| Over the Rainbow/What A Wonderful World |
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While I am away, think of me when you practice When The Saints Go Marching In. This will be a short one since I leave at 5:00 am tomorrow
For Nov 10 practice: Exercises on page 31 Long Long Ago - arpeggiate chords of Uke II first, then the Uke I Try the variation, if you like. Slow version on the Resource page
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Very The famous "intervals" of Close Encounters of the Third Kind are: Start A, up 1 full step (B), down a major 3rd (G), down an octave (low G), up a 5th (D) In although in the movie they start on Bb but it goes to low for us to play it on the uke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2JL0xABlrQ Good work on Weigenlied. It is challenging to keep the two rhythms of Uke I an Uke II together. Also….. Marning Has Broken was really lovely. Enjoy playing this song for yourself, friends, family. Don't Be shy! For Next Week: Continue your practice on Weigenlied, We'll play that again in class Practice the F scale (part 1) and exercises on page 28 and 29. Johnny on the Woodpile Au clair de la lune (slow versions of these two song on the resources page) I have also posted a couple of F scale "quizzes" on the resource page for you to use to practice the notes. NOTICES: * I will be out of town the week of Nov 2, and so we will meet Oct 27 and then skip a week and resume Nov 10. (This is a previously planned to New Orleans with some friends…because I have never been there and it's "on the bucket list"). * NOV 14 - BUG Ukulele Mini-Fest - Fun for Everyone! Check out the BUG website for details. * Dec 5, It is a tradition that my beginning classes play a song (as a big group) at the BUG Christmas Jam/Party. We will play Up on the Housetop. Don't worry, we'll practice and it will be fun. Mark the Date. * Dec 8, last class. Book 2 class will start in early Feb. On of my most inspiring refridgerator magnets says " Be willing to be a beginner every morning". I admit that the grown up in me doesn't like that idea, but the child in me gets excited about what I might learn each day…. and I always follow the advice of my refridgerator magnets. Bravo to you for having enough courage to be a beginner!
Very nice work on All Night Long and Lavender's Blue to warm up. Carnival of Venice is a fun song… with a few challenges (sniff). 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). Use the exercises on pages 20-21 to practice playing and hearing/singing intervals. We also talked about major chords and that each major chord consists of 3 notes; the 1, 3 and 5 of the scale. There are many ways and many places to make a chords on a ukulele. Next week we will begin 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. This is a wonderful technique to learn because you can take a simple tune and make it sound really beautiful and sweet by simply playing the chords in an arpeggio style. Slow version of this song is on your resource page. Next Week we will also play Oh, Susanna, Up on the Housetop (pgs 22-23 and both are on your CD) and Morning Has Broken (handout, on resource page) Now would be a good time to think about the things you can do on/with the ukulele that you couldn't do 5 weeks ago……... I always thought it was, well…….… lavender!
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. We'll play All Night Long again next week and Lavender's Blue 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 resource page. First work on getting the notes in both Uke I and Uke II. Then think about the short and long notes in the song. Try to 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. I'm off to Port Townsend tomorrow for the Port Towsend Ukulele Festival. You really should consider this festival next year. Great Staff, beautiful setting, nothing but music, music, music, for several days. |
InstructorGail MacDonald is a Archives
May 2017
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