Good tip on playing chords and melody, keep fingers down on the strings to increase resonance/ sustain tone longer.
More unexpected tips from Uke Mike coming... there was something good about thumb strumming, for example.
Good tip on playing chords and melody, keep fingers down on the strings to increase resonance/ sustain tone longer. More unexpected tips from Uke Mike coming... there was something good about thumb strumming, for example.
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Ok, working on my practice list, I think I should post up some strumming stuff next, with audio. Still working on the metronome, but metronomes are great for practice, for playing by note or by chord, finger picking or strum. Keep working the fret board daily. Try hard for once-through, once a day, I probably have to push myself a little that way, don't get too lazy! It helps that I haven't wanted to sing songs the last two days. The notes have been very nice to me that way, but it's time to move on a bit, and come round back. It will be cool when I know the fret board. I wonder if I can do it? 0: } Oh well, I'll at least get some of it in my head!
What else should be daily practice? Uke Mike's hand exercises, and doing the c major scale up the fret bar with barring (great finger dexterity exercise, but ugh, it hurts a little, and I still don't sound very good- need more finger strength to bar without buzzing strings- could look up article on that, think it's on uke hunt) What else? Some easy, easy classical passage, a kind of cross between teaching little fingers to play (I would pull that out if I knew where it was) and Minuet in G. Found it : ) This exercise is adapted from Decide on a note you wish to locate and set your metronome at 60 bpm. Then with each click of the metronome, locate that note in all positions on each of the strings, starting with the 4th string (G string), 3rd string (C string), etc. Play on the beat, continue on all strings and use the open-string positions too. If 60 bpm is too fast, go slower. If it is too slow, go faster. *Most important, practice with all 12 notes. If you are just starting out, use the fretboard to help locate the notes. Do this exercise everyday until you can do it in your sleep. *I am just a little uke player, I'm going to learn the natural notes (second fret board) and add in sharps and flats later. Progress update:
Right now I am getting myself motivated to do this exercise by checking the tuning of my strings while I hunt and pluck. All A notes should have the same tone, all B notes, on up the alphabet. It's been fun to find the high notes, and octave up, too. Above the 12th fret they all sound like harmonics- very pretty. But I'm not ready to find all the A notes, then all the B notes, C notes.... string by string on ANY metronome setting yet : ) I'm pleased that by the end of the second day I could see I was learning the position of the A notes. That's more progress than I knew I was going to have. I've had to persist in hunting and plucking multiple times over. No easy student who just soaks it up here. But after a few attempts at A, B & C, I can feel and see progress. I could probably find all the A notes on a 60 bpm. That's progress. Also, practicing the c major scale has <3 helped me find notes at that end of the fret board, a side effect I didn't realize I had acquired : ) I think saying or singing the notes as I plucked that scale is what did this (I didn't and don't always say the notes, sometimes I just feel the finger memory-- it always feels good when my fingers remember something for me, because I repeated it so much (argh!). One thing I want to assure you of, learning the c major scale has been fun. I have to post the way I learned it. I put it up on my wall, too, so I could just grab my uke and practice it here and there. There is a pleasure in do-re-mi, that's for sure. Same for practicing song riffs like 'Ode to Joy'. So fun, even if I am really making mistakes, it just sounds good to me-- and you know the uke saying, if it sounds good to you, it sounds good!! :D oh my dear little uke, so sweet and friendly <3 What I'm doing is going through all of the natural notes early in the day... then doing A, then A & B, then add C, and that's it, I"m kaput on that exercise! I go back once or twice during the day and practice ABC again, but I don't hunt and peck down the rest yet. I hope to build up more endurance with my concentration. Until then, I can check to make sure the same note on any string has the same tone, and make little changes in my tuning when a note on the 4th string doesn't sound the same as the same note on the 2nd string. It's a pleasure to get my uke, to what sounds to my ears like, finely in tune : ) It feels good to my ears. I'm working on the major notes (A B C D E F G) first, and saving the # and flats for later. Even the beginning hand exercises are gentle for our little ukulele. I found some for the left hand that seem to be, after a couple days of trying, quickly effective at building finger strength to hold down chords. The first video starts out slowly... I'll try to post a chart of the finger exercises for easy reviewing.
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September 2015
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