All Categories

Whiskey before … breakfast, dinner, music….whatever!

5/28/2014

……Not a bad idea at all. It just takes the edge off, it seems. So we just relaxed and played a bunch of Spring and garden songs. A great way to end our skills sessions, I think.
Never fear. There are plenty of playing opportunities coming up:
June 1 - Uke Can Free Your Voice - Ukulele and Voice workshop with Daphne Roubini followed by a concert by Ruby and Smith. Location: Nancy's Farm, 2030 E. Smith Rd
Workshop at 2:00, Concert at 3:30. $20.00 for workshop, $10.00 for concert or $25.00 for both. For more info call 733-6867.
June 7, BUG Open Mic - Here is your chance to share a song. Play by yourself of with some other folks. Or you can lead everyone in a song. This will be our last Saturday Jam until September.
June 13, BUG Community Players play at Stafholdt Good Samaritan Assisted Living, 456 C Street, Blaine, Friday, June 13, 1:45 - Everyone is welcome. See BUG website.
June 21, 2014 - Celebrate Global Make Music Day -. BUG will have a booth at the Farmer's Market (Volunteers are needed). There is a rumor that there will also be a ukulele FLASH MOB.
Tuesdays - Uke at the Village Green - beginning on June 17 come out and play… just for fun. Very informal.
JULY 25-27 - 4th Annual BUG Campout (It just gets better every year) Please register by July 1, We are looking for people to be on the the Campout planning committee.
September 7, "I Love My 'Ukulele" project at the Live Aloha Festival at Seattle Center. Come and play with hundreds of other ukulele players.
September -Book 3 class to begin mid-Sept (probably on Tuesday the 16th). Details TBA
Oct 18-19 Langley Ukulele Workshop - sorry but is SOLD OUT but they do keep a waiting list if you want to try to get in
ALSO important stuff:
June 28 - I Love A Ukulele Concert by the Bellingham Ukulele Orchestra. Get tickets at any BUG event or Brown Paper Tickets:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/683348
Help BUG be a Sponsor for the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain http://www.bellinghamukulelegroup.com/bugb.html

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER. I HOPE WE GET TO STRUM TOGETHER THIS SUMMER.

Closed Dominant 7th chords

5/14/2014

Great work on the UBC practice sheet (4/20 blog). Continue to use the sheet for smooth changing and remembering chords. The point of this practice is to be able to play these chords without having the diagram in front of you. You can print off as many copies of this as you want for practice. If you always rely on the chord diagrams, your eyes and fingers are learning the chords but you are not internalizing them (learning by heart). And will not remember them when you don't have the diagram. I know that it is painful at first, but it really doesn't take very long to learn new chords by heart if you just play them over and over and over for a while.
Puff the Magic Dragon: Use this to practice finger picking patterns. Specifically combo #1 but, really, you could use any of the patterns we learned.
Dominant 7th chords - closed. Pull out the 12 bar blues (2/5 blog) use it to practice two new closed shapes in the key of C. Use the 1st shape on the page below for C7, use the 3rd shape for F7 and G7. Make ALL of your chords 7th chords. This is commonly done with the blues.

dominant_7th_shapes.jpeg
File Size:	179 kb
File Type:	jpeg

puff_the_magic_dragon.doc
File Size:	28 kb
File Type:	doc

Like last week…. but more

5/7/2014

Chords, chords, chords: We continue you build our chord repertoire by taking the UBC chord sheet and transposing to the key of G. Practice in the key of G until you know the chords well and then transpose to the key of F and practice some more. Try 4 beats on each chord, then go to 2 beats on each chord, and eventually, just one beat per chord. We will play it in the keys of G and F next week.
More finger picking: The last page of Aaron's fingerpicking patterns include combo #1 and combo #2. which combine the patterns we have been working on (and one more in Combo #2). attached below:

fingerpicking_pg_3.jpeg
File Size:	122 kb
File Type:	jpeg

chord practice and more picking

4/30/2014

Practice the second page of finger picking exercises (Attached below). Also the great little UBC practice Sheet Song that I got from Rod Higuchi from Seattle SUPA (also attached).
This is a great opportunity to learn new chords, and work on moving smoothly through the progression. Remember to find the most efficient way to move from chord to chord. Break it down into sections and plan your finger choreography….. But first you have to know the chord shapes! As you learn the shapes remember to make your non-dominant fingers go to it's place first and then your dominant fingers will follow more easily.
We can continue the Tuesday skills workshop through May. Please remember to pay me next week ($40.00) if you plan to come.
Thanks, Gail

finger_picking_2.jpeg
File Size:	149 kb
File Type:	jpeg

ubc_practice_sheet.pdf
File Size:	645 kb
File Type:	pdf

Fancy fingers

4/23/2014

Here is the link to Gerald Ross' videos on getting a swing sound with barre chords and dampening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YafhDexY6I
After running through The Garden Song playing arpeggiate chords we practiced a couple of new finger picking patterns - Forward Roll (inside-outside), and Backward Roll (outside-inside).
We then then picked out the chords for Country Roads (in C) which includes using a "relative minor" (Am).
After picking out the chords for Country Roads, try applying the two new finger picking patterns to this song.

Play by Heart

4/16/2014

Continue working on the barre chords and the left hand dampening in order to play a reggae strum and we will run over The Middle again next week.
Also - continue working on the arpeggio picking on The Garden Song. Slow it down until you can play it. During some part of your practice, work with (the evil) metronome to keep a steady beat. It is very easy to speed up with arpeggio. We will work on another finger picking pattern next week.
Finding chords and Playing by Ear - Think of Chords as harmony. Choose your favorite familiar song. Play your chord of choice to give you a starting point, sing the melody and when the melody and chord (harmony) no longer sound good, find a new chord, using your melody note as the base and bulding the chord around it. Clear as mud - we'll work on this more next week.
Registration is open for the Langley Ukulele Workshop October 4-5
https://www.ukuleleintheclassroom.com/tutti2014/

Singin' the Blues

4/9/2014

Try another Reggae song using the strum we worked on last week. Remember The Middle? You can also use your closed chord shapes for this song.
Just Strum and sing Singing the Blues - Have fun
Try the finger picking pattern below with The Garden Song

A __________________________________X__________ ring finger
E_________________________X____________________ middle finger
C________________X_____________________________ pointer finger
G_______X______________________________________ thumb

Here is Richard Mytling's website for SUE with lots of music charts on it.
http://www.seniorukeensemble.com

the_middle-pg1.jpg
File Size:	633 kb
File Type:	jpg

singin_the_blues.jpeg
File Size:	146 kb
File Type:	jpeg

Inch by inch

4/1/2014

I can see improvement with the barre chords. Keep up the practice and use the two songs we played today for that:
Three Little Birds (in the Daily Ukulele) uses barre chords to dampen the strings and create the reggae rhythm. You really can't get this strum without dampening and the easiest way to do that is with your left hand.
Whenever you release the pressure on the strings (chords) the sound stops. That is what I mean by dampening. So... right after the down-up on beat 2, and the down on beat 4, release your grip on the chord and the sound will stop. There is no strum on beats 1 and 3
The strum is:
rest down up rest down,
1 2 3 4
The other song we practiced is below. The Garden Song. These chord changes come pretty fast so slow the tune down until you can make them. Also try picking the melody.

I WILL CONTINUE THIS SKILLS WORKSHOP through April and May if I have interest. There is another option, too. I have a Book 2 class that will start an 8 week session on April 15 and go through June 4. We are about 60% through Book 2 and I plan to finish by June. You can join this class as an alternative to the skills workshop (or in addition to). This class will meet on Tuesdays at 6:30. It is a very good and lively class and I have supplement a great deal of the material to the James Hill Books in this class. Let me know if you are interested in this class. The cost is $100.00 for the

the_garden_song_-_g.pdf
File Size:	26 kb
File Type:	pdf

F Barre chord

3/25/2014

It may not be your favorite chord but it can help you be the kind of ukulele player who can play in ANY KEY. Just think about it!
So…..warm up with the finger exercises - stretches and then snaking up the neck, keeping your fingers as close to the fretboard and possible. I am unable to get my scanner working tonight but I will try to scan a diagram for you when it agrees to scan again.
Practice the new "closed" chord shape using it for the F chord. It is the third shape on the page that I gave you. Remember that the root is on the C string. Use Iko Iko (BUG book) and On top of Old Smoky (Daily Ukulele) to work on changing from C to F (both closed shapes).
Continue to practice the Tennessee Waltz using closed shapes and 3/4 Waltz Strum.

Barre chords in waltz time

3/18/2014

This week work on the three barre chord shapes we talked about today. The G shape, the C shape and the D7 shape.
Use Good Night Irene, and The Tennessee Waltz (below) to practice. Both in G
Remember to be patient with yourself while your fingers are getting used to these shapes.
Suggestions today were to do finger exercises, and also to move the chord shapes up the neck one fret at at time. Work on one shape at a time until you become more confident with them. Then begin to combine them.
Michael Gonzalez is doing another Blues Workshop on April 12. For information:http://stargroove.com/clinics/blues-uke/

tennessee_waltz__g_-_for_teaching.doc
File Size:	24 kb
File Type:	doc

the_three_3-note_shapes.jpeg
File Size:	236 kb
File Type:	jpeg