I didn't think this through...

Twibbly

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I just put on new nail polish, but I want to play my ukulele, but it won't be completely dry for a while.

Bah. Apparently, I should invest in picks. :p
 
"Oh it's dryin' time again,
I want to pluck you.
But my fingers aren't dry enough you know...";)
 
You can still practice with your fretting hand by rapidly moving between all the chord shapes and no strumming

just do something like C F Am G and then reverse it G Am F C than do this 20 times, then mix it up with G C7 D7 Em F, and then reverse that and do this back and forth...

start by writing out the groups of just the names of 4-5 chords in a horizontal line

and then below it do another line of chord names

try to make the sequences all different

Do the whole alphabet of chord names, then once you are bored with it, add Minor, 7th, Maj7 and diminished chords

mix it all up

You should have about 80 or so chord progressions if you try real hard

now just plant or 'print' your fingers ont the strings for each chord you wrote down...

this will greatly accelerate you ability to both sight-read and finger the chords without looking and yoru fretting hand, while ALSO allowing you to improve both your muscle memory, as well as feeling and finding easy wasy to move your fingers from one chord to the next, so you can see and improve upon chord transitions in general...


[edit] repeat the making of chord shapes over and over and over, using each line from your list, until you can do the whole list without EVER looking at the fretboard

THIS WORKS, It is very simple, but VERY EFFECTIVE. :)

Good Luck!
 
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I was worried about messing up the polish on my non-fretting hand as well, so I didn't play last night. Today - it's solid and I can do whatever I want!
 
I threw away all my nail polish when I started playing uke. Then I realized my toenails needed painting. Duh.
 
Today - it's solid and I can do whatever I want!

YAY! Now maybe it's time to get your mojo working again! :music:

When I first started to grow out and properly file the nails on my right hand, I put some of that 'nail hardener/strengthener' clearcoat on and I felt handicapped for about 30 mins until it dried and stopped smelling.

Over the next few days most of it that was on the tips, and on the tops of my nails got worn off from playing, so next time I put on 2 more coats and same thing, so I stopped using it after that.

It also made me feel very girly to have the stuff on, and it took me a long time to get used to having nails and not wanting to cut them all the way down every time I see them, but now I cannot play without them - they are not super long but only about 2mm past the fingertip, and make a HUGE difference in being able to play and get the sound and feel I want from ukulele and classical guitar...
 
I'm attempting to actually have my nails stay beyond the nailbed without peeling them off, and it seems to work a lot better if I have polish on them.

I wonder if my uke is going to get sparkly from the glitter in my nailpolish...
 
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