Let's do it!

There will be some folks who will be getting ukes this holiday season, so let's contact them and bring them to our January meetings to get them started.

White Christmas, with enhancements

Some of you may know of Jim D'Ville, the uke instructor who teaches "playing the uke by ear", versus using song sheets.  He gives workshops around the country and always has a crowd in his classes.  He also has a (free) blog that you might find useful.

http://playukulelebyear.blogspot.com/

One of the recent entries in his blog is on White Christmas.  Find it by scrolling down a few entries.  His version of the song starts with a simple, but acceptable, three chord arrangement in the key of C, i.e.,  C, F, and G7 then adds Dm to spice it up a bit, then in version #3 adds two more, C7 and Fm for a very nice arrangement and finally for #4, adds B, F#7 and Gdim.

 F#7 is the only one that you might have trouble fingering -- I expect you will find the others are easy and familiar.  And if that is a bit too much, you can simply delete that chord (in two places) and use the G7 as shown in version #3.

The notations are using the Circle of Fifths system, so if you want to do it in, say the key of F, you can substitute F for I, Bb for IV and so forth.  But in this blog, he shows the chord fingerings in the familiar key of C

Check it out and let's see if we can see how this goes on Dec. 13.


Ralph

Beginner videos

We all learn in different ways, and for many, it is instructional videos.  The musician in the video will have his or her individual style and assumption on how fast you can pick up his/her tips.  Personally I find that many generally go a bit too fast for me, but this is a personal opinion.

Jeff Burton has started to make several beginner videos for the real beginner and if you are in that group, you might find his style is slow and easy to comprehend.

Here is his link.  He has 5 beginner videos out at this time.  If you are starting out, you might like his style.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC8A8A4D91F4D40A4

Check out this short animation

http://goanimate.com/movie/0T7cQeztugz8/1

Ukulee videos

If you are into watching videos that include some (or all) ukulele playing, you might want to bookmark this page:
http://ukulelehunt.com/about-the-ukulele/ukulele-videos/

The organizer of this web page has a lot of material -- songs and tabs, reviews, lessons -- and one link is to the ukulele related videos.  There is a selection of "best of the year", "most popular" and the ones he has seen in the last week or so.

So if you want to spend some time this way, here is your link.  And check out the rest of his web page too.

For Kala Fans

I know that some of you have Kala ukuleles and they have developed a large following, not only with normal folks like us, but with the higher ranks of the music world.  There is a promotional video that you may not have seen.  Here is the link to their web page -- then click on the Kala Compilation video on the right hand of the page.
http://www.youtube.com/user/kalabrandmusic#p/u/1/ANZ8D-D70VE
Catch the last clip with the Jive Aces using the very economical Dolphin uke -- shows what can be done.

Ralph

Humidifier

Well, my home furnace is now operating and the house remains a pleasant temperature, but accordingly, the humidity in the house goes down,  I do not have a whole house humidifier and while I do put out a good room humidifier, still the house humidity can be as low as 25% on occasion.

I have a couple ukes that are not sensitive to this, like my Flea with it's plastic body and laminated top, I do have some that are solid wood.   Back a couple years ago, I had two Pono tenors crack, and I believe that one was not my fault and the other might be a result of low humidity in the house (but Pono, to their credit toward good will, did replace both).  So I do know that some ukes can develop cracks in the face and/or back.

So today, in the winter, I keep my solid wood ukes in cases, and I put humidifier gadgets in them.  There are several commercial items available, but you can make one that is great.  The photo shows my version, in this case with some expanded crystals poking out the top.

It is a small pill bottle, with a lot of 1/16" holes drilled in the barrel, and then a 1/4 teaspoon of Schultz Moisture Plus Watering Crystals inside.   (Dorothy uses this product in some plant soils for selected indoor plants.)  When immersed in water, the crystals rapidly expand with water, and then they very slowly release the water to the atmosphere.  In my uke cases, one of these tubes keeps my humidity at good level for several weeks.

So if you have an upscale uke -- one made with solid wood -- best be careful and use a humidifier. (Laminated body ukes are not likely to crack but humidification is always a Plus.)

I'll make one of these for you if you need one.

Ralph