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I was listening to Evan’s youtube channel this morning. Well worth a listen. His musicianship is other-worldly great in my opinion…very special to have such a virtuoso in our midst.
Great performances all around. They really drew me in…I think I caught them all this month. I really like the variety of things people are working on and the original compositions/arrangements are amazing. You inspire me to work hard and to try new things.
As for my progress, I had a bit of a setback with arthritis in my left hand. I posted a mid-month update, and couldn’t really play for a couple of weeks after that. I have to be careful not to push too hard, but sometimes it’s hard to know where the line is, so I over do it. Anyway, I think I’m on the mend and felt good enough today to give it another try, which is posted below. No better or worse than the last effort, but I am happy to be able to play it again.
@marianne Very beautiful performance. Bravo!
This is not exactly “uketalk”, but it seemed like the best place to share a short LA Times film that a friend sent me over the weekend. It’s called The Last Repair Shop, and tells the story of the musical instrument repair shop that maintains 80,000 instruments for the LA County school system. It profiles the fascinating lives of several of the technicians who work there and the impact that music has had on their lives. It’s worth a watch if you have a spare 40 minutes or so.
https://kottke.org/24/01/the-last-repair-shop?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Hey Ukeduke,
You do an impressive amount of practicing so it’s clear that you’re motivated. The prospect of putting down your uke for a time so that you can heal must be a bummer. I have only been playing for a little over a year so I don’t have a wealth of experience; however, I do have experience playing with hand and thumb pain. Mine due to arthritis…yours, probably a strained muscle/tendon. Tendonitis is very common at the base of the thumb, and is often caused by overuse or repetitive motion. Unfortunately, the solution is to avoid the activities that cause the pain. Having said this, I have found certain work-arounds that allow me to move forward despite the hand issues. Maybe something I do could be helpful to you. Here are a few tips:
Concentrate on some other aspect of your study and limit the left hand to simple chord shapes that do not hurt your hand. You could focus on complex right hand picking, clawhammer, or you could study the caged method to find an alternatives to the barre chords that hurt your hand. Additionally, sometimes my hand only hurts during a particularly difficult passage in a piece. In this case, when I practice I will finger the chord but not press down hard. It doesn’t sound great, but I am learning the song or technique, and I know that I’ll be able to play it when I feel better. Another thing that works for me is shorter practice sessions. I’m the extreme, but I practice a dozen times a day for 5 – 15 minutes each time. Sometimes I wrap the base of my thumb with a self-adhesive bandage. It doesn’t interfere with playing much and the support/compression seems to give me extra playing time. I’ve noticed that they sell thumb braces designed for tendonitis of the large thumb joint. I may give one a try.
Finally, check the action on your ukulele. Again, I’m pretty new to this so I have limited experience, but I have found that relatively small changes in the action can make a big difference with comfort if you have hand pain issues. My new uke came with fairly high action and it was difficult for me to play. I filed the bridge to take nearly a mm off at the 12th fret, and it’s much better (though I still need to work on it a little). Another thing to try is using light gauge strings while you are healing. Most think they don’t sound as good, but I’ve tried them, and they are easier to play. Hope this helps you.
Good luck.Here’s my first take of Rhythmic Blues. Please excuse the poor quality. I practice early in the morning, usually in low light. I took the video on a whim, and thought it good enough to show some progress. My goal for the challenge was to color outside the lines a little…play by feel rather than strictly adhere to the score. To facilitate this, I watched and read the lesson for a day or two…enough to get the gist, but then improvised a bit. One big change is that the song was designed for low-g and I’m playing it on a high-G. I recently bought a second ukulele that I’ll string low-g, but for now I’ll go with this as I think the piece sounds fine with either setup.
I deal with properties so my instincts kick in. I was a little reluctant to say anything because I didn’t want to be perceived as “mansplaining”, but I also didn’t want you to have a problem that could be messy and expensive. Glad to hear that it wasn’t a freeze up on the water supply. I think you are correct re: the frozen drains. The water in the traps probably froze solid and need a little time to thaw. Good luck.
@The_Bumble_Bard, Strange that you have power and still no water. Are you sure that your pipes did not freeze while the house was cold?
Very nice…I enjoyed your performance. So nice that you and your daughter have the ukulele in common.
Hello everyone,
What a great challenge! So interesting to read everyone’s goals for it. For me, I’m going to try a 12-bar blues riff performed by Evan (https://rockclass101.com/rhythmic-blues/). When I first attempted it, it was too advanced for me, so I set it aside. Since then, I’ve concentrated exclusively on finger-style playing, so I feel like branching out into something different for this challenge. I’ve been playing for a year now and practice about 1 to 2 hours a day, so I guess at this point I’d consider myself an advanced beginner…budding intermediate.
I chose this song because as a newbie, I was enthralled by Evan’s rendition (You can do that on a uke?), and set as a goal to play it someday. The other thing is that I feel my playing is a bit stiff, so I thought a little blues might help me to loosen up a bit…focus more on the joy of the music rather than the fear of making a mistake. By the end of the month I would like to play it loose and clean.
My plan is to practice this piece for 1/2 hour per day and submit a performance piece by the end of the month.
House at Pooh Corner. Years ago, I used to sing this song (badly) to my young daughters at bedtime. Now that they are adults, I’d love to play them a version on my uke. Fingers crossed.
OK, I’m gonna give this a try. I’ve never posted to anything before and never created a sound file, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I am a 67 year old who took up the uke last January and enjoy it immensely. I particularly enjoy rockclass101 which I credit to keeping me motivated and providing a great learning environment. Just wish I’d started earlier. Anyway, please accept my humble submission…I am a PREMIUM member.
Michael
