Have looked around a bit. Already know most basic beginner stuff. Am placing my capabilities somewhere in the upper half of beginner.

Took dexterity test for 1st time. Score was 2,20,30,4,33 . My picking and scales need lots of improvement.

Completed Speed of C Key Practice session this evening. I find this practice is helping with my picking and I haven’t played around with scales much yet. I am able to keep up with chord progression even at 150 BPM.

Also started playing around with the beginner song by Redbone. Had to stop and watch a couple videos on chunking. I’ve self taught myself the full palm; however I like the sound of stopping the strings with my thumb better as it is much sharper. I practices chunk this for 30 minutes and didn’t get far on the Redbone song.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwaggon.

Complete “Key of G memory practice session”. Working on Uke Lesson 115 – Come and Get Your Love (Redbone)

Completed key of C speed session. Worked for 1 hour on “Cone together”. Switched from Redbone because I can’t do the down up chunk switch on AM7 over and over. Come together has fewer chunks allowing me to get the technique.

Just had fun playing lots of my favorite songs for a few hours today.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwaggon.

Completed Key of G Speed Practice and Mastering your fret board Day 1. Worked on “Come together” both chords and picking. Played around with my sheet music.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwaggon.

Completed Key of C & G Review, Mastering your fret board Day 2, Finger Picking Patterns, and Finger Picking Rhythm. Worked on “When I’m 64” Finger Picking Solo from “The Beatles for Finger Style Ukulele” for 1 hour.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwaggon.

Completed Key of D Memory, Mastering your Fretboard day 3, Finger Picking and Singing. I rocked the worms tonight!!!!!! Need more work on my scales. Rythem is getting better. So glad we didn’t do 16th at 150 bpm because I can’t yet.

After playing around with some finger picking arrangements last night I have decided that the improvement systems are working. 🙂 I can see the need to do them over and over again for many months.

Now that practice sessions are done I will pay around with my sheet music.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwaggon.

Just played “Come together” got the chunk right! Also prefer a D# on the ring it out chord.

Then played “Come and Get Your Love”. Impressed that I got a lot of the chunking right and kept up on the dexterity most of the way.

The improvement series are helping? yes they are!

Attended weekly live coaching today. It was cool to see different people at different levels all with questions.

Worked on proper strumming and chucking. Practiced chunking to “Come and Get Your Love” using the proper technique I was shown today in live coaching.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwaggon.

Aloha Papa Chris!
It was nice to see you at yesterday’s live coaching! Great to see that you’re keeping a log of what you’ve done and what you’re currently working on. Hope to see you more often so we can keep track of your progress. Keep jammin!

Perused UU100 Lessons 1-5 this evening to see if I’ve developed any bad habits other than my strumming technique. I didn’t become aware of any other bad habits.

In the last 24 hours I’m feeling more comfortable with the shake a pill bottle/pointer finger technique. However, focus on my strumming and chunking technique has slowed my dexterity. The slow dexterity shows up as I practice “come and get your love;” however, my chunking has improved dramatically in a very short time. I don’t get a perfect fat chunk yet every time but I do get my share of them. 🙂

Put new synthetic gut strings on my tenor ukulele this evening based on Aldrine’s suggestion in live lessons yesterday to change them every 2 months. I had not changed strings on this ukulele since I purchased it 8 months ago. So, along with the distraction of correct strumming and chunking I have the distraction of stretching strings this evening. 🙁

Watched more basic strumming lessons and found some other bad habits I’m correcting:
1. My forearm has been too low in the ukulele. I moved is up some and the correction helps me with correction #2.
2. I now understand the the door knob motion with my wrist versus using my elbow going up and down. This correction REALLY helped me get more fat chunks!
3. Tilt the top of my ukulele back into my body a bit. This really helped me with chord dexterity using the proper strumming technique.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwaggon.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwaggon.

Thanks Aldrine. 5 minutes with you and Ryan was worth more than the cost of admission for 1 month.

I have been considering virtual lessons for awhile and finally decided to try out your site for 1 month. All the online content is great; however, with such a large wealth of informative lessons and improvement systems to digest I was beginning to feel that I could take away what I’ve reviewed in the last two weeks and spend months trying to master it before coming back for another month.

The personal touch by both you and Ryan combined with the online events has thrown me over the top. Wednesday is my 60th birthday. I found out my wife was planning to buy me a new Martin Ukulele in the $500 – $600 range. I told her I’d rather wait until I’m a little better and step up into one of the 4 K’s ukulele. I then suggested she purchase me an annual subscription to UU.

Ryan helped me complete the transaction minutes ago. 🙂

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by cwaggon.

Still practicing chunking. With all the adjustments I’ve made to my strumming and how I’m holding my ukulele most of my chunks are now solid and fat sounding. Chord dexterity is speeding up with the corrected techniques.

I continue to review beginner material to see what I’ve missed or need to correct from self teaching myself. I’m making my way through the material on the blues (my favorite style of music) and have discovered that I need to know how to roll while strumming. Tonight I’ll be focusing on rolling.

……

can now keep up and correctly chunk through entire song of “Come and get your love.” Can do first riff and successfully jump into chords in time. Can play riff 2 and 3 but can’t keep in time yet.

……

Got the regular roll down. Will save 5, 8 and 10 finger roll for later.