My first uke

WythDryden

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So I just got my first uke today, and having never played before it's been a lot of fun. It's a Pono Tenor PTO Solid Mahogany model. I didn't get to play for very long because I had to work all day, but I've got Hotel California down, Grow Old with You, and I'm working on Santeria, though the chord changes are still pretty tricky for me.

My quick take on 'Grow Old With You'

Sorry for the terrible audio quality, I need to find something better to record with. Hopefully I can get some good pictures up soon, I think my Uke looks awfully pretty, hehe! This was done in only one take, so try not to be too critical (I only had between shifts at work to play), but I'd like to hear what feedback I can get from you guys. I've been lurking around the place for a week or two waiting for my uke to show up, and am glad to have found such an awesome and nice community. Thanks again guys!

EDIT:: After watching the video a couple hours later I realized how badly I was rushing, oops!
 
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Okay, now tell me you play guitar or something. No one plays that well their first day.
 
I used to play guitar a little bit a while back, but I wish I hadn't stopped for the mere fact that my fingers are sore now! I just want to keep playing my new uke, hehe.
 
welcome.

Ok, just so I understand.....you bought a Pono tenor having never played before..(maybe held a guitar once, but didnt really play it), just got it today...but had to work all day, so only played it between shifts....so what like 20 minutes max?.. and you are a slow learner, so you only have "Hotel California", "Santeria", and "Grow Old With You" down so far.....;)

I love it man!!! But yeah, good job on the vid. (There is a Forum specifically for Videos...that's where this should probably go). Regardless, welcome. :rock:

(oh wait, I just read that and I sound like a total a**hole - sorry didnt mean to. Welcome to UU)
 
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Ok, just so I understand.....you bought a Pono tenor having never played before..(maybe held a guitar once, but didnt really play it), just got it today...but had to work all day, so only played it between shifts....so what like 20 minutes max?.. and you are a slow learner, so you only have "Hotel California", "Santeria", and "Grow Old With You" down so far.....;)

I love it man!!! But yeah, good job on the vid. (There is a Forum specifically for Videos...that's where this should probably go). Regardless, welcome. :rock:

(oh wait, I just read that and I sound like a total a**hole - sorry didnt mean to. Welcome to UU)

hahaha =]

hes great for just a beginner. welcome





:nana:
 
Ok, just so I understand.....you bought a Pono tenor having never played before..(maybe held a guitar once, but didnt really play it), just got it today...but had to work all day, so only played it between shifts....so what like 20 minutes max?.. and you are a slow learner, so you only have "Hotel California", "Santeria", and "Grow Old With You" down so far.....;)

I love it man!!! But yeah, good job on the vid. (There is a Forum specifically for Videos...that's where this should probably go). Regardless, welcome. :rock:

(oh wait, I just read that and I sound like a total a**hole - sorry didnt mean to. Welcome to UU)

I've done more than hold a guitar, it's just been a while since I've played and I wouldn't really consider myself more than a novice really. Haha, and I had about an hour or so between shifts, and never claimed to be a slow learner, haha. I got the pono because I wanted a nice instrument and read a lot of great reviews on it.
 
It's in the thread about good songs for beginners, one of the members posted a link to a pdf file, it's basically a really big fake book for uke. It was the first song I learned, really fun chord changes and the only difficult chord to get used to was the Bb, at least for me. :)
 
Hotel California has a Bb in it? Where?

Bm, F#, A, E, G, D, Em, F# (or F#7 for the first F# but I'm too lazy).

Then the chorus is G, D, F#, Bm, G, D, Em, F#.

But to be playing that on the first frakking day. Jeez. And great taste in ukes btw! I think that's where the Pono sweet spot is!
 
Hotel California has a Bb in it? Where?

Bm, F#, A, E, G, D, Em, F# (or F#7 for the first F# but I'm too lazy).

Then the chorus is G, D, F#, Bm, G, D, Em, F#.

But to be playing that on the first frakking day. Jeez. And great taste in ukes btw! I think that's where the Pono sweet spot is!

The version I found goes: Dm, A, C, G, Bb, F, Gm, A

Then the chorus: Bb, F, Gm, A7, Bb, F, Gm, A. Must be different keys, hehe. And thanks! I love my pono. :D
 
lol, I imagine the one I have is just in an easier key, not the actual key they play in. It's still just as fun to play and sing along, but probably not the original key. Maybe I'll be able to get a video up soon...
 
I learned Tomorrow Wendy (Concrete Blond, if anyone remembers them), and it was awesome. Then I sang along, and it suddenly seemed easier. Usually that song is very very low for me. Then I played along with the recording, and for frakking frak's sake I learned the wrong frakking key. Ah well.

It's not the key that bothers me about the version you learned, it's the intervals. Some of them don't sound right, which is the annoying thing about learning easy versions of songs. I'm saying that as someone who always prefers the easy road. I think I've found an easy version, and darn it, it doesn't sound right. It's the A to C that irks me most. That's a third, and looking at the original key, that's not right, but I'm not good enough to correct it. In the original, from F# to A is a minor third. In this one, from A to C is a major third.

Splitting hairs, especially considering the real chord isn't F# but F#7, which I don't play. :D

It you've got bar chords down, the original key isn't too tough to learn. The toughest chord in the whole thing (for me), is E. I know I'm from the school that likes to avoid E on the uke, so maybe that's what the arrangment you found tries to do.

This is also from someone who found out recently that the key I learned Iz's version of Under the Rainbow/Wonderful World, is completely wrong. Youtube lied to me. It's not in C. Doh!
 
I also prefer to learn my arrangements in the actual key of the original composition. Transpositions in arrangements made by others aren't always done so for ease, though... sometimes the original singer transposed it to suit their vocal range, and depending on your ability, that arrangement might be more annoying to play than the original chord progression.

If it's in C, it's always suspect... easiest key on the uke for obvious reasons. Though I'm sure plenty of music's been written in C major throughout the ages. :D

By the by, the interval of A to C is not a major third. It's a minor third. To test this, play the A-C dyad on a piano or keyboard, then place a fifth over the root - E. Assuming your piano's been tuned properly, it should sound minor.

That's because "A-C-E" is A minor.

A to C# is a major third.

-Tom
 
OMG you're right. I just failed Remedlial Theory. Wow. I'd be that girl in the band where everyone plays C# and I'm playing C, yeah, that would be me right now.

And I'm the tool of a section leader who after a few months of one person missing the key signature AGAIN, would be demanding to know who it was.

So why doesn't it sound right to me? Then scratch everything I said.
 
So why doesn't it sound right to me?

Perhaps because, by your own admission, that C should be a C7?

That's not splitting hairs, that stuff's important! Either it's a C7 or it ain't, but the dominant seventh is a core element of the chord voicing. You can leave out the fifth, possibly the root if it's being covered by another instrument or sung, but that seventh has to be there or the linear progression of the chords is lost. Not to mention the general flavor of the piece.

Maybe when you're playing the original F# to A, your brain sympathetically adds in the seventh and it sounds correct to you because the arrangement is otherwise in the key with which you are most familiar - that of the original.

When transposed to C, the absence of the seventh becomes starkly more apparent.

-Tom
 
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WythDryden, did you have the chords for "Grow Old with You"? That would be awesome. THanks
 
I wanna [A]make you smile when[Bm]ever you're sad
[C#m]Carry you around when your ar[D]thritis is bad
[A]All I wanna do is [E]grow old with [D]you [A]

[A]I'll get your medicine when your [Bm]tummy aches
[C#m]build you a fire if the [D]furnace breaks
[A]Oh it could be so nice, [E]growing old with [D]you [A] [A7]

[D]I'll miss you, kiss you, [A]give you my coat when you are cold
[D]Need you, feed you, I'll even let you [E]hold the remote control [D]

[A]So let me do the dishes in the [Bm]kitchen sink
[C#m]Put you to bed when you've had too [D]much to drink
[A]Oh I could be the man to [E]grow old with [D]you [A]
[E]I wanna grow old with [D]you [A]
 
OK, this is the kind of thing that can really discourage some of us:D

I'm a real beginner on this instrument. I've been playing for about 3 weeks. I've practiced a minimum of 30 minutes on every day of those 3 weeks. I can sing Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue fine. I can strum it OK. I am not putting them both together yet cause I end up mangling both ends.

So far, that is my only song. So huge congrats on the increadibly fast progress.:bowdown:
 
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