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Thanks a lot @Andrew
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Give me any selection of songs to choose from, include a classic from the nineteen-twenties, and you can be sure that will be my pick.
Trigger warning: a wire coat hanger was seriously abused during the, ahem, “production” of this video.I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER
Here’s my take on Spanish Days. Due to vacation and other circumstances I was only able to start working on it last Monday. As I only had about ten days to get this down, I had to compromise, so I reduced the tempo to about 80% and omitted the harmony part, otherwise I’d have loved to play and record that as well. Maybe I’ll add it later.
This was a good one to make use of the audio interface again to record the two parts and put them together. As my only low G uke doesn’t have a pickup, and my only uke with pickup is high G, I had to move the low G string between the ukes. You can see my low G uke lying around in the background of the rhythm uke video. That was just before I did the string switcheroo, I decided to record the rhythm part with high G, sounded better to me.
So here you go:
@katazumiri: Makes complete sense, Chet Baker is very much cool jazz, and cool jazz is one of the main building blocks of Bossa Nova, so that association is valid. In my understanding Bossa and Jazz are not two different genres, but I see Bossa as one specific style of Jazz. Although Bossa Nova is often also associated with a certain rhythm or beat, and at least Chet’s version of I fall in love too easily is not set to a Bossa beat (although it might be worth a try). But a great example that comes to mind of a song with a very similar vibe that actually is set to a Bossa beat, by a Jazz composer who is not typically associated with Bossa Nova, is The Shadow of Your Smile by Johnny Mandel, another one of my all time favorites. There’s a great ukulele arrangement of that song by Kiyoshi Kobayashi in his Ukulele Bossa Nova book, if you’re lucky enough to secure a copy (unfortunately only available in Japan or via Ebay for outrageous shipping fees).
@abster: Thanks! Very nice playing by you as well, bravo! On the technical side, I use a Focusrite audio interface and a uke with a pickup so it plugs right into the interface. I recorded the two uke tracks (rhythm and lead) using the interface and the digital audio workstation (DAW) software Ableton which came with the interface. The video was recorded as per the usual with the cell phone, and audio and video were put together using a program called PowerDirector. I pretty much followed the process step by step exactly as described by Andrew here: https://rockclass101.com/ultimate-guide-recording-ukulele/
@The_Bumble_Bard: Thanks! Yes, I did it by ear. I sat down with the uke playing along to Ashley’s singing and trying to emulate pretty much note for note what she sings, which in this case was really easy and straighforward, as the entire melody falls nicely into the first position (first three frets) of the uke, and it is very “cantabile”, i.e. it moves slowly and gently from high to low back to high without any big interval jumps or quick runs. So the ideal melody for a beginner to figure out by ear I’d say. Ear training is something I definitely don’t do enough and should do much more, it’s so important and beneficial.Regarding the jazz chords on uke: that was pretty much free lunch for me, as I learned a few of the jazz standard arrangements form James Hill’s brillant book “duets for one” several years ago, and ever since I did that, all the jazz chord shapes have become deeply engrained, I guess I’ll never forget them again. The funny thing is: it’s really just the same five or six shapes, that repeat all over again with every jazz song in any key, just moved all across the neck. Once you’ve learned those, you can play pretty much any jazz standard out there. In that respect, I guess it’s much easier to learn jazz chords on the uke (or any other stringed instrument) than on the piano, as the shapes stay the same in every key and just move up or down the neck. So learning those shapes, and learning them well, is a small investment with a huge payoff.
I really like your snippet, both the playing and the singing. For someone who didn’t know how to play jazz chords on the piano, it sounds pretty jazzy to me. And your singing actually sounds closer to Chet Baker’s “original” version than Ashley’s take. You should listen to it if you haven’t yet. “Original” quote on quote, as Chet didn’t write it, but he came up with the definite rendition and kind of made it his own.Dear friends, I fall in love too easily. Also, coincidentally that happens to be the name of the song I chose to perform for the March challenge 🙂 What a song, what a performance by Chet. Easily one of my all time favorites. No giveaway entry for me this month. Thanks!
When I first joined RockClass101.com more than five years ago, I went through all the songs and added those I eventually wanted to learn to my favorites, and Tennessee Waltz has been on that list ever since, so really happy to see it coming up in a monthly challenge. I love this song, so many different and interesting versions out there. My take is quick and dirty though, just started learning it last weekend and did my first recording attempt today, one week later. Sounds decent enough to me to leave it at that. I have to admit, not expecting feedback from Andrew this time takes away the pressure to shoot for perfection, and the frustration that sometimes comes with that, so I actually enjoyed just recording a “good enogh” take for once. But I do hope we will eventually get the feedback feature back nonetheless 🙂
Please exclude me from the prize drawing this month.
The tabs with Wilfried’s arrangement which I recorded can be found here:
https://www.ukulele-arts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/KlassischeMusikMitDerUkulele_example.pdfAs announced, I worked on learning an arrangement of the second movement of Vivaldi’ winter concerto, a favorite melody of mine which I always thought should lend itself quite well to the Ukulele. Incidentally I found a nice arrangement by a German guy called Wilfried Welti and started learning it a few weeks ago, before Matt released his own version just recently. So here’s my recording of Wilfried’s arrangement.
Wilfried’s version is in G major and goes up to the ninth fret, while Matt’s version is in C major, five half steps higher, and goes all the way up to the fourteenth fret. So while Wilfried’s version might be a little more beginner friendly, and also more doable on a soprano (he actually does play it on a soprano, see the link to his version in the description of my video), Matt’s version is a little closer to the original. That’s in E flat major, so yet another three half steps higher than Matt’s arrangement.
The slow movement (aka largo) of Vivaldi’s winter concerto has always been one of my favorite pieces of classical music, and coincidentally I stumbled across a nice ukulele arrangement a couple of weeks ago which I already started learning. So I’ll make that the subject of my January challenge. What’s fascinating about this piece of music is that it’s made up using the very simplest of ingredients. It’s a basic major 1-4-5 progression, a straightforward steady rhythm, and the melody spans less than an octave. Yet when you listen to it, it sounds like the prettiest thing you’ve ever heard. But I guess with the great masters of classical music it’s the same as with great chefs: all they need is a few simple ingredients to create a masterpiece.
The challenge with playing something like this is to make every note count and bring out all the beauty. I will particularly focus on the legato playing to really make the melody sing. And one challenge I noticed in this particular arrangement is that there are a few melodic runs played on the high g string, with notes on the e or a string played as harmonic accompaniment. For some reason I have a hard time bringing out the notes on the high g string, they always sound softer than the notes on the other strings and tend to be covered up. So whenever the melody is played on the high g string, I have to make a conscious effort to pluck it a little harder than usual, and pluck the other string a little softer. I found this really challenging in my first practice attempts.So to sum it up:
Execution: learn to play a moderately challenging ukulele arrangement with a specific focus on feel. Practice the emphasis of melody notes played on different strings, particularly the high g string.
Application: apply these techniques by learning and playing the arrangement of the slow movement of Vivaldi’s winter concerto.
Execution: I will practice this song every day with a special focus on these areas and will post the result when I reached a point at which further progress becomes slow.
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Silent Night, decided to add some background noise at the last moment:
I donated $40 to the UKC.
Happy Holidays everyone!
I’d say the most important decision you want to make is whether to get one with metal wound strings or rubber strings. I had the chance to test both types in a store, and very much preferred the metal wound strings. It is much louder when played unamplified, and feels more natural and closer to a regular guitar or bass guitar than the thick rubber strings. On the down side, there’s lots of string noise which is difficult to control, and some might prefer the sound of the rubber strings which is closer to a double bass, while the metal wound strings sound more like a bass guitar.
Other than that, I’d say anything that has Kala or Fender written on the headstock will be fine, there’s not really too much difference in terms of sound and playability, other than the type of strings used. So if you have a chance to try them out in person, try both types and see what you like more. Either way, you definitely want to get an amp along with it. You can practice solo without an amp to a certain extent, but it’s really not much fun playing an U-Bass unamplified, and definitely won’t work very well in a setting together with other instruments or a playalong track.
Forgot to mention: I’ve got the Fender Fullerton Precision Bass Uke, and very happy with it. Probably the cheapest one you can get with metal wound strings.@The_Bumble_Bard: Thanks a lot! The tapped harmonics is just the one tap at 0:44 in my video, where the player is supposed to tap the top two non-fretted strings just above the 12th fret, which results in a unique sound I was not able to reproduce correctly. Doesn’t really matter that much, anything that results in some kind of percussive sound will do the job, I just wasn’t able to make it sound exactly as Andrew taught it in the lesson. If you’re curious to know what it’s supposed to sound like, you can listen to Andrew’s original performance.
@leb397 Thanks!
