What new songs did you learn this past 2013?

I find it fun to look back and rejoice, and count blessings. What new songs did you learn this past 2013?

I am working on "Mary Did You Know?" (Mark Lowery [lyrics] & Buddy Greene [music]). But I don't know if I will ever really get the bridge down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U2G8wsbXBo

Hmmm. I have to think about this one.

"Russian Lullaby" Irving Berlin
"Dreaming" Blondie
"Ring Of Fire" Johnny Cash
"If" Bread
"Diary" Bread
"American Tune" Paul Simon

I"m sure there were others, but those are the ones that come to mind

I learned a bunch of Dylan tunes for a friend's show. I learned The Times They Are A Changin', Tangled Up In Blue, Shelter From the Storm, One Too Many Mornings, Heart of Mine, It Ain't Me, and Ain't Gonna Cry No More. I also learned some Christmas songs for the Chicago Ukulele Cabaret holiday show - Blue Christmas and Please Come Home for Christmas.

I didn't learn very many. Lets see...
Guava Jam
I FINALLY got Summer Camp finished.
TNC was close
And right now I'm working on On Fire and Tokada.

Hey Seeso its great to see another Dylan fan, the ones you've learned are amongst my favourite Dylan songs, as I have spent most of 2013 learning fingerpick tunes I only learned one song, a long one Bob Dylans Tempest 45 verses of it, that was a lot to remember for me.
Happy 2014 to all.

I would say I played a lot of tunes that were new, learning them exactly, not so much. But my seasons of the ukulele entries helped me a bunch!

I worked on lots of new songs (I rarely memorize chords, so maybe "learning" is not the right word for me). The major advance I made was working on The Charleston and a few other songs in Bb; I don't claim to play them well, but starting to strum in Bb is a big deal for me.

Ukulele Lady
O'Brien Is Tryin' To Learn To Talk Hawaiian
Banana Boat Song (Day O)
Shady Grove
Hey Good Lookin'
Surfin' USA
Buffalo Gals
I already know the chords and a few verses of these songs:
Home On The Range
Red River Valley
Take Me Back To Tulsa
and I learned a couple of instrumentals:
Garryowen
Larry O'Gaff (the first part)
...

O Positive Up,Up,Up thanks to uke4ia.

learned a bunch but the simplest, hardest to get the rhythm, was "should have been a cowboy"

Played? Many. Learned? Zero. I played and worked up a song sheet for several songs but I haven't learned any of them. So far, my uke enjoyment is best characterized by playing songs rather than memorizing songs. At best, I know only 1 or 2 songs both lyrics and chords without a song sheet.

Songs I've worked up song sheets for:

Oh Lonesome Me
The Weight
Angel From Montgomery*
Ukulele Lady
Flashback Blues*
The Promised Land
Help Me Make It Through The Night
Spanish Pipedream*
Grandpa Was A Carpenter*
Wagon Wheel
(I Want To Be) Seduced
Donald And Lydia*
Please Don't Bury Me*
Silvio
Twisting The Night Away
Spirit In The Night
Twenty Flight Rock
Everything Is Broken
Lullabies Legends And Lies
I'm A Long Gone Daddy
Bye Bye Love
I Can See Clearly Now
I Saw Her Standing There
Science Fiction Double Feature
The Lost And Found
Wouldn't It Be Nice
You Got Gold*

[*I went through a John Prine kick this year!]

I purchased my first ukulele in May of 2013 and since then have tried to learn a new song each week. The list is growing.

I'll Follow The Sun - Beatles
Piano Man - Billy Joel (with Harmonica)
Heart of Gold - Neil Young (with harmonica)
Mr. Bojangles - Jerry Jeff Walker
Imagine - John Lennon
Feliz Navidad
The Weight - The Band
Morning Hs Broken - Cat Stevens
Raining in my heart - Buddy Holly
Happy Xmas ( War is Over ) - John Lennon
Fire and Rain - James Taylor]
Danny's Song - Anne Murray
The Tide is High - Blondie
Michelle - Beatles
Up on Cripple Creek - The Band
In My Life - Beatles
Red Red Wine - UB40
White Christmas
Paper Moon
Please Come Home for Christmas - Eagles
Jamaica Farewell
City of New Orleans
Ticket to Ride - Beatles
Fly Me To The Moon
Bye Bye Love
Rainbow Connection
Something - Beatles
San Francisco Bay Blues
Ain't She Sweet
Dance Tonight - Paul McCartney
Hard To Be Humble
Country Roads - John Denver
You Won't See Me - Beatles
Kansas City - Wilbert Harrison
All of Me
Tonight You Belong to Me
Maggie May - Rod Stewart
Harvest Moon - Neil Young
In My Life - Beatles
When I'm 64 - Beatles
I Should'a known better - Beatles
Honolulu Baby
Teach Your Children
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Loves Me Like a Rock
The Letter - The Boxtops
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Last Night
Sunny Side of The Street
Sweet Caroline
Danny Boy
Midnight Hour

Great fun and excellent brain food for a 69 year old.

Regards,
Bill

I learned these songs while participating in the seasons of the ukulele:
Veracruz
It's Winter Again
Estoy Soñando
Nature Boy
Factory Girl
My Tin Foil Hat
Cucurrucucu Paloma
Love for Sale
Walk on the Wild Side
You Go to My Head
Lush Life
Insensatez
Friend Like Me
Superstition
Is That All There Is
Dorogoi Dlinnoyu Дорогой длинною
Fairytale
Lil Red Riding Hood
Night and Day
Sister Suffragette
Ever Since the World Ended
Lying in Wait
My Attorney Bernie
Being a Dad
Pink Cadillac
Basin Street Blues
Azalea
Fine and Mellow
Round Midnight
You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To
Straighten Up and Fly Right
Mood Indigo
Come Sunday
Technophobe Blues

7 months since i bought my 1st ukulele and these are the songs that i learned..

While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Hola Girls
In My Life
Here, There and Everywhere
Kiss The Rain
Castle In The Sky Theme
143 Kellys Song
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Aerith's Theme

Thanks UU!

I've been playing for over 5 months and just like my problem for almost 50 years with my guitars, I'm very bad at sitting by myself to learn. I did learn "King of the Road" on uke when sitting with a very accomplished guitar player friend of mine who has nerve damage and can't play anymore so he took up the harmonica after hearing me play one. We learned the song together, he on harmonica, me on uke. I really like the rhythmic strum I use with it.

I also play twice a week with the CC Strummers in Culver City, California, headed by Cali Rose, a very accomplished uke performer. She's provided us with a slew of music that we've played a lot. Some of my favorites are:

Ghost Riders in the Sky
Sway
Hanukkah in Santa Monica
Those Were the Days
Johnny Be Good/Chantilly and Lace
My Favorite Things

Every other week I play with the Westside Ukulele Ensemble, they're much more advanced, mainly instrumentals with multiple parts. Have trouble keeping up with their repertoire because I'm so bad at practicing:

Puttin' on the Ritz
From Russia with Love
Carol of the Bells
Eleanor Rigby
The Lollypop Guild

My goal this year is to take some of the songs that I am very familiar with as to chords & convert them into a chord and melody solo. This way I can take a basic song like "All of Me" sing the first verse and then instead of having to sing the verse again, I can just add a chord and melody solo. This way each song does not sound so repetitive.

Toward the end of the year, I heard an old recording of Chet Atkins playing "Jingle Bells" in his trademarked finger-picking style and I got a bug in my head to learn how to play it that way on the uke.

There have been two songs in my few short years of ukeing that I was able to imagine myself playing and then just make it happen, as if by magic. One was "Here Comes The Sun" by The Beatles, and THIS was the other one. I'm not sure how my fingers knew what to do, but within minutes, I was playing the chords and melody to Jingle Bells in that "chunk-chunka-chunk" Chet Atkins style and I couldn't put the instrument down. All through the holidays, I would pick up the uke in public places, at work, and at family gatherings and start playing this little arrangement almost effortlessly, as if I really knew what the heck I was doing. People complimented me on my playing and asked if I knew anything else...which gave me a great segue into -- you guessed it -- "Here Comes The Sun," as in "Hey, it's cold outside NOW, but pretty soon we'll all be singing THIS song!"

Anyway, I'm a mediocre ukulele player, but now I've got two showcase songs that I can fool people with. As for the magical way my Chet Atkins-style version of "Jingle Bells" came to be, I guess it can only be described as a Christmas miracle!

In 2013, I committed over two dozen songs to memory. I recently unlocked several keys to help me with song memorization. It's cut my learning time significantly. Yay!

Believe
Blister In The Sun
Blue On Black
Book Of Rules
Build Me Up Buttercup
Copperhead Road
Feliz Navidad
Five Foot Two
Hand In My Pocket
Happy Together
Joy To The World
Killing Me Softly
Kryptonite
Lips Of An Angel
Paint It Black
The Rose
Route 66
Secret Agent Man
Shama Lama Ding Dong
Smoke Two Joints
Stray Cat Strut
Summertime
Travelin' Soldier
Vincent
100 in a 55

SailQwest said:

In 2013, I committed over two dozen songs to memory. I recently unlocked several keys to help me with song memorization. It's cut my learning time significantly. Yay!

Click to expand...

What are the keys? I think I'd like to start memorizing some songs rather than just playing them for fun.

mikelz777 said:

What are the keys? I think I'd like to start memorizing some songs rather than just playing them for fun.

Click to expand...

I finally found the sheet format that works best for me. (I like lyrics sheets with the chords handwritten off to the side.)

I've also started really dissecting the why behind my problem spots in songs. (Common stumbling blocks for me are nonsensical or too similar words/phrases, out-of-key chords/notes, and wonky song structures.)

I'm paying more attention to the way the colors of the chords change at the beginning of the learning process. (I had been waiting until I was at a certain comfort level with a song to really start imprinting the color changes.)

I also practice/play a lot.