Think the penny has dropped.

Yesterday for some strange reason things started to fall in to place. I can't explain how but I am one happy camper right now. Thanks to UU I found Richard G's Ukulele Songbook. I have not put my ukulele down. And with the chords I have learnt it just all seemed to slip into place. If I know the song the strum pattern just seems to fall into place. I can't explain why, I know over the last few months I don't seem to put my ukulele down. I just love to practice, no that's wrong, what I should say is , I love having fun. But by some miracle the penny seems to have dropped and now the songs I play actually sound right, I even seem to be singing in time (well, if you can call it singing) and not thinking to much about playing and where my fingers need to go.
Think this is what they call a eureka moment. I just feel so happy I needed to share this with all my new friends on UU. Ok, back to having fun.

ETF

Congrats. I love hearing about moments like this.

Happy strummin

Yay! This is an excellent report. Congratulations!

Aha moments are certainly the best....best time for me to play is about an hour after I get up and my head is clear and rested...you are more focused and creative then...thus aha moments
congrats and happy strummings....thank you for sharing

Here's another great site for you ETF.
http://doctoruke.com/songs.html

Camsuke said:

Here's another great site for you ETF.
http://doctoruke.com/songs.html

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Things just keep getting better, thanks for that Camsuke. Roll on Santa time, wife has bought me The Daily Ukulele 1 & 2 books not forgetting she has already bought me my Kanile'a K1-C wooohooooooooo

You have Inspired me !!

Kestrel said:

You have Inspired me !!

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I am glad to hear that Kestrel. I have only been playing a few months but I will admit I play allot lol. Everyone has chord and strum problems and the simplest of things can bring new hurdles. I doubt if I know more than 20 or 30 chords and many of them have caused me problems when starting out. But day to day each one fell into place and more important started sounding clear. As I learn new songs I face the hurdle of a new chord to me. I now don't look at it as a problem, I look at it as the new step in opening up playing more songs.
As for strumming patterns. All those down, up, down etc etc. I'm 54 in 2weeks, I can't remember where my clothes are some days so memorising a different pattern for each song as well as chords is never going to happen for me lol. Well, I watched a short video by Arron from HMS. He said something that made sense to me. He never learns a set strum pattern, he plays what sounds right for the song. If you know a song or find a song you like, just listen to it a few times then cover your strings with your hand to mute the strings. Now before you start trying to play the song just strum the muted strings and try and work out a beat that fits in with the song. Get used to playing that muted rhythm then start introducing the chords while maintaining that rhythm. Woohoo, you just learnt a strum pattern that suits your style of playing without days and days of watching and trying to remember that pattern someone else is trying to get you to play. It took me awhile, but as the title of this post suggests, one day the penny drops and you tend to hear the rhythm of the song straight away.
Sorry I'm rambling on but I have just fallen in love with the ukulele and I want the world and his dog to start picking one up and play and have as much fun as I'm having. Every day there's something else to learn and with every new chord there's a new song that opens up. But beware, it's addictive as you can see.
Above all the key thing is ------ HAVE FUN DOING IT.

ETF

and here's another worthy site to check out:
http://www.ukesterbrown.com/song-sheets.html
also check on youtube for ukulele mike, he has some great tutorials!
happy strumming!

well done that is good to hear, i have only been playing four months,
when i first started i thought no way am i going to get this but as they say you only get out what you put in, when i cracked first song bad moon rising, then blitzkried bop wow an enlightened moment, i use these songs as excersise now as they have to be played fast, i am finding songs easier to pick up now, next for me is to do more picking,
atb wallyboy

for me, it was being able to sing while playing... for some reason it just took some time before my brain could handle the two things at once

Fisherman said:

for me, it was being able to sing while playing... for some reason it just took some time before my brain could handle the two things at once

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I know what you mean. It the tapping your head while rubbing the belly thing lol. But when it clicks its fantastic. I can't sing to save my life. But I have so much fun doing it in time to my ukulele who cares.

ETF