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I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi all!
This month has been a bit chaotic. I started learning the 4/4 Waltz and got melody A up to speed. But melody B was so tricky because of all the barre chords… especially bars 19-20. 😅 My fingers get so tired from the previous bars so that the notes are not ringing clearly. I realized I won’t be able to get a good recording. So I decided to switch to the Fingerpicking Etude no. 13. I liked jumping up and down the neck.
Here it is, after two days of practicing. 😊
I’ve chosen the Flight Diana Tenor with a low G 😊. As I live in Germany, I’ll probably have to wait a while for it to arrive. I’m looking forward to playing all the low G arrangements with it 😊.
@gi_gi_ Haha but I don’t want to imagine custom fees for like a Kanile’a model 😅.Wow, I am so excited! 😄 Now this is a hard decision I have to make, so many lovely ukes to choose from 😅 I can’t decide between the Flight Diana Tenor and the Ohana TK-70R. Both look and sound beautiful. And then I have to decide whether it should be Low or High G. I don’t have a Low G tenor yet, so maybe this is the opportunity to get one.
Hi all!
I don’t find much time to practice ukulele at the moment (I’ve started to lose my callouses 😢), but I managed to recorded Matt’s Lullaby for this month today. It is one of my favorite RC101 arrangements and it kinda turned into my warm up routine. After listening to Matt’s performance today, I noticed that I play some sections in a different tempo 😅 In the recording, I tried to stick more to Matt’s version, but that was quite tricky after playing it with different feels and tempos for such a long time 😅
However, here is my version:
@The_Bumble_Bard I’m sorry, I totally forgot to reply to your message! I am very busy with my masters thesis, it’s stressing me out. I mostly do pencil drawings, I like the technique where you put a grid over a picture and copy it square by square. It’s very tedious though. I did two of those with a real photo of myself and my boyfriend, but I am not confident enough to post it here lol. 😅 I’m also not that creative to do my own paintings, that’s why I enjoy putting a paper on the laptop and trace already existing images. After tracing the outlines, I colour it with pencils. The last time I did that I painted a dragon which I found on reddit as a tattoo idea. I will share that one. 😊 I mostly draw stuff from video games that mean much to me. I did one from the game Celeste, it’s about coping with depression and the lack of self confidence. I’ll share that one too.
And, I wanna share some creative stuff that is actually uke related. My boyfriend likes using the open source 3d modelling software Blender. He created some wallpapers for me. They look so cool! The inspiration was my very first uke from Luna Guitars.
The drawings you posted are looking great! So many details on the portraits, that’s impressive. You are very talented. 😊
@leb397 Thanks so much! Yes, I am from Germany, maybe the song is not so popular here, or I am just not culturally educated. 😂 It’s funny how we all struggle together when it comes to recording. 😅 Also, my heart rate increases with every measure being closer to the end which also leads to messing up and brain freezes. Then I am like “okay, I trust my muscle memory and my fingers, they’ll hopefully do the right thing”. 🤣
I enjoyed your performance, too! Lovely playing. 😊 I am sure most of the improvements in our ukulele journey is due to RC101!
@The_Bumble_Bard Thank you so much! I really like the soft tone that comes with strumming only with the thumb. It fits calm christmas tunes so well. And it allows to focus on tricky chords and chord changes. 😊
I also see recording kind of as a practice session. If I try to get a clean recording and it doesn’t work, I can easily figure out the parts that need more repetition or that I haven’t fully memorized yet.
P.S. I find your painting on the thumbnail very pretty! (I sometimes paint myself so I know it is not so easy to draw spheres or to get reflections/shadows right) Also great progress for such a short practice time! 😊I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi all!
This month I chose Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (I have to admit that I didn’t know this song before 😅🙈 I checked out Frank Sinatra’s version though). As a big fan of Matt’s all thumb arrangement, I had to learn this one, soo beautiful. Recording was as always not so easy. I normally stop trying if I can’t get an acceptable take in, let’s say, 5-8 takes (then I am not ready to record). I agree so much with @leb397 saying that every take has its good parts, but it is hard to get them in one recording. 😅 With this one, I had so many takes where the first 21 measures where almost perfect, but then I mess up on parts in the end that I usually play right in practice. Such a struggle. I stopped counting the takes.
This month marks my 5 years of playing ukulele! I can’t believe so much time has passed. Since April 2019 I have taken part in almost all monthly challenges. Thank you so much RC101 for all the arrangements, teaching, hosting these challenges and giving feedback every month!
Anyways, here it is, recorded next to our little christmas tree. 🎄
Oh, and I know that my fingering in measure 13 is kinda cursed. 😂 It was difficult to not cause string noises on the jump to the start of measure 14 (in the uploaded recording it surprisingly worked quite well).
With that said, I wish you all happy holidays and merry christmas! 😊
@The_Bumble_Bard Thank you! I kinda understand, but at least the little white and blue Totoro are really cute. 😊😅
@jbmills07 Thanks so much! Your performance was beautiful as well! 😊 But where were your cats in the video? Maybe asleep because it was so soothing 😴😊
@jgillard Thanks! 😊@Andrew Thank you! Oops, I see what you mean. Next time I double check the tab viewer before recording 😊.
I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi all!
I am in love with all the Ghibli arrangements! Great job with Merry Go Round of Life too and welcome Mika 😊!
So here is Path of the Wind. Soo relaxing to play.
I am also working on Always With Me and I have Verse 1 and Chorus down but bars 43-46 are SO tricky! It is a really good challenge and after each practice session I feel like my fingers are getting stronger 😅. I hope I can post it this month too 😊.@Andrew Alright, thank you!
@The_Bumble_Bard Thank you! I also enjoy a mix of strumming and fingerpicking in one song, like in Puff the Magic Dragon 😊I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi all!
Here is another Morning Dew. Great Etude to practice all those techniques. I liked that different fingers do the slides.
You can hear on the first hammer on that it makes a “klicking” noise when the string touches the fret. It is not always the case so I don’t know how to control it.I needed to get the recording done today so I can start with Path of the Wind!
@Andrew Thank you! We also enjoy the last warm autum days in Germany 😊
@The_Bumble_Bard Thank you! Bars 7-9 are indeed the hardest ones! But for me 8-9 were just a muscle memory thing. What I do with those difficult strumming parts: I start with muting the strings and only practice the the up and down strums and the rhythm. Then I add the chords and play it veeeery slowly. Speed will come naturally. I also looped half of one bar, not the whole.
And I always pick the song that sounds the best to me regardless of the difficulty (but I think twice if it’s one of Evan’s arrangements haha 😅) but then I sometimes end up with an arrangement that seems impossible at first… I keep trying and grinding the song and it is so satisfying when it works out at the end. Then I really feel like I am growing as a ukulele player 😊
I think if you practice some more and get the motion into your muscle memory (so that you don’t have to think about it that much), you will get those bars down! It is not that easy to combine the physical motion, the rhythm and the chords. Focus on one at the time and you’ll have it!😊 (And remember, this is an intermediate level song!)
