Here is my final video!
Category: edci306a (page 1 of 1)
This is it! This is what I’ve been working towards all semester. I feel pretty accomplished, way more accomplished than I did at the midterm. I definitely put in a lot more work leading up to the final than I did for the midterm and I think it shows.
I would like to discuss my final video a little bit.
At the start of my video I played the major chords just as a little recap of the midterm content. I was pretty proud of myself because from the midterm until now, I knocked 3 seconds off my time when going through the major chords. I then went into the minor chords. I played all of these forwards and backwards in the same way that I played the major chords on the midterm. Next i went into the song Still Beating by Mac Demarco. Here is the youtube video that I learned the song from:
I found this video and the instructor very helpful. The first time I watched the video I thought that there was no way I would be able to do the pick section but here I am at the final and I did it. As for actually playing the song, its literally just a repetition of G6, D7, Am, and C so instead of repeating that for 3 minutes i simply just played 20 seconds of the chords and played the audio of the pick section overtop. This was the best way I could incorporate the two sections. I also added the video of me playing the pick section at the end of the video just for proof.
Well thats it! I can definitely say that I have learned WAY more on ukulele than I ever have in the 5 years I’ve owned mine. Overall, I enjoyed this assignment and I’m glad I did it. It feels good to have a new skill.
So these last couple weeks of school are starting to heat up. There is a lot due but i think I’m handling it pretty well so far. I’ve actually been able to use practicing ukulele as a stress reliever and a way to relax at the end of the night. The minor chords are going pretty well. In my last blog post I mentioned that I was having trouble with Dm and Fm but I’ve gotten those down pretty good and now I’m having trouble with Bm. Bm requires you to bar the bottom 3 strings while simultaneously holding down the top string on the 4th fret. I have trouble keeping my finger that is on the 1st string from touching the 2nd string which makes the chord sound awful. I just have to arch my fingers more and that will just come with muscle memory and practice. Since I said on my final growth plan that I would like to play at least 1 song, taking all the other course into account, I will just focus on playing “Still Beating” by Mac Demarco instead of both that song and “Im with You” by Vance Joy. Right now I am just focussing on the Mac Demarco song and the minor chords but before Tuesday i will have to polish up on my major chords. I don’t think that it will take me very long to refresh myself, I remember the chords I just will basically have to give my finger muscles a refresher. Im doing my best right now!
I have been making progress in my ukulele journey since the midterm. I have began to learn the minor chords Am,Bm,Cm,Dm,Em,Fm,Gm. They all seem pretty straight forward and are way easier to play that than the major chords in my opinion. The only two that are giving me problems are the Dm chord and the Fm chord. I just find it tough to quickly put my fingers into those positions. Since part of my goal was to learn 1 or more songs, I have started to work on the songs I chose at the beginning. The song I have made the most progress on is “Still Beating” by Mac Demarco using the chords G6, D7, Am, and C. These chords are very easy to transition into from each other which makes the song fairly easy to play. I have also gotten the strumming pattern down and it really sounds like the song which is promising (haha). There is also a “pick” part of this song that i have learned and it sounds really cool but in the real song, the pick part and the strumming part are played simultaneously so I’m not sure how I’m going to incorporate that into my final but maybe ill just have to play both parts and then layer the audio or something. Anyways, I am happy where I am at right now and I am feeling good for the final! I can only go up from here!
Here is my midterm video!
So I have kind of hit a wall. This past week was probably the busiest week I have had this semester and i just had no time to practice. I tried to make time but it just didn’t happen. I did however make time this Sunday to practice for about 2 hours. That 2 hours went very good. I went through the major chords countless times, even until my fingers hurt, and from the time started that night I definitely improved. My two problem chords (B & E) have become way easier to transition into since I started this project and my fingers are starting to fall more naturally into position for the rest of the chords. Theres not much ill be able to do for my midterm video since I haven’t started on any songs yet but I guess on my growth plan I said that I would only be running through the chords up and down so thats what I’ll do. I’ll use this final blog before the midterm as a little bit of a self reflection:
- It is very hard to find time for this amongst everything else but I will definitely have to be better at this for the remainder of the semester.
- I am better at ukulele than thought I would be. Im sure it has a little bit to do with my past experience with guitar.
- It’s very fun to play. The times I did get to sit down and practice, I found it very relaxing and enjoyable. I didn’t view it as homework just as something fun to do.
The name of this blog post is a bit misleading as I didn’t exactly have any turkey this weekend, rather a roasted chicken pizza for my Thanksgiving dinner! Anyways, I brought my ukulele with me to Kelowna this past weekend where I spent my thanksgiving this year. My whole family is musically inclined (especially on my moms side) and even though I wasn’t going to be seeing them this year i thought i would bring a little music of my own to the gathering. There is always a lot of downtime at our family gatherings especially at thanksgiving so i knew that it would be the perfect time to practice my skills! I didn’t have my laptop with me so i didnt bother practicing any of the songs quite yet but i did have a lot of time to practice the major chords. Everything is starting to come together and its quite exciting to witness. When i say everything is coming together, that definitely does not mean its perfect but i can for sure see improvement and promise in what ive done so far and whats to come. I am still having a little trouble transitioning to and from the B and E chords but it is definitely getting easier which is great. I still feel like i could have done more up until this point but im doing the best with the amount of time i have and i still have a week until the midterm check in so i am not freaking out just yet.
So this is my first blog post for my music assignment. I honestly have had trouble finding time to practice lately just with everything else going on but that being said i have had a little bit of down time to pick up the uke and practice my chords a little bit. I find it pretty relaxing and really fun i just wish i had more time! I had to narrow down which chords i am going to learn and which songs i want to be able to play by the end and here they are:
Chords:
Major Chords – A B C D E F G
Minor Chords -Am Bm Cm Dm Em Fm Gm
Songs:
I’m with you – Vance Joy(Chords – C, Em, D, G, Am)
K – Mac Demarco(Chords – F, Dm, A, Cm, Am, C7)
I haven’t attempted the songs yet but I find it handy that both songs only have chords that i will be learning (with the exception of C7). I have started to learn the major chords and I’m finding it fairly straight forward except for the chords B and E. Im finding these two chords in particular very tough to play correctly let alone transition into and from what I’ve gathered online, they are a couple of the toughest chords to play. Im not going to let it hold me back though and I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to learn them and transition into them in no time. This upcoming week I’m going to try to do a little bit more especially because I’m going to have to broadcast my talents through a video pretty soon and thats a little nerve racking!