If you’re looking for someone to inspire your ukulele playing you couldn’t do much better than Kimo Hussey. He’s about the smoothest and classiest ukulelist around.
Lucky for us he’s also a great teacher and he’s put up a series of masterclasses on his YouTube channel. I find them incredibly inspiring and highly recommend you give them a watch. To start you off here’s a selection of my favourites.
Patience in Ukulele
TL;DW:
– “We’ve become very accustomed to hearing and playing music on the ‘ukulele that goes relatively fast. But the degree to which we play the ukulele slow opens up some wonderful horizons in what we can hear the ‘ukulele do.”
– “One of the things about the right hand that we can utilise in terms of musical interpretation – the way we express songs – is how we use tempo and dynamic.”
Right Hand Technique
TL;DW:
– “The degree to which you try and improve the quality of your music is the degree to which you create a balance between the left and the right hand.”
– “The right hand controls five things that are extremely important: melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamic, tempo.”
Chord Funtions
TL;DW:
– Try out these chord shapes.
Strum Patterns, Melody and Harmony
TL;DW:
– Play a descending C scale:
– Then for each note play a triplet strum on all the strings:
Tobias Elof Take 2
TL;DW:
– “One of the wonderful things about ‘ukulele is that it can play anything. This little instrument is so smart it can play any song that’s ever been written.”
– Tobias: “With the ‘ukulele you can have so many layers. You can have the rhythm, the chord and the melody at the same time.”
Left Hand Technique
TL;DW:
– “I think it’s most important for you to learn 36 chords: 12 major chords, 12 minor chords and 12 7th chords.”
– You don’t have to memorise them all but you have to know how to derive them if you need them.
I love Kimo’s playing and teaching, and he’s really been knocking them out of the park lately with his videos. Nice summaries here, makes it easier to remember which videos to rewatch later.