Ukulele Freestyle

Hey everyone,

I'm actually just now starting to venture into the world of Freestyling in songs. Crazy, right? I know that other ukulele players can hear a chord progression and then shred an awesome solo. How would one acquire this particular skill?

Right now, I know Major, Minor, and Blues Scales. As far as soloing goes for me, it really just involves me going up and down on the corresponding Blues Scales. Is there any tips for someone just starting out in making solos from scratch?

Well, I dunno about me being able to hear a progression and being able to whip up something awesome to solo over it, but I also wouldn't consider myself that great of a ukulele player. However, I do have some background in jazz improvisation, which is essentially the same sort of concepts. You are headed in the right direction with the blues scales. In jazz especially, many solos are just melodies made by doodling about on the blues and other scales within the key of the chord. I should also point out that the method of improv I learned was very theory based, but I know that many great soloists don't actually know a whole lot of music theory. Considering the above, you have the right idea.

It may (definitely will) be helpful to practice your soloing. No one is a great soloist right off the bat, they all have put in some amount of practice. When I was learning, I'd find a recording of a progression and then play it while messing about over it until I found some things that worked well. I'd recommend that you do the same. Try to figure out some common progressions, and either find a decent recording, or record yourself playing the progression. Then just work at it, trying different ideas until you find some things that work for you. It may also be beneficial to listen to some recordings of others soloing to help get some general ideas. I couldn't really point you towards any great ones, but there are plenty of examples out on the internet to sift through.

So basically all I can say is to practice, observe and learn, then practice some more. Hope that was at least a little helpful, sadly there aren't any big secrets that will automatically make you a great freestyler that I am aware of.

Good luck!

This may be elementary for you but it helped me in understanding free style. I haven't really spent time on it yet due to other priorities in my learning plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aT6mCQO5hKk

The most important is based on your ear hearing. I suggest a way what I get. The trick is to hear how the melody go to the end?

1. Play 1 of your favorite easy songs (only 1 tonality) by CD player or mp3 player.

2. Try to hear out the key. how? what note does the song end up at? For example a song end up at D,so we know the song maybe D key. (D is your home)

3. Try to get the tonality. How? Try to find the main melody how to go to end to D. We call D as "1 " note.
If you hear it end up this way: 3 2 1 , it definitely is Dmajor.
If you hear it end up this way: b3 2 1, it definitely is Dminor.

IF you hear every paragraph end up this way: 7 i(high 1), it definitely is Dmajor.
IF you hear some paragraph end up this way: b7 i(high 1), it definitely is Dminor.

IF you hear some paragraph end up this way: b7 i(high 1), but finally is 7 i(high 1). It's still Dminor.

IF you hear "5 1". We can't tell it's major or minor, then you can try Dmajor scales and Dminor scales. 1 of the 2 will be only suitable 1.


IF you hear sometimes in the background there is 5->b5->4 it definitely is D blues.

If you find out the tonality. Then you can run "key center". Major tonality song use major Scales. Minor tonality song use minor Scales. I suggest pentatonic scales best. For a freestyle freshman, I suggest minor pentatonic or major pentatonic. It will be an easy starting.

Then, follow the groove and rhythm. Just try error (Sometimes you will careless play bumping note. Just quickly mute it and take a rest. ),and hear+feel+ respond. Try every possible when you hear any music. It may be from a TV program,a radio program, a television advertisement,A MV,or a video game background music. Yes, I think the best way is put ukulele in your living room.

This is some of my practices:


Although I repeat many times its original lick. (from 0:22) Others are my improvisation (oops some errors XD ).


In this video I improvised as a baritone melody.


I think this way is a good starting step.

MGdesigner brings up some very good points, you won't always know ahead of time which key is being played and his methods are great for learning and identifying keys. I'd just like to point out one thing. He says the key of a song will always be the last chord... which is mostly true, but I have heard plenty of songs that do not end on the root of a key. So, if the key is D, D is the root. If a song does not end on the root, it will generally end on the fifth. In the case of D, the fifth could be an A chord. Or, D is the fifth of Bb. So I would advise following his advice, but if something seems a bit off when you're looking at the last chord, try playing the root of the key that the last chord is the fifth of. If that makes sense. Good advice, MGdesigner.

Ah, and one more tip. Look at the first chord as well as the last. If they are the same, it will almost definitely be the key of the chord. If they are different, the last chord is likely the fifth of the starting chord. At least, this is the case with classical music. Plenty of songs today will also follow this rule, unless it is one of those wonky post modern ones that defy all the basic rules of music. Again, Good Luck!

Thanks all you guys for the great help! I noticed that this has a lot to do with Musical Theory. Any good books or videos on music theory I could take a peek at?

Allsixcolours said:

He says the key of a song will always be the last chord...

Click to expand...

What I say didn't mean it. What I say is based on the "main melody" not chord progress. What the key is ? It's based on where is the end "note" and how it end?

Trace the final Chord is a simple method. It works on simple songs. But as 12fretarmony wrote , it indeed isn't precise enough. Because final Chord may not be really "END".

For a usual instance: In A key 12 bars Blues ,the chord at 12th bar usually is E7. We call it as "turnaround",because we want use it to turn around back to first bar.

And more situation is modulation, I may sing a song on C key,but finally move my melody into F key with ending on F chord.

So I suggest to trace the melody. Check the last chord as a reference.

Playing scales is great finger exercise, but to develop your ears and hands for shredding, you should play melodies.

Learn to pick out the melodies to songs you know and like---some folks can do this by ear, many use tabs or notation. Play along with the vocals on recordings you like. Play along with the horns. You'll start to get a feeling for how melodies feel in your hands as you listen. Play a song you like, singing the first verse, playing the melody for the second verse, for the third verse sing the notes and play them at the same time, etc...

The more melodies you play, the sooner you'll get the feel for the which notes and patterns work with various chord progressions. As that feeling develops, so will your ability to shred.

Oh, and don't forget to melt the faces of everyone nearby when you shred.

A good start for a lot of rock is to play using the minor pentatonic or blues scale of the 6th degree of the root. I.e. for a song in G you would use the E minor pentatonic or E blues scales. Seems kind of strange but it works...mostly.

Again, this is just a starting place. This will give you a "safe" place to work from, and from there you can begin to add notes from the diatonic and even chromatic scales once you "understand" the song.

John

this is cool i am gonna get into this, some very good points and it all looks great fun, its one of the things my Eleuke was destined for

Heey! howzit going. the way i figured the art of freestyling was to take the first chord of the progression and use that first chord as the "key" of the scale. basically if the first chord is an A you use a A scale. just play around with the notes on that scale, and walah you could freestyle haha. hopefully that makes sense. ill use a vid of mine as an example. ohhh and you could find scales all over the internet and here especially. i personally use the scales on ukebuddy.com

heres a vid that shows me freestyling in the song ))



ALOHA!

Nice. It sounds good!

There is 54th GRAMMY Awards program today. I watch the live brocasting with jamming by me. I suggest that jam with radio,TV program,and even console games . It will help a lot for freestyle practicing.

I didn't hear these songs before. The song in 2nd video is hard for me to follow at the beginning.

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters said:

Playing scales is great finger exercise, but to develop your ears and hands for shredding, you should play melodies.

Learn to pick out the melodies to songs you know and like---some folks can do this by ear, many use tabs or notation. Play along with the vocals on recordings you like. Play along with the horns. You'll start to get a feeling for how melodies feel in your hands as you listen. Play a song you like, singing the first verse, playing the melody for the second verse, for the third verse sing the notes and play them at the same time, etc...

The more melodies you play, the sooner you'll get the feel for the which notes and patterns work with various chord progressions. As that feeling develops, so will your ability to shred.

Oh, and don't forget to melt the faces of everyone nearby when you shred.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll try and work on that.

Oh, and don't worry about that last tip. Got it covered.

I am sorry, today morning I got an email from youtube. The letter is about that Grammy org says I broke their copyrights. Although I believe I am in fair use, Grammy show is just in background with low quaulity limited length. I am the main part not Grammy. I just demoed freestyle improvising for teaching --> grab the key and rhythm,test some possible scales, then jam groovy real time lively.

Grammy is so big that I am too little. I am sorry that I have to delete the 2 videos. I don't wanna be a criminal .I am sad that Grammy organization which rewards music but suppresses music teaching.