SEASON 144: Play It Again, but Better

austin1 said:
Noooooooooo! I had such a good idea but canned it because it was illegal and now it's legal! Argh!
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I apologize for confusing you, Tina. We should have PMed with more details than we did. I would LOVE to hear you re-do your Bruno Mars song, or I Don't Want to Live on the Moon. Almost two days left to submit.
 

It's been a busy couple of months for me. I've been playing guitar and singing live in the local
restaurants around my neighborhood. I had hardly played guitar since I started playing
ukulele about three years ago so it took me a couple of months to get back into it and that took
me away from my ukulele playing for a bit but this was a season that I couldn't resist. This is
one of those songs that I always seem to play when I pick up my ukulele so I thought I would
do it. I'm not sure it is any better now but I do play it a bit differently than I did when I originally
posted it. This was the original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1cGI3LpZZM&list=UUtgeI7LSlrW2CwAt5cLMmfw&index=53
 
This is just an extra. No need for any input. It's just a curiosity I found. I was looking for songs I wanted to redo and found this one from 2011. I thought, THAT'S a song I've loved for decades that I think I should update. Weirdly though, I already had in 2013. It's funny but they're not that different. Therefore, I thought I'd forego another shot at it. So...just a curiosity but one on the subject for this week.
 
decaturcomp said:
This is just an extra. No need for any input. It's just a curiosity I found. I was looking for songs I wanted to redo and found this one from 2011. I thought, THAT'S a song I've loved for decades that I think I should update. Weirdly though, I already had in 2013. It's funny but they're not that different. Therefore, I thought I'd forego another shot at it. So...just a curiosity but one on the subject for this week.
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That's funny. I have a tab for an instrumental version of this one sitting right here. You want it?
 
southside mike - Pink Panther theme - Nice playing in both, Mike. I asked the music expert in my house, and he pointed out for me that in your second version the melody is more forward. It’s got qualities of the blues and funk, and also jazz because the melody disappears for a bit, then comes back. (It’s more than a minute longer, so you’re strolling around with that improvisation.) He noted too that you do your two-fingered pluck both over the soundhole and up on the neck too. How would you describe how your playing of it has changed?


southside mike - Vegematic - Cool song! I think both versions are fine playing. I love your strumming…there’s so much variety in it, with plucking, strums, and upstrokes. I wish I could see what chord you’re playing in that base strum at the beginning of each line; your fingers obscure the whole fretboard. In the new version, I’m hearing a little more chunking in that vamp strum and you’ve got a bigger flourish at the end. But really, I’d take either version home with me.
(Popiel, who made the Pocket Fisherman, also made The Buttoneer, which was neat.)


decaturcomp - A Perfect Day - Lovely playing. I like that an ordinary day is The Perfect Day. People in crisis crave an ordinary day more than anything else.
 
For the 17th Season, TheSillyDave challenged us to play a song mentioning animals, and to submit our first takes as our entries. I figured I knew this Clash song well enough to get it right the first time. Here's the video:

Seventeenth Season -- Car Jamming

After recording my first take, I watched it and immediately cringed at the rushed tempo. Watching it again this week, I cringed even more. Thanks, Ginny, for the chance to play this one at a groovier pace:



I also came up with a new uke arrangement this time, using barré chords that sound better to me and that allow me to play a more staccato rhythm. I learned these techniques by watching my fellow Seasonistas these past couple years. Thanks, everyone, for sharing your music and for continuing to inspire me to become a better player. Viva las Seasonistas!
 
For the 14th Season Eugene Ukulele challenged us to sing a song sung by Ukulele Ike.
"If I had you" it's been two years.?!
I just liked to play it again as it was a while ago, and it does need to be on the big cringe list as well.
I think the Banjo Uke works better and I have a better recording system.
I'll have to fix the link for the 14th Season.
here is my previous try

And my Newer version.
 
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Theonlyukethatmatters - Car Jamming - Ralf, I love the energy you bring to your singing when you play rock standing up. In the first version, you were practically a jumping flea; in the second, it was more a controlled vitality. The new version shows as a more mature performance than the original. With the dead-string strums and the staccato tempo, it seemed like you had more music happening than with just a simple soprano uke. You used your voice as another instrument, with nice changes in dynamic and the spoken lines. One thing you always have had is good eye contact with the camera, and this time you were communicating a lot to us with your changing expressions. This is a real advance on the original version and it’s a pleasure to watch.


ukuloonie - If I Had You - Man, it’s good to see you again, Drew. I am learning this song, and I shall use your re-do as a model to follow because it is excellent! The first version is jazzier, with a nice sliding chord to end, but I love the smoother, longer lyric lines of the second version. The musical phrasing is also just…lovelier. Nice pause and retard at the end. I wouldn’t have thought that a banjolele could be so effective in a very poignant lament of unrequited love, but it really works. The final high note is tristesse all over.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to see a fine video pairing showing uking development, tune in to this.

P.S.—Many of you might not know that Drew ukuloonie was our first Volunteer Coordinator. The first 30 or so Seasons were ad hoc; hosts claimed a week just a couple days ahead of each new Season, till Drew stepped up and made a calendar. He also voluntarily tends to the thread Putting Together all the Seasons of the Ukulele, which lists the host, theme and winners (with links) of every Season.

.
 
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I'm not going to get an entry done this week, after all. I had something half prepared but with having a cold at the beginning of the week and then having quite a lot on later in the week, I have not been able to find a sufficient time slot for a recording.
 
Well I was inspired by the Li/yndas' four lovely versions between them of this beautiful song, so I tried it too. But I always get confused by it ... there's something else it reminds me of ... and you know how that goes.... So I hope I did it right.

This is not an entry, since I just learned this yesterday. But hopefully, like Lynda's version, this is helpful to Linda, or someone.
If not, feel free to banish me ... permanently ... to the island. I'm sure that's where I belong.



Sorry for the bad lighting, and the absolute worst case of morning hair I've ever allowed to be seen on video. But the song came out pretty well ... I think ... except I'm not completely sure of some of the lyrics.....
 
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Okay, here's my real second entry. This is the very first song I ever video'd ... for Season 84, at only 4 weeks of playing. I certainly can play it better more than a year later. In place of my relentless down-down-down-down thumb strum, I've added some fingerpicking, and some extra jazz chords ... because I hear them in my head, and I can't help myself.

I think I sang it better the first time! ... sorry about the weak opening ... it does get stronger after that ... but this is about the best I've played it ... and the uking was the point, right?

 
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UkeCan1 - ‘Deed I Do - Nice singing and steady thumb strumming in your first Seasons entry, Wendy, but oh my, you’ve learned finger picking now. Your playing is relaxed because you yourself are quite at ease in this manyth Seasons performance. I like the calm sweetness of the new version, and the final strum to end.



.
 
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Hi All, a busy week, but I a lll but promised to redo this tune from Ike on a Bike week 14: Paddlin' Madeline Home.
It fits with my ongoing obsession with the raunchier tunes..next time I'll come with the instrumental break..
week 14 version: http://youtu.be/m8FTxBdOqAU
Version 2.0: http://youtu.be/YkF0tcs-dtU
 
Thanks for the nice feedback, Ginny. I tried to post this right after your reminder, but my internet crashed ... here it is again:

GinnyT11 said:
Wendy, please add the link to your original.
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Oops! Thanks for the reminder, Ginny ... it's there now.

And here's a bit about how the experience of this Season and these redo's has been. I redid two of my earliest videos - my very first, at week 4 of playing, and my first original song, at week 8, which just kinda happened as a result of having a ukulele in my hands and being able to make chords and play along with myself ... and, as I discovered at the time, play some chords and fashion a melody to go along with some words and ideas and turn into a brand new song!

I'm still pretty proud of how well I did back then ... I think I played quite well for the amount of time I'd been learning. It's not nearly as cringe-inducing to listen to these early vids as I feared it might be. And, of course, over a year later, of course I can play a whole lot more smoothly and cleanly, I can add more complicated chords and my right hand can do a lot more than just the down-down thumb strum, and I can generally do more sophisticated things. I'm a whole lot more comfortable performing and recording, and that frees me up to perform more expressively.

I was a bit shocked to look at a few videos from about six months ago, and I thought, I'm not sure I can add that much to those right now! But I do think the more recent growth may just be a bit less visible. For example, these days I can learn a new song a whole lot faster. I've been doing a lot more of that lately ... there are always so many songs I want to do for each Season ... and spending less time than I used to really honing the songs ... and memorizing them ... which I used to always do as a matter of course. Consequently, I've noticed lately I have a whole lot of songs in my playlist, and very few that are performance-ready.

That's about to change. One of the consequences of this Season, combined with some other recent experiences, is that I plan to start working on learning and maintaining some playable repertoire now - songs I can perform in front of others, songs I can start working up with a band (I'm ready ... and last night a really hot musician asked me!), and songs I can lead in a party or jam. The two songs (2.5 :) ) that I did for this Season are close, so I'll keep playing them with that in mind.

This Season has been a remarkable learning experience, and I'm getting moved to tears with gratitude for it as I type this. Onward and upward!

Ginny, thanks so much for this terrific theme, and your thoughtful comments on everybody's videos. I've watched and commented on all of them too, and I've learned a lot from everyone's as well as my own. Thanks to everybody who participated, worked on an old video, is still working on one, or thought about it. I love you and appreciate you, my sisters and brothers of the ukulele!
 
Peewee - Paddlin’ Madeline Home - Your Week 14 version had a lovely intention playing your grandfather’s uke. It might now be considered a proto-Peewee performance, one that will go in the biggest box set of your recordings. It’s nice (and way better than I could do), but not distinctive. Go forward 130 weeks, and now you’re cooking with gas, as they used to say in my youth. You start like you’re waiting for the last people to sit down at the vaudeville hall, then you light up with a great 1920s rhythm and you sing with nice variety in lyric emphasis and dynamic. Super energy in the last verse, and nifty windup and ending note.




"There's just a few more hours, that's all the time we've got.
A few more hours, until the Season's wrought... Get your entry in on time!"
 
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