Ukule-Along: Abe Lagrimas, Ukulele Bartt, Jason Arimoto, Daniel Ho, Lincoln Kaio & me

Ukule-Along: Abe Lagrimas, Ukulele Bartt, Jason Arimoto, Daniel Ho, Lincoln Kaio & me

Ukule-Along at the Music Center, Los Angeles
July 14, August 11, September 15
FREE!

Hang loose and play along with adult learners just like you! Experience SIX different ukulele music styles – traditional Hawaiian, blues, instrumental, pop, Tin Pan Alley, and Latin music.

Exclusively for amateur musicians 18 years and older. Kindly bring your own ukulele and music stand. Limited seating capacity, your RSVP guarantees your spot for all THREE dates

FREE, RSVP REQUIRED BY JULY 9, 2012.

http://www.musiccenter.org/events/activearts/UKULE-ALONG/

Hi Mitch, thanks for posting this - there's been a lot of speculation among my ukulele circles as to what to expect. I get the impression this is geared toward absolute beginners, am I correct? Or would there be anything that might enlighten experienced players?

Don't know what happened to my reply, I typed it all out and then poof! Anyway, great to hear that the word's already out there about this fun event - you guys should definitely come out...if you pick up even just one tip or idea it'd be worth it for free right? Among the six of us surely there will be some concepts that are new to people even if they've been playing for a little while. Plus there will be some great giveaways so whatcha got to lose!

Already limited free time is what there is to lose Personally I'd rather be actually playing music than sitting in a room full of beginners learning the C chord.

I'm not going to call anybody out, but I've taken a workshop with at least one of the instructors on that list, who assured me that there would be something for both beginning and advanced players. There wasn't; it was a waste of time and money.

Sorry to be so direct, but it really would be helpful to know more about this in deciding whether or not to invest the time. There are a lot of "does anybody have more info about this" emails circulating among my uke friends, so really, people would like to know more about it! Which styles/instructors are on what days, for instance - if you can reveal that, we'd appreciate it. Thanks

We're all going to be there at the same time, all days. There will be 6 "stations", so instead of everyone getting up and moving around, we (the instructors) will rotate and teach our topic to each group so everyone gets everything. I think each lesson is 30-45 minutes. The idea was that we'd all use mostly the same chords, mostly in the same key, but teach different styles/songs.

Bartt: Latin music
Abe: Jazz
Jason: blues/reggae
Daniel: fingerpicking (I think)
Lincoln: Hawaiian
Me: Pop songs

My goal is that we'd all start paying songs right away - trust me, I don't want to be working on the C chord for more than 10 seconds either. It was my concept that we'd all be teaching a different style of music by showing folks how to build certain chord progressions choosing from a group of chords, with different grooves. That's the plan, hope that makes sense.

To me, the mechanics of playing the ukulele is easy (strumming, holding chords), it's just knowing what to do when, and that's what I aim to teach. I always feel that just learning a song doesn't teach anything - it's how do you put that song together and create/figure out new songs that keeps one's interest and allows them room to grow.

Hey Mitch, thanks so much. I've passed your info along to those who have wondered about it... knowing that there are jazz and fingerpicking focused sections has piqued my interest!

Update/correction: I was just informed (guess I should've paid more attention) that the first 2 events will be each teacher giving three 40-minute presentations. The third event they want to try to somehow get everyone all in the same place and go over everything from everyone.

Also: it's all going to be indoors - Disney Hall, Chandler Center, etc. Isn't that great!

600 people signed up! Are you one of them? RSVPs are now closed but if interested, you can call them for more information (213) 972-3660.

Did anyone go to the Music Center for the July event? I just found out about it and called the 213 # above and received a call back saying that the RSVP is closed. I was wondering if the event was a success. I guess the Aug and Sept dates are all closed as well.

I didn't make it to the first one, but several friends did and they all enjoyed it. The LA Weekly did a nice little write-up here.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who signed up for all 3 but end up unable to make it, because, you know, life happens. I wonder if you can call closer to the August date to see if there are cancellations?

Thank you so much Janeray for sharing the writeup. And I will give it a try to call again as the next date gets closer. Is this an annual thing at the Music Center?

Thanks for the link! Bummer that they call "Blue Hawaii" a Hawaiian song but oh well....had a GREAT turnout for what was a first-time event! Not sure about how to get into the subsequent meetings but like you said, perhaps a call closer to the August date would be good

Hey Mitch, question for you - I'm signed up for the next session and will be choosing the "advanced" group, but there are only specific instructors I am interested in. My friends who went to the July session gave them rave reviews! Will I have an option of choosing specific instructors for the next session?

And yeah, that always irks me a bit when people refer to Blue Hawaii as a Hawaiian song. But what can ya do

I went and enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed Daniel Ho's class session. It was also nice to meet him afterwards and tell him that "Pineapple Mango" (coincidentally the song we played) is my ringtone.

Mitch, I want to give a special thank you to your and your friends for taking the time out to teach this, it was a lot of fun. I was wondering...the packet of songs that we received, is that for the entire three sessions and is it universal to the beginning/intermediate and advanced groups? And if we had three teachers this time (I got Lincoln, Daniel and Bartt), will we have the other three next time so that we can experience all the teaching styles?

Janeray - I don't know but since you know who you like already, I doubt anyone's going to force you to go where you don't want to. The thing is, all of us are teaching the same lesson for all six groups (three in July and the other three in August). It's just that the lessons are tailored a little to meet the level of each group so I guess you'd want to find out when the teacher you like will be teaching the advanced group and show up there.

wahine - yes, the packet should be for all 6 instructors and the next time you show up, you should be set up to receive lessons from me, Abe and Jason.

If anyone on here took my class, I'd love to hear your feedback - positive only, of course! haha

Thanks Mitch! I had heard some folks talk about how they were put in groups alphabetically by last name and couldn't choose other instructors, so that had me a bit concerned. I've already been in workshops or groups with a couple of the instructors, and my interest is in experiencing new ones and not more of the same.

My friend who was in your intermediate group said really positive things about your session!

Went to today's session. You can read about my experience here.