my ukulele progress

I practiced clawhammer on my kamaka today. I also practiced all the essential chords (maj, min, dom7, min dom7). I have been getting sloppy and playing without the strap and the different angles are still a shock. I need to do myself a favor and quit playing on my lap. It just sets up bad expectations if not bad habits.

I also re-did my blue mode cheat sheet. Previously I had only earmarked the roots. Now I have each degree marked as well. My thinking was this: why only switch modes at the root? Now I can go from mode to mode...at least, I think I can. E.g., If I play, from the G string, a supertonic shape, when I get to the C string I am on the 4th degree of the mode. Now, instead of finishing that supertonic shape, I can immediately start, from the C string, a dominant shape, which begins on the 4th degree. I briefly experimented with this and there is the problem of getting watered-down. All the modes contain the same notes, so they all sound appropriate musically. There are no sour notes, but it tends to sound diluted or purposeless. I think the solution is in some degree speed and phrasing. If you do it fast enough, it just sounds like a riff. And if I keep the root in mind, I can punctuate the phrase even though I have moved from mode to mode. Okay, that probably is something for the future. At this point I have to learn to walk before I can run. Even though I have the capability to formulate longer phrases, I probably stick to getiing better at root note changes and then build my way up
 
today I practiced first on the tenor guitar and then moved on to the low-G ukulele.

Today's obsession was with the central four: major, minor, maj7, min7. Everything went well except for C#. Maybe it was because I was sitting rather awkwardly in a patio chair, but those first fret chords just weren't coming. I cheated and used the fourth fret versions.

Speaking of the fourth fret, I practiced the A-shaped movable chord because it had been a topic of discussion. I find I can easily make it until I get to the 10th fret and the G major.

I messed about with some pentatonic shapes, but I can't recall what I did--which is good. I want to get to the point where it is just spontaneous creation that comes and goes.

I think for next time I want to plan some sequences that I haven't tried yet. I think I'll start on a G-submediant (not in the key of G; starting from the G string) and come back on a G-dominant. The latter has a root on the C string, so that from there I could go G-mediant. The G-mediant has a 4 on the A string. As soon as I hit that four I could change into a C-submediant and then return to the root note on the C string.
 
I'm starting to see some bigger pictures. The time I've spent with my minor pentatonics is starting to have some wider applications. I was just playing around with the trite ii-V-i progression which is, in and of itself, rather boring. However if I fill in the space between the chords, it makes a nice little ditty. For example, for the ii chord, I'm using the minor dom7 voicing, the root of which is on the A string. After playing my m7 I can then noodle around with a G-submediant shape or a C-tonic shape. This is no doubt self-evident to anyone who has studied music, but I found on my own and it seems more significant to me because of that.
 
I've been a little pre-occupied with playing stuff I hear or see. In a dedication to a novel I read, the author ended the dedication with a measure from some part of Wagner's Meistersinger. It had come c#'s and F's. So I started playing around with those things.

It is funny, but I had written off the typical C# and I've been playing it with the moveable A-chord. Today, the first position C# chord just worked like a charm. Go figure.

I heard a riff from a stoner band, Glowsun. I played it in F (or whatever the hell it is on a baritone). It was a fun groove.

Then I played the melody from the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony. It wasn't too hard to figure out since I knew it was in A

I was chatting online how I would like a resource that would organize some elements of classical music that we could use for our own improv. Someone said, 'why don't you just play classical music to learn that?' Dude! I do that all the time and I do pick up stuff...but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't want some resources to save me time. In every other genre you can get it: rock, blues, country, jazz, etc. There are countless videos. However in classical music, there isn't much. And it is a shame. Classical riffs are so melodic. Neoclassical metal guitarists knew this . Randy Rhoads only plagiarized from the best. Anyway...so, yeah, I can play what I hear and apply it, but I want to go one step deeper and understand the principle involved so that I can use the concept in a very flexible way. For that, I would need to gather a lot more data in order to see the underlying logic of all the specific examples.
 
If you google "classical music theory" there are loads of resources out there. Gauldin's "Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music" seems to be recommended regularly. I don't know it myself - it's after my time!
 
If you google "classical music theory" there are loads of resources out there. Gauldin's "Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music" seems to be recommended regularly. I don't know it myself - it's after my time!

Thanks. This demonstrates perfectly the crux of modern research: if you don't provide the computer with the proper lemma, you don't get access to the windfall of information that you know must be out there. Now I just have to sift through it all to get what I want.

And what I want (this is a note to myself more than anything else) at this point in time is rather modest. Many of the 'classical music theory' resources are geared toward composition. That's not my aim. As far as I'm concerned, I have the complete Haenssler Bach collection. When I want a kick-ass composition, I know where to go. What I want is the ability to conjure up patterns to incorporate into my music, which I suppose could be broadly called Roots music although I am such a tyro that I wouldn't want to disparage any musical movement by saying that I'm an adherent.

Here's an example of what I'm aiming at. I played one of the melodies that I heard from the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony. I noticed that I could play it using the finger pattern that I use on the first string of an aeolian mode (index, middle, annularis). Now I have something that is similar to a banjo roll. I can play a minor pentatonic in the tonic shape on the seven fret, roll down to the fourth fret in whole steps using my Beethoven roll, and then from the fourth fret play a minor pentatonic in the same key but in the dominant shape.

So, it has been a good day musically since I took one step forward. I also finally put a strap button on my new tenor guitar. It was nice to have so much wood on the heel to work with. It is so big that I probably could have put the button in a fowling piece and shot it from across the room and still hit the right spot. However, I probably would have needed to re-tune it from the impact. The tenor guitar tends to go sharp, whereas the ukuleles tend to go flat. I wonder if that's a steel string thing?
 
Halfway home from work, my brakes totally went out. Probably one of my enemies cut my brake line. However I cheated his expectation by using my gears and my parking break to get to my mechanic and drop the jeep off. Luckily I was on a straightaway on a country road as opposed to the freeway which I could have taken.

I was wanking around with some blues progressions. I played around with an 8-bar blues as well as a jazzier version of the blues. The main difference was maj7 for the I chord, a quick change in the second bar, and for the turn-around which had been printed as two bars of maj7 I substituted a 2-5-1...or I suppose I should say a 2-5; the 1 is the first bar after I start over.

I found another progression, which I haven't tried yet, and it looks intriguing. It has some minor6's, three different diminished chords, as well as some augmented 7's. I can't even imagine what it sounds like, but I'll try it eventually.
 
I hadn't really practiced in a few days. My free time was occupied by reading two early Herman Melville novels. Don't ask me why; it was just one of those vagaries of intellectual life. It wasn't completely satisfactory. They exhibited the same trait that annoyed me about Moby Dick: the narrative is interlarded with these long excursions into tangential material. In the present case, it was ethnographic background on aspects of polynesian life. Next week I have to read a literary analysis of the Alexandra of Lykophron. I have to read it because I procured it on-loan from a library and it is due back on October 23.

In the meanwhile I am squeezing some ukulele into my schedule. On the linear-tuned instruments I have been practicing travis picking with some pinches added to the inside/outside patterns. In conjunction with the travis picking, I have been practicing some jazzy blues. Instead of strumming the progression, I have been travis picking them. I can do that well enough, but I still don't see how it is going to make my thumb autonomous so that I can improvise with a drone. However, I'll have faith and keep practicing as everyone says I should. The progression itself is nice:

I /\ | IV7 | I /\ | I7

IV7 | IV7 | I/\ | I/\

V7 | V7 | turnaround


The final two bars were just I/\. However I found a turnaround that I liked better. It was iii7, VI7, ii7, V7. But I didn't really like the iii7; it sounded so similar to the preceding measure's V7 and that just wasn't doing it for me. So I changed it to a V7sus4. That really set the turnaround apart. The rest I left alone because it is just a tried-and-true 2-5-1 and that is never out of line.

Wondering what I could do to pimp out that blues progression a bit more. I was thinking of playing some appropriate modes with the chords. The default modes would be a mixolydian with some of the dominant chords and perhaps a dorian with the minor dominants.
 
Hi, ripock!

If you play Travis picking or arpeggio for pattern picking like the figure below, we can not do them on ukulele.
When chords change, the first notes are root of the chord in travis picking or arpeggio. There are some exceptions but we can not do it on ukulele. G7 should start with G on ukulele but it starts D (red cross in the figure below). It sounds often bad and difficult to remember by ear.


 
Thanks ZZ. I had never really applied any thought to the topic, but I did have a vague intuition of what you're saying. I noticed the advantage of clamhammer technique in this regard because you get to hammer any string you want, so that you can choose the root note no matter where it occurs.

By the way, your avatar resonates with me. It reminds me of my HF-3L. However my Kamaka has geared tuners. I am obviating that discrepancy in my next ukulele. I am commissioning a custom built tenor with a long neck and friction tuners.
 
I took my poly-carbonate soprano with me to work today and on my breaks I practiced some in the back of my jeep. I mostly practiced clawhammer and improvising with the gypsy scale in the key of F. I have to say I do not like the soprano. It is too small. I am used to the commodious frets of my tenors, baritone, and tenor guitar. I also practiced a blues-curl in the key of A.
 
I took a ukulele to work to play on my breaks. I took my old spalted mango tenor. It has become, by default, my junker since it cost $200 and the kamaka over $2000. I hadn't picked it up for some time now and I noticed something. I apparently re-strung it backwards. I don't know how I did it but the thinnest string is the G string while the thickest is the A (tuned linearally). All the strings play the correct note although they are the wrong strings. The only problem is that the G string (since it is really the thin A string) is a little buzzy. I have to palm mute my strums to keep it from droning.

Regardless of that mishap, I figured out the melody to the second movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony. I also wanked around with the Gypsy scale and the mixolydian mode.

Alright, I re-strung my ukulele with the second half of the strings (Worth strings are so long that they actually make two sets). The same thing happened. Then it dawned on me. I am being so stupid. These are re-entrant strings and not linear strings. So I just ordered some low-g strings and I'll re-string the ukulele once again when the new, correct strings arrive.
 
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You get breaks at work? How did you manage that?
I had to retire to get breaks.
 
strings

okay. All my strings arrived--even some strings I hadn't anticipated. A set of guitar strings arrived with my new Worth strings. I vaguely remember a few months ago browsing guitar strings that wouldn't be too twangy for my tenor guitar. I must have put these guitar strings in my shopping cart and they remained there until I came back to the website and bought the Worth strings.

Anyway...back to ukulele strings. I don't believe in changing strings on my ukulele. As long as the strings are high quality, the strings they came with are the strings they keep forever. I do this for a few reasons. First I do not like changing the voice of my little stringed friends. I can tell which of my cats is meowing because I know their voices. I can similarly recognize the timbres of my instruments. And I like it that way. Secondly, unless you're some sultan in charge of a harem of odalisques, you have to compromise and accommodate in a relationship. You work with your partner to fashion an understanding. That's how it works with my wife. That's how it works with my Kamaka. Philosophically, I do not like the D'addario strings that came with the Kamaka. They are nylon, stiff, and hard. But those are the qualities that Kamaka brings into the relationship. Instead of changing the strings and impose my personality on it, I accept the strings, tolerate them at times, and flourish with them at times. I recognize these strings have certain qualities that lend themselves to certain styles. E.g., the stiff strings seem better for playing clawhammer. Thirdly, once you start changing strings, you never stop. Once you acknowledge that you can attain a better sound with different strings, you are always on the prowl for those holy grail strings.

Why the manifesto? Because I am anticipating my new custom-built tenor. I am getting a long-neck tenor built to replace my Cordoba tenor which is more of a long-neck concert. I need a bigger ukulele. So I am getting a long-neck tenor with a cutaway to be my low-G ukulele. Of course, once it arrives it has to have its strings. I want those strings to be brown Worths. That is the only thing that has ever been on the Cordoba and it shall be the only things ever to grace my new ukulele. However, I realize that an extra-long tenor might need special strings. Therefore I bought some brown strong Worths and put them on my mango tenor. I want to see how I like them.

I can't tell so far because it is still the breaking-in period. I woke up and the new strings had stretched three semitones away from where they should have been! My only impression so far is that the A string seems a little stiff, which isn't a good thing on the strings which most of my blues are played. We'll see how they are after a spell.

My plan is to play my mango and my Cordoba a lot to compare the strong and the regular brown Worths. That is unfortunate for the Kamaka. Especially since the Kamaka is my clawhammer ukulele as well as the ukulele to play around with Daniel Ward's Arpeggio Meditations.

Speaking of which I have only toyed around with the first meditation. The thing that strikes me about it so far is the way the chords in the progression morph. It seems to me that the chords change little by little, one finger at a time. I've elected not to follow Ward's suggestion and assign a finger to each string (PIMA). For clawhammer and Travis picking, I only use PIM and I am going to keep it that way. I am a bit narcissistic. It is all about me, all the time. So my question with this, or any, book is: how will it affect me and my improvisation. My hopes are that I will be able to ascertain by playing the examples how to play other things.

Here is what I have actually been practicing:

I have been obsessed with this little progression in Gm: Gm-F-Bb-D7-Eb7-D7. I am especially smitten with going from Eb7 to D7; I really like that sound. I discovered that I can finally play the Bb with a partial barre. I have always played it with a full barre across the first fret. Now I can play it with the partial barre as long as I lean all my fingers toward the nut. If I keep the fingers all straight, then some notes get muted. Anyway I have been playing this melancholy progression. Sometimes I will do something akin to a stop-time blues. I will stop the progresssion and for a measure improvise with a G minor pentatonic (I use the mediant shape around that G on the third fret).

Since I am by design going to be focusing more on my linear tenors, I fancy that I will probably do some stuff that is better suited to their tuning. E.g., pentatonic shapes like the Dominant or Subdominant. For some reason I also have a vague longing to get re-acquainted with the modes. Stuff like the Aeolian mode, the Phrygian mode, and the fully diminished scale come to mind. However, maybe I should also stretch myself a tad by also doing some stuff like the Lydian or mixolydian which requires some shifting of frets.
 
practiced with my linear tenors, as planned. Getting a feel for the strong vs. the regular brown Worths is going to be difficult because my Cordoba just plays so much better with its lower action and all. From what I could tell the strong strings are coming along well. The A string is really stiff for some reason.

With the Cordoba I played endless tunes mixing minor pentatonic (Ab) with Aeolian modes and the fully diminished scale. It is quite easy as they are all interchangeable. I also watched a video that advised sliding from one shape to another in order to side-step getting trapped in one shape. So I started playing the tonic shape of the pentatonic, but instead of playing the third note in the shape, I slid up to the C# on the 6th fret and played the mediant shape off that note. It is really quite ingenious.
 
Went back to basics today. I just practiced playing random sequences of major chords with natural roots. I did it without looking. The B is lagging behind the rest. All the rest were very quick, but the B takes some fumbling around.
 
I went to work early and practiced with my mango tenor with the strong Worth strings. I didn't practice too much--under an hour--because it was rather cold. However the interesting thing was that I didn't really enjoy it. It is interesting because it made me wonder why I do enjoy my Kamaka and Cordoba. Is it because I have a relationship with them? Is it the money? Have I spent so much that I am determined to enjoy them? Is it the fact that I have invested in them and that somehow has bonded us? Or could it be an increase in quality that the money has bought and which makes the playing so much smoother?
 
The temperature has dropped appreciably the last 48 hours. However I did still manage to practice. I took my polycarbonate soprano to work and during my breaks I practiced clawhammer strum. I am finding a few things beneficial. The first is the "head crush"

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgur...LPXAhXkyoMKHRrVCcMQMwhRKBMwEw&iact=mrc&uact=8

The thumb is always on the G string and by adjusting the width of the "crush" you can hit whichever of the other three strings for the melody. Of course, once the strum becomes second nature, then this silly conceptualization will be outdated, but right now it seems to work for me.

The second thing is the E string. I was not getting the notes from it as I was with the other strings. As I was hitting the string for the note, it seemed I was muting the string. I found that with the E string I need to be a little bit more aggressive to generate the force to get a nice sharp strike that drives through the string. Otherwise the string and the finger are kind of bouncing off each other.


I finalized discussions with luthier Rob Collins to make a long-neck tenor for me. It will be built some time next summer.
 
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I have been a bit pre-occupied lately, but I have squeezed in some ukulele. I have been obsessed with a chord progression that is the basis of a Tarrega composition that is on Sam Muir's blog. I haven't studied it to play it correctly yet. I have just been playing it with Travis picking and it sounds good. You can hear the Tarrega and it sounds generically classical although I am not playing it right. I will play it better later.

I have also been playing around with some open tunings and my slide. I use open A on my tenors and open D on my baritone because I prefer the strings to be root third fifth root. Obviously I could do any open tuning, like G, but it wouldn't have my preferred intervals.
 
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