Cover of 1993 Sting song. This was at SF based Ukulele Rebellion zoom jam. Kept on time, thanks to click track. I noticed I did the typical duffer thing of starting singing at a random note, then homing in on an approximation of the key in a couple measures. Going up the neck with chords during the instrumental, I hear an unevenness in the strum, as if I am starting to speed up then snapping back to the click. I prefer a rumba staying even as possible throughout the song. A bunch of Am chords for the intro, I do 5453 ahead of open 2000. I end the song with the 7 Cs at 9787 (barre F form), then a C string natural harmonic. The harmonic is for practice, not in the original. The barre 7th fret C chord requires a high degree of mindfulness to hit and maintain it correctly. That’s me, your mileage may vary. I did a “dress rehearsal” of this song with the Gilroy Ukulele Jam earlier in the afternoon. The harmonic was noticed, I’m glad it made it through the Zoom. Zoom is not friendly to musical subtleties. I got inquiries about how to do them, and attempted to demonstrate. I found several demo’s on you-tube. There I learned about artificial harmonics, which I will get around to.
I have found that recording oneself is a best practice for improving. One has to get past the “ugh I sound awful” and listen to what’s works and improvement opportunities. Also I discovered that amplification is the musical equivalent of a magnifying glass. I can hear improvement opportunities in fretting, strumming and picking easier.
Chart: Transposed from original Bm to Am, a little easier to play.
https://shawnsukulele.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/fields-of-gold.pdf
Shawn's Ukulele Stuff 