[Misc] Ukulele

Hi I have a ukulele.

I've had it since April this year but I never really learnt how to play it properly, just looked at a lot of tabs and learned chords and stuff and I guess it is about time I recorded it and actually got some help.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab for Cutie. Just playing, no singing, made some mistakes, messed up the strumming in some parts.

Marching Bands of Manhattan - Death Cab for Cutie. The first verse is pretty repetitive because I didn't sing but after that I start singing, but it's pretty soft. I'm not very loud and I was pretty far from my crappy microphone anyway. I could hear it okay but one of my friends listened to it and couldn't make it out at all, so.

I'm definitely not the best but I do want to get better so if you can offer help that is cool.

Okay that's about it bye.

Great song choice
I'm about to listen...

EDIT:
You've had it since April..that's pretty good from just going off tabs and stuff!
Your strumming patterns are off, though. You should listen and try to figure out the strumming patterns for the songs. Your chord changing is good though.

(I play guitar, btw)
I can just see a Pani in her headphones and strumming the ukelele

Strumming patterns are definitely one of my huge weaknesses. I only have 2 or 3 that I can play properly in a song. Give me a song with anything different and I'm screwed.

I'm getting better at the chord changes, but there are still a few that get to me. I'd love to try guitar someday but I can barely get my head around four strings on a tiny ukulele. :P

Originally Posted by Panique

Strumming patterns are definitely one of my huge weaknesses. I only have 2 or 3 that I can play properly in a song. Give me a song with anything different and I'm screwed.

I'm getting better at the chord changes, but there are still a few that get to me. I'd love to try guitar someday but I can barely get my head around four strings on a tiny ukulele. :P

You're doing fine given the amount of time you've been playing.
I think that guitar wouldn't be much harder than ukulele. Most of the time, you only use 3 or 4 strings anyway.(when you're first learning, especially).

:D

The only guitar I have at my house is my Dad's old one, and I'm tiny so it's way too big for me.

Ugh, I should make a music thread for myself already, considering how I keep winning best singer yet rarely post anything new. Maybe that day is coming.

But enough about me.

Strumming patterns can be pretty tricky. Especially with a uke, which usually uses a rather distinct pattern different from what the typical strumming pattern for a song is to better accommodate the sound. The best way to get a strumming pattern down is to play along with the recording. You don't actually need to match the pattern being played, you just need to get the timing right and hit the right beats. Like where the emphasis is, if it is on the first and third or whatever.

To just practice strumming in general (which also helps when just practicing chord changes), one of the most common strumming patterns is down down up up down up. It should sound a little like Green Day's "Good Riddance" when you play it. I'd record a demo for you, but its early and housemates are sleeping.

Anyway, I would also say try to learn songs that use a uke in them so you can get an idea for the sound that compliments the instrument. See if there's videos of folks on youtube or something covering songs with ukes so that you can see how people change or rearrange songs to suit the instrument. Then you can really get some sweet arrangements going.

Practice practice practice!

Practice practice practice!

My fingertips are sore, no callouses yet. :(

I'm still not totally into singing so a lot of the stuff I'll upload will probably just be repetitive, so I'm sorry about that. I'll definitely try the strumming things tomorrow, thanks Nolan! :3

I say we do a duet. Ukulele and harmonica. :3

The strumming is a bit off, but I think everyone thus far has pointed that out. Good job though! And yeah, your fingertips will get callouses, but they'll go away eventually, and then your fingertips will become indestructiable.

Originally Posted by Kotone

Practice practice practice!

My fingertips are sore, no callouses yet. :(

The practicing helps with that too . If it really starts to hurt then its a good idea to take a break, no need to go the Bryan Adams route and play 'til your finger bleed.

I'm still not totally into singing so a lot of the stuff I'll upload will probably just be repetitive, so I'm sorry about that. I'll definitely try the strumming things tomorrow, thanks Nolan! :3

It's hard to get over that hump of singing for other people, no rush. Wait til your comfortable with it.

Here's a little audio of the strumming pattern that will be good for practice. I hope I used that site right, but uploadthis hasn't worked for me in months.

Haha, my fingertips are hell sore. D:

So I recorded a bit of Good Riddance using that strumming pattern (I think). At the end I messed up and decided to stop, since it would be mostly repetitive after that anyway. I think I'm getting a bit better at switching chords, this one didn't really have any tricky ones though.

http://drop.io/8hi26si/asset/good-riddance-wma

One thing I've noticed is that my ukulele tends to be really.. twangy. It doesn't always sound as nice as the ones I've heard in other recordings. I'm not sure if it's my playing it badly or if it's the quality of the strings. It was only $25. Or $40. I never remember. I think $25. If it turns out to be the ukulele's problem then after I get a bit more into it I'll probably end up buying a nicer one. There's a music store near where I work that has a bunch of them. Alternatively, I could keep my bright-red uke and also invest in an acoustic guitar, which I wanted to do for a while. I'm not sure if it would be better to concentrate on ukulele at first or to just mess around and learn a bit on both. Opinions? The guitar I was interested in a while ago (a small one, pretty cheap) and a better ukulele would probably be around the same price range.

Chord changes are definitely sounding smoother, so good on that.

The uke I had was one I had for like sixteen years, and I haven't looked into replacing it at all, so I don't know much about the quality of different ukes or the price ranges and whatnot.

If you actually are interested in learning guitar, then I would say make that investment before getting a better uke. There's nothing wrong with learning to play on a lesser-quality instrument. My first guitar was a pretty mid-to-low level range acoustic, and once I knew it was something I was going to stick with then I started looking at getting higher-end ones (many years later). If you are positive you'd like to stick with playing the uke over anything else, then go ahead and upgrade that when you feel like you've reached the point where you know you'll keep playing. There's no point in investing in something you may not use however many months or years from now.

Same goes for if you are actually very interested in picking up guitar rather than focusing on the uke. If you think you're enjoying learning uke a lot and don't really feel the need to start picking up another instrument, then maybe hold off on spending the money.

I shall have to give it a think. :O

http://drop.io/8hi26si/asset/hey-there-delilah-wma

Mmmmrgmhpsdpm. I still can't sing! Few mistakes. I mostly recorded it for one of my friends but I figured I may as well post here.

Against my better judgement this one has me singing. http://drop.io/8hi26si/asset/sweet-darlin-wma Lots of mistakes too but I hardly ever get myself singing so there you go.

:O That uke playing was pretty cool. Then again, what do I know, if you can play any instrument at all you're automatically better than me at it.

I've always wished I could play some sort of stringed instrument. Guitar (preferably acoustic) would be awesome, but I can't freakin' keep track of my hands like that.

I also never usually hear people play the ukulele. Keep at it!