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@lisadmh, your method sounds like so much fun! I’ll have to give that a whirl. 😁 It’s like a magical game of chance to create a song. 😅
That site, ezfolk, is run by this kindly fellow from the south of the US and he also runs a YouTube channel and that’s part of how I learned clawhammer ukulele! So, it’s crazy that you reference that. 😅
This is the first clawhammer song I learned: https://youtu.be/hV3MTcVUvb8
I never saw that chord chart though on the site; that’s a real game changer because I’ve had such trouble finding a chart that showed the chords higher up on the neck, because I literally know none of those, except for maybe two. 😂 Matt also showed me another way in a lesson how to find chords that has helped me a lot, too.
This must be the chord chart you mean: https://www.ezfolk.com/uke/chords/A_major/a_major.html
Not gonna lie, I am very sad that I missed all the challenges here that involved more creative elements like that. I absolutely love doing that, too, remixing songs and reinventing songs, like you did with Inspired Tonight (also great work with that one!) but thankfully Andrew has kindly let me do that pretty often anyway, add little (or big) twists to the challenge songs, as long as I still included the original song as well.
Anyway, thank you so much for sharing how you approach creating your songs! Those are really cool and fun ways to do that. Your excitement in describing how much fun you have doing it is contagious and now I want to try. 😅 It’s so true what you say about how creating a song can happen like magic. I don’t even fully know how I’ve created the things I have, even though they’re simple still. All the songs I arranged, and the original songs I’ve started, are mostly by ear. I feel like your ideas can help me a lot and you’ve inspired me to try to finish one I’ve been working on! Thank you so much! Looking forward to seeing more of your creations in the future! 😁
Okay… Here is where I’m at with Drunken Sailor, all three levels. Some notes:
– I only played through each level once because I’m at the point with these strummin’ techniques that I’m still playing them excruciatingly slowly. 😅
– I had such trouble using my index finger to strum; that’s so unnatural for me. In fact, there is an overlap between clawhammer style which I’m okay at playing and ghost note strumming that took my brain so long to overcome because my thumb would “catch” and stop on the g string as you do in clawhammer when I was trying to do the ghost notes. So that took a while to break free of that to be more “open” with the strumming.
– I had a lot of trouble with the strumming rhythm, too, which is why they’re so slow. It took close to 100% of my conscious effort to do “all the things” with those strum patterns.
– This is a “real take,” a “beforemance.” I even had a couple of better takes than this but I wanted to show you the real struggle once again.
Okay, that’s all! Thank you so much! So many amazing performances especially by the younglings of RC101. Wonderful job!
Please remove me from the prize drawing, too. Thank you! 😊
@lisadmh, that’s so awesome! I love when that happens. I don’t know if I know the song you’re referring to exactly, but that’s cool. It’s so interesting how memory works like that. Also, I checked a couple of the songs on my list, namely Lacrimosa, and while I still know it, boy does that need work. She rusty, dusty, and crusty. 😂 Also also you’ve inspired me to finish an original song I started a while ago so hopefully I can turn that into something. Thank you for that! 😂💕
@robinboyd, hello there friend! You were one of the people I was wondering about with this topic. You’ve got quite an interesting spread of songs there. I forgot about Forest Stroll, that’s a really lovely one. The ones by Tobias Elof are very interesting, I want to look at those. Do you sing Creep? If so…………… I sure would like to hear that. That song amuses me. 😅 I actually genuinely like Radiohead though.Thank you for sharing!! 😊💕
Also, if anyone doesn’t have a lot of songs memorized at all, feel free to share your favorite songs to play. I think it’s just fun to hear what songs people like to play habitually. 😊
I wrote this super fast so hopefully it’s coherent. Bye and thank you again! 😅
@lisadmh, these are all so good!! Thank you for taking the time to record and share all of these. Each one is fantastic in its own way.
Hopefully this reaction doesn’t get too ramble-y, but it probably will. 😂 These are just my thoughts as a fellow learner:
I really appreciate that two of them are dedicated to your cats. I feel like there is an uncanny overlap between cat people and ukulele players. 😂😅
All of your songs are amazing and it’s so impressive that you created these on your own, but my three favorite ones are “A Grain Of Sand,” “A Beautiful Life,” and “Parking Lot.” The first two I really love the style of each, the dynamics and techniques you included, and the chord progressions you chose. Very beautiful. The last one has beautiful chord choices, but also to me it has kind of a Renaissance-y feel to it for some reason. 😂 It has a really interesting structure and it seems like you took the time to incorporate a variety of techniques especially in that one.
I find it interesting that it seems like you drew inspiration from different sources for each one. I’m very intrigued by how different people create songs. I’ve bothered Matt and Andrew a lot about that because I really find it fascinating to know how different people approach creating music.
If you don’t mind me asking, how do you decide what chords to use when you’re writing songs, and how do you look them up? For me, I have extreme difficulty with that because a lot of chords I only know by the shape, sound, and that they “go with” certain keys, like they are used in the key of C Major for instance.
I even have more thoughts than this, but I might have burdened you enough. 😂 Thank you so much for sharing these, they are really amazing! Maybe you could even keep sharing new songs you come up with here in this thread as you create them? Anyway, thank you and sorry! 😅
@lisadmh, lovely! I’ll be able to look at those and reply tomorrow, this weekend’s been cray cray (crazy). Crazier than expected even! Looking forward to it! 😁
For some reason I don’t think your post was showing either. Now I see it and it could be the links that kept it from showing. That’s happened to me before. Otherwise I just missed that somehow. 😅
Anyway looking forward to it tomorrow!! 😁
@jbmills07, Nooooooooooooooo!!! My life will never be the same having seen that! 😅😂😭😸😻🤯
Thank you for sharing, that’s quite adorable! 😁😂
I need pocket-kittens-who-become-ukulele-lovin’-shoulder-cats in my life! 😂
Looking forward to hearing your new fancy uke by the way! Congrats again on that!! 😁
(I’ll just leave this here to stew while y’all’re [you all are] on vacation. 😂)
…Such a great topic! Very excited for this one.
To me, the best way to add more creativity to your routine is to personify your uke as much as possible. Give it literal human attributes, such as eyes and a mouth. Take it out on the town; wine it and dine it. Feed it soup by the spoonful, a big bowl o’ tomater soup. Drive it back home, then… tell it your darkest dreams and wishes. If you’re deemed worthy, it shall whisper into your ear The Secrets to Creativity.
For real, I think the best way to be more creative is look at “what is” and try to imagine “what could be.”
@lisadmh, that’s so true! Playing songs regularly and many times is the only way to keep them in your memory. I’ve even almost forgotten my own simple arrangements if I stop playing them often enough. But the great thing is once you have a song really memorized, even if you do forget it, it’s way easier to relearn. There are songs on piano that I remember from when I started playing them in middle school, and I can still play them even though I rarely play piano now. I find that quite interesting how memory works. 😊
That’s so cool that you’ll record your originals separately to share! I look forward to hearing that!! 😁
I also would be really interested to know how @Andrew would answer this question. That would be very interesting. 😅 Would it just be a link to the song list on Rock Class 101? 😉😂
@lisadmh, holy crud, that is amazing! Such an impressive list. My mind is blown. 😅 I know some of those songs are lengthier and/or intricate, so that’s really wow (…wow is an adjective now).
I love your system for cataloging the songs you know, that speaks to me in a way I can’t quite capture. So beautifully organized. 😅
Did you post a longer video here of you playing a bunch of songs on the beach? I think that must be you that I’m remembering. That’s so lovely that you do that. That’s also part why I memorize songs “long-term” that I love because I like to have them with me in my brain and fingers, so I don’t have to look at tabs or worry about that (as much as possible).
Have you posted any of your originals separately on Rock Class? That’s so cool. I’d like to try writing something original now that I have a bit more experience.
Thank you so much for sharing!! 😁
@dianna, hahaha, gah, you’re right! I rewatched the video and the first thing in the intermediate section was “ghost notes” and I thought …… Ef, am I going to be able to do this?! 😂😅 But if you think about it, that is actually pretty similar to the clawhammer pattern (though the physical approach is different), so maybe that will be okay. And yes, the advanced section is even crazier. I also strum the same way you do with my thumb and index when I have strumpt (that’s correct grammar) so this will be…….. Challenging. I haven’t even gotten to try that section yet but I’ll let you know how that goes. 😂😳
@akukes73, thank you so much!! I don’t even know how I remember them. Honestly a lot of it is muscle memory. If you play a song enough, you don’t have to think about how to play it, only about conveying the feeling behind the music, which is why I play songs I like over and over. I try to get to that point (with a song I really like) as soon as possible. Some are definitely way, way harder to get to that point. 😅
I thought that this was something that everyone did, which is why I brought this up. But can I remember what day it is, appointments, and actual things I have to do? No, that’s what the calendar reminders are for. 😅😂😳
I love both those songs a lot. I never even really fully noticed classical guitar songs until I started playing uke but there are so many absolutely stunning classical songs written for ukulele and guitar. And the Last of Us theme Matt did was so lovely. Steven with a V (British ? Steven) also did a beautiful version of that one on his channel, “Ukulele Solos” on YouTube.
That’s so true!! Agreed. I also definitely learn songs way faster than I used to before I joined here. Yes, no doubt your list will just keep growing! I look forward to seeing that!! 😁
And thank you! 😁 It helped to have all the music already laid out, a lot. Definitely harder to create a clawhammer song from scratch! 😅
@dianna, same! I love clawhammer uke. I also have a banjolele that I need to bust out more often. 😅 Once you get really comfortable with the clawhammer pattern it’s not terribly difficult to turn a song into clawhammer, but some definitely more naturally fall into that pattern and I feel like that song did. There were definitely others that didn’t work so well, but I try to do that with most songs I learn. 😂 That’s so cool that you’re going to try to learn it and learn it by ear! 😁 I really am honored by that as well, that you’d want to learn it. I may still try to write it down though because that would be good practice for me and I need it. 😂 You’ve also inspired me that maybe I can try the advanced level, even though I’m really intimidated and spooked by strumming. 😂 Anyway, I hope you share the clawhammer version too if you get to that! Thank you! 😁💕
@Andrew, oh em gee, I am so honored by that, man! Thank you so much!! 😂😭 I plan to cry about that, and just as much about your kind words. That seriously means a lot. Thank you! 😁😅😂😭
@dianna, haha, thank you so much! I’m so glad you liked that. 😅 It’s basically Matt’s beginner level arrangement of that song and I took the clawhammer pattern, the “bum ditty” pattern (I think), and forcibly crammed what he created into that pattern. And added embellishments (HO’s, PO’s, and slides). There were places I really ended up changing a lot because the song didn’t seamlessly fit into the clawhammer pattern or I thought it sounded cool. 😅 Please take this with a grain of salt though, because my technical knowledge is sorely lacking. I figure things out by bumble-ditty-ing trial and error, quite literally. I Miss Magoo my way through everything… 😂😭 There’s a slim chance I might be able to write it down because Matt has shown me the basic way to do that by hand. I hope to keep getting better at that. I may be able to explain what to do without too much theory behind it, just saying the strings. Sorry for this rambling reply, this is the best way I can explain it at the moment. 😂
Also, with permission to do that because the original material (from Matt’s arr) isn’t mine, though I did change it a lot. 😂😳
