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More F scale and arpeggios

10/30/2014

Morning Has Broken, like the first morning - A beautiful old hymn, revived and made famous by Cat Stevens. Nice work on the melody. Below is a recording that Pat and I made of the Uke I and the chords so that YOU can practice the Uke II part. We'll warm up with this again next week. Remember that it is in the KEY of C so your B's on the G string are natural (4th fret).
After a warm up with Morning Has Broken, we then did some F scale of the exercises on page 31, followed by Au Clair de la lune. Both classes played this so effortlessly that you HAVE to feel good about that.
Next - the lower part of the F scale including Bb on the G string and then Long, Long Ago - very satisfying. We'll revisit this next week allowing those who want to try the Variation on page 35 a chance to play it.
Finally we talked about doing a group performance song for the BUG Jam on Dec 6. Let's try This Little Light of Mine in 4 parts - Key of G. We will assign parts next week so take a look at the score and think about which part you would like to play. We will need people to play the melody (Uke I) also. I will also make some recordings of all the parts for you to work with.
Practice for next week: Morning has Broken (especially Uke II), F scale Exercises on page 31 , Long, Long Ago (your choice of Uke I, Uke II or the variation), Donkey Riding (pg 36), and In The Bleak Midwinter (pg 37)

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F scale and understanding chords

10/23/2014

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After a bit of warm-up with the C scale, we played Wiegenlied (Brahms Lullaby) with arpeggio. It almost made me sleepy it was so pretty.
Next we began to work with the F scale and ONE new note - Bb on the A string. Next week we'll finish the other half of the (butterfly) F scale and yet another Bb - on the G string.
We then played Johnny on the Woodpile, first by ear and then sight reading.
For Next Week, practice the F scale exercises on page 29 and Au Clair de la Lune (pg 33). We will also start working on Long, Long Ago so if you want to be ready, go ahead and practice that.
In class this week we also looked at the notes that make up a MAJOR CHORD. Following the system of numbering the notes of a scale, a major chord is composed of the 1,3 and 5 of the scale. By doing a bit of chord analysis, we understand how to make and alter chords. Attached is a Chord tone "quiz" that you can use to analyze some chords and become more familiar with the notes on the fretboard.
Finally, we played and sang Sweet Sue (attached below) which illustrates how jazz/swing chords are often easier on the ukulele than regular major chords, and gives us a chance to work on the "swing" strum.
Next week we'll warm up with Morning Has Broken (3/4 time, Key of C). This was a handout in class and is attached below.
I will have tickets for the Canotes workshop and concert in class every week. This will be really fun. Check out their music on the website: http://www.canote.com

morning_has_broken.pdf
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ukulele_quiz_chord_tones_1c6.pdf
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Understanding major scales and Arpeggios

10/15/2014

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Carnival of Venice is a fun song… with a few challenges. It is a good exercise for beginning to learn how to control the notes (make them short or let them ring), observing rests, C scale runs, playing in 3/4 (waltz).
We looked at a couple of ways to understand MAJOR SCALES: 1. Each note having a number that is it's scale degree and tells us what the interval is (the musical distance between notes). 2. Also, we learned the pattern that composes a MAJOR SCALE in terms of "steps" (half steps aned whole steps). See the attached handout if you weren't in class.
Playing Oh! Susanna and Up on the Housetop was fun. Try playing these songs by ear at home. Like everything else, it just take practice.
Finally we began to work on Wiegenlied (Brahms Lullaby) and arpeggiated chords. Just to clarify.... You do not need to read and play individually all the notes in the Uke II part. You just make the chord shapes that are given (C, F, and G) and the notes are "built into" the chords. You only need to change chords. We will play this tune next week. This is a wonderful technique to learn because you can take a simple tune and make it sound really beautiful and sweet by simple playing the chords in an arpeggio style.
For those who asked me, the app I use on my iPad as a metronome is called Tempo, and the simple recording app is Quickvoice. I think they were both free (or very cheap).
Now would be a good time to think about the things you can do on/with the ukulele that you couldn't do 6 weeks ago.

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LAVENDER'S BLUE…..and green?

10/9/2014

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We continue to work on exercise and songs to learn the notes of the C scale.
Remember to continue practicing the exercises on 14 and 15 and specifically 3 & 4 on page 14 and 7 & 8 on page 15. I have also attached a C Scale "quiz", like the ones we had for the pentatonic scale, for you to use as a practice tool.
We'll play Lavender's Blue again next week so you have another week to practice the notes.
We will also play Carnival in Venice - key of C, 3/4 time. The slow version of this is on the previous blog. First work on getting the notes in both Uke I and Uke II. Then think about the short and long notes in the song. Stop the sound on the quarter notes followed by a rest. You can stop the sound (on open strings) by very lightly touching the string wtih any finger, or (on fingered notes) by releasing pressure on the string (don't pull the finger all of the way off). Even if you can't yet incorporated that technique into your playing, try it out on single notes.
My Girl is just for your pleasure and practice, using the C Pentatonic Scale for the opening riff.
FYI - The Canote Brothers - A wonderful duo from Seattle - will be presenting a workshop and concert on November 15, St James Prebyterian Church, Workshop at 1:00 ($25.00) and concert at 3:00 ($10.00). The workshop is for all levels: Fun Strums for Everyone. http://www.canote.com

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C scale ….. and the Circle of 5ths

10/2/2014

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Remember to warm up your fingers AND to stretch them out when you start to practice. Try the hand/finger exercises we did in class and if you start to get tired, or experience and numbness or discomfort, take a break and shake out. Always remember that short periods or practice during the day are generally more beneficial that one long one. AND remember that you can practice when you are away from your ukulele. Hum the tunes and do the fingerings in your head.
C scale - learn this! During the week practice the C scale with the rhythm exercises that are in the book (# 2). practice going up the scale and down the scale. Practice slow and fast. Pratice reading the notes and without reading. Use the exercises on page 15 to practice reading the notes and also the C scale in thirds practice on the bottom of page 14 (#3 & 4)
Also this week, practice the notes in All Night Long. Uke I and Uke II are the same because this is a call and response song but you can also practice Uke III (which uses the B on the G string).
Practice Lavender's Blue (pg 18) (observe the rests at the beginning of each phrase). Look at the notes in Carnival of Venice to identify the notes, but don't worry about the rhythm. We'll work that out in class. Listen to all the songs on the CD (slow versions below).
We also had our introducation to the magical Circle of 5ths - one of my favorite tools to use for transposing music - Use the Circle of 5ths to find 1, 4, and 5 in any key. There are many things this tool can tell us that we will talk about over time. It is a pretty simple visual reference that shows the beautiful symmetry of how keys and chords fit together.

Really good work from all of you GOLD STAR students! See you next week.
Gail

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More F scale and arpeggios

F scale and understanding chords

Understanding major scales and Arpeggios

LAVENDER'S BLUE…..and green?

C scale ….. and the Circle of 5ths

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