I love the idea of this challenge! It’s an interesting change of pace to have only two options, not being paralyzed by choice for once! 😂 They’re both great options, too. I’m already cooking up something pretty fun, hopefully it works out, many layers of challenges and trying new things for me! I also really like the uke prize this month! I have a sopranino in willow wood and that brand of uke, but not a soprano! Looking forward to hearing what everyone does! 🙂

• This reply was modified 1 month, 4 weeks ago by The_Bumble_Bard.
• This reply was modified 1 month, 4 weeks ago by The_Bumble_Bard. Reason: deeply struggling to write sentences

So pretty @marianne

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!

I sm a premium member.
It was such a pleasure to learn this beautiful composition!
Please find below my March entry

Hello uke friends! With an alleged blizzard looming over Wisconsin the next few days, how should I spend my time but horsing around with music stuff. I am well stocked with food and water, so just praying the power doesn’t go out – which it well may. Further nort’, they are suppose to be getting record snowfall measured in feet so that’s pretty crazy. Praying everyone stays safe. 🥰

Anyway, so this is something I have been working on. I know this won’t count as an entry, but I’ve basically also fallen back in love with my first musical love which is playing piano and, well, like misterbones, I also fall in love too easily. Or back in love. Sigh, trying so hard to focus…

So, this is just a little snippet that I amused myself with way too much, which is why I thought I would share this sample. This is the kind of singing “style” I am going with, but I was so scared someone would hear me, so I was extra whispery. This week coming up, hopefully I can get a better take because the neighbor who listens in to everything I do won’t be there. 😂😂😂 What is my life, I just can’t say…

Refocusing again – I do intend to also learn the uke version, but I am having an anxious moment with the difficulty of those jazzy chords that Ashley plays. Also, listening to her singing, I knew there was absolutely no way I could sing in the angelic style she sings in, so I am blazing my own trail with my approach to this tune. Trying to. Okay, but just sharing this sample for fun of me playing a piano version. I hope you enjoy / find the minor chaos funny! 😂

Oh, a fun thing about this is, because I had no idea how to play jazz chords on piano at all, I took the uke chords with the lyrics from RC101’s arr. and put it into ChatGPT and told it to tell me note-for-note what all the chords were and that’s how I learned them. 😂

Warning: The rustling at the beginning might be really loud. It’s also hard to say if it’s too quiet or too loud overall because I swear my videos sound different on every device…

Thank you if you give it a listen! Going to go back and listen to the few entries so far! 🙂 🥰

@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.

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by misterbones.
• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by misterbones.