A Reflection

So, I've presented, I'm done, I went home on Wednesday, put my ukulele aside, and gave my piano some much needed attention. I feel great. Not about the presentation itself, but just that it's over. I think, presentation-wise, I did alright. Personally, I felt like I was relying on my notecards a little too much, but that might have just been me being paranoid.
This was one of my first presentations where I actually wasn't too ecstatic about my script. That's a lie, there have been plenty where I haven't loved my script. But for some reason, with this one, I just wasn't feeling it. When I was actually onstage, I felt a little better because I'm comfortable talking and presenting in front of people. I'm also really good at acting confident and like I know what I'm doing, so there's actually a high possibility that I tricked myself into thinking I had a good script when I really didn't. I don't know, the grades will tell.
Something I was actually really nervous about was my powerpoint. I don't know why, but I was scared that I wouldn't have the "right" stuff on it, or that I wouldn't have enough, so I finally just gave up on worrying and just stuck stuff on there and hoped for the best. I actually came to like my powerpoint. I had fun making jokes about myself and including pictures. That picture of me from Young Frankenstein is priceless. Special thanks to Bob Raines for always making me look good. Also, any time I get to poke fun at my brother is a good time. I got some laughs throughout the presentation, which is a good thing, so I was happy about that.
As for the project itself, like I said in my presentation, I didn't get as far as I had hoped. Sometimes when I play ukulele, it doesn't really sound right, if that makes any sense. It might just be me, I don't know. I still mess up on some things, and it took me F O R E V E R to get a half-decent take of a song to be able to post it. I'm definitely going to continue working at this like I am at all of my instruments.
If I take a step back and look at it and consider that I've taught myself everything I know about ukulele- along with piano and guitar - I've come a really long way, and I'm proud of myself. I can make music come out of a piece of wood. (It's a really pretty piece of wood, I actually love my ukulele so much. It's a really nice ukulele.) I've learned a whole lot of chords, I figured out how to strum properly, and basically everything, really. When I got my ukulele in December, I was quite literally at square one.
I said in my presentation that I picked the song I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab For Cutie because I've performed it on ukulele before. I use the term "performed" loosely. I rewatched the video a few weeks ago, when I was thinking of what song to play, and oh my god, it was painful. I put this here with the hopes that you will not speak of it to me ever.

(This is from my camp's talent show this past summer)

Like okay that STRUMMING oh my god I can't handle it just look at my hand l o o k a t m y h a n d

(And yes, Mohammad, that is why my hand was doing the thing)

But yeah, that's why I did that song in my presentation. It really shows how far I've come in my skills, how much I've learned and improved. It's a great before and after between this and my presentation.

Which brings me to me actually singing in front of people during a presentation. 

I was literally so ready and excited for it, and then literally mid-strum I was like "oh my god wait I'm doing this I'm actually playing in front of classmates and teachers oh my god wait I'm supposed to sing sometime aren't I start singing" and I went on this sort of autopilot where I was just kind of saying words and moving my fingers and my mindset was basically ohmygoddon'tmessupdon'tfreakingmessup

I still love performing and I'm really comfortable in front of people, but when a grade depends on it it's just a little more worrying. 

So basically, I'm rambling a lot, but this was a really great experience for me, and I'm excited to keep learning more and keep expanding my musical skills. 

I'm honestly probably going to reflect a little more here, because I'm thinking of putting together a little blooper thing of my vlog because oh my god there are some gems in there. So yeah, keep posted.

We're talkin bout practice (post 4 (I think?))

So frankly I'm so out of whack with extra posts and scheduling but I think this counts as my official post 4.
So I've been practicing lately for my presentation and trying to figure out what would be best for my presentation, if I should even play live for my presentation (because god knows how much could go wrong that way holy wow), and a bunch of other things. I've gotten sooooo much better at strumming like wow it makes me happy. I still falter a bit when I actually attempt to throw singing into the mix, but that is a goal that I've set to try and overcome. It's a lot of coordination and your brain is working on a lot of things at once, but I've gotten better.
So I picked a song for this week to practice that has a pretty distinct strumming pattern and chords that for the most part I feel comfortable with. One chord that's been giving me t o n s of trouble lately is E.

It's an awkward finger placement and I've been struggling with it a lot, and of course it's in this song like six times. So I found a video from my old uke buddy about how to hold this chord, because it's one that a lot of people struggle with.

This was nice because it gave me a way of looking at the chord that I hadn't before. I'd previously just been holding down the three consecutive dots with three fingers, but in this video, he suggests making it a bar chord. A bar chord is basically when you use one finger to hold down multiple strings at once, and they kinda suck butt. I r e a l l y don't like bar chords. However, I also really don't like E chord. so I tried it, and discovered that that strategy has its own number of issues. He talks about how you need your ring finger to be able to bend backwards, and mine can sorta do that, but not enough to hold down the three strings I need without holding the other one. So I figured I could pull it off better with my original method than this method, though I've been doing finger exercises to be able to pull off this particular bar chord.

So basically if anything sounds really wonky in this video, it's probably E chord. 

I'm excited to present, and I'm still trying to figure out how best to incorporate actual ukulele into my presentation. I definitely want to use it live because it'll be cool, and I just really like being able to show off my ukulele in school. 

I think I know what song I'm going to be doing, however, and it'll be good because I've performed that song in the past on a ukulele. Granted, it was a different kind of ukulele, but it's still a good before and after. And god, was I bad before.

So wish me luck as I work on and finalize my presentation!

A pause for a song

So here, finally, is the song I used to work on my fingerpicking skills. There are tons of different patterns and such for fingerpicking, and the one I used I got from my book. It looks a little something like this:

Basically how interpreting this works is similar to chord diagrams: the number indicates the fret you hold, moving linear-ly down the staff. So you basically place a chord like normal but instead of strumming you do the plucking pattern. This particular pattern also implements another technique my book taught me called a pinch:

It's basically just plucking two strings at once.

So the song I did is called This Too Shall Pass by Danny Schmidt, and it's a favorite of mine. I found it through a podcast I listen to and, though admittedly the original version is somewhat country-sounding, it's a pretty haunting song. The lyrics are beautiful, and the fingerpicking pattern I used for my amateur rendition of it really brings that out. So anyway, here's that.

dat face doe

My singing is rather nonexistent because I was trying to avoid plucking the wrong strings or placing the chord wrong or making sure I pinched right, so here's a link to the lyrics if you want them, because I really do love them.

http://www.dannyschmidt.com/lyr_thistooshallpass.html

(You'll find I used a minor censorship which is an achievement for me, and I wish I could say I came up with it but I stole it from my friend when she performed this song at a camp talent show this past summer.)

Actually, here's a link to the video of her performance, she probably won't mind, she's the biggest sweetheart and she performed on guitar. This video actually gives a great demonstration of fingerpicking on a different instrument, showing the different patterns and sounds you can get. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDax93UIgBY

So yeah, here's me fingerpicking, expect more practice videos of different techniques as I prep for the TED talk!

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Vlog

So here it is in all its glory. There's tons of cuts because dear lord it needed a lot of editing. I'm considering a gag reel. There are some real gems in there.
I apologize in advance for subjecting you to the sound of my voice.

DEAR LORD THAT'S A CLASSY THUMBNAIL

My song for this will be posted shortly.

Interlude: Interlude

I'm literally so hilarious I just thought of that title oh my god
Anyway
I'm posting this now because why not, I feel better at switching between chords than I did before this pseudo-week. I've been so messed up with the snow days and the show and being sick-ish that I've lost all concept of time and when I was originally planning on posting this, so here, have it now.
I'm still not great at switching between chords, just because it's pretty circumstantial. In one song you'll have to switch between a G and a B chord, and you can master that transition, but then in another song you'll do a change from G to F sharp, which sucks, by the way.
I found this awesome video that gave a really good strategy for smooth chord changes.

This guy does TONS of tutorials on various ukulele things; I've gone to him whenever I get stuck on a chord.

I had originally attempted another song before this, but it was way too hard. The technique discussed in the video where you leave an open chord on the upstroke didn't really apply because the chords came so fast and were all singular downstrokes. I just couldn't get it.
So I picked a new song, Interlude: Moving On by Paramore. I'll admit I didn't do a great job, and there's a lot I have to work on. I wasn't focusing on my strumming as much as just getting the chords down on time. Also, singing is basically nonexistent for a laundry list of reasons, so.
Also, ukulele is dangerous and I messed up my strumming finger, my bandaid kept getting caught on the strings. So there's a lot of plucking that sounds like it really shouldn't be there, and that's why. Some chords were also muted because of this, either my strum would be awkward, I'd scare myself by bandaid-plucking a string, or my bandaid would fail me completely and I'd be in pain. (That happened in a different take, it was actually a pretty good run of the song (better than this one, to be honest) but I couldn't use it due to a couple choice words at the point of injury, but shhh.) Again, my main focus was just switching chords for this week.
Looking back at this in retrospect, I actually didn't do as terribly at strumming as I thought I did. It still wasn't great, but not terrible. (That's also what I usually say when getting a test back.) The muted chords were messy, and that's a thing that will be avoided with lots of practice. But B chord is a chord that has plagued me forever, and I couldn't find a help video from my Hawaiian friend up there. The other tutorials kinda freaked me out.
That's something again with the finicky nature of chords. You can become great at one transition (I've got a song lined up for an upcoming post that I've nailed), and another sneaks up on you. Namely, G to B. I tried my best and only messed up a few times, so I'm pretty happy with myself. More than I thought I'd be, anyway.
Here it is.

(Also I finally figured out how videos work here. I usually leave the tech stuff to my dad so forgive me.)

Strumming away (3)

So I was planning on posting this over the weekend, but with my luck, less than a week before the musical opens and when I was planning on posting a video where I accompanied myself singing, my throat is shot. I'm not even kidding, I couldn't talk for half the weekend. I must have thrown out my throat while singing at dress rehearsal on Thursday, because since Friday my throat has been sore, I can pinpoint exactly where it's injured, and my blood content is probably eighty percent cough drop right now. So basically the video I'll be including in this post was filmed post-rehearsal and really quiet for a number of reasons. But moral of the story, don't be offended if I don't talk to you this week, it's probably just because I can't.
Anyway, ukulele.
I've improved a lot on my strumming and have actually learned a proper technique that I feel comfortable with. I got it from my book I have (which by the way is "Kev's Quickstart Fingerstyle Ukulele", if any of you are interested. Google that and it might come up?) which suggested two common techniques, shown here:

I use the index brush technique because it is most comfortable for me and easier to not destroy the strings with. It's easy to just kind of swing my hand up and down and let my finger catch the strings as it goes. 

Part of what I'm doing with these blogs is that for each skill I focus on, I'm picking a song that displays it to show. For strumming, I wanted to pick a song with a distinct pattern, and I eventually came up with House of Gold by 21 Pilots. It's a fun song to sing and play, and it uses a lot of chords which is good practice, as well as having a distinct strumming pattern. This song was originally performed on ukulele, so it was pretty easy to pick out the strumming pattern and attempt to replicate it.

I came across a few obstacles with this song. The first one was a chord that it includes, D minor. The chord diagram looks a little something like this:

(It's sideways as compared to the ones in my last post, but the same principle applies.)

I first started playing it, and noticed it sounded pretty ugly. There was something discordant about it that I couldn't quite pin down.  

And then I got smart and realized that the lack of a circle means that the string is unplayed. So I tried again, and it's much better.

I also encountered this little chord right here:

Kill me.

This is what's called a bar chord, and basically they SUCK. That big bold line is where you put one finger across multiple strings to play. So your one finger has to hold multiple strings, making sure they all sound good, and it sucks. Luckily, on ukulele they're much easier to play than on guitar.

If at any point in this video I make a strange face or prolong a note awkwardly, it's most likely due to one of these chords. Either that, or I just messed up. Anyway.

So anyway, without further ado, here's me playing House of Gold by 21 Pilots. Again, excuse my singing, I'm kind of dying. I'm not completely happy with how this run turned out, but a lot of the things I messed up on are skills I'll be focusing on in the coming weeks. So yeah, ignore the singing, ignore the bedtime attire, ignore that I'll probably be wearing this same outfit to school tomorrow, ignore the awkward cut at the end (because video size limit wow) and basically just ignore it and pretend that I did good.

No but really, since strumming is one of my biggest struggles (ESPECIALLY WITH SINGING UGH) I think I did okay. ish. 

AND ALRIGHT I HAVE BEEN HAVING SOOOO MANY TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES I'VE BEEN WORKING AT UPLOADING THIS GOD FREAKING DARN VIDEO FOR LIKE AN HOUR AND I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT OH GOD NOTHING WAS COOPERATING SO ANYWAY HERE I GAVE IN AND PUT IT ON YOUTUBE HAVE YOUR FREAKING VIDEO AND LEAVE ME ALONE I'M DONE as of now posting this it's still processing but whatever it'll be there eventually you're welcome goodbye

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz2GAi9Jmbc

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A Study in Chords (2)

So I have set off on my journey to learn as many chords as possible, and chords suck. They're cool, they sound great, but they're hard. Actually learning them was easy, but being able to hold down the strings correctly isn't easy. As for learning them, I found these nifty little chord charts which have made life much easier.

 

So I set about learning these, and as you can see, some are easier than others. Each dot is a finger, and each vertical line represents a string. The horizontal lines are called frets, which are these little dudes on the actual uke.

The horizontal lines are the frets. Just like the charts. It's almost like someone did that on purpose.

To play a note, you put your finger between the frets. So to play a C chord, your finger goes between the second and third lines, or on the third fret, of the A string, like so.

A C chord. Snazzy.

So there are different finger positions for each chord. Some are easy, like C, and then there are some that exist solely to make your life just a little more miserable. I can't even play this one, so I'm just going to show the diagram. 

Looks innocent enough, right? Wrong. My body does not contort in that way. I'm sure it's fine for other people, but just know that any time F minor 7 comes up in a song, I'm not playing that song.

I've spent a fair deal of time just trying to strum out chords, going through the chart one by one until I got bored and looked up songs. I decided to look up a musical theater song, because there are tons of chord changes in those, and boy, I was not disappointed.

I put my musical playlist on shuffle, looked up the first song that came up, and promptly wanted to die.

I forced myself to play through half of the song, then gave up on coherency and just strummed out each chord. (Note the makeshift chord diagrams under each note- those are meant for guitar but the same principle applies. Strings go in order of the column, numbers are the fret number, a 0 is an open string, and an X is an unplayed string.)

I use the app Ultimate Guitar (http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/) to get chords for my songs. People submit chords and tabs for guitar songs, but the chords can be applied to ukulele as well. This app is super helpful, I use it for guitar, ukulele, and piano. So worth the $2.99. Anyway.

Though most of those chords look absolutely terrifying, it was actually really helpful in memorizing the more obscure ones. Chords like C and G and D are common, in almost every song, so I memorized those right off the bat. However, something like Bsus2 or Faug (which I've literally never heard of) that don't appear really ever at all are harder to memorize due to lack of exposure. Seeing them in this song helped. 

So to put it basically, ukulele is really fun and I've learned a lot of chords so far. I'm working on strumming now, which is mildly terrifying and somewhat painful, but I'll work on it. Hopefully I'll begin strumming correctly as opposed to blindly abusing the strings like I have been. Wish me luck, and get ready for me bringing in my ukulele on Monday. I'd apologize in advance, but really, you're welcome.

An Introductory Post (Post 1)

My love and passion for all things musical is enormous, unparalleled, and annoys the living crap out of everybody. I never shut up. I know you guys love it every time I get up and push tickets for whatever show I'm currently in. (Brace yourselves, Young Frankenstein tickets go on sale next week). I've loved singing for as long as I can remember, and I'm almost always humming a tune or tapping out a beat. People probably look at me when I'm crazy while I listen to music because I tend to try and figure out the chords or patterns for the instrumentation, often playing air piano on my desk.
I've been trying to improve my musical skills for years, probably since kindergarten, to be honest. I remember walking through the hallway singing to myself and saying something along the lines of "my voice is beautiful!" My massive ego hasn't dulled any since then, but luckily my sense of tact has increased. Somewhat. But since then I have been focusing on my singing voice, trying to figure out just what to do with it.
I've been making strides since then, delving deeper into the world of music and finally working up the courage to ask my parents for a piano for my birthday. They then proceeded to get me (and my brother, but do you really think I'd let him near it?) a guitar for hanukkah, and my newfound courage was somewhat dulled. They'd just gotten me a guitar, there was no way I could ask for another instrument now. I was still ecstatic, and immediately set about trying to teach myself the instrument. I'm actually not terrible at it, I can play songs if provided with the chords, given I know the chords and my minuscule hands are able to reach to where I need to press the string. It's also a hand-me-down guitar, and it makes a kind of rattling noise when I play it which I don't think it's supposed to do, so I've been letting it sit for a while to let it try and figure itself out.
The following summer, I finally breached the topic of a piano, saying I found a keyboard with all 88 keys on amazon for only 300 dollars, which is a good 200 dollars cheaper than any other 88 key keyboard. My parents still winced, but luckily I'm a massive gift card hoarder and had 245 dollars in amazon gift cards under my belt, and they were suddenly much more receptive to the idea. My mom said, "Well, we were planning on getting you a ukulele for hanukkah, but yeah, we can do this." I then proceeded to kick myself, because this stupid piano just gypped me out of another instrument, much like the guitar had with the keyboard itself. The keyboard came in a few days later (god bless amazon prime) and I loved it. I actually know a few songs beyond just playing chords, and can, upon request, play a small portion of Let It Go from Frozen.
Much to my pleasant surprise, I got the ukulele for hanukkah, and I adore it. It's so happy, it's just a happy sound, it's impossible to not be happy when you hear it. You almost feel bad for it, because it's just so pure and little and happy and too good for this world. I got it mid December, and it's mid February now, and I'm not very good. Similar to guitar, I can play songs if reading the chords, but I'm still learning the chords, I don't strum correctly, I can't pick out notes for songs, and basically I'm an amateur. I'm a ukulele rookie. A uke noob. So now I get to indulge my music addiction for a grade, through ukulele. This is awesome.
I'm gonna take it week by week (well, cycle by cycle, but whatever), focusing on a different component of playing ukulele each week.
Week 1 is gonna be learning more chords. I want to memorize the finger positions for as many as I can and make sure I play them correctly.
Week 2, I'm going to work on strumming. I'm currently strumming by using some bastardized version of the actual technique and I think I'm making it a lot harder for myself than it should be. So I'm gonna fix that.
Week 3 is going to focus on moving between chords. I'm currently insanely awkward between them, taking good three second pauses to move my fingers and put them in the right places before I'm able to play again, so I'm just going to practice as many moves as I can.
Week 4 is fingerpicking. This is basically when you pluck out the notes instead of strumming the chords. It's not easy, so I need to learn that.
Week 5 I'm gonna start combining, and week 6, I'm going to add singing into the mix (officially, I'll probably still sing beforehand) because for many people, singing while playing an instrument is hard.
By week 7 I hope to be able to expertly play a song that exemplifies these techniques.
I'm really excited about this and hopefully I'll become less not good at ukulele. It'll be fun. I'll get to annoy you guys with my singing, but this time you can't tell me to stop. You're welcome.
Buy Young Frankenstein tickets from me, they're ten bucks each.