Rllink
Well-known member
I suppose that I might have posted this somewhere else, but I want to share it with beginners. I am after all, a beginner myself. When I installed my 8 track player in my old 61 Chevy back in 1966, the first tape I bought was The Jefferson Airplane, and I loved the song White Rabbit. Like many people who play the uke, I go to "The Daily Ukulele" and find songs from my youth and play them. In the Leap Year Edition, you guessed it, White Rabbit, page 390. When I first got my books, and I found White Rabbit, I tried to play it. Even though none of the chords are particularly complicated, I just couldn't make the changes. And the chords didn't sound right. But I kept it in the back of my mind, that it was there.
So as I've learned to play the ukulele a little better, and a little faster, I've become a noodler. I noodle all the time. I particularly like to noodle different fingering for individual chords. I love the very subtle changes in voice. So the other day I revisited White Rabbit in the middle my mindless noodling. It came to me, that regardless of what is in the chord charts, that when you start White Rabbit with the F#, the G is just a fret away if you just move the chord up one, then back one. Plus, you get that dreamy slur as you go back and forth between them, which is nice.
At this point, E7 to A is no big deal, but when you hit that little A,C,D,A at the end of the verse you have to get those fingers moving pretty fast. If you play the 2225 D instead though, it just seems to slide that one finger between the C and the D, and to my ear, that D sounds so much more like the song than the other D.
All of a sudden, White Rabbit is really playable. A discovery that has thrilled me so much, that sometimes I just grab my uke and play it through and then go on with whatever I was doing.
So what is the point? Other than bragging about how I can play White Rabbit. The point is that I think that beginners should not be afraid to experiment. Sure, there is a lot to learn, just going through the lessons, practicing chords, doing your scales and the like. Nothing wrong with staying focused. But I have had so much fun just playing around with it. I think that it helps me hear what I'm playing instead of just seeing what I'm playing. If anything, it helps me become familiar with my ukulele. I'm really having a lot of fun doing that. I hope that other beginners, when they get confident enough, do it too. And if you do, and when you discover on your own, something fun and cool, please share it. Us beginners need to stick together.
So as I've learned to play the ukulele a little better, and a little faster, I've become a noodler. I noodle all the time. I particularly like to noodle different fingering for individual chords. I love the very subtle changes in voice. So the other day I revisited White Rabbit in the middle my mindless noodling. It came to me, that regardless of what is in the chord charts, that when you start White Rabbit with the F#, the G is just a fret away if you just move the chord up one, then back one. Plus, you get that dreamy slur as you go back and forth between them, which is nice.
At this point, E7 to A is no big deal, but when you hit that little A,C,D,A at the end of the verse you have to get those fingers moving pretty fast. If you play the 2225 D instead though, it just seems to slide that one finger between the C and the D, and to my ear, that D sounds so much more like the song than the other D.
All of a sudden, White Rabbit is really playable. A discovery that has thrilled me so much, that sometimes I just grab my uke and play it through and then go on with whatever I was doing.
So what is the point? Other than bragging about how I can play White Rabbit. The point is that I think that beginners should not be afraid to experiment. Sure, there is a lot to learn, just going through the lessons, practicing chords, doing your scales and the like. Nothing wrong with staying focused. But I have had so much fun just playing around with it. I think that it helps me hear what I'm playing instead of just seeing what I'm playing. If anything, it helps me become familiar with my ukulele. I'm really having a lot of fun doing that. I hope that other beginners, when they get confident enough, do it too. And if you do, and when you discover on your own, something fun and cool, please share it. Us beginners need to stick together.
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