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 Click hats for a collection of Holiday music choices.  We worked on strumming patterns within the Major Key of C - C, Am, F, G7. We also played around with playing the C scale (Open 2, Open 1 3, Open 2 3). We sang and played Wagon Wheel, Smiles on Faces, Cups, and Follow the Sun. Keep up the great work! Practice a little a lot. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I'll see you on 11/27.
Fall is here - My concussion is healed and we're ready to start up our Truckelele Sessions again! Fall is a time of change and our group will be having several changes as well. New day: Monday. New time 5:45- 6:30/6:45. We'll review previous skills at the beginning and learn newer material at the end. New location: 10390 Manchester Drive in Glenshire (aka my place) - I already teach several children students on Monday afternoons at my house as well, so I think this will benefit us all - I'll have materials and a large digital screen display of music, etc. Very cush. Our first session will be on Monday, October 23. See the roster below for a list of dates through January. We'll be jamming approximately twice or three times per month. You'll notice that 11/6, 11/20, 12/25, 1/1, and 1/21 are cancelled. I think that an every week commitment can feel a little intimidating and that having a week off here and there provides a nice break. Remember to practice just a little, a lot. Click here or on Songs Tab to find a New fun song: Smiles on Faces (lyrics and chords) - by Stick Figures (YouTube video).   Another fun evening of telling sharing, strum patterns with C, Am, F, G7 chord progressions, songs (You Are My Sunshine, Wagon Wheel, and Cups), music theory, and C ascending scale! You ladies are killing it! Remember practice a little a lot! A word about re-entrant tuning on the ukulele Generally, stringed instruments are tuned from low to high - meaning that the strings on guitars, violins, cellos, basses, etc all have a thicker string tuned with the lowest pitch, a slightly thinner string with the next higher pitch, a thinner with the next higher, all the way to the last thinnest, highest pitched string. This is the general nature of stringed instruments, including the piano. The piano is tuned from bass to treble, from low to high, left to right. The notes go from low to high. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do, and on and on.
Well ukuleles have an unusual departure from this normal tuning. It is called re-entrant tuning. The top string (#4) is a high g, and the next string (#3) is the lowest pitch on the uke - a C. The next string (#2) is an E, and the bottom string (#1) is the high A. So the ukulele is tuned gCEA - with that little 'my dog has fleas' to guide you with the pitches if you were tuning your uke to itself. We started this session with our weekly telling sharing. It is fun to learn a little bit about each other each week. It's just like practicing an instrument - you want to practice a little a lot, not a lot a little. Do you see the difference? To strengthen your fingers and transitions, practice a little bit each day rather than damaging your poor fingertips with too much earnest practice in one long session. Similar to gaining proficiency on the monkey bars while avoiding palm blisters when you were in first grade...
Our first class! We met at Mane Attraction on Tuesday from 6:00 - 6:45. $12 weekly drop-in.5/21/2017  Fun group of women learning and improving their ukulele skills! I have returned the expensive groovy projector so all the following lessons/jam sessions will be with natural light from the windows - no more black out shades and technical difficulties!
Fingers and Strings
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Mary BerelsonUkulele enthusiast Archives
January 2018
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