Music in the making
Written at 2:17 PM on Thursday, October 13, 2011
If you've been following my twitter, you would have already known that I've purchased a ukulele. Went to get a ukulele last Saturday at Ukulele movement at Little India. It is a small shop specializing in ukuleles. Got the Makala MK-C (Concert size) and paid a $130 with the strings changed and tuned.
OK, to confess, I don't have any musical background. All that I know from my Grade 1 piano class was that the musical scales go from A to G and the counts on the piano. I'm (sort of) blindly buying the ukulele and hope that with lots of practice, I can play it well. I'm not kidding about this since I first made a fool of myself in the shop and the guy had asked if I have a musical background.
Since Saturday, I've been practicing on it alot. First started out with just holding the ukulele. Holding is tricky because it is a concert size ukulele. Fyi, the ukulele comes in 3 sizes (from smallest to biggest), the soprano, the concert and the tenor. Being a concert size and that my arm is small, the ukulele doesn't stay securely under my arm. So, I've decided what the heck, just play it sitting down.
After that, I learnt how to fret and played some chords. Looks easy but it isn't. For beginners, one will start having finger soreness after 2 hours of continuous play because the player has to push down the taut strings. But once you know how to fret properly, it becomes less painful.
Strumming was pain the ass too. You need to know the beats or rhythm of the song really well in order to strum. When I tried playing Somewhere over the rainbow, the strumming pattern was difficult to master until I noticed it was easier to strum when I played the song in my head.
Alot of practice helps to make my strumming better. So, here's how I've been doing so far. Today is Day 4 since learning to play this song and it's only the first verse. I'm playing on repeat because the second verse is the same as the first. (Used a pair of spoiled earphones that came with a working microphone to record, so ambient noise is inevitable.)
Somewhere over the rainbow practice by giny-yee
Erm, it isn't perfect but I'm getting there:)
The reason why I bought the ukulele was that I feel I needed to learn a string instrument. I've played on instruments such as the piano, harmonica and the recorder but I never played on a string instrument. Initially, I wanted to get a guitar but I found out that a ukulele was a much cheaper alternative and it's easier to learn with only four strings. I like it so far and I hope that I'll be able to master the ukulele and to progress to the guitar in a year's time.
Going out later today to collect my mother's bag and to get a ukulele/ guitar tuner. I'm currently using a software downloaded on my computer to tune the instrument and Audacity to record the sound. Talk about being resourceful.
Anyway, got to go out now. Till the next post, I'll still be strumming on my ukulele. HAHA
ps: Blogger now has this nifty feature to easily load pictures from picasa to blogger. I'm really liking it.
Since Saturday, I've been practicing on it alot. First started out with just holding the ukulele. Holding is tricky because it is a concert size ukulele. Fyi, the ukulele comes in 3 sizes (from smallest to biggest), the soprano, the concert and the tenor. Being a concert size and that my arm is small, the ukulele doesn't stay securely under my arm. So, I've decided what the heck, just play it sitting down.
After that, I learnt how to fret and played some chords. Looks easy but it isn't. For beginners, one will start having finger soreness after 2 hours of continuous play because the player has to push down the taut strings. But once you know how to fret properly, it becomes less painful.
Strumming was pain the ass too. You need to know the beats or rhythm of the song really well in order to strum. When I tried playing Somewhere over the rainbow, the strumming pattern was difficult to master until I noticed it was easier to strum when I played the song in my head.
Alot of practice helps to make my strumming better. So, here's how I've been doing so far. Today is Day 4 since learning to play this song and it's only the first verse. I'm playing on repeat because the second verse is the same as the first. (Used a pair of spoiled earphones that came with a working microphone to record, so ambient noise is inevitable.)
Somewhere over the rainbow practice by giny-yee
Erm, it isn't perfect but I'm getting there:)
The reason why I bought the ukulele was that I feel I needed to learn a string instrument. I've played on instruments such as the piano, harmonica and the recorder but I never played on a string instrument. Initially, I wanted to get a guitar but I found out that a ukulele was a much cheaper alternative and it's easier to learn with only four strings. I like it so far and I hope that I'll be able to master the ukulele and to progress to the guitar in a year's time.
Going out later today to collect my mother's bag and to get a ukulele/ guitar tuner. I'm currently using a software downloaded on my computer to tune the instrument and Audacity to record the sound. Talk about being resourceful.
Anyway, got to go out now. Till the next post, I'll still be strumming on my ukulele. HAHA
ps: Blogger now has this nifty feature to easily load pictures from picasa to blogger. I'm really liking it.