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Auntie Nancy
`Olu`olu
USA
593 Posts |
 Posted - 03/31/2005 : 4:57:09 PM
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Inquiring minds want to know!! How goes it at the big university for the cute little ukulele and kumu and students???
n
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nancy cook |
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marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 04/03/2005 : 8:05:13 PM
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hi nancy!
what a time coming back from new zealand: a whomping case of the flu at the same time my classes starting...
anyway! the first meeting of the ukulele class took place last thursday. i got fleas for them from the blue guitar at a good price (i'll sell the students the flea for an even better price if they wish). i got 18 students in my class, which is way too many (i was aiming for 12) and had to turn away a dozen or so.
most students in the class have a little musical background, and a few play the guitar while another set have never done anything musical. i went over tuning, mary had a little lamb, and twinkle twinkle little star. i've been sending perky email messages to them since then, urging them to get some practice in (minimum 20 minutes a day) and to come by my office if their uke is out of tune and they can't fix that. for the most part, they seem to be having a great time. for our final class we're having us one kanikapila out on the lawn somewhere; i've asked each student to prepare a song to lead (we'll see how that goes; i've said that i'll help).
this week we'll do some review, i'll get each to play a bit individually to do some checking, and then we'll move on to surfing USA and sloop john B (key of F, Bb and Bbm, yow!)
aloha,
keith
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Auntie Nancy
`Olu`olu
USA
593 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 06:34:57 AM
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Are you feeling better yet?
Perhaps you could find a Teacher's Aide - You know, like in grammar school where moms and dads volunteer.
That had to be one whopping dance contest to miss our super kanikapila!!
Hope to see you very soon!!!
auntie |
nancy cook |
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marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 04/07/2005 : 3:39:58 PM
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here's the report after week two of my uke class.
first, i'd forgotten how quickly young'uns can learn the ukulele. when i passed out the chords to "twinkle, twinkle little star" and "mary had a little lamb", i also gave them chords with the melody notes in the chord (eg, C as 0033) just so they could start to think about melody notes. remember, these are students where most of them don't have any real musical background except perhaps clarinet when they were 8. today, i went around the room asking them to play a bit of twinkle, and almost all did it with the melody notes. they did it nicely, too.
"surfing USA" was a hit, and most knew of the song "sloop john B". Bb caused a mountain of misery, as you can expect, but by the end of the day i was hearing all four notes from most of them.
after a lot of agonizing before class, i decided to introduce the rhumba strum by just starting to play it, slowly, and saying "see if you can copy me". after a few minutes of Rhumba in F, i stopped and asked who was having trouble. five raised their hands and so i went to each and did it very slowly saying "down up, up down up down up down up, up down up down up down up, ..." three of the five got it and two were still struggling. i'll check on them later. i'm concluding, though, that for university freshmen, trying to be intuitive is a reasonable approach. i then showed them a rhumba with a roll, and i could see lots of little circuit breakers tripping in their heads, and so i'll introduce that again next week.
i then played a few cuts from iz's CD "facing future" - kuhio bay, white sandy beach, and hele on to kauai. i swear i heard a sigh ripple through the students when i put on the first cut. they all knew who he was, and i think i increased the sales count for "facing future" by ten CDs today. i did tell them what israel's name meant, but they were all looking pretty dreamy listening to the music.
next week, we'll do an instrumental version of "hawaiian war chant" in F and do "hukulau" in G. i'll introduce the hawaiian turnaround in G, and go over the roll and rhumba stroke again. for the CD selection, i'm thinking of playing "on fire" and "guava jelly" from the ka`au crater boys and george naope doing "hupe kole".
II7, V7, I
keith
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Auntie Nancy
`Olu`olu
USA
593 Posts |
Posted - 04/07/2005 : 4:36:39 PM
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Uh Oh...
You're having way too much fun for a 1-unit class. next you'll volunteer to teach Hula!! By the way - Hapakid is pretty good!
I got my bill for the remainder of Camp so it's not far off!!!
aloha ----
n |
nancy cook |
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wdf
Ha`aha`a
USA
1153 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2005 : 05:17:51 AM
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keith sez:
quote:
i did tell them what israel's name meant,
OK, I'll bite. What does it mean? |
Dusty |
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chunky monkey
Ha`aha`a
USA
1022 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2005 : 05:42:00 AM
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| Kamakawiwo`ole = Eye of the fearless? Face of the fearless? something like that I think |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2005 : 09:27:25 AM
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Yup, you got it Terry, Fearless Eye. Ka Maka = the eye, wiwo = fear, `ole = Not (contraction).
...Reid |
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marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2005 : 10:04:18 AM
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yup! i think that ka maka can also mean face, and "without fear in the face" sounds better to me for some reason,
other names: pahinui = big knife, kahumoku = third mate...
aloha,
keith
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2005 : 10:56:40 AM
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That is one of the things we love about Hawaiian: a word or phrase can have several meanings which lead to multiple poetic interpretations (as well as confusion for us malihini). Maka can mean face as well as eye (and a few other things, depending on the accents). I like eye, as I can imagine a bright, piercing, look (of course "visage" = face in English, has a relationship to eye/look, too). And Kahumoku can mean Guardian of the island, district, ship(the last only after European contact). But, it is the "owner" of the name who gets to determine what it means, not me.
...Reid |
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chunky monkey
Ha`aha`a
USA
1022 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2005 : 11:27:11 AM
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| Keith, it sounds like you've got a winner - I'm reminded of my very first guitar lesson. Keep in mind, I didn't even own a guitar (I had borrowed an acoustic), and I told the instructor that I was interested in learning to play the blues. The very first song that he had me try to learn was Eric Clapton's version of Crossroads. I still can't play it nearly 20 years later. |
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BernieB
Aloha
USA
21 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2005 : 3:42:46 PM
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| Hey Keith, My kid's uke group will be performing at the Cultural Celebration tomorrow at UCSD. We go on at 11:00 a.m. See if any of your students wanna check us out. Best, Bernie |
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marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2005 : 03:31:17 AM
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bernie! i didn't know you were here in the 'patch! long time no see!
hve fun at the cultural celebration! i'm attending an engineering reception then - i hope the cultural celebration is part of the reception.
aloha,
keith
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marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 07:07:05 AM
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hi all,
here's the report on week 3 of the great ukulele experience.
the students are doing great. almost all have the rhumba stroke, and i went around the room working on the roll; i expect a quarter of them will have it down by next week. some of the students are turning into ukulele addicts (success!!) very little singing, though - i'm not sure how to get them to start singing - any ideas?
we did "under the boardwalk" and "hukilau", both of which were great excuses to teach turnarounds. i made the mistake of not writing them down on the handout, and so i'll need to do that for the next class. at the end, i played two cuts from the ka`au crater boys: "guava jelly" and "on fire". i could hear jaws hit the table when troy started getting fancy in the second cut.
further advice request: next week i'll teach transposition. my thought was to pass out "brown eyed girl" in F (simple song), explain transposition, and then have us transpose it to G. what do you think? has anyone tried teaching transposition? i'll then teach a simple instrumental version of "hawaiian war chant".
in a few weeks i'll teach movable chords, and i have a great song for it: "sitting on the dock of the bay". the chords are C, E, F, D for "Sittin' in the morning sun, I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come". try it with the normal fingering (eg, 0003, 4442, 2010, 3330) and then with the movable run, 0003, 4447, 5558, 4447, 3336, 2225. if anyone has similar songs, please send them along...
aloha,
keith
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Mika ele
Ha`aha`a
USA
1493 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 11:16:04 AM
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Keith,
Ahhh,. . transpose F to G. lemme see  that means the IV chord which is the Bb major chord becomes a C Major? And then the vii chord Em becomes an F#m? Uncle Keith --- How Come no B Major and F Major? Now you are in a pickle.  |
E nana, e ho'olohe. E pa'a ka waha, e hana ka lima. |
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Auntie Nancy
`Olu`olu
USA
593 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 12:02:15 PM
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aloha Keith!
do you include the words with the handouts? I don't know why Keola/Mark and Ozzie don't include the words. It would sure help me learn.
Transpose F to G? no use Capo?? |
nancy cook |
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