mayaqatsi

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  • #20786
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    my submission for the Nov challenge (La Gitana)
    haven’t been able to play much the last couple of months :(((((, but hoping that just trying to keep up with the challenges will somehow keep me going even if it doesn’t help with my timing in every sense of the word….i am a premium member with no low-g uke but got this funky handy waterproof one ๐Ÿ™‚ that makes it that much harder to tap harmonics on ๐Ÿ˜› but, hey, compromises you have to make when you want to play your uke outside in the rain

    #19807
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    I know this is horribly late, so not an “official” entry…and I’ll understand if it’s just too late for getting feedback as well….just wanted to keep up with the motion of doing the monthly challenges, even if not officially :-PP

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by mayaqatsi.
    #18762
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    feel a bit sheepish posting a dry version of this (well, the roughness and off-timing is the usual ๐Ÿ˜› working on itโ€ฆ), even more so after elbo99โ€™s cool progress video (like a lot how you guys also repost following andrewโ€™s feedback) and the WOW ๐Ÿ˜ฎ vids by deadbuggy and brett boy!
    rickeymike, ๐Ÿ˜€ your vid put a big smile on my face!
    oooo i really like that augmented chord ending, andrew, to รฉtude no.13 in your response to deadbuggy

    #18324
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    not for the prize but for the challenge, even if I never seem to get to practice enough, but at least the desire to practice is always there, thanks to you, Andrew!

    #18178
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    Hi Lisa,

    I’m far from the ring quality Andrew gets with artificial harmonics, but I do see that I am improving a little (and I have a cheapie acoustic concert) — so in case it helps to hear what I’ve tried…even though I keep thinking that I’m hitting lightly and quickly and following Andrew’s tips as best I can, I think I didn’t (and still don’t) tap just that much lightly and quickly enough (my point of attack and how I release).

    attack: I do notice that when I start imagining light things while trying to tap harmonics — dunno..like Tinker Bell tiptoeing over jello and trying to set off minimal wobble — I actually do get cleaner and louder artificial harmonics

    release: My friend said he could hear me mute the string when it probably would have rung out, which made me think that I must be also dragging my finger a bit, too, along the string for that split second before releasing. This made me practice a bit using the tip/top edge of my nail, which I guess is also maybe imagining that I only have a needlepoint surface to contact the string. So when I went back to tapping properly with the fleshy bit of my finger, I felt my touch was also a bit more nimble?

    I might be just making everything up in my head (and it def cannot be the whole story because I’m still not very consistent at it :-PP but just in case it helps somewhat in some way….

    #17927
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    love it! very poetic that the patriotic theme month winner is the 1st ever RC101 member :)))

    and hee hee my own tips video :)) — thank you, andrew :))
    yeah, i know what you mean about being too tense. this is what happens when i record, and on top of that, trying to play louder because i usual plink plonk at after-midnight-whispers volume ๐Ÿ˜› so i obviously don’t know how to play louder (aka aiming for normal volume) without overcompensating/tensing up big time…will work on it!

    i had tried the tapping while keeping my thumb straight like i see you do it, but the joint of my thumb just doesn’t make contact but the tip-end of the side of the pad of my thumb (or the nail) instead, and that makes it sound more slappy/clicky than a knocky sound like you get (or when i bend my thumb so the joint bone hits the body of the uke)? dunno if you see the angle in the pic…i’ve a pretty straight thumb and if i try to angle my thumb to bring the joint closer to the body of the uke, the base of my thumb then gets in the way. tried rotating my thumb along the length of it, too, but no joy….

    #17905
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    still got to work on dissociating the thumb from the other fingers — don’t always get the backbeat tap to sound consistently (did try the helpful exercises in the additional video lesson but obviously need more practice ๐Ÿ˜› )…notice, too, that the only way i can get the knuckle of my thumb to make contact with the body of the uke, i have to bend my thumb. got some advice?
    kind of finger fumbling with the triplets

    thaaaank you

    #17705
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    Absolutely LOVE everything about the lessons you have designed for us so far — in particular, the focus on technique and that for each song, your focus is not on the song itself (LOVE the fingerpicking-heavy arrangements) but on applying certain techniques, and the range of music genres, too — so more of the same, please (especially spanish guitar :-P)! This is the reason RC101 stands out for me, and I think the only reason why I feel like I am making progress and sticking to it instead of giving up in frustration that I just can’t play like I would like to because I feel like I’m learning something more than just strumming along.

    low-G lessons: It would be cool, if you have low-G lessons to have a parallel re-entrant tuning version, too? So, non low-G uke players can take advantage of the lessons, too ๐Ÿ™‚

    standard notation: YES! So I guess I would be interested in Part 2 of the standard notation reading lesson, which would be for me, some exercises in sight reading. I still haven’t worked on my goal of learning the fretboard and breaking out of 1st position (in terms of knowing what notes I’m playing). Which brings me to a suggestion for annotations in the video lessons — dunno if it’s the same for others but it would help me if you kept all the chords (and maybe even the chord chart) on the side of the video longer, say, for each group of measures you are explaining. So far in the small handful of lessons I’ve gone through, you show the chord charts for a few seconds at the beginning when you introduce where the chord appears in the measure. Having the array of chords would let me go through your lessons a little bit more efficiently (I’m rewinding a lot, trying to reconstruct what frets etc). I know it’s in the tabs, and maybe I should just play along with videos and your tabs…but what I’m finding myself doing is only watching the videos so I can also see your fingering and to get me to memorize pieces, and by the time I get to SoundSlice, I’ve already memorized it and am concentrating on trying to slowly get myself up to your playing speed. Just a thought. Maybe the others don’t find this useful because they always learn along with the tabs…

    ideas for other lessons: I would also love lessons on the nitty gritty/refining certain techniques (now that you can kind of do it some of the time, how to do it better/so you get it most of the time :-P), and maybe also how you choose fingerings/what positions to play what where.

    Awesome for Kanilea!! Not surprised as well cos you rock! Have a great vacation!

    And thank you!!!!
    gina

    #17507
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    Hi all!

    Cool to see all the posts on the forum!

    So I was thinking this would be a perfect opportunity to try practicing minimizing that finger rub sound (maybe I’ll eventually start a post on that) and being more consistent at tapped harmonics. Failed on both accounts :-PPP was getting a bit more ring with tapped harmonics but don’t always hit it, especially switching to and from finger picking. This is one of the many times where I miss it :-PPP

    #17227
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    Vida, thanks for that! I had searched at one stage for how to deal with the scratchy sound during fingerpicking but not with the keyword “scratchy” so I didn’t come across anything. I guess you mean this video:

    There is also a by-photo explanation here:
    http://dangrigor.com/blog1.php/how-to-fingerpick-a-12

    My “scratchy” sound, however, is from the fleshy pads of my fingers rubbing against the strings — my fingernails are quite short and don’t contact the string at all….I’ve tried changing my attack, as Andrew suggested, and the 90-degree thing, but guess I’m just still not doing it right (still getting that scratchy/rubbing sound still)

    gina

    #17202
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    (I know I’m late….but thought I’d submit anyway just for feeback and to just be more regular at following through with the challenges! ๐Ÿ˜› )

    #17200
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    Love the theme this month!

    #16830
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    I’m just saying it as it is, Andrew — honestly…I agree with Nietszsche (“Life without music would be a mistake”) and maybe because of that I get so ultra-frustrated with myself when learning to play an instrument, which I dabble on my own, but with your lessons, I’ve found exactly what I’ve been looking for — a great balance of technical stuff and ways of improving/adding to technique, which I find most video lessons I’ve gone through lack, and bite-sized fun goals (often songs), and really really appreciate it the time you take out to critically comment on all our videos and answer all our questions! So, thanks to you, this is the longest I’ve stuck to playing anything on my own ๐Ÿ™‚ I think the ukelele somehow suits me in spirit, too. If you ever start up lessons for guitar, which I will take wild guess you play (or whatever musical instrument for that matter), too, I’m there!

    Your 3-finger picking style — weren’t you the one who said that one of the key things you learned in music college was the importance of imitating? ๐Ÿ™‚ When I saw you do it, had to try it, and I do prefer it to index and middle finger instead, because I noticed that with Travis-style picking, it’s easier for me to get it sound right dynamically and keeps me from strumming only with the first few fingers when switching between picking and strumming…

    Skin rub: :-PP Yeah, tried lashing on some hand cream. Kind of helped but still there…I was starting to think it’s the strings I have on my uke. Maybe it _is_ my attack, as you said, but I usually play super quietly (just trying to play louder for the recording), but maybe it is how I am somehow sliding the finger for a fraction too long on the string rather than placing-and-pluck?

    #16804
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    I can’t get a clean run ๐Ÿ˜› but been out since my last/first challenge post in December…love the concept, and I try to keep up every month but just never follow through with a video (have we mentioned to you yet how much your lessons rock, Andrew?)

    Why do I seem to get a lot more skin-rubbing-on-string sound than most people?

    #16545
    mayaqatsi
    Participant

    One of the many things I struggle with is consistency — I never seem to be able to play an entire piece cleanly, even if I have been practicing the piece for awhile. I do notice that it really helps playing with the Tab Play Along at a much slower speed until I can play most of the notes in time and more or less (usually less) acceptable tone quality. I guess this is partly just part of being in the earlier learning stages and maybe just not practicing enough?? Do you have any hints for helping me improve rigor, or what is your practice routine? Thanks!

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)