Doing betting on 1st 8 bars of my Life today.

Participated in Uke 102 Week 3
Participated in Live Coaching – Worked on intermediate dexterity chord progressions given to me by Aldrine:
– Pattern 1 in 4/4: A,D,E,Bm,D,A
– Pattern 2 in 3/4: F,Bb,Eb,Gm,F
Worked a bit on In My Life

Chord Dexterity Patterns
Learning “Seven Nation Army” by White Stripes – Chord Deterity
Worked more on “In My Life” Getting faster on 1st 8 bars of picking

Playing nothing but Tom Petty tunes today. Hoping the reports that he hasn’t died are true and that he recovers.
God bless and watch over Tom.

Finding it hard to practice “properly” on the road. 🙁

Got back to the hotel room after a hard day of work. Went to dinner. When I got back I picked up my baby; because, a baby can’t be ignored. I carried my uke around in the hotel room as if it were a baby. Eventually, the baby required that I play it.

Maybe this is what practice looks like on the road for a road warrior.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by cwaggon.

What?! I don’t log for 3 days and I’m the most recent log. 🙁

Anyway . . . Working on “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes. Something fun and challenging on the Ukulele. Thinking about trying a slide. 😉
This song has me working hard on a clean Bb and a barred C in 2nd position with the slide. I’ve been trying to increase my speed between Bb, D7 an barred C in second position so that I can play “They’re Red Hot” by Robert Johnson, which I can’t do fast enough yet to do it properly. “Seven Nation Army” seems to be a stepping song to “they’re Red Hot” plus it makes me giggle to hear such a monster Rock anthem played on the Uke.

Picking a melody with mixed chords is coming slowly for me; however, I continue to get minutely better on the first 8 bars of “In My Life” by the Beatles.

No serious practice today. I did mess around with my uke for about 3 hours looking at other songs and applying learned techniques.

1/2 hour on “In My Life”
1/2 hour on “Seven Nation Army” – Can’t seem to find the sound I want on this song.

Its been awhile since I’ve posted. I’m currently in the middle of doing a lot of travel.

While I’ve been playing my Uke (traveling with me) practice has not been technical. I continue to work on “In My Life” but not proficient enough yet to play in front of others.

I attended the West Sound Ukulele Festival this weekend. While I learned a lot from Neil Chin, Del Ray, and Victoria Vox I was surprised to discover that my ability and technique were advanced compared to the approximately 100 who attended. When asked I attributed my learning to UU. 😉

At one point I picked up an electric ukulele in the vendor showcase and busted out a bunch of rock licks. Victoria Vox was standing next to me at the time and gave me a few hip bumps to the demo. The vendor then asked me if I was an instructor. On a scale of 1-10 with Neil Chin being a 9+ I put myself on maybe a 0.5; however, it felt nice when the vendor asked.

Neil Chin is a great teacher and I love the way he incorporated fun into his lessons. Del Ray dropped a new style of finger picking on me and a thing called dead thumb which is how the Mississippi delta blues guitarist do it to get that bouncing blues beat. Victoria Vox had a great way of explaining the fret board and the composition of chords. I attended her fretboard class twice because it was too rich to take it all in in one hearing.

I’m off to Ireland.

Watched 1st two lessons of Intermediate Ukulele Blues. Have also pulled out my Ukulele Blues, icks, trick, and More! book by Kevin Rones. Blues makes playing aroun with scales fun. So that’s been my practice today.

I played 3 nights in the pub of our Irish Hotel. There were no other musicians in that pub as its about 20 kilometers from Dublin in City West. The City West hotel was mostly filled with conventioneers like myself who were there for the Scrum Alliance gathering. The first night I played most of the songs in the spiral notebook I took. There was not much need to sing as the 30-50 in attendance in the pub sang along to most of the irish and british tunes I took in my notebook . Amazingly, they had no clue who Jimmy Buffet was so I had to do Margrittaville by myself. By the end they were all singing the chorus. I played for three hours the first evening. When I was done there were a half dozen pints lined up on my table. I asked who those were for and I was told they were mine. I drank one and left the other 5.

One the second and third evenings there were those who figured out how to look up ukulele tabs and chords. They would set their laptop in front of me with the chords, sing a verse or two, I’d figure out the key (most irish songs are 3 chords) and then we’d give it a go with me playing and them singing. Of course the whole bar sang along as they do in most European countries.

What a hoot it was!

So Ryan if you’re reading this. First goal accomplished. I’ve played a live gig. 😉

Fascinated by traditional Irish music played on the Ukulele since returning from Ireland last Friday. The instrument is absent on the Irish music scene.

I’ve picked up a few tunes that sound good on the Uke including the popular “The Galway Girl” by Steve Earl. Interesting that rhythm on this song is often played on a mandolin with a hammer effect on the opening D chord. I’ve been able to replicate the sound with a multi-string 2 finger D chord moving from a F#M chord. The song played in the original key of D requires intermediate dexterity going from D to G to Bm to A to D very quickly. Playing it in the key of D allows for the hammer rhythm I’ve duplicated on the Uke from the Mandolin. The song is much easier to play in the Key of C and can duplicate the key of D with a capo on the second fret; however, the hammer rhythm is not achievable for me yet in the key of C.

The bridge isn’t blues but the irish jig of the bridge is the same type of scales just a different rhythm. If it weren’t for Uke 102 lessons I don’t think I would have recognized this. The recognition gives me the confidence to approach something that is completely different yet the same.

Back from traveling. Not logging as much as I did before. The content your sight has taught me is so rich that I can’t keep up. I’ve been enjoying practicing the content and having fun with applying it. What I guess I’m saying is I know you’re there for me for just in time learning whenever I try something new.

I’m still struggling with Reggae and pinky mute. I may check in for some mechanics on the technique.

Forget E and Bb. A switch to Bm from anywhere and everywhere is difficult and fun. I’m enjoying songs with this switch.

Try Annies Song: https://ukulelewednesdays.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/ukulele-wednesdays-songbook-v3.pdf page 17.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by cwaggon.

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