Most Common Music Problems and their Solutions. (Part 1)

Some of these came from Kimo Hussey, and other music teachers, and some of my own ideas thrown in.

Too Much Angst

Don’t let your nerves unravel you. Your own anxiety can be your
worst enemy. The ukulele is your friend. Patience and practice
will make you better. Angst just inhibits you. Relax and break
the process of playing into smaller parts and play a little
slower.

Memorization

Don’t try to memorize too much. Try to understand the
relationships between the chords and the sounds they make, rather
than chord names, and trying to put everything together too
quickly. Try to remember common chord finger shapes, and
positions. You will find that there are fewer chord finger
shapes, than chords to remember.

Too complex chords

Don’t try to practice music that is too far beyond your level.
Start with two or three chord songs, then progress very SLOWLY
with more chords, and increasing the tempo.

Don’t do this too fast. If you start to feel frustrated SLOW down
until the sound is clean. Clean sound and transition will beat
speed in almost everything.

Too fast tempo

Again, slow down. Clean sound is better than speed.

Thinking it is too difficult

If you DON’T believe, you won’t achieve. If you don’t give up,
you will succeed. Your playing ability is mostly based on the
amount of practice you put in, not the amount of talent you have.
Reference the book "This is Your Brain on Music"


Practice Intervals

When you practice intervals, chords and scales you need to learn
the sound relationships between the notes. Music at its most
basic is the relationship BETWEEN sounds. If you understand the
relationships between sounds you will also learn how to reproduce
those sounds.

Don’t guess when you practice.

Don’t hone your skills on bad information. No one has the time to
practice poorly. Practice is when you try to get it right. If you
are guessing in practice, you are accepting low standards. Take
the time to do your best in practice with no doubts, and your
performances will improve also.

Don’t try to put everything together too quickly.

No skill worth pursuing can be learned overnight. You need to
work at it, in parts, in stages, with goals in mind. If you
having problems with a chord progression, stop and just work on
this part without anything else. No vocals, no strumming, no
tempo, no melody, no metronome. Then, add the other parts back in
ONE at a time.

Make it FUN, you will learn a TON.


Push yourself with caution.

Always challenge yourself, but push yourself in small ways. If
you do this correctly, you will gain a sense of confidence, and
your overall playing skills will improve. If you push too hard,
you will feel like a failure, and you will stop practicing and
your previous accomplishments, and successes will diminish.

Ask yourself "Is this positive?" Get out of your comfort zone.
Push yourself a little bit.

When you practice, are you really learning anything new? If you
aren’t, you need change up your routine so you are. Play the song
in a different key, try a different strum pattern, change the
tempo, add in some fancy chords. The great part about playing the
ukulele is that there are always challenges, and the challenges
are what make it interesting and FUN!!!

Enjoy the journey!

Stay tuned for Part 2: Common Music Problems and their Solutions