Songwriting Challenge #32

Guidelines:
Key of F
Use a 7th Chord (Major, minor, Dominant, any)
Unity

Bonuses:
Doo Wop
Marley Style

Due Date: April 1st

Pokemon – Route 1

• This reply was modified 3 months, 3 weeks ago by kahai.

Hey Jwieties,

those are some great points! If you haven’t seen it already, we answered Simon in this podcast:

No Right or Wrong, Just Possibilities | The Ukulele Underground Podcast #37

we pretty much echo your answer though. Whenever someone ask us about alternatives to holding chords, we tell them, that as long as they aren’t hurting themselves, it’s ok, but they should still try to hold it the “conventional” way. There’s usually a reason why a chord is taught to be hold in a standard way, and you never know when a song might need you to hold it like that in particular. I’m glad that even though this is old, you added your own insight.

Aloha,
Kahai

Hey Guys,

we’re bringing back the Secret Santa Song Challenge. I know it’s not even November, but it’s always crazy for us towards the end of the year, so I figured we could get a head start. If you want one of us (or even another UU+ member) to write you a song. Leave Song Prompts below. You can leave anything, but we’re asking for everyone to leave a few prompts each (ie, chords, key, genre, time signature, groove, topic). You don’t have to make too much, but if you give us some “options” for prompts, it will make it easier to write you a song. When we get enough prompts, we’ll throw them in to a hat, and pull one out for each of us. Maybe next week, we’ll thrown in some of our own prompts, so you guys can write songs for us. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve done this, so if you want to see our songs from the last time, check out this Live Lesson:

TLL Podcast #88 – Who’s Your UU Santa?

We look forward to hearing from you guys. You can give us easy prompts, or really challenge us (please don’t go too crazy).

Hey Bavoso,

your request did go through. You should have been sent an automatic email confirmation from wordpress. You might want to check your junk, spam or promotions folders in your email. Because it’s an automated email, sometimes it gets sorted in to the folders. You should also receive an email reminder on the day of your Lesson. If you want to check the date and time of your appointment, you can always message us by clicking on the green message icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen

or you can email us at Questions@ukuleleunderground.com.

Aloha,
-Kahai (UU Staff)

Hey Guys,

we figured out why the old room wasn’t working and switched it back. You should still check your emails for the link just to be sure. Sorry for any confusion.

Aloha,
-Kahai (UU Staff)

Pretty Cool Renee!

Hey Taro,

great answer! To add on, if you google metronome, google has one built in to the search:
Google Metronome

It seems to be relatively accurate. When I need to figure out the BPM of a song, I use this metronome:
https://www.justinguitar.com/tap-tempo-bpm-tool

Of course, like Taro said, there are free apps that should work just as well. Good luck James!

Aloha,
-Kahai

Hey Skip,

I’m so excited for this question! I feel like this is an OG Thursday Live Lesson (what the podcast was called before) question that we haven’t had in a while. I’ll try to make sure we answer this question on this week’s podcast, but if you can’t wait till Thursday here is a podcast where we explain the pros and cons of different kinds of straps and straps in general:

TLL Podcast #21 – The Book of Jake

I think another reason I got excited is because I’ve thought about using this exact question (To Strap or Not to Strap) as a title of a podcast. I ended up going with this:

TLL Podcast #107 – Do Straps Make the Player?

but it instantly brought up memories of these particular podcast. I hope our answers on this week’s podcast are helpful.

Aloha,
-Kahai

Songwriting Challenge #30

Guideline:
Write an Intro Theme Song

Bonuses (Optional Prompts):
90’s TV Show Intro
Key of D

Chord Prompts:
I V vi IV
D A Bm G

I V
D A

UU Team Deadline: September 16
Members Deadline: September 23

• This reply was modified 8 months, 3 weeks ago by kahai.
• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by kahai.

Hey Guys,

we’re going to have Mike back on the podcast next week, August 5th. I’m reviving this thread in case anyone wants to leave questions for Mike. Mike can handle them all, but if you have any questions theory or jazz related, he is the go to guy. Feel free to leave questions even if you can’t watch the Podcast Live. We’ll try to ask all the questions, and you can see Mike’s response in the replay. Hope to see you guys next Thursday:

Live Classroom

Aloha,
-Kahai

P.S. You can also join our Discord Server and leave a question there or ask Mike Live on Thursday:
https://discord.gg/zEfEEFDErP

Songwriting Challenge #29

Guideline:
Write about Food

Bonuses:
Make a “Happy” minor Song, or a “Sad” Major Song
Key of F

Chord Prompt Suggestions:
I IV V
F Bb C (Key of F)
Dm Gm Am (Key of Dm)
Fm Bbm Cm (Key of Fm)

Soft Deadline:
July 15th

• This reply was modified 10 months, 4 weeks ago by kahai.

Zelda:

Hey Breview,

sorry we didn’t review your video this week and we didn’t answer your question about Jazz comping. I think we should be able to answer your question next week (unless we get more surprise guest). We actually want to save your Jazz comping for Mike. He’s the one to ask questions about Jazz. I don’t think it will be next week, but we’re hoping to have him on again pretty soon. I hope that’s ok. You’re Beautiful Kauai sounds great, and I’m sure we’ll have some suggestions and tips.

Aloha,
-Kahai

Hey Joko,

you might want to be careful what tabs you look at. I think I found the same tab as you, and it doesn’t seem like the person understands music very well. What they’re trying to describe is a chord inversion (octaves are used more to describe a note’s or chord’s relationship to another note or chord rather than the chord itself). At the bottom of the tab, they even say, “This is a very difficult song for me to have discovered. If there is anything wrong, I am not surprised.” To me, it sounds more like the song’s chords mostly change from A to G not really E, A, G. I think this tab might be more accurate:
https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/the-moody-blues/legend-of-a-mind-chords-1048671

For the Asus2, you could play it on uke, but to me it sounds better if you play an Aadd9 instead:
A-2
E-0
C-1
G-2

The Add9 feels more well defined. The sus2 sounds too similar to the AMajor to me. You can use the chord inversions for these chords too, but I think the regular A and G chords sound great as is. You gotta remember that for people figuring out songs on Guitar, their higher inversions are actually the normal open or low fret chords on the ukulele. If you change the chords to inversions on the uke, it’s probably even higher than the original is playing. For this song, it might work cause it sounds like they recorded using a 12 string guitar, but it doesn’t seem necessary.

I hope this helps. I could be wrong about the chords. I’m just using my own hearing and comparing what the tab says and what I can hear in the song. Be careful about what you learn from Tabs. Sites like Ultimate Guitar aren’t vetted well, so a lot of times Tabs will be incorrect or incomplete. That’s where you have to use your ear to try and really distinguish what is being played.

Aloha,
-Kahai