What has been your biggest success on the ukulele so far, and what are you still struggling with?3/28/2017
54 Comments
Liam Hobbs-Moore
3/29/2017 01:21:09 pm
I play the autoharp, so I don't really have any struggles, but my success is actually learning how to play it
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Edward Davis
3/29/2017 01:26:45 pm
I feel you Liam
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 02:55:02 pm
Then write the journal about playing the autoharp.
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Mr c
3/29/2017 01:24:48 pm
My biggest success with the ukulele so far is making sure to keep my playing relaxed. When I first started my strumming hand would be very stiff and the sound would come of clunky and not legato. Now I've remedied that and it sounds great. I am still struggling with playing melodies on the instrument and continually try to improve that. Also, I'm struggling with my arm healing. That makes its hard to play.
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Edward Davis
3/29/2017 01:25:34 pm
Some of the things that I am doing well at is making a good pitcher noise instead of the horrible noises. Also what I 'm doing well is changing between notes. A thing that I am struggling with is strumming without hurting my hands. The last thing that I struggle with doing up strums.
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charlotte Valentine
3/29/2017 01:27:34 pm
ditto
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 02:58:39 pm
What is a "pitcher noise?" That was a little confusing to me. I'm glad you're doing well and changing between the chords. Many people struggle with strumming. Try and keep your strumming hand relaxed and just graze the strings with the tips of your fingers.
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Tallulah
3/29/2017 01:25:36 pm
The one thing I am most successful on is the chords. I can switch from different strings pretty fast, as well as do them correctly! The one thing I am still struggling is strumming. I could do the basic down string, but when I strum upwards, my fingers tend to get cut in between the strings! I am still practicing, and I have a ukulele at home so it is pretty easy to practice.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:00:56 pm
It takes most people a while to build up enough dexterity in their fingers to effectively switch between the chords. I'm happy to hear you are finding success.
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Gus Coleman
3/29/2017 01:25:57 pm
My biggest success on the ukulele is probably changing from different chords quickly! I play guitar so I have had much practice with that and I got even better by learning to play the ukulele. I don't struggle much with anything on the ukulele right now, but I want to learn some hard songs to challenge myself!
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:03:09 pm
Ah ha! I learned how to play the guitar first as well and it made the ukulele very easy for me to learn. If you have a ukulele at home you can practice more and I'll give you some tricky songs to play.
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Theo Brown
3/29/2017 01:25:57 pm
Some struggles on the ukulele are that Its hard to go from c7 to f. Other than that I really don't have any other struggles.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:04:34 pm
Going from C7 to F can be pretty tricky. I find it pretty easy to go from F to C7 though. The other part of the prompt was to describe your successes.
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Sam Lavagnino
3/29/2017 01:25:58 pm
So far, using the ukulele, my success with playing the instrument is that I can quickly change finger positions, like transitioning from the F chord to the C chord. However, I struggle with getting the sounds right and having my fingers not hurt when I play the ukulele. Whenever I play the instrument my fingers hurt really bad, and that is an issue because I have to pause and stop playing for about a minute and that messes up with the consistency of the music.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:06:20 pm
Is it your strumming fingers, fretting fingers, or both that hurt?
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Sam Lavagnino
4/5/2017 12:57:18 pm
It's my strumming fingers - when I try to get the strings on the tips of my fingers, my fingers still hurt and it sounds REALLY quiet. I'm probably doing it wrong.
jayme Jacoby
3/29/2017 01:26:09 pm
My biggest success in music so far on the ukulele is the c7 c6 and c. The thing I still am having trouble with is strumming. I am still having a really hard time strumming up.
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Edward Davis
3/29/2017 01:27:39 pm
I understand Jayme.
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charlotte valentine
3/29/2017 01:28:44 pm
Yeah it is hard to strum. My fingers get stuck
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Sam Lavagnino
3/29/2017 02:31:03 pm
Yeah, I'm in the same sort of situation - I am not that great at strumming, but I am great at transitioning between notes.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:07:29 pm
The up strums are very difficult. It's hard to coordinate your mind and your hands to do so many little things all at once.
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Kaiden J
3/29/2017 01:26:34 pm
My biggest success is when i played the songs perfect and was able to change the cords fast and not get them wrong once during the entire day. I also able to get ready fast and use my cords at the time i know when the song changes. One of my bad things is sometimes i use the wrong cord...but then i use the right cord after seeing my mistake. I fix my mistake as soon as i play the next cord and then i play the song right.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:10:52 pm
Nice assessment of yourself Kaiden. I'm glad to hear that you are being successful and moving between the chords (note the spelling) quickly. In order to ensure that you play the right chord at the correct time make sure you are thinking ahead while you play. That will greatly increase your success rate!
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Mason Katz-Vanzo
3/29/2017 01:26:49 pm
I feel fine with the ukulele and I don't have any struggles with it. I am ready to know more and how to play the ukulele, as well as knowing more about it.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:08:55 pm
Mason, I have observed issues that everyone needs to work on, including you.
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Buzz
3/29/2017 01:26:50 pm
Well, I have pretty good memory, so my biggest success is probably that I learn the different chords really quickly. To me, it's really easy. The thing I struggle the most in is something really similar, which is switching between the chords really quickly. I can do it, but I have to look down at my ukulele for some switches, so it's kind of hard to keep a beat. I must say, it's weird that my biggest success is so similar to my biggest fail. Like, as weird as a singing church hobo with a RPG. Ok, maybe not that weird, but still... RPG church hobos!
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:21:35 pm
Isn't it funny how two things that are so similar can be so different. Remembering where your fingers are supposed to go and actually moving your fingers to that spot quickly is very different. It's all about muscle memory. The more you do it the easier it'll be!
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Charlotte Valentine
3/29/2017 01:26:50 pm
One of the largest success in playing the ukulele is learning fish and poi. It's really upbeat, fun, and since I really like the song Fish and Poi it's fun to play along. I've really been struggling with transitioning between chords especially in Aloha Ukulele. Bye dudes!
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:23:18 pm
Transitioning between the chords is a very common problem that people have when playing the ukulele. We do finger warm-ups every day to loosen and strengthen our fingers to make playing easier. A trick to improve your quickness is having your fingers hover over the next chord you are going to move to.
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Natalia
3/29/2017 01:26:51 pm
I'm pretty good at the songs we have to play like the get caught eating apples song. But I kinda get confused on the places where F and C7 are.
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Natalia
3/29/2017 06:21:21 pm
Haha! You suck. But I also really do understand
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:24:49 pm
Hey Natalia, you don't have to be down on yourself. We're all learning and we all struggle. Try to commit the tabs to memory so you don't have to think of them all the time. Then it's just a matter of putting our fingers in the right places.
Catalina Howells
3/29/2017 01:26:51 pm
I think my biggest success has been learning how to strum correctly. I could not do it correctly, but then I was able to learn. I don't know, however, how to memorize the notes. I am not good at that at all!
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:28:06 pm
I'm glad to hear that you're doing well at the strumming. Many people struggle with that the most! If you don't have it memorized where your fingers are supposed to go for each chord it will be very difficult to be successful.
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Laetitia L.
3/29/2017 01:27:08 pm
Well, my biggest success with the ukulele so far has been how I change my fingering. Changing the fingering was first kind of hard for me. Now, I am able to change my fingering pretty easily.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:28:53 pm
I'm glad to hear that you are making progress. However, you didn't mention something you are still struggling at and this is only three sentences.
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Quincy Rane
3/29/2017 01:27:10 pm
I think that my biggest success yet has been playing the chords on the ukulele. I'm also kind of used to playing chords because I play guitar, but still I would say that, that is the thing I'm best at so far. The strumming is a bit hard. Recently I have been doing strumming on the guitar and find it a bit hard then too. I'll have to keep working on it. I find the strumming to be really fun, but still a bit hard to do because my fingers sometimes get stuck in between the strings. I am used to using a pick on the guitar, so it is a bit of a change for me.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:30:39 pm
Not using a pick on the ukulele was a difficult change for me too. To prevent your fingers from getting stuck in the strings make sure your hand is relaxed and you only graze the strings with the tips of your fingers.
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Ali Campbell
3/29/2017 01:27:11 pm
Well, since I am playing the autoharp I'll just say what my success is and my struggle is. On the autoharp, I still need to get used to how to string it with a pick. And on our warmups I need to know exactly where the G, C, E, and A strings are. But I am successful in the way that when I actually play it I know where all the buttons are and I can just strum the instrument. And I am also successful when I have it in the right position and it is in its easiest place for me to strum.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:33:40 pm
Playing the chords on the autoharp is a lot easier than it is on the ukulele. However, strumming the autoharp is a lot harder than on the ukulele. I'm not surprised you've been struggling with that, so do I! The key is to remain relaxed and stay smooth with your strumming hand.
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Quincy Rane
4/3/2017 08:35:06 pm
I totally know what you mean about strumming with a pick. Even though for the ukulele we don't use a pick when I play guitar I use a pick, whenever I have to do a strumming pattern. It took some time to actually be able to use the pick.
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Ava McQueen
3/29/2017 01:27:11 pm
On the ukulele, my successes have been very minor. I played the bass when I was younger but that skill does not seem to apply to the ukulele, and I believe that's because it's smaller. I play the ukulele not nesssecarily greatly, and I struggle with getting my fingers on the right strings every time we have to switch quickly. Also, my fingers often ache when I play and I don't like it. Overall, I'm not a very great ukulele player.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:53:57 pm
Playing the bass is very different from the ukulele. I have a few tips for you that I'm sure will help!
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Keona
3/29/2017 01:27:13 pm
I am not struggling with much on the ukulele because I have had guitar classes before and I learned how to use the frets. My biggest success with the ukulele was when we played "Lime and the coconut" and I got all of the frets and cords correctly.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:55:08 pm
Lime in the coconut is a great song, and easy to play too! I played the guitar before the ukulele as well and it made it much easier to learn.
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Yasmin
3/29/2017 01:27:22 pm
I think my biggest success has been to change the notes from C to C7, C7 to F and stuff like that. I think its been really easy to do and I don't think I ever struggled with it. The only thing that might of been hard was probably when I sprained my wrist. It hurt a lot when I moved my fingers so I had to skip the Ukulele part. Since I didn't work on the Ukulele for about two weeks I was falling behind and while everyone else were learning new stuff, I was just sitting there trying to understand what they were doing and looking around at their fingers. It made a little sense to me, but it was still hard for me to transition as well as the other kids when my wrist was healed.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:56:41 pm
I'm so glad that your wrist is doing better now. You'll be able to catch back up to everyone. If you weren't struggling with switching between the chords before I'm sure you'll do just fine now! Let me know on Wednesday how your recovery is coming along.
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Quincy Rane
4/3/2017 08:37:48 pm
I know what you are saying about it not being to hard to switch from chord to chord on the ukulele. For me I think it is easy because the ukulele had a pretty thin neck and I have had so much practice stretching my fingers and switching to all different kinds of chords on the guitar.
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Tahlia N.
3/29/2017 01:27:26 pm
My biggest success playing the ukulele was learning all of our songs like Fish and Poi, Aloha Ukulele, etc. My struggles were doing up strums. (P.S. I'm not done yet)
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:57:24 pm
Please finish your journal entry.
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Nicholas Condon
3/29/2017 01:27:27 pm
The biggest accomplishment I have made on the Ukulele was where we made our first key which I think should be everybody else's accomplishments. The thing that I'm still struggling with is playing the Ukulele without getting hurt but I already know how to do that. The way to not get hurt by playing the Ukulele is by using your finger tips so you can't hurt yourself.
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:58:53 pm
Great assessment Nicholas! Sometimes even if you know what to do it can still be hard to actually do it. Another thing, besides using your finger tips, is to make sure to relax your strumming hand. A lot of times people will strum too hard and that will hurt their hands too.
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Atianna!!!
3/29/2017 01:28:10 pm
My biggest success with the ukulele is learning how to play the notes and playing the instrument. My struggles are switching the notes
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Mr. C
4/3/2017 03:59:20 pm
You have not completed the requirements for this journal.
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