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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
 Posted - 08/27/2002 : 10:51:24 PM
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Aloha all,
My wife and I had a great time in NYC this past Saturday. Although I drove to the wrong place first, we finally made it to the Alvin Ailey Dance Studio where I attended Herb Ohta's `uke workshop. George Kahumoku had a talk story session and Keoki taught slack key guitar concurrently.
Herb is a great teacher and quickly proved to be both a great teacher and performer. He specifically tries not to run through songs (e.g. this song is this chord, this chord and this chord) but alternatively encourages you to find chords. This is the way he was taught. We whizzed through some basic music theory which even at a rudimentary level flew over my head.
Another cool concept that Herb discussed and demonstrated was his percussive approach to playing the `uke. He told us that when he thinks of an arrangement in his head, he hears drums. He showed us how he plays chops (muted strums) as the snare drum equivalent. It was very cool. These types of techniques he usually appies to faster tempo songs. For the slower songs where adding percussive effects is not appropriate, he went through a series of different arpeggio picking patterns. Also, very helpful.
We closed out the two hour session with some discussion regarding how to kanikapila. Herb has a very solid foundation in music theory. He can read and write music, and he explained that using his knowledge of chords and scales, his objective is to express feeling and play from the heart using the tools that he has. I had a great time. Mahalo Herb. Thanks HCF for putting this event on. There was much more to the day, but I'm going to bed.
Aloha,
Andy
Ps. Here are some photos from that morning:
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NYC: Herb Ohta, Jr. `ukulele workshop
