My thoughts on my progress learning "The Unknown"

Bob Bledsoe

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I'm about 1/4 of the way into learning Kalei Gamiao's "The Unknown" (under Dominator's amazing video tutelage). Here are my thoughts so far:

1. I sound EXACTLY like Kalei - if he were playing with leather falcon gloves and also had some sort of temporary brain damage.

2. When I'm done with all the tutorials, this four and a half minute song in my hands should come in at just under half an hour.

3. Get ready for a very long cover video somewhere around July 2013.

Hope you all are doing as well as I am with it.
 
That's sounds about how I'm progressing with Aaron Keim's (and others') clawhammer ukulele tutorials. I'm making progress...... slowly. Very slowly..... But there is progress. Hopefully we'll get there eventually....
 
More power to you! I was fortunate enough to see Kalei perform this live at NAMM a few weeks ago, just amazing. I was tempted to give it a try after seeing Dom's tutorials, at least the intro seemed feasible, but that killer strum... pretty daunting stuff for me. You're to be congratulated even to attempt it, keep on strumming, and keep us posted on the progress.
 
Bob, kudos to you for even going there... I could no more contemplate even attempting it than I could chopping off my right hand.

Happy days bro, bring on July 2013(he he...that's a pretty funny post mate :biglaugh:)
 
Thanks guys! My thought in learning uke is if I try to tackle songs that are way too advanced for me, it'll move my progress along. It's worked alright so far. I'm in no rush on this one but it's a great course in right hand technique.
 
but that killer strum... pretty daunting stuff for me.

Doug, thing is you really don't have to have a right hand strum like Kalei to play this song and make it sound good. The chords used are not all first position chords but they are not really difficult chords at the same time. The melody is such that you can also play the song much slower than Kalei does and it still sounds fantastic. And, if necessary you can eliminate that entire section of stretches toward the end and it will still sound like a complete song.

I've been buried at work and have not had a chance to record the next couple sections. Hopefully this weekend.
 
Doug, thing is you really don't have to have a right hand strum like Kalei to play this song and make it sound good. The chords used are not all first position chords but they are not really difficult chords at the same time. The melody is such that you can also play the song much slower than Kalei does and it still sounds fantastic. And, if necessary you can eliminate that entire section of stretches toward the end and it will still sound like a complete song.

I've been buried at work and have not had a chance to record the next couple sections. Hopefully this weekend.

Yup, what he said. Also, the Kalei strum isn't too hard to grasp - even though I still don't do it well, it's simple but takes practice.... Glad you've been buried at work Dom, it's given me time to catch up and get the first two sections learned.
 
Hey Bob, it's awesome that you're learning this song. I too found that the strum isn't "too" hard, just very knacky. I think the thing that makes this song difficult is the length and the endurance needed at the end. Other than that, like Dominator said, the chord shapes are pretty simple and it's really just about getting the music to flow correctly. Looking forward to hearing your cover!
 
Hey Bob, it's awesome that you're learning this song. I too found that the strum isn't "too" hard, just very knacky. I think the thing that makes this song difficult is the length and the endurance needed at the end. Other than that, like Dominator said, the chord shapes are pretty simple and it's really just about getting the music to flow correctly. Looking forward to hearing your cover!

Casey, your strum instructional is very helpful - thanks for doing that! Also, your cover is amazing... I'm nowhere near the end, so I have much to learn about endurance I suppose.
 
I must have listened to the song 100+ times in the week I learned The Unknown (converted to MP3 and loaded on iPod). It got to a point where I play the song forwards and backwards in my head. I always find it easier to learn when I know exactly what the particular song I'm trying to learn sounds like.
 
I must have listened to the song 100+ times in the week I learned The Unknown (converted to MP3 and loaded on iPod). It got to a point where I play the song forwards and backwards in my head. I always find it easier to learn when I know exactly what the particular song I'm trying to learn sounds like.

Hey man, your cover is incredible as well. You guys who can listen to a song and just figure it out are amazing. Well done!
 
Also, the Kalei strum isn't too hard to grasp - even though I still don't do it well, it's simple but takes practice....

Just to clarify: The strum I was referring to was not the Kalei Gamiao strum that Casey teaches in his tutorial. That strum is much easier than it first may seem and is probably needed in some form to get a similar groove (but not totally necessary). The parts I'm saying could be eliminated and still make for a great arrangement are the stretches starting at the 2:10 mark of the HISessions video. The strumming at that part gets a little intense through the 3:36 mark. The crazy fast strumming at the end starting at 3:51 could also be eliminated and you would still have a wonderful arrangement of a killer tune.
 
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