My Lessons or What I have learned (so far)

I was asked what was covered in my lessons..
Here is my reply... hope this is useful to others that can't find an Insrtuctor.


Sadly my lessons are over for now till mid March.
The lessons I took were in 3 blocks of 8 wedensdays 1 hour each and were thru a local Folk Music School where they teach all kinds of instruments Banjo, Mandolin, Standup Bass and alot of others. My Instructor is a Guitar/Ukulele Inst. and Elementry School music teacher too.
We didn't learn alot of Theroy he said if we wanted that we could get it from a book!!! He wanted us to learn to play songs not scales he said!!!

We didn't do much in the way of exercises like scales and such, more of playing songs to learn different chords and strums and rythms and so on.
Much the way Aldrine teaches the lessons here.
We were givin a couple songs to work on each week we would play at the next lesson, then at the end of each 8 weeks we had to play a couple of songs in front of the other classes.

The first 8 lessons were using this book and some songs he brought in.
http://www.elderly.com/books/items/49-695832.htm

The next 8 lessons were from this book and more songs we/he brought in.
http://www.elderly.com/books/items/49-695949.htm

The last 8 lessons we worked on things like fingerpicking a melody line while strumming chords to flesh out a song and how to figure out where to add the fingerpicking parts.
See my post
http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10173

Trying new strum pattrens to find ones that work for a given song.
http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5889

We also learned what Aldrine was teaching in the
Uke Minutes 35 - C String Bass Technique
http://ukuleleunderground.com/category/ukeminute/

We also did some work on Arpeggio fingerpicking of chords "An arpeggio is when the notes of a chord are played in seccession rather than strummed".
Think/go back to Aldrines Jack Johnson "Breakdown" lesson the begining/fingerpicking of the song is the chords done as Arpeggio style.

Lots of great Arpeggio pattrens in the book "Exploring the Ukulele"
http://www.danielho.com/html/ukebook2.html
Some of it is written for Low G but that doesn't matter you can still play it High g.

This next block of lessons we are in charge of we are supposed to bring in songs we are having trouble with or styles we would like to learn/work on, should be intresting.

Hope this helped out, Please feel free to ask me any other ????

I am curious. I have been debating taking lessons for awhile now. I already have a repretoire of songs that I know how to play (granted they aren't perfect) my way. I have developed my own strumming style that I think is kinda unique (I can't strumm with a pattern) I just have to feel the song. I guess my question is, is how much did you know before you went. Your instructor sounded beneficial to me and I would have no problem learning a song the proper way. I just don't want to waste my time. So if someone has been playing for 2 years would you recommend lessons?

I'll jump in here and give you my opinion. I was the one who asked freedive about his lessons. I wanted to compare my lessons with his.

Yes, I KNOW that people can teach themselves to play the ukulele -- or any other instrument for that matter. Lessons just help make things a little easier. An example: I have worked very hard on learning "The Ash Grove" which Ken Middleton tabbed out. I played it for my teacher yesterday and she was able to suggest better ways to finger notes. This is good for 2 reasons: It helps with sustain (notes won't sound so short) and my fingers don't have to do so much work. Maybe I'm just stupid and most people can figure that out on their own, but I had no idea.

My teacher also yipped at me yesterday for the way I was holding my uke. I read here on UU all the time that anything goes, and I do sort of believe it, but in the long run I think that learning to hold my instrument properly will improve my technique and keep my wrist and hand from tiring so quickly -- also think carpet tunnel.

A good teacher is a good sounding board. It's not that you can't learn without a teacher, it's just, for me, better.

I played Trombone all thru High School but that was back in 1981.
That did help with the reading of sheet music but as a Trombone player we never did anything involving chords so that was all new to me.
One of the stumbling blocks I had was realizing that as a string player you could play a whole note as 4 quarter notes, in band that was just not done!!!

One of the things I have picked up on was that if you sing a song (which I don't) while using a strum pattren it works out but if you are not singing along alot of songs don't sound "right" unless you play "feeling" the song. (if that makes sence).
Alot of time I am strumming I accent certain notes and it seems to be a random strum pattren, like am am having the Ukulele sing.

For someone that knows what they are doing maybe 1 on 1 or group advanced lessons would be the ticket.

I have taken a couple of private lessons to one was to learn/work on the Rumba strum (a slow dragging Down, normal Up, pause, Up, Down, Down) rythm. The other was to get better figuring out the pinkie mute vs. palm mute and when to use it in Reggae songs.

One of the nice things about face to face lessons is being able to ask ????? and that is what made me do the group lesson thing. More people more ????? being asked to learn from.

I see a lot of folks pushing the internet lessons and not needing books but for me books are a must, you can take them with you and refer back to and study with out the internet.
Alot of things are "clearer" on a written page.

That said I HAVE learned so much from Aldrine and all the other folks here at UU and with out them I wouldn't have the understanding that I have, I even asked my Instructor and my Uke shop guy to clarify some things I didn't understand from here and the other way around.

A big thanks to everyone involved in helping me understand!!!!!!!

From a true music beginner perspective:

I had NO music background whatsoever when I started back in November. I guess I still have no music background...

Anyways, having an instructor was helpful for me to learn all the very basic things. How to hold it, tune it, what the parts are called, chord vs note, etc. All this can be learned in a few minutes, granted. But google "beginner ukulele player" sometime and then see how much time you take weeding through the noise before getting some of those REAL BASIC things answered. An instructor makes it simple.

After gaining some confidence in my strumming and chord fingering, the online tabs, songs, and information I found started making sense. In one regard, I needed to know what to ask in order to get through the internet weeds. So many players/instructors forget what it's like to be an absolute beginner, willing to learn, but clueless.

Now the table is turning. I practice casually every day, playing my six songs at least twice each. I still need to look at the pages. But when it comes to class time, my goal is to come in with questions on technique (can this be done more efficiently?), musicality (can I do something besides make the same chord changes?), or to show off something I figured out.

I think I have come to the stage where I've gathered up enough information and skills that I can cut down on the weekly (1/2-hour) lessons to maybe a bi-weekly deal.

There's nothing quite like having to face a teacher knowing that you haven't practice to keep you motivated. If I could find a couple of guys to jam with in my area, that would take my playing to another level altogether. That'll be the next step.

THanks for the info. I am a weird musician. I neither play by ear or by sight I kinda blend the two. I can't read music and Tabs are evil I only say that b/c I can't read them. I know that if I took lessons in some ways I could benefit but in some ways I feel i might be wasteing my time. I know I hold it correctly (Dad taught me how to hold a guitar when I was old enough not to drop it) but I know my uncle and his family hold a guitar different than my dad does b/c of their formal school training. I do want to learn how to play scales and things like that b/c that is what I am lacking. The only problem is nopne of the music stores offer ukulele lessons. I want to take lesson to learn some things that I can teach to my schools uke club. Maybe I'll try it out once and go from there.

This is really helpful. I'm kind of salivating over those books. What did you think of them? Would you actually use them if they weren't for your lesson? Like could you see a lazy ass like .... well... me sitting down and working through them?

The funny thing about the book from my first lesson, I got it when I got my Ukulele 2 weeks before I started my class and was already doing most of the stuff from it when I started my class. I still refer back to both of them on some stuff that I don't play everyday.

As far as learning the scales thing the Dan Ho book is awesome for that has long scale runs in it.
http://www.danielho.com/html/ukebook2.html
I work on those a couple nights a week but sad to say my brain doesn't absorb and hold/keep it fast enough.

As for reading tabs what helped me the most was sitting down with some 4 line paper (tab lines) then writting out the tab for a song now they are no problem to read.

I wish I had an instructor....

Heck I wish I just knew someone else that played the Uke!!

Harold O. said:

I had NO music background whatsoever when I started back in November.

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The only music background I have is whatever happens to be playing on the stereo behind me.

freedive135 said:

Alot of time I am strumming I accent certain notes and it seems to be a random strum pattren, like am am having the Ukulele sing.

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w00t! Rep points for freedive!

That's the most succinct way I've seen that stated, and I include my own stumbling attempts on the same point.

There are certainly some "strum patterns" that are good to add to your toolbox, but I've never understood the insistence on finding the "right" strum pattern for a given tune when just feeling it and strumming it that way seems to work so well.

spazus_maximus said:

I wish I had an instructor....

Heck I wish I just knew someone else that played the Uke!!

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How close to Atlanta are you? Where at in Tenn?

Howlin Hobbit- You make a good point. I play the song the way I feel it and for me that is the way that music is supposed to be played but i play with a theory person that insist in correct strum patterns. Of course while we play I have the smile and he has the scowl.

Thanks Hobbit...
but I have to give credit to Seeso for that, when I first started I was stressin on getting strum patterns right and I read in one of his posts to someone about "feeling the song".

For me there are some "types" of songs that "need" a certain strum pattern like Samba's and Rumba's otherwise they don't sound "right".

Lots of other songs sound like crap if you use "the right" strum. When I was first starting I picked up a Bob Marley song book that has the strum pattern for each song and when I would try to use them the songs didn't sound very good/right my Instructor explained it as

"Those strums are assumming you are singing and have the rest of the band backing you and a Down Rest Rest Down Rest Rest Up strum will never sound right by itself"