Ukulele Skill Ceilings

experimentjon

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While relearning the RTS game Starcraft, I noticed that I often reached several ceilings where I just couldn't get any better. But then, after some practice and watching more game video, I would somehow manage to break that ceiling and get to the next level, just to reach another ceiling that I would have to break through.

I think it was the same for me learning ukulele. The first ceiling which had me put off ukulele for many years was just the annoying pain of holding down the strings while playing songs. Of course, with some dedication, the calluses came, and I broke through that ceiling. Then, the next difficulty of learning a new instrument was learning how to finger all the chords. I remember having to go to a chord chart all the time to remember what simple chords like C or G looked like. After that, the next major ceiling that I broke was getting more interesting strumming patterns. And I did that by learning the "chunk." It finally allowed me to play more interesting rhythms and many more songs.

What were the major "ceiling" breakthroughs for you while playing ukulele, and what is the current ceiling breakthrough you're working on now?
 
I think this goes for anything. Strumming is usually the first barrier. It was mine. Next was singing and playing at the same time.

Nice reference starcraft btw. lol. UU truly is a much different uke forum then the rest.
 
I think this goes for anything. Strumming is usually the first barrier. It was mine. Next was singing and playing at the same time.

Nice reference starcraft btw. lol. UU truly is a much different uke forum then the rest.

lol Ryan,
I still have alot of trouble with doing both of those.:eek:

Aloha
Acabooe:cool:
 
For me, the first ceiling was holding the uke and not dropping it every time I changed chords. That had me baffled at first, but I started practicing standing up, and that forced me to break through it.

I think my next ceiling is going to be fingerpicking with fingers (other than my thumb). I started out doing all my picking with my thumb and its a hard habit to break.
 
I think you're definitely right about that ceiling. I like your starcraft reference hehe :D

For me the ceiling came when I ran out of things to study on the ukulele. I mean you can only teach yourself so much with limited time and resources and music. Just in recent years the ukulele explosion has created so much new ukulele learning material online and I've been able to learn so much. Now I have so much stuff that I probably will never learn it all!
 
Wow, did you just say "STARCRAFT"?!?!?

I can see the ceiling/barrier thing. The order I'm in is similar, but from another perspective - learning first position chords, learning strum patterns, and then sight reading. The current barriers for me are songs with 4 flats without a capo, playing chord variations/inversions up the neck, and fingerpicking.
 
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