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NANI
Lokahi
USA
292 Posts |
 Posted - 09/17/2007 : 09:40:12 AM
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Those of us who are trying to learn alone are at a real disadvantage and I would love to hear what some of the other beginners are doing.
I am using a book and CD that I picked up in Hawaii and I have never see it mentioned around the chat rooms ( or I just missed that thread) I really Like it.
Let's Kanikapila! Ten Steps To Learn Ukulele the Hawaiian Way (Hardcover)
by Michael Preston (Author) I got it for under $20.00 and on Amazon it is even less. Yes it is basic but I needed basic. But it is also reteaching me to read music and to learn where the notes are on the neck of the Ukulele. Plus the CD is very easy to follow along with. It was not right for my firt month of playing needed to really get the fingers to learn how to work together first but now I have done the lessons over and over. And since there is NO ONE around here to teach Ukulele  I have found it keeps me honest in my playing.
Anyone else ever use this book?
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"A hui hou kakou, malama pono".
Nancy |
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da_joka
Lokahi
361 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2007 : 09:52:17 AM
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Hey Nancy,
I would consider myself beginning since i neva play ukulele in long time ... I neva hea of da book you stay using. I stay using tabs i wen download from da Dominator's website fo challenge myself, Herb Ohta Jr & Daniel Ho's book (get some nice songs inside, an is perfect fo beginnahs), an Beloffs Fretboard roadmaps fo da Ukulele. Da last one get choke info on how fo learn fo pick out solos an stuff, make chords (any kine you can imagine), scales, and all dat good stuffs. I gotta review dat one choke, since I always foget stuffs, but so far, I tink dass been da best source of theory fo me.
You wen try check out youtube? tafkam1 get choke good ukulele lessons, dass so easy fo follow! I tink Wanda wen post stuff from him up on da talk story part of dis site. try check um out if you neva already. His Hawai`i Aloha is real nice, perfect fo beginning!
shootz den.
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If can, can. If no can, no can. |
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NANI
Lokahi
USA
292 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2007 : 10:03:12 AM
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You are so right he is a great teacher but I have a hard time takeing lessons from him. even an old lady like me gets distracted by da guns. :-)
No really he is wonderfull and I am learing a lot from him. almost the only one on youtube I can follow. He is a really nice guy too has written back when I wrote and said how much I enjoyed the lesson.
At this point I really do not understand TAB. I have tried it a couple of times but it makes no sence to this befuddled brian of mine. I am sure it will click one of these days but till then I guess I will have to stick with chords. Maybe when I get to AMC in Feb somebode can explaine it to me so that I can understand. right now I am just happy when my Bb sounds clean and clear. :-)
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"A hui hou kakou, malama pono".
Nancy |
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da_joka
Lokahi
361 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2007 : 10:07:50 AM
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Hey Nancy,
I would recommend Ohta Jr's book to you ... da songs are simple enough so dat you should be able to pick out Hi`ilawe, Hawaii Aloha, and about 10 odda songs, den as you learn mo stuffs, you can add in all da extras. Herb Jr. said dea nex book goin come out next month some time. I'm excited about dat. It took me little while fo learn da tabs too ... no worry ... btw ... nice uke :-) |
If can, can. If no can, no can. |
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Mika ele
Ha`aha`a
USA
1493 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2007 : 2:13:23 PM
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Nancy,
Keep in mind that it's noat all that hard, it just takes a while to get used to the instrument and understand how the terminology and notation used relates to how to move your fingers to produce music. It really is best shown and copied -- an active participation that is very diffucult to describe in words and pictures when you can only estimate how the average student will respond to what you have written.
Peter Medeiros tells me he monitors taropatch.net to get a sense of how his potential students think and how best to write books to teach Hawaiian music. DVDs, Videos, and YouTube might work for some people and not for others. I find some workshops ineffective because the leader has to adress the teaching to the majority of participants to get a good critique. There are always the minority that just don't get it.
I am sure there is someone in Delaware that already knows how to play some ukulele and can teach you, one-on-one.
I also know, based on my weekly exposure to a very large ukulele group, that I can take 10 minutes to show two people with almost no ukulele experience, how to play 85% of the songs we will sings and strum that night. One of them will get it the first time and smile --jamming away. The other person will need another 5 minutes for me to explain and demonstrate the same concepts in a different way before they smile and are jamming with the group.
The majority of the 200+ songs in the Moonlight Beach Ukulele Strummers book are written in the key of F Major (because it is an easy key for Frank, the group leader, to sing). If you learn the three prominent chords used in the key of F Major (in the first chord position) you can jam with the group. All you have to do with your right hand is strum to the beat (any ole dang way you feel like it -- you be jammin). The three chords to learn are F, Bb, and C7. To begin and end the song we use a Hawaiian vamp (or turnaround). To play that you need to know the G7 chord. Once I explain and demonstrate that -- I walk away and let them have a good time. They keep coming back and keep smiling. |
E nana, e ho'olohe. E pa'a ka waha, e hana ka lima. |
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Mika ele
Ha`aha`a
USA
1493 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2007 : 2:17:51 PM
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Nancy,
Don't worry about TAB until you feel comfortable strumming and singing with the ukulele in your hands. Consider it the next step after you master having fun to having even more fun and impressing the animals around you. . . . -btw- My dog comes in the music room and sleeps when I play slack key. He wakes up when I stop.
I used to think he woke up because he liked my playing. Now I just recognize that he thinks I might actually feed him when I stop playing. chuckle chuckle. |
E nana, e ho'olohe. E pa'a ka waha, e hana ka lima. |
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NANI
Lokahi
USA
292 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2007 : 2:46:02 PM
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Yea I know what you mean my Jack Russel Jumps up the min. I stop playing too you never know when a treat might be comming your way and you gotta be ready is her way of looking at it.
I am doing pretty good at the strumming and jammin thing and you are right about the smiles that are ear to ear when things are goin right. I love the songs from Moonlight Beach they are great and most of them are so playable and familar.
I did have someone to learn from for a while but she went back to Hawaii for the winter now so I will just wing it now until I get to go over to The Big Island for 7 weeks this winter. I can not wait! I think I will just stop worring about the TABs for now. Thanks for all the advise. I am really looking forward to learning alot at Aloha Music Camp in FEB! |
"A hui hou kakou, malama pono".
Nancy |
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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2007 : 2:52:36 PM
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As an "Absolute" beginner a year ago, I started out strumming chords from the "Fleabag", a collection of old time songs from the Ukulele Hall of Fame web site. It's a fantastic way to start. There are MP3's there of each song. The "Fleabag" is in PDF format. There are both musical notes and chords. No tabs, so it forces you to read the music or memorize the chord positions, which are on each page. I highly recommend it to beginners before they start spending money on books, to find out if they will stick with it long enough to get through one song. (Then I highly recommend a trip to "alligatorboogaloo.com", aka, "ukuleleboogaloo.com" for some popular tabs, or www.chordie.com, if you want something even more current.)
I didn't know anyone played the ukulele in a fingerstyle manner seriously when I started. I figured there might be a few odd persons doing that, and planned to become one of them, rather than succumb to guitar transition syndrome after learning a few chords, or relegating my ukulele to the closet having learned my three chords (see below).
I acquired "101 Three Chord Songs for Guitar, Banjo, and Ukulele" from Mel Bay. That's where I thought I'd be with regard to playing a stringed instrument, because I don't have the fingers of a musician or the childhood roots in musical training that provide a solid musical foundation. Its not a bad book, but its the same three chords in every song, so I played through it fairly quickly. It was nice to have when I first finished building the "birdhouse" ukulele, and didn't want to have an instrument that I couldn't play, because, unfortunately, some relatives had noticed that I was building an ukulele, and next to not having a playable instrument, having an instrument I'd built but couldn't play would have been one and two on the list of worst possible outcomes of that little endeavor.
I acquired "Ukulele Party", which came with a CD. It might be nice if you're under the age of ten. Short songs, half a page each.
That's when I discovered "Ukulele Method Book I" from Hal Leonard while I was picking up a piano sheet music book at a music store. "Ukulele Method Book I" taught me to play the scale on a ukulele. (It's written by Lil' Rev, whose a well known ukulele performer favoring a tin pan alley repertoire, and was only $5.95.) I had already taken up the tin whistle to try to improve my note reading and comprehension of musical notation for the piano, which has always been a major weakness of mine. I planned to use the basic fingerstyle method to play the tin whistle music on a ukulele. (It's not that easy if you don't know how to use the lower part of the ukulele fingerboard to avoid major motions of your hand given that Irish traditional music likes major upward and downward transitions.) You can find Irish Traditional sheet music in musical notation at www.whistlethis.com. (You can get a tin whistle (Meg) for about $5.00 through the Clarke Tin Whistle Company. My long winded discussion of my own experiences and perspectives as a tin whistle beginner, including why I like the Meg whistle compared to another popular, beginner instrument of a different design are here: http://whistlenow.freeprohost.com.)
About that time I discovered this site. I had some peripheral interest in slack key music, which I'd always admired but considered to be too complicated to attempt, and wondered, now that I had a ukulele, if those with real knowledge of slack key could tell me if I could play in the slack key style on a ukulele. I got a mixed response, then "Uncle Dave" posted his version of "Opihi Moemoe" on YouTube, and I was immediately enthralled and determined to come up with a basic version I could play fingerstyle. It took the better part of three weeks to get there. That's when I started writing music for the ukulele, trying to get to the point where I could produce slack key music on the ukulele, not necessarily identical to Uncle Dave's, but also not just country music with a repeating bass line and some Hawaiian ornamentation, which was easier. (Slack key music is challenging on a ukulele in GCEA tuning, because the ukulele doesn't have the sustain inherent in a basic, unamplified instrument that the guitar possesses, so you either play faster, or try to slacken the strings enough to extend tonal duration. That's where a low G string recently helped out immensely.)
Some people here explained the meaning of "hammer on", "pull-off", and harmonics to me, so I worked on those skills, and wrote some pieces to incorporate them to use as practice.
Mark Nelson is a consummate musician, on the level of Daniel Ho in terms of his grasp of the subject (from my superficial perspective). (He posted an answer to my chord questions.) He's written a book published by Mel Bay, "Learn To Play Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele". Its a progressive book meant to take beginners from starting out through intermediate playing. It includes tabs with some meant for GCEA tuning and others for low G tuning. (If they're written for low G, they should also work for baritone ukuleles, given that the intervals between the strings in both tunings are identical.) I'm waiting for a copy from the library. I plan to buy it as soon as "Uncle Dave's" slack key book is also available from Barnes and Noble, to save on shipping.
I have "Discovering the Ukulele" by Herb Ohta, Jr. and Daniel Ho. Herb Ohta, Jr. is at the top of my list of favorite ukulele performers, with Lil' Rev second. Daniel Ho is an outstanding musician, for whom I have great admiration, as is true of Mark Nelson (co-author of a slack key guitar tutorial bearing Keola Beamer's smiling face). Mr. Ho has also won a Grammy for his slack key guitar work. Both Ohta, Jr. and Ho have studied slack key music, and developed works for ukulele that are either slack key or that employ slack key style's of ornamentation (which aren't in "Discovering the Ukulele"). I love the tabs in the back of "Discovering the Ukulele". It emphasizes learning scales, as you'd expect from a book in which Mr. Ho is a co-author, but the segment on chords is at a level that is a bit superficial. The nomenclature is there, but there's no explanation of what it is based on. I get as much from a basic chord chart.
I've played everything in the back of "Discovering the Ukulele" with minimal need to alter the fingering (except on one or two "pinkie" chords that I had to turn into three-fingered chords with a bar on the G and C strings). (The music is very, very nice, and I hope to master it all.) At first I didn't get the fingerstyle version of "Hilo March", and didn't play it for that reason. I tried the chord version today, and it is much better, given the percussive qualities associated with strumming the ukulele, which add significantly to this work as a march. The other fourteen works are outstanding and easy enough to figure out, even if you do have to play through the musical notation now and then to figure out what to do with the tab versions.
I want to get a copy of "Uncle Dave's" slack key ukulele book that he just published in August (link to publisher's site here: http://www.pr.com/press-release/49854). (I regard it as a historically significant work by a person who has focused his life in music, including the ukulele and ukulele instruction, and who also holds "a degree in music". "Uncle Dave's" graceful and authentic musical style are enough to recommend his text on slack key ukulele, in addition to its unique subject matter.) I've watched his video's, and hope to learn his slack key style, as it seems "right" to me on the ukulele.
That's part of the reason I added the low G string, then had to tune my ukulele down to D-G-B-E to add balance, which also increases sustain of the non-wound strings (and thus avoids the need for an amplifier and a device in the effects loop to provide longer musical tones with an ukulele). I plan to use this low G string set with lowered tuning in the course of what I hope will become a long term encounter with slack key music performed on the ukulele, a genre, which, when combined with the ukulele, is one which I've come to dearly love due to its simplicity and musical qualities. (I love to listen to Hawaiian, slack key guitar as well. I'm not so fond of the mainland, country version of it, but for me, its easier to write, or, perhaps, just more culturally in-grained. I hope someday to write a slack key work that sounds authentically Hawaiian.)
There are no ukulele instructors where I live, and I don't want to pay a guitar instructor to treat my ukulele with disdain while recommending the guitar as the ultimate. This site has become my source of musical instruction. I've learned to question the value of weekly lessons if, as an adult, your schedule will interfere with practice, which is, in my opinion, the cornerstone to developing any facility with a musical instrument.
Finally, I may have had a slight advantage over some beginners, because I learned a few things about ukuleles building one. The first was that the nut can be a focul point for problems with a ukulele. If the slots aren't right, the strings can buzz when plucked when properly tuned without fretting. If the slots aren't deep enough, the instrument can be difficult to play near the nut, making changing finger positions time consuming. If the strings "buzz" when you pluck if you fret, you may have a high spot on a lower fret which is making contact with the string when it shouldn't. You should consider having your ukulele's action adjusted by a professional. You should also play up the scale on each string at each fret starting with an open string pluck and identify any problem frets associated with buzzing (including the open position), because this may also require work or justify returning the instrument for a replacement.
P.S. You should contact your local library to see if they have music books available for the ukulele or a specific title. You may be able to place an interlibrary loan request if the local collection of ukulele music books is wanting, or recommend an addition to the collection if its not available via interlibrary loan (how I got to look at "Discovering the Ukulele"). That way you can see a book before you buy it, but this can take some time (weeks or months) if you pursue an interlibrary loan.
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Thank you. |
Edited by - Absolute on 09/18/2007 05:56:25 AM |
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PuaLynn
Lokahi
USA
120 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2007 : 7:53:07 PM
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| Another quick suggestion .. developing your ear so you can tell when it's time to change chords and have some idea which chord to go to next is really important. Playing along with a CD and working out the chords on your own helps with that and will help you build confidence. In my humble opinion, people obsess too much on tabs (someone telling them the chords) on not enough on their own ear. So much of music is about really listening, as is most of life. |
Me ke aloha,
Lynn |
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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2007 : 8:14:23 PM
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The chords in "Discovering the Ukulele" are simple and very well chosen. Playing "by ear" intimidates a lot of people, who don't realize how much time people who "play be ear" spend figuring out how to play a piece before they stand before the crowd of onlookers without sheet music and play it, while their buddy whispers: "He (or She) plays by ear," to someone in the crowd. (Although there are those who can play anything you can whistle for them!)
You can come up with a lot of music using fairly simple chords, but there are times when one has that nagging question in one's mind with regard to whether a specific chord is appropriate. To answer that, I can't help but think a good knowledge of keys and the chords composed of notes drawn from those keys would help. Unfortunately, I don't know of any internet resources that group chords based upon the keys to which they belong. |
Thank you. |
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NANI
Lokahi
USA
292 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 02:01:23 AM
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| WOW thanks now off to practice practice practice. |
"A hui hou kakou, malama pono".
Nancy |
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sm80808
Lokahi
347 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 04:33:24 AM
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I can suggest playing with other musicians as much as possible.
You can learn a lot about music in general by playing with others a lot. |
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cpatch
Ahonui
USA
2187 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 05:32:14 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Absolute
I want to get a copy of "Uncle Dave's" slack key ukulele book that he just published in August (link to publisher's site here: http://www.pr.com/press-release/49854).
Anyone know what happened to this book? Other than the press release there doesn't seem to be any other reference to it anywhere on the publisher's site. |
Craig
My goal is to be able to play as well as people think I can. |
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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 05:39:24 AM
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| You can purchase a copy right now through Amazon.com. I'm waiting for BN.com to get it - gift certificate, don't you know. (Want to group all items under one shipment, so I either get free shipping or one minimum charge for all shipping.) I contacted the publisher. They claim some sort of change caused a delay in the computer feed to update BN.com's database, but that it should be on BN.com soon. |
Thank you. |
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MahinaM
Lokahi
USA
389 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 06:35:15 AM
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| Craig: I just received mine the other day and ordered it through Amazon a few weeks ago. It took a little while to get here, but I finally got a copy. I haven't had time to go through it thoroughly yet, but will do so shortly. As I was skimming through the book, there were references to some URL's and Youtube stuff, so I'm thinking there are video clips to play along with the lessons too. - M |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 07:27:50 AM
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I have had Uncle Dave's book for a few weeks now and think it is pretty clever, didactically. I won't do a review here because I haven't tried everything in it yet. He repeats "chunks" of songs in other songs, so you get to practice, unconsciously, important patterns. His different tunings for `uke are interesting, too, and all are analogs of slack key guitar tunings. Anyone who has played slack key guitar will have no problems with learning the pieces: fingering is mostly the same. His reliance on YouTube as a learning adjunct (rather than a CD or DVD) is interesting, too. I wonder how that will work out for 2 reasons: his left and right hands work differently than a lot of other people's, and the Web is a rather evanescent place; YouTube has big backing, but I wonder what the mean lifetime of a page is there. Anyway, I am having lots of fun with it, especially since I have to use my thumb on only one string (4th) with thumbpick, and then fairly rarely.
...Reid |
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