my ukulele progress

I am making some progress on clawhammer. I am starting to get the E string. I was trying to use too much force. I was trying to force my way through the E string and not doing much beside muting and bending the string. But by glancing off the string I get the note.

Aside from that I was just dinking around with some blues progressions in minor keys as well as playing some Eb blues in primarily the mixolydian mode.

I finally figured out why there were only five shapes whereas there are 6 notes in the blues scale. The 5 shapes refer to the pentatonic scale which doesn't have the blue note.
 
The new E.

This is a revolution for me. I have always used the 1402 chord for E because the 4442 or the 4447 always sounded shrill to me. Moreover those latter permutations never seemed to fit the pitch of the other chords if I was doing a progression.

At some level I was avoiding things in E which is quite a handicap because the E is so easy and so prevalent in guitar. I can play the 1402 but it is always a tad bit slow. I don't miss a beat with it, but I it does take a portion of the beat to transition to it. I guess at some level I didn't like the struggle and the syncopation.

I just read about the 1X02. That's right a two-finger E chord. My mouth was agape with how brilliant it was in its simplicity. I usually avoid chords with muted strings because the dynamics seem off. Four strings are just louder than three strings...usually. I don't notice that with the 1X02.

All you need to do is finger a 1002, but be a little sloppy with the "1" so that the C string is muted and voila you get an E chord. And this chord is fast. I can transition to it in a wink of an eye. Although I am anything but blue, I have been playing the blues in E because I can. This is really a game-changer.
 
Nothing much to update. I am still loving the new simplified E and I am still focusing on the key of Eb. One thing that I found noteworthy was the utility of my metronome. I am using it with my clawhammer practice. I have the ability to play the clawhammer 3/4 rhythm without the metronome, but the metronome adds something. When I am not using it, it seems like one mistake in technique like not hitting a note brings the whole practice to a grinding halt. But when I'm using an exterior timing device and make a mistake, I just shake off the mistake and get ready for the next beat. It is almost like peer pressure and I don't want to disappoint the metronome.

I think the next thing I want to try with the metronome is letting it be my rhythm section for my blues soloing. The metronome makes two sounds, a cluck and a bing. I could use the cluck, cluck, cluck, bing rhythm as a basis and try to fit notes in-between the bings. Or to resolve on the bing and riff on the clucks.
 
I decided to make some progress on my ukulele blues workbook that I bought from ukulelehunt.com.

I just finished with chords and strumming. Now, in section 7, we proceed to riffs and technique. The last parts of section 6 were fun. Section 6 ended with some less canonical forms of the blues: 8 bar blues and country blues. The examples used dim7's and it was a bit more nuanced than the regular stuff I had been playing. However I don't think I have internalized the principle that was driving the progression. At this point I am just playing it.
 
I was playing around with an idea today and I made enough progress to see that it will work; I just don't have the details worked out. I took the universal idea of the I-IV-V progression and wondered what would happen if I progressed between modes instead of chords.

the I=ionian, IV=Lydian, and V=mixolydian. Those modes work better on the first three strings (no shifting of home-row). So I decided on a low key, the C#. Obviously, that would entail the C# ionian, the F# lydian, and the Ab mixolydian. I can hear the rudiments. It works. However, I have to figure out how to make this musical. I need some structure and repetition that an auditor could latch on to.

Okay, I realize (or at least intuit) that all this stuff is probably written down on page two or three of some book on theory or composition. However, I haven't read the book and I don't want to read the book. For me, the journey is what's important. This is my recreation and the manner in which I have chosen to fritter away the hours until death overtakes me. I'm enjoying the process--even if by the end of the process I wind up writing four chord songs like Grace Vanderwaal. And that might not be as absurd as it seems. I read a study by a Polish scholar pertaining to the meter of the poetry of Euripides. It appears that as Euripides become older and wiser and presumably a more thorough master of his craft, his meter became simpler and simpler. Maybe like a snake sloughing its skin, I will discard over time augmented chords or dom7sus4's and evolve into I vi IV V strum-a-longs.
 
Thanks! I just got the Kamaka today! Check out my NUD post.
Good on you to have the discipline to not play it till you reach your goal!

My goal was to finish folding laundry & walk the dogs today before I played it... 1 out of 2 ain't bad. hehheh

"That's it, I'm done" is what I said after the delivery of my Kanile'a K2T. And then it's little cousin, a Kanile'a Islander MT-4, winked at me from a "like-new lovingly used for sale" ad...
Well, y'know what they say about UAS? It's true, my friend, it's true.
 
Seeing Mike's post up above somehow reminded me that I have never uploaded a picture of the kamaka. Here it is its natural habitat of my library:

IMG_0550.jpg

I really like my kamaka, and it only highlights my lack of enthusiasm for the baritone. The baritone is only an inch or two longer than the kamaka but it is riddled with issues like finding strings that work, buzziness, big frets, etc.

At this point I think I am going to say that the baritone just isn't for me. However I am open to the possibility that maybe the cheap Lanikai baritone I have is not representing the baritone community very well. On the other hand I don't want to order a kanilea baritone to see if I will like it. I think I will see if I dislike baritones or just Lanikai baritone by going a bit south for my vacation in August and seeing the folks at Mainland Ukes. I just want to assuage my curiosity if nothing else.

I am now ready for the open-mic hootenanny at the next bluegrass festival: I can play "Hot Cross Buns" in clawhammer style.
 
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I haven't really practiced my clawhammer technique except to play a F-C-G progression on the A string. I have been focusing on more blues-oriented stuff. I have been making a study of the blues in Bb with jazz substitutions. I was going to say that it is really connected to my Eb mode progression, but isn't everything in music related? Yeah, the Bb is the fifth of Eb and therefore has that blues-connection, but I could have said I am toying with C# and it is really connected since C# is raised major sixth of Eb or the second of Bb, raised and majored.

Anyway, it is now safe to begin the warm weather activity of your choice. The calendar is mercurial and we cannot use it as our guide. Last week I wore a woolen undershirt to work; this week I am sweating. However it is officially warm weather now that I have played my kamaka on the porch.
 
practice pays off, after all. As I was making some turnip greens for dinner, I heard this jazz tune on the radio. I was intrigued by the sound. I grabbed my kick-about ukulele, my Lanikai baritone, and started playing the song. I went to the 7th fret because that's my favorite and started playing in D, or whatever the hell the 7th note of the 4th string is on a baritone. I only had to play the first two notes of the song and I knew the deal. This thing was just a fancy pentatonic scale. I knew the notes at that point. So today felt like a small victory in the war against my ineptitude.
 
As a coda to the previous entry, I was again able to use some skills. I was watching a video of a jazz guitarist discussing chord substitutions on a white board. He started with a simple I vi IV V; I could play that. Then he started adding some maj7's and minor dom7's. I could play those as well. I am doing pretty well, I suppose, if I can follow musically and intellectually a narrative on jazz. It was amusing to glance at the comments of the video and read all the people complaining about the musical theory. I am no adept in theory, but I know my way around a circle of fifths and I can read music (the notes, but not necessarily the nuances like the rests, accents, and dynamics) and I had no problem understanding the video. It makes me wonder just how impoverished some people's musical knowledge is if they are flustered at this level.

Other than that I played around with a blues progression in Bb that used a ii-V-I turnaround. I also tinkered around on the dotted frets of the E and A strings and found that i could play "El Condor Pasa" by using them.

I really need to stop goofing around and get back to my blues workbook and practicing my clawhammer technique.
 
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I played a lot today out on the porch with the kamaka. That thing really resonates and I guess it should for the price I paid for it!

There isn't a lot going on in my blues workbook. We're done with the chords and now the focus is on riffs. It is kind of boring, to be honest. However once I get through this section I can start putting it together with chords to create some stop-time blues. Obviously I could get bogged down in riffs indefinitely since there are so many.

I spent a lot more time practicing my blues scales modes. Since the ionian, dorian, and aeolian have roots on the first and third strings, I seamlessly moved between them. It almost sounds like I know what I'm doing. The only problem is that I am in essence improvising a blues solo that doesn't have a context. It all sounds good, and that's good enough for now, but I will eventually have to put this stuff into the context of a song. Maybe just playing over a progression will be enough.
 
I have been doing more of the same. I heard a Beatles song and I looked up the chord progression. I played it a few times, then I just started playing the melody. I was impressed by that. However I played it in F#. When I consulted my Beatles book of complete scores I saw that the song had 3 sharps, which would put it in the key of A. So at this point I can't say I have a good ear but I do have some ability of knowing when to employ a step versus a half-step in going from note to note.

I notice that I have been obsessed with double-stops lately. I like the sound; it is somewhat reminiscent of a European siren.

I have also noticed that I have been getting sloppy and not using my straps. This is less than optimal because then I hunch over the ukulele. It also means that I am looking at the fretboard. I need to learn to play by touch and not by sight, so that I can use my eyes to do other things...like read the music. Also the straps situate the ukulele differently on my body and I want to get used to that, in order to gain some muscle memory in my fingers and wrist.
 
Either a car or a tree knocked down a utility pole on the north side of town (reports from passers-by were mixed). Regardless I took the opportunity to take my Cordoba on the porch and play in the dark. It was good because I couldn't see. I am really much too much dependent on looking at my hands. I feel I am getting too far afield with learning a bunch of fancy stuff. I am going to go back and firm up my knowledge of the major and minor triads along with their dom7 variants.
 
with warmer weather, I've been practicing outside on the porch without any lights. It encourages playing by touch. As for substance, I've been practicing my triads and some of the blues modes that I don't usually play. There are three modes, which I call the lydian, mixolydian, and phyrgian, that have roots on the E string. I practiced those for a while. Then I started playing a progression of A-C-Csus4 and fell into a contemplative stupor.
 
I had been playing my kamaka with re-entrant tuning exclusively. I got my Cordoba out today. All the strings were perfectly in tune and it was a joyous reunion. That thing just hangs off me better, I can play the notes better. Of course I also heavily favor the linear tuning so that I can play all four strings when practicing my blues scales. It is still my favorite. Perhaps it is the strings. The kamaka came with, I think, D'addario strings. They are nylon. I find nylon overly large and clumsy. I am too parsimonious to change the strings just because I want to. I will be glad when the time comes for re-stringing and I can try Worth strings on it. Nylon is also very bright; I am more of a warm string enthusiast. However I bought the kamaka to be bright with its spruce top. Re-entrant tunings have their place.

Anyway, that's for the future. For tonight I just practiced my triads and for a long time I just fingerpicked a nice progression with Travis picking of C to Cmaj7 to Amin to Fmaj to G7 to C. It just sounds mellow and like I know what I'm doing. My neighbor was nearby and has different standards so I played the introduction to Stairway to Heaven in Amin for him to show that I knew how to play. The first measure doesn't sound as good as it does on a re-entrant tuning but I passed it off.
 
I have been busy with ukulele stuff.

First of all, I have been getting sloppy once again and just grabbing the ukulele to play it. When I do that I tend to tilt it upward and look at the fretboard while I'm playing. I simply must beat it into my head to use my straps. That forces me to play by touch. It also sounds better. The resonation is really amplified, especially with my kamaka which was resonant to begin with. That's what $2000 gets you: unparalleled resonance.

So I've been practicing my bread and butter chords: major and minor triads as well as major and minor dom7s. There are only a few that elude my memory. As of this writing it is the gmin7.

I am committed to finishing my ukulele blues book. Unfortunately I am already doing a lot of what the latter half of the book goes through: slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, scales, and improvising. However I am sure that going through it systematically will benefit me. Right now I am finishing up the section on riffs. Obviously the acquisition of riffs can last a lifetime, but the book gave 4 as a starting point. I was practicing the Stevie Ray Vaughn riff in a blues progression. The book played the C and F but for the G it played the chords since doing the riff would take it into the realm of the 11th fret which most ukuleles would struggle with. But I was "au contraire, mon frere"--I have a $2000 special ukulele that easily plays up to 19 frets. So I played the progression in G as well. That was a nice feeling.

Speaking of feeling, I sure will be glad when one of the strings snaps so that I can replace it with fluorocarbon.

I was listening to John Coltrane and he was using the "Spanish Scale." I started playing it and improvising with it on the ukulele. I noticed it has a lot in common with the 4th blues mode so I was just jamming around with those things for a while.

Then I slowly practiced some standard modes: the ionian and aeolian. The problem I have with those is again of my own doing. I learned them using my horrible ergonomics of holding the fretboard up. Now that I am using a strap, the angle is a bit different so that my fingers often stray from their frets. Again I really have to be dogmatic about using my strap so that I can re-train the muscle memory to accommodate this new angle so I can play fast again.
 
It was a peaceful morning, 3am, sitting on the porch. The moon was slipping behind a tree, someone in the distance someone was coughing as he smoked pot on his porch, and I was doing some stuff on the baritone.

I've been working on a progression in g minor (g minor, g sus4, c sus4, cm7, gm7, c7sus4)

I learned the nuts and bolts behind double stops. We all have heard Chuck Berry or Keith Richards play them and we know what they are, but I never actually knew which two notes to stop. I was shown to take a 7 chord like c7 (3433) and play the notes on the C and A strings. Keep the fingers in that position but move it up or down the fretboard. Fun stuff.

I have always been into viol music and people like Marais and Sainte-Colombe. Today I was listening to the latter and I really like his phrasings. They are longish and have the rhythm of someone talking in their sleep: there is coherence which devolves into mere morphemes and mumblings, and then to silence. I am confident I could play some of it if I could get some sheet music. That recalls for me the importance of notation. With tabs the player is at the mercy of some smart person who converts the music to tabs. Fortunately I don't need such a middle man. I can go directly to the source. For me that is important because it means I don't have to play ukulele music like "somewhere over the rainbow"; I can play whatever I want.
 
It was one of those days when I felt I was straying too far afield. So I practiced major and minor triads in vacuo, and then I played blues progressions in all twelve keys--in both the major and the minor.

I, of course, am going to delve ahead in my Blues workbook which is about to start introductions, which shouldn't be a problem. Since I am, without a few lapses of memory, on fairly solid ground with my major and minor triads as well as the major and minor 7's, I am going to expand my core chords to include add6's. My Chord Wheel indicates that add6's are readily interchanged with the IV chord and minor add6's with the ii chord. I don't normally utilize the ii chord, but I could easily remedy that by doing that old jazz thing, the ii V I.
 
Since I had alluded to it in a thread recently, I busted out my Oscar Schmidt. I know it is only a laminate but the spalted mango is actually very pretty. When I got my kamaka, I re-strung the Oscar with clear Worth strings. Those things sure are insubstantial. And not in a bad way. I mean it was like playing with cobwebs. I could easily bend those strings up a whole step. I plugged into my amp and played around. By turning the amp to the wall and not getting near it, I could turn the volume up to 4 without feedback--and that's with gain, overdrive, and distortion. It was gloriously loud. I had just started to use my brass slide when I got quite an evil eye from my wife (she has a migraine). I thought it would be better to go outside for a while.

So I went outside with my kamaka and practiced major add6 chords and I just played slowly some ionic and aeolian modes just to burn the pattern into the muscles.
 
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I have always been into viol music and people like Marais and Sainte-Colombe.... I am confident I could play some of it if I could get some sheet music.

My husband is a bass viol enthusiast and plays a lot of Marais and Sainte-Colombe. A lot is available free from Imslp, e.g. Sainte-C's Suite in G minor. Enjoy!
 
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