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I’m 72 years old. If I practice 1.5 hrs/day, which is a bit aspirational but within the realm of possibility, I’ll be about 90 when I finally get to 10,000 hours!
On a more serious note, I think it’s really all about the quality of practice, focusing on specific skills that I want to improve, developing musicianship, and having fun! As Stu Fuchs, another great teacher, says – “drop by drop, the bucket is filled.”
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I’m also working on Steven’s lovely arrangement of the Godfather theme, but won’t have it ready by the deadline. So here’s my take on Jurassic Park (also a lovely arrangement and fun to play!).
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Great song, great arrangement. Although it’s very, very far from perfect, I’m more satisfied with this performance than anything I’ve submitted in past challenges. Thanks to Matt, Andrew, and everyone at RC101 for all the great lessons!
@ukule_lise that was great playing and great singing – bravo! Happy Holidays!
@Andrew thanks for the tips! Very embarrassed about the timing on the first two bars. After learning the notes of the intro, I was only looking at the score for the main melody – didn’t want to have to turn the page! – so I was completely oblivious to the fact that I was not playing the correct rhythm! Easy to fix since you pointed it out. And I definitely want to aim for a sweeter sound.
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I really want to learn What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve, but I know I won’t get it ready by the deadline. So here’s Rudolph. Sorry about the botched penultimate chord!
Thanks to Matt for this arrangement. I’ve had lots of fun with it, even if the video doesn’t look like I’m enjoying myself. Camera jitters. Pretty easy to play, but surprisingly hard to memorize. Maybe because the chord shape is often the same but with different finger-picking patterns. So my “muscle memory” gets easily confused.
I just donated $50 to Ukulele Kids Club.
Wow, Andrew, that is one great tip! It addresses two of my biggest problems: my weak & inaccurate pinky – which caused me a lot of grief in the Tarraga Etude – and looking at the fretboard constantly while playing. At first it’s frustrating to try to play without looking, because most of us are so accustomed to relying on sight as our strongest sense. But I’m learning that it’s possible to play faster and more accurately without looking, as the brain directly senses and controls the fingers, without the delay of processing what the eyes see. Thank you!
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Last month, despite practicing Blue Moon all month, I could never get a decent take. So this time I decided to stick to “beginner friendly” level – still challenging enough! This is a beautiful piece and lovely arrangement. I’ll keep it in my repertoire and hope to play it better and more consistently in the future, but for better or worse this is an accurate picture of what I can do right now. Thanks!
Thanks @Andrew, @bethany_guardiani, and @ukandrea for the tips!
I won’t be able to catch the live lesson in real time but I look forward to watching the replay.
I think one of my own bad habits is the same as Pat described – trying to do too many things at once. I want to learn blues, jazz, rockabilly, classical, fingerpicking styles, strumming . . . and every week RockClass101 posts another lesson that makes me think “I gotta learn that song!” It would probably work better to choose one skill or style and practice it intensively before moving on to another.
Anyway I can hardly wait to hear what Matt thinks are bad habits – and how to overcome them.
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I’ve had a lot of fun learning this arrangement – big thanks to Matt! My recording is not very good but it’s a fairly accurate picture of where I’m at so far.
Very impressed by others who are able to play this so much faster! I would like to trade in my pinky finger for one that’s stronger and goes where I tell it!
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For sure I need to work on my hammer-ons and pull-offs to make them more even and consistent. Now they are sometimes OK but usually not. And my resolution for next year is to concentrate on better tone.
But no more apologies and no excuses, this is the way it is on December 22, 2020. Happy holidays to all!
Hey, Matt – I watched the replay last night – thanks! So I’m a Dunning-Kruger test case and didn’t even know it!
What you say about the importance of having fun is SO true, not only for our own state of mind but also for engagement with an audience. A brief story to illustrate . . .
About a half-dozen years ago Heidi and I had just started to learn Lindy Hop swing dancing. And we happened to be walking along the harbour in Victoria, BC, during a summer outdoor jazz festival. The band that was onstage struck up a tune that was exactly the right tempo for our limited abilities. There was a wide area in the sidewalk, so we put down our shopping parcels and started dancing enthusiastically.
At that time we knew only about three moves, so we just cycled through those moves for the whole song. A few people gathered to watch. At the end they congratulated us and I think there was even a little applause. What the onlookers said to us was NOT “those were spectacular moves” or “that was the best dancing I’ve ever seen.” What they said was, “You looked like you were having so much fun!”
We were in our mid-sixties then, now seventy years old. And still having fun. Here’s a tiny clip from somebody’s phone, taken at my wife’s workplace Christmas party a couple of years back.
Hey Matt – Because of time zones and schedule I can almost never catch the live lessons in real time, but I always enjoy watching them afterwards. I don’t have a specific question but I’m very interested to hear what you’ll say about building confidence. Obviously practice practice practice is key.
What’s paradoxical for me is that I felt more confident playing (for friends, at performance parties) when I was just beginning and could only strum through a basic chord progression. As I work on more advanced techniques – but oh so painfully slowly – I actually feel more hesitant to play (semi)publicly. It’s as though the more I know, the more I realize how little I know, and the more sensitized I am to how poor my technique is. Help!