Author: lboucher (Page 3 of 4)

Hello fellow bloggers/musicians!

As I am approaching the end of learning Riptide on the Ukulele, I am getting nervous yet very excited!

I am starting to be able to strum Riptide on the Ukulele almost flawlessly. Although I still struggle with switching from the Am chord to the G chord, I am getting better each and every time I practice.  The thing I am currently working on is playing the Ukulele AND singing the lyrics to Riptide at the same time – which is something I thought would come carelessly – but it is so hard! Every time I start singing, my fingers instantly stop working and I stop strumming. I find it nearly impossible to do the two at the same time. I even tried simply humming the song and even that was too much. I asked my good friend Kate who is very good at the Ukulele if this is normal. She said that it 100% is normal and is all apart of the journey. She said that I just have to keep on practicing and eventually, I will be able to sing and play at the same time.  If I keep practicing both switching from the Am chord to the G chord and practice singing the lyrics, I will have done every necessary step to learn Riptide on the Ukulele. I am so excited to see what the final product sounds like!

I find this frustrating but it is all apart of the journey! I am a very impatient person but this is challenging me to improve this aspect of my personality.

Tune in in two weeks to see me playing Riptide and singing it on the Ukulele!

Laurence

Hello fellow bloggers!

Overall, my ukulele practice has been going very well. I am enjoying every step of this journey. I have always wanted to learn the ukulele so I am very thankful for this experience. 

After successfully learning the three chords, my next step was to be able to go from Am, the G, to C chord  trying to pause as for the least amount of between them. After a lot of work, I can succesfully switch from G to C, and C to Am. I am really struggling to go from Am to G. Going from 1 finger with the Am chord to quickly switching to the G chord which uses 3 fingers is very challenging. I notice that when I am able to do the switch quickly, it is when I have proper posture, my thumb is behind, and I am holding the ukulele properly. I just really need to focus on these things and one day, switching from Am to G chord will come naturally and effortlessly. Once I can master this, I will be ready to move forward with my learning journey and learn the strumming pattern, which is DDU UDU, to the song Riptide. I can not wait to learn this song! 

Tune in next time to see if I finally can switch from the chord Am to the chord G effortlessly! 

Laurence

Hello fellow bloggers!

For my EDCI 306 class, I will be learning the Ukulele. My goal by the end of this learning journey is to have learned “Riptide” by Vance Joy and “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz.

My first step to learning my first song “Riptide” is to learn the three chords needed which are Am, C, and G. I have absolutely no music background and do not even know what these chords sound like, so I decided to look it up on Youtube. The video is posted at the bottom of this blog post.

I found it very difficult to do the G cord. For the C and Am cord, it is simply one finger. For the G chord, on the other hand, 3 fingers are needed and it is a very awkward position. I had to ensure I had proper posture, my thumb was gripping the back of my Ukulele correctly, and that I was hugging the Ukulele with my right arm. Otherwise, I had no angle to do the G chord correctly. After about 30 minutes of practicing, I finally got the three chords down. I did get frustrated a few times as I could not get the hang of the G chord but after a few times, it started to get easy.  I find the Am the easiest to do however, I find that the G chord is the one that sounds the best. I can not wait to put these chords together!

Laurence

Here is the Youtube video that helped me practice the Am, C, and G chords.