• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Divas who are musicians?

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@MissySki My piano teacher makes me play something until I can play it fairly smoothly, but a random error here or there is no big deal in her book as long as I'm not making the same error repeatedly, if that's any help. If something I'm playing isn't fluid or clean enough, I usually get a 2nd week with it. Each week is normally 3-4 short songs.
 

Albertan ski girl

Angel Diva
Just saw this thread - I'm not a professional musician, but I played the piano for many many years. Now mostly, I play just for fun, and more than before, I'm into jamming with other musicians, esp my DD and DS, who also now play instruments. DD plays the violin, and DS plays the guitar - so we LOVE family music time, and there's always lots of instruments around for holidays. The three of us are currently working on our own arrangement of Beatles' Blackbird - which has been really fun lately!

Both my and SO's houses were very musical -my dad plays the guitar, mom sings, grandparents played around 8 different string instruments and the accordion between them. At SO's house, every holiday gathering is also an impromptu klezmer jam session - lots of uncles on clarinets, trumpets, trombone, and SO even plays the tuba! I love family music time!
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
@MissySki My piano teacher makes me play something until I can play it fairly smoothly, but a random error here or there is no big deal in her book as long as I'm not making the same error repeatedly, if that's any help. If something I'm playing isn't fluid or clean enough, I usually get a 2nd week with it. Each week is normally 3-4 short songs.

In my case, there are 3 chords in the song I'm working on: C, F, and G. Everything is great with C and F, but when G comes in (only twice in the whole song) sometimes it's good and sometimes it isn't. It's a chord that uses 3 fingers while the others are only 1 and 2 which is much easier.. I can do it, but it takes longer to get there and/or isn't always perfect (for example, when my hand starts getting sore/stiff during practice, it's slower to get to the right position so the chord may not be perfect on every strum if I need to subtly adjust things. I think this is where the muscle memory and finger strength thing comes in, and I'm not sure how fast that does or doesn't happen?

Do you experience this sort of thing with piano as well?
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Just saw this thread - I'm not a professional musician, but I played the piano for many many years. Now mostly, I play just for fun, and more than before, I'm into jamming with other musicians, esp my DD and DS, who also now play instruments. DD plays the violin, and DS plays the guitar - so we LOVE family music time, and there's always lots of instruments around for holidays. The three of us are currently working on our own arrangement of Beatles' Blackbird - which has been really fun lately!

Both my and SO's houses were very musical -my dad plays the guitar, mom sings, grandparents played around 8 different string instruments and the accordion between them. At SO's house, every holiday gathering is also an impromptu klezmer jam session - lots of uncles on clarinets, trumpets, trombone, and SO even plays the tuba! I love family music time!

That sounds like so much fun, lucky you!! I aspire to be able to jam with people someday, unfortunately I don't know many who play that are local to me. The ones who do play are way way way above me level wise, so it definitely won't be anytime soon! lol
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
In my case, there are 3 chords in the song I'm working on: C, F, and G. Everything is great with C and F, but when G comes in (only twice in the whole song) sometimes it's good and sometimes it isn't. It's a chord that uses 3 fingers while the others are only 1 and 2 which is much easier.. I can do it, but it takes longer to get there and/or isn't always perfect (for example, when my hand starts getting sore/stiff during practice, it's slower to get to the right position so the chord may not be perfect on every strum if I need to subtly adjust things. I think this is where the muscle memory and finger strength thing comes in, and I'm not sure how fast that does or doesn't happen?

Do you experience this sort of thing with piano as well?

Not specifically, but some transitions I do faster/smoother than others. My teacher's rule is you only play as fast as you can do your slowest transition so you don't slow down and speed up. Eventually, you can build more speed as you improve.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Not specifically, but some transitions I do faster/smoother than others. My teacher's rule is you only play as fast as you can do your slowest transition so you don't slow down and speed up. Eventually, you can build more speed as you improve.

This makes sense. I try and keep my strumming steady regardless of what's happening with my left hand switching chords and strum through it so I stay at one pace the whole song. When I am just practicing chord changes then I go slower to really get everything placed correctly. I also do a little better if I play through and I'm not singing, like keep a count going or something instead. Left and right hands doing different things and then singing as well is a lot for my brain apparently! lol But it's so much fun too!! :smile:
 

Tvan

Angel Diva
I find practicing hands independently to be a useful technique. For example, practice the strumming pattern with all open strings...focus on getting the rhythm and volume that you want, and the clarity of tone. Do this for a few minutes, then switch and practice the other hand independently. For the left hand, place the fingers on the fingerboard for one chord...count to 4, then pick them up, and place them for the next chord...count to 4...repeat and shorten the count between switching chords. Doing this with a count, and a crisp rhythm is important...you are training fingers to quickly move to the frets when the chord changes. Then switch back to the right hand practice.

If i do this for a few repetitions, it gives my brain a chance to process what each hand needs to do. When I put hands back together, muscle memory starts to kick in.
 

badger

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
In my case, there are 3 chords in the song I'm working on: C, F, and G. Everything is great with C and F, but when G comes in (only twice in the whole song) sometimes it's good and sometimes it isn't. It's a chord that uses 3 fingers while the others are only 1 and 2 which is much easier.. I can do it, but it takes longer to get there and/or isn't always perfect (for example, when my hand starts getting sore/stiff during practice, it's slower to get to the right position so the chord may not be perfect on every strum if I need to subtly adjust things. I think this is where the muscle memory and finger strength thing comes in, and I'm not sure how fast that does or doesn't happen?

Do you experience this sort of thing with piano as well?


Missy, Are you talking about guitar chords here? All three of those chords (c,f,g) require three fingers. I find that F is the hardest. I used to teach guitar and played professionally. The best way to learn chord changes is to take your time as you play along to a song. You can hang on to a note as long as it takes you to change smoothly to the next chord. No one is judging you here!! Pretty soon, you will realize those chords that seemed difficult initially, will be so easy , you will think it happened overnight. And that is quite often the case!
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I find practicing hands independently to be a useful technique. For example, practice the strumming pattern with all open strings...focus on getting the rhythm and volume that you want, and the clarity of tone. Do this for a few minutes, then switch and practice the other hand independently. For the left hand, place the fingers on the fingerboard for one chord...count to 4, then pick them up, and place them for the next chord...count to 4...repeat and shorten the count between switching chords. Doing this with a count, and a crisp rhythm is important...you are training fingers to quickly move to the frets when the chord changes. Then switch back to the right hand practice.

If i do this for a few repetitions, it gives my brain a chance to process what each hand needs to do. When I put hands back together, muscle memory starts to kick in.

Thanks, this sounds like a good strategy! I'll deginitely try breaking things down more as described next time I practice.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Missy, Are you talking about guitar chords here? All three of those chords (c,f,g) require three fingers. I find that F is the hardest. I used to teach guitar and played professionally. The best way to learn chord changes is to take your time as you play along to a song. You can hang on to a note as long as it takes you to change smoothly to the next chord. No one is judging you here!! Pretty soon, you will realize those chords that seemed difficult initially, will be so easy , you will think it happened overnight. And that is quite often the case!

On ukulele for these 3 chords, only G requires 3 fingers, while F uses 2 and C uses 1. The less fingers, the better right now, darn G! Lol
 

badger

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
On ukulele for these 3 chords, only G requires 3 fingers, while F uses 2 and C uses 1. The less fingers, the better right now, darn G! Lol

Oh! Ukulele sure is getting popular isn't it? You'll get the G in no time, and once you do your confidence to master all the other chords will move you forward quickly. One trick I used to tell my students was to leave the instrument out where it is seen and readily available. (and you may already do this ) The urge to pick it up and practice, even for 10 minutes, will become a habit. When you have to get it out of the case every time the decision to practice is often delayed. The case is a psychological barrier in a way. Practicing in small doses is very beneficial as it leaves you wanting more...and then you'll DO more.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Oh! Ukulele sure is getting popular isn't it? You'll get the G in no time, and once you do your confidence to master all the other chords will move you forward quickly. One trick I used to tell my students was to leave the instrument out where it is seen and readily available. (and you may already do this ) The urge to pick it up and practice, even for 10 minutes, will become a habit. When you have to get it out of the case every time the decision to practice is often delayed. The case is a psychological barrier in a way. Practicing in small doses is very beneficial as it leaves you wanting more...and then you'll DO more.

I very much agree with this, even though it's kind of embarrassing to admit because I am very guilty of it!! When I was practicing guitar I was urged by my local music shop to keep it in a hard case, and this was definitely a factor in my not practicing. I'd get motivated to practice, and then as dumb as it sounds it'd seem like too much effort to deal with the case and it was in a separate room upstairs etc.. My Ukulele is sitting in my living room on a stand right now and every time I pass it I want to play. This can be dangerous because I'll be running late to get to work and still grab it for a few minutes, but owell! lol I see it when I'm lazing around watching tv at night too and that'll prompt me to get off my butt and practice instead which is a great thing. I'm very excited to get the G mastered! There are so many songs that include these few chords and a few other simple ones, so you can do a lot just with adding new strumming patterns once more comfortable. :smile: I did just get a soft (but more padded than the flimsy ones) in the mail yesterday, and it's really pretty. This will be for transporting around though, and not to store it at home as long as I can help it. I don't feel as bad leaving my $86 instrument out and about versus my guitar which was a bit more pricey (hopefully I'll go back to that someday in the future too, but for now it is very safely stored and humidity controlled! haha)
 

alicie

Angel Diva
I can play the guitar, ukulele and piano.

My ukulele is a cheap £15 stagg one, it's decent enough, it's lasted me 5 years, I had an even cheaper one before hand for a couple years, so it's an upgrade.

As for the chords, I just sit and scroll through them over and over again. I have pretty much all them down now but I just used to sit and go through however many the song had and in different orders, 20 times until I had the transitions sorted. Just keep going through them and they'll click. I still go through them every so often so I remember them.
 

snowski/swimmouse

Angel Diva
5th and 6th grade I took group piano lessons, 6 of us on three pianos when the others were at recess the first year. The second year 3 of us on three pianos, by then we had one at home. I later took two more years of lessons, but memorization was very hard for me... At 12 my best friend and I each bought a guitar for $18 at the dime store and taught ourselves. I continued to learn and play for decades of summer camps! In school I sang in the glee club, concert choir and church choir and then twenty more years of church choir. And later I taught myself how to play the dulcimer. Yes, I love all kinds of music!
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Tonight I had the start of a breakthrough with the backbeat strum out of the blue. I couldn't necessarily keep it in rythm for an entire song, but it was suddenly clicking for good chunks of time when I couldn't get it going almost at all last time I tried. Yay, excited! Also started on a second song that utilizes this strum, but I can go back to the easier strum as well since it's a much longer song than the first I've been working on. So current practice rotation now includes Bob Marley-3 Little Birds and Jason Mraz- I'm Yours. Chord changes are continuing to improve as well. Loving this little instrument! My finger tips on my left hand are kind of numb right now, so I guess that's my queu to head to bed.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Well, I've been bad with practicing because life got ridiculously busy.. However, things have finally died down a bit, and I've been yearning to play. I decided I need a kick in the butt because I'm just not good at trying to teach myself online.. so tonight is my first actual ukulele lesson and I'm sooooooo excited!! I moved in January, and now there is a music shop that does lessons less than 2 miles from my house. Not sure what to expect exactly as I've never taken formal music lessons, I just know I'll be going for half an hour once per week. Looking so forward to starting and hopefully being able to now work in a more structured manner towards my goal with someone else leading the ship!

Any tips on how to get the most out of lessons?
 

captain_hug99

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Any tips on how to get the most out of lessons?
Practice! In between lessons, make sure you practice what the teacher tells you to do. Since you are learning the ukulele, there are lots of great youtube channels that will reinforce what you are learning in lessons. Cynthia Lin Music is my favorite!
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Practice! In between lessons, make sure you practice what the teacher tells you to do. Since you are learning the ukulele, there are lots of great youtube channels that will reinforce what you are learning in lessons. Cynthia Lin Music is my favorite!

I really like Cynthia Lin as well, that's how I've learned anything at all so far and the songs I know actually! :smile: Sometimes with videos it's frustrating not to be able to ask questions, but I guess now I'll be able yo ask my instructor if I get stuck on something from online even!
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
At my first lesson last week the instructor encouraged me to purchase Hal Leonard ukulele 1 for us to work out of. I was totally fine with that since it was very cheap. Basically we are starting fresh with learning the strings and to read music. I've been just playing chords which allows me to strum songs, but I really do want more theory. I understand why this is sooooo important, I just hope I can accomplish it this time around, as this isn't my first go at trying to learn this over the years with ither instruments. However, in starting to play around a little with the book on my own this weekend I think I was making a little progress and was even playing a couple of short nursery rhyme type songs that are in there to practice from the lesson. In the past I would always write in the letter of notes in my workbooks as a cheat, and damned if I ever learned anything from that except dependence on my deciphering notes in this way ahead of playing songs.. I definitely will not do that this time, it's too much of a crutch. I can do what the book is showing now since it's a lesson and then practicing those exact notes in a song, but I fear that it wouldn't sink in at all if those notes were mixed in with others right now because I don't feel like I'm reading but more memorizing from that immediately preceeding lesson.. not sure how to make that click, perhaps just time/practice/exposure??
 

Forum statistics

Threads
26,237
Messages
497,649
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top