Jazzy Uke is great
Hi,
I've been working with Glen Rose's books for a year now and I can't rave about them enough. I find the chord forms easy but I guess it does take a while but not that long.
The great thing is that you can use these forms to improvise and to compose. I struggled with guitar and even wrote some halfway decent songs but my color palette was limited to majors, minors, and sevenths with an occasional minor seventh. I listened to and liked much more complex music.
One day three years ago in a music store I picked up a Kala baritone uke and it was love at first touch. My small fingers could reach so much farther and it had a nice jazzy sound. Two years later I stumbled upon Glen Rose's book and I felt I had stumbled upon a treasure trove and still do. I've memorized most of the songs in Glen's three books and I've attended three of his workshops. I get together with some friends who can really sing and I accompany them on these songs. I am finally thought of as a musician.
Glen's a great pianist. I love his Cole Porter cd and listen to it for sheer pleasure. He's not as good of a uke player but he is above all a musician. My favorite of him playing is his version of Misty. It really shows what he can do. What he plays is musical. Every note has subtlety. If you listen to him play it's not the continual strumming of the uke that can get on people's nerves. It's much more jazzy, like a jazz guitarist. I love Herb Ohta's use of melody notes and chords.
A couple things Glen has encouraged me to do are:
Teach yourself to read. It opens up vistas. I recommend getting Curt Schellar's book on basic reading. Then get some book of songs that you like and start playing the melodies. It really helps to have a low G. I play tenor and concert. Tabs are good but notes are better.
Next get Ukulele Breakthrough which I'm working with now. It's a great little book that gets you playing your standard and more advanced chords up and down the neck.
To those who have read my comments, I'll admit I like jazz but I'm also a fan of Beloff's and Sokoloff's Blues and Bluegrass books. Lyle Lite is great. I 've also spent three years working with Mark Kailana Nelson's fingerpicking book. It's fantastic. There's a lot of great material out there.
Glen Rose's jazzy uke teaches you great songs and teaches you how to have success with jazz fake books.
Long live the uke!
