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@gi_gi_, Thank you so much, my friend!! I may want to make another video like this one with a different tune. 😁💕
@gi_gi_, thank you so much, my friend! I really appreciate that so much!! 😁💕
The first half of the song is an original tune I came up with, and the second half is the arrangement of Pathetique I figured out, played slightly differently–all blended together. I may still add to this.
Here is the story. It exists because the title I thought of was, “That Time Beethoven Turnt Into A Frog, Then Turnt Back Into A Human, But Not All The Way”. 😂 Then it popped into my head that that is a story that should exist and kind of describes what the song is. 😂😅
Here is the story:
Way back in the day, back in 1876, around the time that Beethoven lived (because I guess this had to take place in a year he was alive to involve him), during his happier days (well, maybe his only happy day, poor guy), anyway, sorry about this sentence, one day he was taking a nice, pleasant stroll in the park when all of sudds a scraggly, wizened little man jumped out of the bushes in front of him, cutting him off.
“Dazs Häagen?” Beethoven said in German.
“Sir, would you like to buy a watch?” Said the apparent park imp.
“A watch? What’s that? Those don’t exist yet, because it’s the year 1876, a year I’m definitely alive during,” Beethoven replied with historical accuracy.
“Oh never mind! Let’s skip the pretence and flimflamery!” The little dirty man flapped his hands magically, then a cloud of green smoke erupted out of his palms into Beethoven’s sternum, causing him to fall backwards onto his tookus.
“Ah!” Shouted Beethoven, spooked.
Before old Beets knew it, his skin began to turn a bright lime green and he began to shrink, for in that moment, the disgusting, smelly, covert wizard had turnt him into a frog!
“Buuuuuurup,” cried Beethoven.
The park wizard cackled, then twirlt away in a cloud of magical purple smoke into another dimension.
“Please, sir! Come back! I didn’t choose this!” Beets objected in Frog.
Many years flew by. At first, ol’ Beets struggled emotionally with being a frog, but after a while he kind of got used to it. Then, he got so he depended on it. He was kind of scared to be a human again. He continued to compose Sonatas and such, writing the music on lily pads and playing them on a makeshift piano composed of reeds, but the music was a little different somehow, slightly off.
One day when he was chewing on part of a fly, Beethoppin’ felt something strange, like a weird tingle in his spongy feet. Then, he noticed a faint line of lime green smoke coming out of each of his toes.
“Yes?” Beets said literally for no reason, other than startled confusion.
Before our friendly neighborhood Beets knew it, the smoke spread to his entire frog person and he began to grow, his arms, legs, and bod. Until he was human-sized again, but something was a little off, still. Though human-sized again with his pre-frogian hair and countenance, his legs and arms still were shaped like a frog’s. Also, he was completely naked, as frogs technically are.
“Enh, oh well. I have to go fix these weird Sonatas I wrote as a frog, they’re not very good.”
…
This was the song he wrote during this experience. Turns out, he salvaged part of it, the second half, and turnt it into what is known at Sonata No. 8.
I found the sheet music for this pressed between the pages of an antique copy of Gulliver’s Travels, which was written during the time Beethoven lived.
Thanks for listening and reading this crazy, true, and accurate story!
@brettboy, your submissions are always perfectly played and so funny / entertaining to watch! You also have the essence of the actor Stephen Merchant, if you know who that is. So great! 😅
This will be a fun topic, can’t wait! I have guesses for what Matt’s picks will be. 😅
One song I feel everyone should know on uke is Bach’s Celler Preds (Cello Prelude) No. 1. Just one example of how lovely classical (baroque?) music sounds on uke.
Also, “I Want It That-a Way” by the Backstreet Boys. True poetry, from The Golden Era of music: 1995 – 2005.
@dianna, yay, I’m so happy that you took something away from this and that you enjoy these more candid videos!! 😁😂 That’s why I thought it would be helpful to film it because I don’t always fully realize how I’m arriving at certain results, because my technical knowledge is still a work in progress (hence I almost forgot what the brush stroke was called in the video 😂). I feel less nervous if I can be freer in my playing, allowing for mistakes, and without too much of a set plan.
You’re exactly right that the idea is to start with a very simple melody, or chord melody arrangement, then experiment, by trial and error, using the clawhammer pattern “over” the arrangement. It doesn’t always work, or might take many different approaches to get the song sounding right. And again sometimes it just doesn’t work at all (like with Matt’s Moonlight Sonata arrangement, for instance). 😅😂 Etude No. 5 may not have been the best example because it’s more complicated, like you pointed out, but it was the first one that popped into my head that I haven’t already tried to clawhammer. 😂
It might be fun to do the same thing with Drunken Sailor, make a video explaining how I created that clawhammered version. Honestly it’s just as helpful for me to make these videos because it helps me try to process what I’m doing when I’m not thinking about it, which is pretty much always. 😅😂
But it seems like you also enjoy the idea of trying to play more by feel and in a more experimental way, which is how I love to play music as well.
Anyway, thank you so much for inspiring this video, it was really fun to make! 😁💕
@dianna, hahaha, those puns, you can’t escape them! 😂 By the way, I posted a video showing how I turn a tune into clawhammer in the “uke talk” forum if you want to see it. 😅
@ldarrow, that’s a really good strategy, especially with the logic of having another week to incorporate the feedback before the next challenge starts. Clever, indeed. I also try not to wait until the last minute because of the recording anxiety, but I like your logic. Thank you! I love the melody of S(tr)ummer Nights a lot. You have fun with Summertime Swing, that one is also very lovely! 😊@ldarrow, I am the exact same way, much, much prefer fingerpicking over strumming and have therefore successfully avoided progressing much at all with strumming, even though that was one of my goals the beginning of the year. But after learning the three strumming parts for Matt’s Drunken Sailor at an excruciatingly slow tempo, I do think I can strum better than a capuchin monkey, which was technically my goal. 😅
But you’re right, that’s a really good idea to go through that course. Thank you for that! Maybe that will be my goal this month, along with learning Strummer Nights. 😉😅
Side note, your performance of Cielito Lindo last month was lovely! 😊
NGL, that little blue uke is pretty cute! For some reason the texture of the light blue with the wood grain is giving me Van Gogh vibes, but it’s great. 😅
And I love the “mini” challenges! I already started working on Summer Nights and tried to find a way to escape the strumming aspect of it, but it seems like it’s necessary for the song to sound right. It is a pretty tune. Most of the “modifications” I’ve ever made to songs were to escape Matt’s strummin’ because it’s so tricky if you haven’t done it a lot, but I’m pushing through this time, man. 😂😭
@nelsonlin2021, awww, wow, thanks so much for that! That’s so nice of you to say. That seriously means a lot. I feel like I learn just as much from the interactions here, and have been so encouraged. So, I’m very glad it’s helpful for you, too. 😊
Yay, congrats, @nelsonlin2021! I agree with Andrew that your performance had so much feeling behind it. Very lovely indeed! 😊
Thank you for all you put into the feedback each month, @Andrew! It’s always so encouraging and very informative as well. And entertaining frankly. 😅😂 The Stev/phens offer great feedback as well, but I feel like you especially notice every person and set the tone of kind support that everyone here follows. So thank ya! 😊
@gi_gi_, that is an amazing list! You sure do have some beefy songs on that list, wow, some real tricky ones. Very impressive indeed! 😊
A Fifth of Beethoven, that one is so crazy, such a cool, unique combo of funk and classical. I also really wanted a straight arrangement of that song too, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, because the little bits Evan played during it were so good. I love the mashup though. Did you post a video of you playing that one here at some point?
I love Malagueña and Crossing Hemispheres, too. I especially want to learn the second one.
Great list, though, thank you for sharing! It’s cool that you’re going to work on that this month. 😁
Also, I need to update my list. 😅
Gah, thank you so much, @gi_gi_! It’s so kind that you say that. My YouTube channel is also The Bumble Bard. 😅 The video in this thread is connected to it, but it’s: https://m.youtube.com/@thebumblebard
I’m pretty sure it only has songs I’ve also posted on Rock Class right now, though. 😅
Thank you again! 😊
@leb397, thank you so much, my friend! 😊 Stage one is normalizing having my uke with me; stage two is actually playing it, which I’m starting to do more. 😅 I’ve started by just randomly fingerpicking when no one is listening and also having “secret concerts” with my mom where we go off into a room where no one else is and I play for just her. My hands still shake, but it’s less scary. Then she plays her ocarina tunes for me. 😅 I feel like it helps, if you want to play in front of others, to start by playing in front of one person you really trust to be kind.
Sorry to blow up this thread. That’s all for now. Have a lovely weekend everyone. 😅
@gi_gi_, that’s so funny, there is nothing more beautiful than toting a uke somewhere where it “isn’t suppose to be,” like an airport. I have normalized bringing my uke with me everywhere to my friend’s and family’s houses, but in public that’s way more entertaining. 😂
Also, your submission was so pretty that I teared up a bit, confession. 😂
@leb397, well… the first step is learning clawhammer to begin with which is what RC101 is for and then also learning the regular arrangement, also what RC101 is for. 😅 I thought it might be funny to just show how I merge those two things, but in order to do that you need an existing arrangement and again to know clawhammer. 😅😂 The arrangements I have created myself, in part were so that I could just mess around with the simple framework, which I really love to do. So, I wouldn’t consider it a lesson, just me being a total spaz on camera, as usual. 😅And that still makes me emotional to think about how they included clawhammer Drunken Sailor in the live lesson. The instructors and students here are so beyond talented that I felt so honored by that. I’m in love with Rock Class. 😂😅😳😭
Agreed, special thanks to @Andrew for tolerating, even encouraging, so much tomfoolery. 😅
@gi_gi_, that was absolutely beautiful!! Such feeling behind that. You have a beautiful voice and really lovely playing! 😊
@dianna, thank you so much for that! That really means a lot, and I really appreciate it. 💕 Clawhammer is so much fun, it is really awesome that a bunch of people tried it this month and did so great and love it too, yourself included!! I actually thought about making a video showing how I turn a regular tune into clawhammer but it would be super off the books, as in haphazard beyond belief, which is how I do that. 😅 Anyway, thank you! 😊
