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.
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