Day 17

Let's get back in the swing of things.


For you guys playing chords, let's do this:

Earlier you learned the G Major chord. I don't think I said the name, because this isn't a music theory blog, but there you go.

|-3--
|-0--
|-0--
|-0--
|-2--
|-3--

|-2--
|-3--
|-2--
|-0--

Barritone ukulele players, play the ukulele fingering. Because your instrument is tuned differently, you'll be playing a D Major chord.
The chord doesn't matter. This isn't about chords. This is about making your fingers do things.

Even if you've played this chord a million times, and you know how you always play it, just humor me here.

Take the pad of your thumb, and put it in the middle of the neck, at about the same level as the fret.
In other words, if you're playing ukulele, if you could drill a small hole in the 2nd fret in between the C and E strings, and go straight through your neck, you would hit your thumb.

Don't wrap your thumb around the neck. Don't lie it flat. Just get used to playing that chord with your thumb right there. This isn't the most natural place, and it's probably not going to be your usual place to put your thumb when you're playing G.

But if you're learning new chords, or ever having trouble switching from one chord to another, try playing with your thumb right there.

When we play, sometimes we all have a tendency to want to anchor our thumbs somewhere and not move it. This is a normal tendency that everyone has.

If you anchor your thumb in an imaginary plumbline down the widthwise center of the neck, you can reach more strings and more frets than you can with any other thumb position.

Other thumb positions are not necessarily wrong. When you are doing something that makes it impossible to put your fingers where you want to put your fingers when you want your fingers, then you're doing something wrong. Other than that, go to town. Do you.

So, you've got your G major chord, your finger's in the middle of your neck, and you're happily strumming a D DU UDU or something. In fact, do that. Get your beat going. Now slow it down. Keep your beat, keep those gaps where there should be gaps.

Now, in between that last U and that first D of your new repeat, change chords.
We're switching to Em
|-0--
|-0--
|-0--
|-2--
|-2--
|-0--

|-2--
|-3--
|-4--
|-0--

As far as  cowboy chord changes go, this isn't the easiest. It's going to involve picking up a lot of fingers and putting them down. Go as slow as you need to.


Honesty hour: I'm crap at this, That specific strum pattern, and big chord changes, I never do it right. I cheat, and do this trick where I lift my fingers on the last up strum, muting the fretted ones and letting the open strings ring. It's not a good habit to get into. This is an exercize that's really hard for me, honestly. Switchign between two basic chords while keeping a simple strum repeat seems really easy. It's a lot of the basics of playing guitar/uke is all about, and it's really easy to do well enough to play.

But if you're on a quest for improvement, half of it is trying new things, and playing the new things until you go from being not good to being not as bad, to being better. And the other half is looking at the things you do, and asking how you can do them better. 

And a really important thing is to remember that when you feel like giving up, is to say, okay, today I'll fake it. Tomorrow I'll quit. And to keep finding the strength to fake it one more day at a time, until you end up with the motivation to do a day where you aren't faking it.

Bassists, stick around for tomorrow, because I'll have something. Something.