particular to this song.
I didn’t get much practice in this month. Spent a week with the stomach flu and a couple of weeks fighting some mild seasonal depression. I think I managed to get a passable version of Chopsticks together anyway.
I can hear a lot of little nuances I’d like to clean up, but I didn’t feel up for recording it over and over again to get a better take.
I had been debating whether to fit Chopsticks into my new repertoire study. Guess my mind is made up now.
Here’s my entry. I didn’t manage to get the Blues Shuffle down in time, so I’m posting my take on Uke Blues. Not as polished as I had hoped for, but it was still a good exercise.
Uke Blues turned out to be easier than I thought. Only took a day to get memorized and up to 80% tempo. I’ll keep polishing it, but it looks like Blues Shuffle will be my big project for the month. Got a lot more memorization to do for that one.
Should be fun. I think that Uke Blues will be my realistic target, but I’m going to work on Blues Shuffle also as a stretch goal.
I guess I’ll just give it a try:
It’s not as solid or expressive as I had hoped. My left hand hasn’t fully recovered from last weeks injury and I was trying not to wince as I played. Still, it’s better than I could do at the beginning of the month and that’s what the challenge is all about.
As far as my final weekly report on my practice goals for the month:
I missed my target practice time on a few days, but I did practice every day – about 50 minutes per day on average.
I finished memorizing WipeOut, although I’m nowhere close to playing at full speed.
My ear training is progressing, though more slowly than I would like. This week I mostly focused on intervals and chord recognition.Tomorrow I’ll start working on the February challenge.
Do we post SoundCloud links the same way as for YouTube – just pasting the url on a line of its own?
I may have been projecting from my own experience. My cats regard any time I spend on the uke as time spent away from my primary duties as a kitty mattress.
Nice work Lisa!
Meanwhile, your cat says “what does any of this have to do with taking care of my needs? Get your priorities straight, woman.”