Aloha! My ukulele adventure has taken many ups and downs in the past rotation. I have spent quite a while honing my skills this week, and for the most part I have made good progress. I've given an attempt to play around on a few simple songs, however I have not really shown mastery on anything quite yet. The first song I tried was just a simple nursery rhyme, where I only changed between two chords. That song, though simple, was used to create a bit more of a rhythm to my playing.
This week, however, I found out a surprisingly great source. I went on to www.reddit.com/r/ukulele, which is an online community of ukulele players. On there, I created a question for the community, where I asked how to turn my aimless strumming and chords into music, and I got a slew of great responses. Of those responses, I had tips telling me to just to practice moving from one chord to another to develop muscle memory, all the way to tips to the actual songs to play. They said mostly to play songs that I just like, not boring old songs that ukulele books recommend. I understand that these people are not experts necessarily, however they are real people who play the instrument, which is definitely a valid source for such a relaxed and simple instrument. Also during this week, I learned how to read ukulele music, which is much different from normal sheet music. Because of how chord-intensive the ukulele is, sheet music for it begins with a picture of each of the chords used. Then, because the ukulele is typically used with singing, the rest of the music is the lyrics of the song and the respective chords to be done at those times. There are a few technicalities, such as some chords being displayed differently if a string in not to be played, however that is the main gist of how the music is read. To learn a bit more about how to read ukulele music, click here! Also, I recommend going onto www.reddit.com/r/(whatever your genius project topic is), many times there will be a community of people who want to help you, or at the very least there will be posts on your topic that could be very interesting.
In the future, I intend to continue to learn songs. Using other various sources, and the tips of the people of www.reddit.com/r/ukulele, I hope to revolutionize the way in which I learn the ukulele. In addition to just learning the music, I will do many chord exercises where I just sit and change between chords. This should be a simple way of accelerating my learning, so playing is more natural, something very important for playing the ukulele. I still must meet with Ben C, and I may play something with Nick P if time allows. Playing with other people, as I have said in past posts, will be a great way to expand my ukulele horizons, making playing less of a solitary activity.
Blogs that I commented on this week:
1. Ben's Bluegrass Blog, Ben C.
2. John's Perspective Drawing, John A.
3. Jeremy Basketball Tricks, Jeremy S.
6 comments:
I'm glad you've found reddit; I have used reddit before as a resource as well and it is beneficial to have a community of people like you, or more knowledgeable than yourself to give you advice. Having been playing guitar for a long time now, I can not stress how important muscle memory is. In the beginning stages of playing any instrument, it is important to use your eyes in order to become coordinated with your instrument. Eventually, you have to come out of that phase and become more dependent upon your muscles and your fingers; eventually you will be playing without even thinking about it. Anyhow, if you keep doing what you're doing, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon enough. Good job so far.
It seems that you have continued progressing on a very steady pace. This is good, you already seem close to your final goal. I also find it interesting about how ukelele music is written differently than regular sheet music. It would help me out if you could post a picture or something. Its great that you found a community to gain knowledge from, whether it's someone close like Ben and Nick, or an anonymous online community, its great that your learning from people who know what they're talking about.
Ok, learning to play the ukulele is pretty awesome. I would think that you would do something to do with running, but let’s be honest. The ukulele is way more awesome. It is great that you found an online community for ukulele players. Also, I think it’s so interesting that the ukulele sheet music is different than regular sheet music. I never knew that. Also, you might want to include a picture of ukulele sheet music, just so people can see the two compared to each other. Which songs have you learned so far? You might want to include that if you have not already. Great job, and keep on strumming.
When I got on your page I found it great. This is my first time on it and I like all of the creative aspects like the background which is perfect and your picture which I would say you look very handsome in. Further, more on what you stated, I found the same issue in the fact that there are not as many established experts to gain information from and you have to go with more amateurs, but sometimes that is the best source for the fact that they are in the same situation as you, or at least were there more recently than the experts. This makes them better suited to explain to you what to do and to help you out. I can't wait to hear you play some quality ukulele music when this is all done.
Sounds like you are really starting to play the ukulele! I am glad that you found a great resource, and I may have to go check out the reddit page for magic! I can relate to you in the sense that magic is also a hard topic to learn because there aren't a lot of great resources to choose. Hopefully you can start playing some songs soon, but it seems like you are progressing very well. I do have a word of advice. I think that you should watch video tutorials on how exactly to play the ukulele, rather than just asking people. In my experience with magic, video tutorials seem to be the best resource. I wish you the best in your ukulele endeavors and remember, keep on strumming!
Post a Comment