"Cheater" music theory

Rex sends along this link for a short overview of music theory, produced by a Seattle based uke performer. Howlin' Hobbit.

Good stuff, here

.http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1125378/ukulele%20docs/cheater_theory_v2.pdf

Meeting Notes for April 10th

Well, we certainly had a nice evening last night. It was good to see Jeff and Blayne as well as some of our local regulars. And it was very pleasant to greet a newcomer, Cinde Berkowitz, who not only has a nice Fender uke, but is also an accomplished musician with other instruments. She regularly meets with Mary at their family jams too. Another club asset.

We played a couple songs pretty tightly, probably because they were familiar to us. “Shady Grove” was particularly tight as was a new number to us suggested by Jeff, the Beetles tune “Your Sixteen”. We played a couple other Beetles numbers, but only one Hawaiian number “One Paddle, Two Paddle”.

We continue to think about getting a core group of songs that we really play well. Mr. Sandman, Shady Grove and Your Sixteen certainly seem to have appeal, but if you want some other, let's work on them.

I hope to see everyone on the 24^th.

Circle of Fifths

Rex recommended this short instruction on the Circle of Fifths and song construction.

Here is the link.  It comes from a San Diego club.

http://files.meetup.com/1618566/HappyStrummers-Circle_of_Fifths_handout.pdf

Uncle Rod's Boot Camp

Here is a link to a somewhat different approach to learning to play the uke.  This Hawaiian wants you to learn to do all the open string positions first, in all the keys that fit the ukulele.  He recommends that you play each worksheet, slowly at first, building up speed as your muscle memory comes into play.  First with 4 beats per chord, then three, then two then one, as skills improve.

Mary has been using these sheets, along with a metronome, for some time and recommends them.

Now this won't give you anything on movable chords or using all the fretboard, but it is a great start.

http://files.meetup.com/2287271/ukulele%20boot%20camp%20rev%5B2%5D.pdf

Rex is featured on our YouTube link

You can catch the latest videos by Rex in the YouTube link  on the right hand side of the page.

A little bit of fluff for the Easter Day

Enyoy, and share with your family.

Another MP3 site

I found this link via the UU forum and you might find it useful.

http://www.4shared.com/dir/gp-s7YJU/MP3s.html

There are a couple hundred songs, in MP3 format, at this link.  For those I checked, all were being played using a ukulele by a single person, so this is what you might sound like playing by yourself at  home.  It can be used for study too.

I did not try and download the songs to my computer but there is a link that suggests it can be done.  I just listened to a few to check out the site.

It is a little bit of a hassle to get the song playing.  Once you click on the triangle "go" button, an ad comes up.  It takes a keen eye to find the small X in the upper right hand corner to close the ad.

Otherwise, this can be a source for a wide variety of songs.

Let me know how you like it.

April 10th is coming up soon

Tuesday will be here before we know it, so if you are able, please try and come up with a couple two or three chord songs that we might select on which to polish our skills.  I know Rex is planning on "Shady Grove" and I have several picked up, including "The MTA" song popularized by the Kingston Trio.

Hope you can make it.

Usual time, usual place.