- This topic has 20 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 4 months, 3 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hello friends!
So, this video popped up somewhat randomly on YouTube and it was so beautiful that I wanted to try figuring out how to play on uke: https://youtu.be/PJ3Ny1CvkQw?si=Sgt8_DD3PW9-5BYQ
Parts of it are more playable than others. 😅😂
At first I found the sheet music to see if I could find a good starting point for the first chord, but then realized there were 4 or 5 sharps, and I think 5 flats in a different part. So, I went back to figuring it out by ear. 😶😅 And picked a simple key which I think is C Major.
Listening again to her beautiful rendition on harp, I can see things I need to change with my version, but this is an example of how I learn songs by ear. Hopefully you can notice what three “pieces” of the song I’m going for (so far).
Thank you for reading and listening! I’ll try to get a better recording that more clearly shows the different song chunks because I just figured those out. 😅 Thank you! 😊😅
Here is actually a better take of the one theme:
Something went wrong with the recording though and it was pretty poor quality. I did try to edit it, but it didn’t help a lot. It sounds like I dropped the mic into a bowl of jello 2/3 of the way through. 😅 I’m hoping something just wasn’t plugged in all the way or something. 😣
Anyway, I hope you like the theme so far, even though it sounds like it’s being played on Benjamin Franklin’s glass harmonica. 😅
I have to say, you’ve got guts.
I just listened to the first bars of the piece by Chopin on YT and I myself would never think of playing something like that on the ukulele.
But I like the idea and I’m curious to see what you do with it.Rici
@richo_uke, ha, thank you! I appreciate that. I lead a rich fantasie life. 😉😂
Thank you! Parts of it are definitely possible, but I really hope I can capture (at least a version of) the first two minutes or so.
I am starting to make progress on the beginning. Obviously that’s going to be one of the hardest parts. 😅 That’s a pretty crazy thirty seconds, right out of the gate. 😅
Great Chopin piece. Nice playing. I like how you’re able to learn it by ear. Keep going with it. I played a very simple, brief version of Fantaisie Impromptu but doesn’t sound as good. It’d be cool to incorporate more into it like you have.
@muzikmama, thank you very much!! I really appreciate that. Trying to learn songs by ear is an enjoyable challenge for me. Although, it got to a point with the beginning now that I realized I had to reference the sheet music for piano that the song was originally written for, just because I wanted at least the iconic beginning to be accurate–And also it’s hard enough being in double time (I think it’s called) where two different time signatures (rhythms?) are happening at once. I’m sure you knew that since you know a version of it. I never knew this song on piano which is why it’s funny that now I’m trying to play it on uke with a fraction of the range. 😅 But I like that challenge too. I heard the song before on piano obvs, but once I heard it on harp it inspired me to try it on uke. Just so beautiful and crazy. 😅
You know a version of this on uke? Where did you find that? Once I get further along with this I could definitely share the tabs here if you’d like to try it. 😊
This is the only uke tutorial I could find on YouTube. It’s for novices and only teaches an excerpt.
I first heard FI when learning piano myself but never tried playing it. The whole piece would be too ambitious for me, but learning a snippet on uke is still enjoyable. I’ve heard of time signatures and of differing rhythms like polyrhythms but not all that familiar with it.
I scaled back the strumming from that tutorial to try to get a better (albeit simple) feel. I like your version and I’ll keep a look out if you’re happy to post tabs, thank you. I’m inspired to see what I can attempt with the version I learnt. I’ve done a bit of play by ear. Feels like a real learning curve.@muzikmama, oh that’s so cool! That’s a very pretty version. It’s more like a folksy chord melody version rather than a fingerstyle classical version, which is more what I’m attempting to do. I really like that though, thank you for sharing. His is also in G major and (from what I understand) mine is in C major and C minor. The theme he did is the same as the one I fleshed out more in the second video. The first video was really me practicing what I’d figured out so far. I hope I get a chance to record again soon because I feel like I’ve made progress even since those last videos.
That’s sort of what I want to do, too, is not the whole song, but just my favorite portions / themes from it. I’d love to share the tabs with you for sure, it makes me happy and encouraged that you’d want to play it. 😂 It will be better than those recordings when I’m done I think.
I think you’re right about polyrhythms. I think that’s what’s happening there. At least you know this arrangement will be easy, especially with the theory, because I literally don’t understand a lot of that aspect of things. 😅
Anyway, hopefully I can update this soon, but I’ll keep working on this until then. ‘Squite fascinating, this song. 😅 Thank you for your encouraging comments! 😊
Okay, here is an update. It more shows how the theme sounds being slightly more smoothed out, but that one trill is still getting me a bit: 😂
I’m also trying to work on my sound issues, still. This is what the video sounded like before I edited it:
I only had a short bit of time to record, so I didn’t have time to record the other themes but they also have progressed.
I also want to add more nuance to these song chunks because they are still very simplified. It’s because I figured them out by ear in a key I know that’s easy, C Major. But I know there are some things missing and I can add more subtely and complexity I think, even with the uke’s “limitations.”
Okay that’s all. More soon hopefully. 😅 Thank you for letting me share this with yass (you). 😅
Good to hear you’re progressing and how willing you are to tackle it 👍. The Rock class lessons must be payong off. It’s certainly recognizable.
@muzikmama, thank you so much! I really appreciate that. I feel like I pretty much never would’ve been able to do things like this, even attempt to, without Rock Class. I knew almost nothing about playing uke before I joined here. I always knew I wanted to try things like this, but I don’t know if I ever would’ve gotten this far without the help and encouragement of the people here, and indeed all the amazing educational material. I just also like to have these weird little projects while I work on Rock Class songs. 😂
Okay, and last update for a while. Here is the progress with “theme 2” and “theme 3” (there is much more complexity in there, but this is the simplified way I’m thinking of it for now):
I meant to say that with theme 2, the two disparate rhythms overlapping, the idea of how to approach that was inspired by James Hill’s Billie Jean because in that he combines the chords and baseline in a similar way, playing them both together (as Matt talked about in the live lesson on Favorite ukulele players, I think it was). The way I’m hoping to approach achieving speed with the very fast part was inspired by Andrew’s song based on the Interstellar movie theme, even though I never learned that one fully, I did try it and learned from the lesson.
Okay, that’s all! Thank you for reading. I’m still working on my other projects but I like to work on multiple things at once. 😅
Interesting hearing your approach.
What I heard about Chopin and also like is that he made use of the breadth of a piano so it interested me to do that on the uke (that is, not be stuck at one end only). From this I found, like you have, that soprano ukes are too short on frets.@muzikmama, that is so true. Chopin definitely made use of the breadth of the piano, for sure. Some of the things he wrote for piano don’t even seem physically possible to play, but there are plenty of recordings of people playing it, so I guess it is possible. 😅
I love the challenge of trying to cram as many songs as possible on the soprano uke because it’s my favorite to play, but you’re right that there is a limit with it. When I try to arrange songs, I try to position them so there is at least a little room to go down especially with something insane like this one and, like you, like to try to utilize a lot of the uke’s “limited” range. But I’ve seen all the crazy classical pieces that are possible, plenty of which are on RC101, but also John King and Jeff Peterson and people like that I’ve learned of through here–All of them are very inspiring to me for what’s possible to do on uke. 😊
Hello again!
So, I’ve continued working on this whenever I can and I added more to the themes. I think I called this one Theme 1, for some reason, even though it comes second in the song. I’ll figure that out later. 😂
Warning: there is a random loud noise at the beginning but only happens once. I think it’s the sound of me hitting the record button but when I “normalized” the audio to increase the volume, it amplified that as well. I’ll figure out recording some day… 😅
There are still mistakes but I think I’m starting to smooth it out and flesh it out more and add more feeling, but there is still more to it.
There are developments with the other themes, too, but I’ll share those later. Thank you to anyone who listens and also reads my rambling. 😅
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.