I tried a bit of archery recently. The best part of learning to shoot projectiles is that you get instant feedback on how well your doing. If you’re getting it wrong, you know about it straight away and you know how far off you are.
It’s much trickier to do that when you’re learning an instrument. It’s difficult to play and listen objectively at the same time. If you regularly record yourself and listen back you’ll have a much clearer idea of what you can work on to improve how you sound.
Ideally, you’d tape your entire practice session and listen to it back. But that’s not really practical. I usually record myself playing a couple of times through the tune I’m working on at the end of a session and make a few notes on what I need to be practising.
Since you’re only listening to it yourself, it doesn’t have to be great quality. A cheap desk mic and Audacity will do the job fine.
Things to listen out for:
Tempo – Does it sound rushed? This is one thing I’m always getting wrong. I tend to rush ahead of the tune and speed up as I go along.
Bum notes – Are you getting the same part/chord change wrong over and over? Focus on that bit by itself. Slow it down completely and practice it in isolation.
Dynamics – I.e. loud and quiet bits. Does it sound the same all the way through? Varying the intensity of your playing can make things more interesting. For example, if you’re playing the same line twice you could play it loud the first time and softly the second (creating a type of echo effect). You can also slow the tempo at certain parts to add more interest.
Emphasising notes – Can you hear the melody? If you’re playing a piece that includes melody and accompaniment it’s important that the melody notes stand out against the backing.
This little uke tune cropped up on the B-side to Shape of My Heart. It doesn’t seem to be available any more, but it’s rather lovely and a simple three chord song so I thought I’d write it up. The video cuts off but you can hear the whole thing on their MySpace.
Suggested Strumming Pattern
d – d u – u d –
Twiddly Bits
The uke doubles up the whistling part in the intro and after the choruses.
Judging by the tracks on the album (many of which feature the uke) it’s a policy many bands should adopt. There are a few I’d like to see take up permanent residence in a cemetery.
A strange tune this one. Each time the theme rolls through it goes up by a semitone. To make it easier to remember, I’ve kept pretty much the same arrangement each time through (rather than going for the easiest arrangement each time).
The twiddly bits go a bit high, so you’ll need to play it on a tenor. I’ve made a few changes to the tune: one of the twiddly bits is lowered an octave and I’ve sliced a bit off the end.
Dolly Parton voice + awesome shades + describes herself as a loner = huge new uke crush.
Also this week: The Hoosiers use the uke to flog some Coke (or Pepsi, whichever), Japan’s two nuttiest ukers together, I kill Seeso’s chances in another contest and more. Read the rest of this entry »
Mango seems to be the wood-du-jour. Most of the big uke makers now have a range of mango ukes. Perhaps as a reaction to koa being increasingly difficult to get hold of. The curly mango ukes Kala’s curly mango) certainly offer a similarly beautiful look. For some particularly good examples of curly wood take a look here – you would swear some of those weren’t flat.
But the big eye-catchers are the spalted mango ukuleles – such as the Lanikai spalted mango and Pono’s mango ukuleles – with their dark, wavy figure. This effect is created by fungus in the wood (I had to look it up). Personally, I think I prefer the more subdued and elegant look of the curly mango.
Can anyone give me a definition of flamed wood? On the site I with the curly wood pictures they say, “Terms such as “feather” and “flame” should not be relied on if you haven’t actually seen the wood, as they are used VERY freely. I’ve seen one gun-stock maker who states on his web site that he always calls all crotches flame crotches because ‘it sounds more impressive’. ” Which is what I suspected.
Lots of good photos this week:
– Dour girl next door.
– The belter.
– Ukulele/accordion duo.
– Seaweed swimsuit.
– Teen boy and girl.
First off, a quick parish notice. I’m off to Venice for a week tomorrow. Thanks to the magic of the internets, there’ll still be posts turning up (hopefully), but I won’t be replying to emails and comments. Yes, it would have made sense to time my blog break to match up with it. On to more important things.
It must be the season to makeover your blog. Both UkeToob and Ukulele Languages have sleek new looks and new urls. And KDUS has rebranded itself Ukulele Club de France.
Another tab based on the adorable two-some’s version of a Ventures tune.
I say ‘based on’ because I think they’re using low-G ukes. That would certainly make a few bits easier to play. Particularly the D note (C string, 2nd fret) which would be easier to play on the G string, 5th fret on a low-G. But it’s perfectly playable on a re-entrant. You just need to remember to slide your hand down for the A string, 5th fret rather than playing it with your index finger.
The book contains tab and standard notation for 22 tunes (18 solo pieces, 2 ukulele duets and 2 ukulele/guitar duets) and comes with a CD of the tunes faultlessly performed. Most of them are Hawaiian tunes and, despite the cover proclaiming ‘arranged by John King’, many of the arrangements are by the original ukulele arrangers such as Ernest Ka’ai and N. B. Bailey
The full tab list is:
Loke Lani by Ernest Ka’ai Arr. by John King Haele by Ernest Ka’ai Hone A Ka Wai by Ernest Ka’ai Polka-Mazurka by Ernest Ka’ai Arr. by Henry Kailimai Ka Wehi by Ernest Ka’ai Funiculi-Funicula by Luigi Denza Arr. by N. B. Bailey Hene by Henry Kailimai Ahi Wela by Arr. by Keoki E. Awai Spanish Fandango by Henry Worrall Arr. by N. B. Bailey The Blue Bells Of Scotland by Arr. by T. H. Rollinson Leilani by Ernest Ka’ai Banjo Schottische by Ernest K. Ka’ai Lauia by Henry Kailimai Arr. by Ernest Ka’ai Wailana by Malie Kaleikoa Arr. by Keoki E. Awai
The Good Stuff
Lovely Tunes: For the most part, the pieces are beautiful, lilting Hawaiian tunes. They’re pleasurable to play and repay attention to dynamics and touch – something that I’m definitely guilty of neglecting.
Strummed and Picked: There are quite a few strummed tunes in the book. And the strummed arrangements are just as much of a challenge as the picked tunes. They involve a whole load of tricky techniques which are explained in the introduction.
Range of Difficulty: While it’s not for beginners, there’s a good mix of difficultly in the tabs. Some, like Hene, you can have a reasonable stab at playing on sight. Others are very challenging.
Introduction: John King is probably the best writer on the history of the ukulele there’s ever been. The lack of his writing in Classical Ukulele is one of my few complaints I have about it. It’s not a complaint that could be made about this book. There’s a big chunk of ukulele history and ukulele tab history (a delight for me, but I’m the world’s biggest uke tab nerd) at the beginning and it’s a great read.
The Not So Good Stuff
Famous?: Despite spending a lot of time playing tunes from the book, there is a noticeable lack of people saying, “Hey, was that Hone A Ka Wai you were playing just then?” I must admit that before getting the book you could count the number of tunes in the book I could confidently hum on the fingers of one finger.
Duets: It’s a little light on the duets, if that’s what you’re looking for. As it happens, there are more duets in the Classical Ukulele book. Luckily, I have no friends anyway.
Tuning: The notation is for a C-tuned ukulele, yet the ukuleles on the recording switch between D-tuning and D#-tuning.
No Campanella – The arrangements are excellent. They sound great and are very playable. But the don’t have the distinctive harp-like sound of the arrangements in Classical Ukulele.
Overall
It’s probably not fair of me to keep comparing this to Classical Ukulele. I regard those arrangements as a work of genius.
This book is really a tribute to the original ukulele arrangers – Ernest Ka’ai in particular – and it has given me a whole new appreciation for those musicians who took the instrument and created new techniques and a new repertoire for it. Playing the pieces the way they played them gives me a more direct connection with its history than any amount of reading. Well worth the price of admission.
If you’ve got the book, let me know what you think in the comments.
As well as being seven shades of adorable, U900 have excellent taste in covers. So I’ll be putting up tabs based on their two tunes along with my own arrangement of a Ventures tune.
It’s not often I say this, but you can use a pick on this one. The first part in particular is very tricky without one. Plus it’ll help the solo uke stand out against the chords.
