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Been messing around with Canon in D for a while and have finally come up with this… it’s basically Corey Fujimoto’s chord progression of Canon in D with the the melody from the tabs from rockclass101 sprinkled with a bit of improv.
Very rough recording on my old Uke (broke the strings on my new ones I don’t get on well with fluorocarbons) and phone including closing the door because of the kids 🙂
Let me know what you think 😎
P.s As always just did one take so lots of little mistakes 🙂
@surferjay, hehehe well, everyone starts somewhere! I think it’s so cool when ideas are borrowed and reinvented and overlayed from multiple sources like that.
Also, I love that song. When I had a piano I used to love to improvise with that song. Not anything so put together and neat like what you did, just messin’ around.
What you’re using to do that is called a looper, right? Hope that’s not a dumb question.
I’m using a looper pedal. If you’re thinking of getting one I’d recommend the LEKATO one. It’s super cheap, works really well and also has a digital display which shows you when the loop is starting and finishing which really helps. I think it’s about $40 (on Amazon it’s more expensive but I got mine from AliExpress).
It’s also a great tool for practising as it helps with timing and you are constantly listening back to you’re playing.
@surferjay, thanks for that info / recommendation! I have been curious about those for a while. I’ve seen people on Twitch use them on music channels and thought they were pretty neat! I think at some point I’d definitely like to get one to try, and that one sounds like a good option! I’m still a pretty newish uke-player, uk… ukiest… uker…………………….. but there are things I’ve wanted to do but physically couldn’t play without playing two ukes simultaneously, like very high up on the fret board while playing lower on the fret board. Obviously, you can “stretch” the boundaries somewhat there, but the good Lord only gave us each two hands, with which to play upon a uke. LOL.
Anyway, this recording of yours was very lovely! I like that you keep going with your recordings even with interruptions. Lol.
@recdog Thank you kind sir it means a lot 🙂
@potato_lady The great thing about the Uke is that it’s a very versatile instrument. You can literally play so many different Genres and styles. For me, I’ve always loved playing music with other people and I really wanted to learn to jam with others. The only problem being I have no friends haha well at least musically orientated ones. Enter the looper and you can literally do something as simple as laydown a simple chord progression and learn to improvise over or build loop covers etc.
I’ve only been playing the Uke a year and a half(ish) so am also new relative to some of the people on this site but the two biggest improvements for me were:
1. Progress on this site. Make your way through all of the levels until you get to the most difficult ones. If you can tackle then you can tackle most things on the Uke (bit of a sweeping generalisation but you get what I mean).
2. Music Theory – I always repeat this but honestly this is the one thing which allows me to A) Fully understand the instrument B) Look at people playing and understanding the structure of the music.
This all sounds really boring but as an example. Just by understanding that the loop I was playing is in C Major (you can actually tune your Uke up a whole step to play in the original key) I was able to add in my own bits and harmonise two loops in ‘thirds’ and then the last minute completely the entire thing.
It all sounds complicated but it’s not. Harmonising in 3rd’s just means when playing a C note you would play an E as well at the same time.. When playhing D play a F note as well. Try it, it sounds great. you can also harmonise in 5ths bla bla
The solo/improv is literally just the C Major Scale. I’m literally playing the white notes that are on the piano. I can play them in any order and they sound good tbh you just need to know where the white notes are on the Uke (as the C Major scale is all of the white notes on a piano).
Hopefully you have not fallen asleep 🙂 Enjoy your Uke Journey.
@surferjay, I wrote out a whole reply, but the site is rejecting it. That’s probably a bad sign. LOL.
@surferjay, thank you for the lovely, in-depth reply! I enjoyed reading that. =)
Agreed, the uke is so versatile, so amazing, it can do so many things. For me, I knew I wanted to play classical music and movie themes because those are the things I love to play, but a uke can also “clawhammer” (the second thing I *started* to learn on the uke), it can blues, it can rock. A uke can everything. And it’s so dang sweet-sounding, of course.
I mean, those are pretty substantial improvements! One of the hardest things to master IMO is theory. It’s not always the most “fun” things to tackle, but it is very empowering. I say this as a total hypocrite because I struggle the most with that kind of discipline in learning…
Hmmmm. I don’t even know what things I could point out as my greatest improvements. I feel like through hours upon hours of practice, I have become a bit freer in my playing and maybe a bit smoother.
Joining this site was one of the best decisions I made for my learning and confidence. So far, I have learned how to *finish* learning a *whole* song, instead of somewhat learning parts of songs until it got too difficult. That’s why I think many of the songs on this site are great for that; they’re challenging, but not impossible for a beginner to completely learn. And also all the guidance, tips, and instruction that go along with each song–techniques that apply to all playing, so that with each song you learn, all of the songs you know get better. I feel like I’m writing an ad for the site, but it’s 100% facts. LOL.
I know exactly what you mean about theory. So, I do know enough to know exactly what you’re talking about. I started playing piano when I was 8 years old, and kept up with it until my mid to late twenties, when honestly I got depressed for a long time and stopped doing a lot of things. Now, in my mid-ish-kinda thirties, I’m starting to do things that bring me joy again, which includes playing the uke. 🙂 All this to say, that was one thing I struggled to comprehend on the uke fretboard; how to translate “white keys” and “black keys” (all the notes I knew from playing piano) to frets. That is a brilliant idea to tune the uke so it’s all in C. How… how do you do that?
I also was going to agree that this site is great just for the community: Being able to share and discuss with other people who love what you love is pretty dang special. People who won’t just nod and smile and say, “that’s nice,” or not really care. Well, or they just aren’t as obsessed, which is fair. Well, except for my sister-in-law who plays guitar. We got to “jam” one time; but that was a year ago so I could barely keep up, even though it was just Over the Rainbow. That is an amazing feeling though. I see why you love that.
But yeah, with a looper, you can jam with yourself, which seems pretty neat! =D
I’m sorry that I rambled even more back…………………………. I really appreciate your reply, though! I read it a few times, this is just my own take on the topics you brought up. Happy uking to you too, friend! =)
Just out of curiosity, where are you from (generally)?
@Andrew, thank you kindly! Why does that keep happening to me? I maybe shouldn’t be rambling so much…………………………….
It’s not you lol. We have spam protection and it can be pretty aggressive. Unfortunately I don’t have the option to control what it does/does not mark as spam but I’d guess it marked it as spam since it was a lengthy post.
You can always email me if it disappears and I’ll get it approved 🙂
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