Jan 10: Taking it easy
I’m still not fully recovered, although I feel much better, so I only played the abbreviated version of my practice.
First, the learning app melody song. It… Didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.
Then I played my two songs. They sounded off. I don’t know why, they just did.
And then, because both kids begged, I played the wedding song again. It sounded better the second time, but my voice started to hurt halfway through.
I’m falling apart. I blame being in my late thirties.
Jan 11: Revisiting favourites
Today I played my songs. I tried to pay close attention to the rhythms in the wedding song. I think I did better making the verse and the chorus distinct from each other.
I’m going to consider that a win.
Then I played a bunch of songs from the ukulele app (same chord progressions, different finger positions) that I haven’t played in a while.
Omg I am SO MUCH FASTER at switching between G, C, and D now! Like…I don’t even have to look at my fingers anymore.
I feel greatly encouraged by this.
Oh, and I played some songs from Encanto. If you haven’t watched that yet, I hope you will get the chance soon. At the very least, listen to the music. It’s brilliant.
Jan 12: Cheerful
Apparently, if I don’t know the strum rhythm, I strum everything too cheerfully.
Or at least, I do that for Disturbed’s The Sound of Silence and Rufus Wainwright’s Hallelujah.
I mean, that’s kinda funny, tbh.
I guess I just need to listen to more music.
Oh the horror.
I also played my songs today. Those are supposed to be cheerful. 🙂
Jan 13: Ten minutes
What can I do in ten minutes of practice?
Play my learning app.
Play each of my songs (still only two with music) once.
Play Cody Simpson’s La Da Dee.
I really enjoy playing songs that I actually know and that I haven’t played since November. I can feel the difference in both my strumming and finger positioning. I know I have a long way to go, but progress is encouraging.
Jan 14: Rocking out
I played some new-to-me songs today, including Bare Necessities.
Bear with me (pun intended); I didn’t think I liked that song much. But to play it is a completely different animal than listening to it (pun intended again).
I did a pretty good job, imho.
I had a pretty good practice session today, in other words.
I love that my song actually sounds like a proper song. At least, in my opinion.
I think I’ll record it for you sometime soon. I’m feeling so much more confident in it.
Jan 15: C chords
I’ve been working on C7 and Cmaj7 chords. C7 requires all 4 fingers, but it’s not super complicated. Cmaj7 requires 2 fingers, so it’s actually pretty easy.
Anyways, I pulled out Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer today, and it had those chords, and it actually sounded kinda right. It was pretty cool.
I played a bunch of other songs that I had stopped playing before Christmas, and I felt very encouraged by how well I was able to play them.
I also played both of my songs. They’re a lot of fun.