The Jumping Flea Workshop - Sydney, Australia

Hi All,

Went to a workshop with Matt Dahlberg last night, it was also a fundraiser for MS.

I arrived early so I could lust over the instruments and nick-nacks at the Guitar Factory and Matt was already there to meet us all so a quick strum later and the workshop began.

Now I have homework to do, three finger picking and the triplet for a start as well as finding and playing a different note.

If you get the chance to meet Matt or make one of his workshops/gigs, do yourself a favor and get there.

What the hell??! How did i not know about this!



Argh!

Yeah, I was there too, one of the 5 gals in the front row - excellent view!
I was fresh back from the inaugural Cairns Ukulele Festival - it was nice to see Matt again.
And he was great - he gauged the playing level of the room, chose 3 or 4 different things to work on - some right hand, some left hand. He dabbled in just a bit of theory, mainly to do with the names of all the notes on the fretboard, and their alternatives eg. A# =Bb. That had some folks a bit challenged. No problems here. He worked progressively through the practice of triplets, plucking in a few ways, etc. And he encouraged us with every uke practice to try to replace a chord we are currently using with a chord at a different location on the fretboard, and then build from here more and more each day. The clear message out of all that is ... surprise surprise - the value of ... practice. One more thing - the value of practicing ... in a good way, not repeating a bad habit that will take time to undo. (He spoke from 'bitter' experience) I asked him if he would be so kind as to play a tune, and he did. Just posted to YT - enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5Bsh6yNEIQ&feature=player_embedded