Great work last night, Super Ukers. I know those up-the-neck chords are difficult. If you persevere, though, you’ll find that these different chord voicings will add interesting elements to your playing. You can always use the first position chords that you already know.
We used Keep on The Sunny Side as a warm up to practice up-the-neck chords, making sure that each string has good tone. Next week we’ll have another tune.
Folsom Prison Blues really sounds good with the alternate bass strum and occasionally adding an up-the-neck C and C7 chords. When you’re practicing this week, see if you can pick out the melody by ear. We’ll try combining the melody and chords next week and then move to another tune. When playing your favorite tunes, try using this strum and see if it fits the song.
We’ll also move on from The Crawdad Song after reviewing it briefly next week. The “down-down-up-down-down-up” strum (within a 4-beat measure) can be used as well as the alternate bass strum. The up-the-neck F chord introduced in this song can be used as a substitute for the 1st position F chord. The three up-the-neck chords, C C7 and F, should be added to your practice routine. Practice chord changes as they occur in each song until you can smoothly move between them while keeping an even tempo.
Edelweiss sounds so pretty when we introduce chord melody. When you are playing it, pick the melody notes that sound best to you; you can also occasionally leave out a chord if it sounds good. As you experiment by trial and error with this technique, you will develop a pleasing arrangement of this beautiful tune.
The Canons could use some practice getting the notes to “flow” so we can pick up the tempo. Rounds are a good way to build concentration.
The Uke Players in Disguise is just a silly song I thought you would enjoy. We won’t play it in class, but I thought you would appreciate yet another way to present song chords and lyrics that you might encounter in a jam session.
Please bring both books 1 and 2 to each class and have a good week.
Evelyn
We used Keep on The Sunny Side as a warm up to practice up-the-neck chords, making sure that each string has good tone. Next week we’ll have another tune.
Folsom Prison Blues really sounds good with the alternate bass strum and occasionally adding an up-the-neck C and C7 chords. When you’re practicing this week, see if you can pick out the melody by ear. We’ll try combining the melody and chords next week and then move to another tune. When playing your favorite tunes, try using this strum and see if it fits the song.
We’ll also move on from The Crawdad Song after reviewing it briefly next week. The “down-down-up-down-down-up” strum (within a 4-beat measure) can be used as well as the alternate bass strum. The up-the-neck F chord introduced in this song can be used as a substitute for the 1st position F chord. The three up-the-neck chords, C C7 and F, should be added to your practice routine. Practice chord changes as they occur in each song until you can smoothly move between them while keeping an even tempo.
Edelweiss sounds so pretty when we introduce chord melody. When you are playing it, pick the melody notes that sound best to you; you can also occasionally leave out a chord if it sounds good. As you experiment by trial and error with this technique, you will develop a pleasing arrangement of this beautiful tune.
The Canons could use some practice getting the notes to “flow” so we can pick up the tempo. Rounds are a good way to build concentration.
The Uke Players in Disguise is just a silly song I thought you would enjoy. We won’t play it in class, but I thought you would appreciate yet another way to present song chords and lyrics that you might encounter in a jam session.
Please bring both books 1 and 2 to each class and have a good week.
Evelyn
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