What I've Learned So Far ... A Progress Blog By Plane Ignerints

OK, so I've had my new ukulele for just under two weeks and I'm learning a lot from this forum, YouTube videos, and of course trial and error.

My first few discoveries:

1. An electronic tuner is worth the money because when the chords you play sound like the ones in the instructional videos the feeling is addictive
2. It helps to be able to keep a beat
3. Virtuoso performances notwithstanding, a lot of songs seem to use the same 4 or 5 chords
4. It is actually easy to fit ukulele chords around song lyrics

More discoveries to follow...

My first songs:

1. Opening theme from "Adventure Time"
2. Strum Pattern (still working on picking pattern) from "Wagon Wheel" (from a video on this site)
3. "Closing Time" intro

Plane Ignerints said:

2. It helps to be able to keep a beat, so I'm off to buy a metronome, unless I have a smartphone or tablet, in which case I'll just buy/install one of the many paid/free metronome apps...in fact, If I mention what smartphone or tablet I have, I'm sure the nice people of UU will bombard me with a gazillion suggestions.

Click to expand...

Fixed for you

Kahuna you piqued my interest. Any suggestions for a good Android metronome app?

I use Metronome Beats by Stonekick on my S3

MARKbOC said:

Kahuna you piqued my interest. Any suggestions for a good Android metronome app?

Click to expand...

Robby The Robot with a Baton ....???


Oh COME ONNNN . You wuz asking for that ...!!

CeeJay said:

Robby The Robot with a Baton ....???

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CeeJay...You just dated yourself bigtime!!

That being said, I must respectfully disagree.
If Robby was conducting me, my blood pressure would go through the roof and that would violate the first law of robotics.

I have no problem keeping time with others but when I am alone and use a metronome it is a bloodbath.
I need much more practice with one.

epic thread hijack

Plane Ignerints said:

epic thread hijack

Click to expand...

Oh trust me, we can do a lot better than this

Plane Ignerints said:

2. It helps to be able to keep a beat

Click to expand...

Definitely. Counting out loud, or in my head, took me some discipline (still does), but it also helps a lot. Hand in hand with that goes a metronome. An app on a phone or tablet works well for that purpose. I use "TempoPerfect" on Android devices, and "Tunable" (I like the built-in metronome) on iOS.

Fortunate people with previous music/instrument knowledge probably won't struggle with this.

I have trou ble kee
ping a steady beeeeeeeeaaaaaaat
too