Something to consider

Her is something to consider when you might be discussing the fee for a gig.  Musicians really do work pretty cheap (until they get at the top level)

Tuesday evening, Feb 26

Well, it looks like it might not be a great day, but there does not appear to be any problem with driving and traffic today or tonight, so I plan to go to the WCD for our regular Tuesday meeting.

Hope you can make it too.

Ralph

Most Used Chords

I got this from a Facebook posting.  I don't know the source of the data, but it seems that this is a reasonable distribution.  So if you are beginning to play the uke, work on those most frequently seen in songs, as shown here.  Personally, I think that the various 7th's are more frequently seen than shown in this list, but that is just my observation.  For example, I think D7 and G7 is used more than D and G.  But we need them all.

Click on the image to make it larger

Tuesday Feb 22

Bases on the weather report I saw tonight, the weather conditions for this coming Tuesday evening does not appear to be very good.

So if you are considering coming to the meeting that night, send me a response, by email, or by phone and I will put you on the "possible list".  I need your phone number to call you, so be sure you include that if you give me an email response.

That way if we want to cancel, I can give everyone a call that we are going to cancel.

Now I am not frightened by the forecast -- I, as well as most of you, have lived in places with much worse weather than we have here.  But still, there is no reason to take any unnecessary risks.

Don't bother to tell me you are not planning to attend -- I just want those who might attend.

Ralph

A complete Chord program

If you are ever looking for a way to play a chord that is different from what you might see in a table or a book, this program could be for you.

http://www.tonalalchemy.com/

This is a program for all string instruments, not just a uke, but it covers the uke world completely.  It shows all the chord possibilities in the selected uke tuning -- C, both high and low G, D, G, both high and low D, Bb and gives you the option of doing your own thing, such as a Cautro or slack key tuning.

It shows the chord possibilities over the complete neck.

I find it useful when I might be looking for another way to finger a chord.  For example, there are several ways to pay an Em in the top 5 frets, but the easiest is just a 2 finger version, 0302.  And there are 12 ways to finger a C7 chord in the top 5 frets.  So the program gives you a lot of options.

One nice feature is the ability to show finger placement on a provided graphic and the program will tell you the name of the chord, if it is a chord.  0323 is not a chord, but 2323 is a diminished chord, so you cannot cheat by leaving out the first string -- it isn't a chord.

There is an audible feature -- the program gives you the sound of the selected chord.

So if you want to delve into chord options, this could be for you.

Transposing Wheel

If you find that a published song sheet has a key that is not very good for your voice, you might want to change the key.

Here is a link to a useful graphic.  Print it, cut it out and glue  it on some light card stock (like that of cereal box) and put it together.  I use small diameter pop rivets or small machine screws to hold them together, but you can use anything you like.

What is different about this particular transcribing wheel is that is is arranged in the Circle of Fifths, so it serves both purposes.  Note that the song, Five Foot Two, in the key of C, has a chord sequence that follows the Circle in 7ths -- C, E7, A7, D7, G7 back to C.  Singing this song in the key of F, you would have this sequence -- F, A7, D7, G7, C7, F

And again, using C as the key, the 4th is F and the 5th is G, so a song in the I, IV, V sequence would be C, F, G, or in the key of F, the chord sequence of  I, IV, V7 would be F, Bb, C7.

It as useful tool to have handy.

http://ukuleletonya.com/files/transposing_wheel.pdf

Now this is the way our local music shops should market ukes.  This is a shop in Durham, NC and they have a wide variety of ukes on the wall.  The gal is playing everything from the $40 Dolphins to PONO's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KOGJWsWyQEU

My second thoughts about The Daily Ukulele Songbooks.

I was going through the Blue and Yellow The Daily Ukulele songbooks, page by page, to find the songs with 2, 3, 4, and 5 chords. It is shown right under the title of the song which chords are used for each song. I was then witting the number of chords used, in the song, in the index between the title and page number of that song. I was doing this for quick reference to find simple songs right from the index. In doing this I realized that there were many more songs I am familiar with than when I did a scan of the indexes when I first got the books. I wish I'd had these books much earlier for there are quite a few songs I had hunted for on the internet or worked out by listening to the songs over and over to make my YouTube videos for the Ukulele Underground's Seasons of the Ukulele contest this year. Live and learn.

Spring Theme

Not that love theme songs are passe' but we are fast approaching the Spring time of the year and that could be the theme for the couple of months.  And this period includes the major Christian date of Easter.

So think about some appropriate spiritual songs and those dealing with springtime.  We have some appropriate songs in our club song book and if you want, Google Easter Songs and Springtime Songs for some other numbers.  We can even think about  Easter bunny songs and get ready to pay to the grandkids.

February 12th Meeting

Well, we had a nice club meeting last night with a couple new folks and several others who returned after some time off.  We played a lot of new numbers that fell into the "Love" theme as well as a couple that fell into the Mardi Gras theme.

Now these new songs are not in our Resources section of our web page and if you liked them enough, we can add them.  To recap, they were:

Walking after midnight
Last night on the back porch
Heartache by the numbers
One by one
Only you
Nancy Jane
Bye bye love
Pretty when it's new
Basin Street Blues
Jambalaya

So if you liked them enough, we can add them to the Resouces section, let us know.

Craig's List

I check this site every now and then to see what might be for sale in this area and right now there are several ukuleles that could be attractive to the community.  Most of the time there are only one or two listings, mostly low and mid priced instruments.  But right now there are several, including an upscale all Koa tenor made in Hawaii (at a significant discount over a new one)  So if you know anyone who is interested in a used instrument, at an appropriate saving, you might have them check these out.

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is coming!

In the ukulele world, this group stands out at one of the most famous and they pack the concert halls when they perform.  They are coming to the USA and their last stop is in Overland Park, KS on Saturday, April 20.

Here is the link to their home page, and from there a link to the nearby concert.

I expect that the concert will be sold out so if you think you would like to go, or if you want to make up a group to go together, best get on it soon.

http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com/main/home.aspx

If you go, be sure to take a uke, for it is tradition that the audience plays along with the orchestra on their signature number.

February Meeings

The first Thursday club meeting went well with a good turnout and a couple new folks showing up.

Our first Tuesday club meeting with be this coming Tuesday the 12.  This is Valentine's Day and I hope we can all enjoy some songs with a "love" theme.  I've selected a few to share, and some of them are "in love" and some are "out of love".  There are a ;lot of the "out of love" category in Pop and Country Music.

This is also Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras so if you have the appropriate color clothes or beads, be sure to wear them.  Now I have enough songs selected for Tuesday, but if you have not selected one, you might look for something with a New Orleans theme.  Here is a link with hundreds of songs in that group, so you can probably find one you like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_about_New_Orleans

Hope to see you on Tuesday, beads and all.

Ralph

Here's something we should do

It has been suggested in just about all musical forums that folks like us should have a half dozen or so songs "down pat" so that if we are requested to play a song or two, we can do so without hesitation, and without a song sheet.

Now I remember a couple times when I was with the Dallas group and a request came in from the rest of the restaurant patrons, Mark (the leader) would say, sure we could do it, and we all would automatically go into Five Foot Two, with the comment that that song has the same notes as the requested song, just in a different order. This got a few chuckles, but there is an underlying message -- it is really good to some songs that we can call on without hesitation.

 Kay, Bill and Blayne have a number of songs in memory that they can perform well.  I have chatted with Rex and he wants to work on this too.  Now for me, doing something without a song sheet will be a real stretch, for regardless of my history with the uke, and regardless of all the genres of music that I have played, I just have not memorized any songs.

That is going to change, and I hope you are going to help me, and in doing so, help yourself.

So in addition to concentrating on love themed songs in February, I hope we can work on a song w/o looking at the song sheet.  Now what songs?  I'm open to suggestions, but "Five Foot Two" is a uke standard that we should all know and "Amazing Grace" would be a great option too.  What would you like?

Want to help me improve?

Ralph

A real talent

Here is a video of a real musician on the instrument.  The video was taken to demonstrate how one instrument can be played in a variety of styles and have a different tone, depending on attack.

But forget that, just enjoy the video.