Goals For Beginners

Freak

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Everyone knows that having defined goals helps progress, right? Post you goals here and let's all have a good time.

My plan is to learn to play the Super Mario theme within 6 months... I'm a slow learner.

Post!
 
I should also have mentioned that we'd love to have you as a member of the group, so just do what I do...post inane gibberish until your post count is out of proportion to the value of it's content.
 
One man's gibberish is another man's balderdash. Or something.

I am working on actually sorta picking a little. Yipes!
 
Yes come yammer with us!
 
Your Super Mario goal is a good one. When I started playing I learned a couple easy songs but then began setting goals for myself of learning pieces that were way more advanced than I was. It made me progress pretty rapidly (from my perspective anyway). I didn't know most people don't try finger picking right away so I went from "I'm Yours" to "Over The Rainbow" to one of Ken Middletons crazy celtic reels. It was a leap, but not impossible and it got me into setting difficulty goals for myself.
I also set goals with Uncle Rod's Ukulele Boot Camp. I played that whole thing through a couple times a day and sped up the metronome every few days. That was a big help as well.
Good luck with your goals!
 
Everyone knows that having defined goals helps progress, right? Post you goals here and let's all have a good time.

My plan is to learn to play the Super Mario theme within 6 months... I'm a slow learner.

Post!
Hello Freak,
After looking at the gymnasts at the Olympics on TV my goal is to try and touch my toes again before September. I can barely touch my ankles now. One would think those gymnasts are made with rubber bands. I would like to play more pieces from my old classical guitar books.
Regards
Jim
 
Duly noted on the group.

I didn't realize most people don't learn to pick right away until just now. I think my picking ability is out of proportion to my strumming; not that that says much. By the way, anyone got any suggestions to help integrate the ring and bird fingers? Because I'm basically only using my thumb and index.

Don't bother touching your toes. It's not worth the time of an old man or even a strapping young buck myself.
 
By the way, anyone got any suggestions to help integrate the ring and bird fingers? Because I'm basically only using my thumb and index.

You'll probably end up using different finger techniques depending on the song, but a good way to start integrating the other fingers is to assign them to strings - ring on A, middle on E, pointer on C and thumb on G. You won't always use that but it gets your other fingers used to working. Also, check out different picking tutorials like travis picking, 3 finger roll, etc...
 
i've not really got a plan so to speak, but if i'm ever bored, i razz through when i'm cleaning windows a few times. normally keeps me occupied
 
I set myself goals. latest is to able to play 'Raggle Taggle Gypsies' without referring to the sheet music. Most of my playing is finger picking because I enjoy it but i do practise strumming for 10 minutes a day.
 
I really like this thread, my goal is to join my local ukulele club and to get better at strumming, as i suck!! Good luck to everyone on their goals :)
 
I really like this thread, my goal is to join my local ukulele club and to get better at strumming, as i suck!! Good luck to everyone on their goals :)

Aldrine did a lot of very helpful videos called uke minutes. Really nice of him to have them available for everyone. Quite a few have strumming techniques.
 
Aldrine did a lot of very helpful videos called uke minutes. Really nice of him to have them available for everyone. Quite a few have strumming techniques.

I have seen one of his videos on strumming, and all of his videos are awesome, but im finding it hard to strum in a certain pattern with one hand as well as fingering with my other, aswell as making it sound good :/ and no chordsheets that i find online, actually tell you the strumming patterns, so its difficult trying to play songs correctly for me at the moment.
 
He has multiple videos on strumming with a google search. Jake also has one I am no where near mastering. I used to practice chord shapes with a basic strum. When I was comfortable with that I practiced more complex strum techniques. Chunking is very useful too. Fingerpicking with open and closed strings is a completely separate thing to practice for me. I am always trying to practice my weakest techniques. Seperating the different techniques is very helpful.You tube and practice are your friends and mine.
 
There is no "correct" way to play a song. Don't be afraid to experiment with the strumming. There are some basic strumming patterns that are used quite often and fit a lot of situations, that Mike Lynch does a great job in explaining. I'd say those are the straight shuffle, the swing shuffle, the church lick, and the calypso strum. Using those you can pull off most songs, but that doesn't mean it's the only possible way to strum them. Sometimes even changing the character of a song is good.

When learning a new song, I usually start with a straight shuffle (down up down up) until I get a feeling on the chord changes, and then I start playing around with the strumming. There are songs where I don't use a specific strumming pattern, but instead let the strumming flow with how I feel it, and I'm very satisfied with the way they sound that way.
 
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