my ukulele progress

[Renaissance-Man]

What I have been doing is working with the shave/haircut motive. Since I play in E, that's EBBC#BD#E. I have been avoiding the final E because it is the resolution of the phrase. I stop on the D# which is the leading tone to E, but I then disrupt the resolution by various ways. I'm not sold on any of the methods.

1. Move from the D# to a 7-3-6 which is a darker version of a minor 2-5-1. Patently that's just a D#-G#-C# progression with a clave rhythm.
2. Move from the D# to a dive-bombing D#dim7 arpeggio
3. from either #1 or #2, transition into some dulcet improv with the dominant diminished.
4. big finish starting on the E @ the 16th fret fret and ending with the D# on the 18th and the E on the 19th fret. That's why I always insist on 19 frets for my ukuleles. I like the highest note to be an E that I can easily slide up to for a high-note resolution.

I like what you're doing with this. Not necessarily the composition, but the way you like to riff on a musical theme. You will reach your intended musical destination, because you're taking the right path. As far as I know, you may already be where you wanted to go. It seems that way.

You've mentioned clave a couple times now, in the context of a pattern. The word has personal meaning, as I play claves, as in the two wooden dowels. Central Park has a long standing drum circle, that meets every Sunday. We always make a stop there, anytime we have an outing in Manhattan on a Sunday. For example, the first Sunday in November is the Marathon. We get to Central Park early to cheer the first finishers in the three main categories, then cut across the park to visit the Museum of Natural History. Afterwards, we head for the drum circle, claves at the ready. I take in the rhythm for a few minutes to get the feel and direction of the jam. Then, I unobtrusively join the fray. Now, here's the best part, and the one closest to your musical heart. In time, when I've been accepted, I'll influence the rhythm and gradually shift the beat in a new direction. It's like I'm a pebble thrown into a river, creating a new eddy; a new direction to the flow. It's gratifying. I love it.

 

[ripock]

I know what you're talking about even though I haven't been to a drum circle since circa 1987. I remember thinking of it as more mystical because you're playing one thing, you zone out, and then you're playing something different. I admit it is as you say, someone plays a little outside the pocket and others get attracted to that and then others still. However I never thought about it like that; I more passively just floated on the wave.

 

[Down Up Dick]

The Drum Circle stuff sounds very interesting, I really like rhythm. A long while back I took up the snare drum to improve my somewhat plodding sense of rhythm. I dunno if it helped, but I surely enjoyed the exercises. I enjoy listening to Scottish Pipe Bands and Drum and Bugle Corps and Fife Bands and like that. Rhythm is very important when I’m whistling on my daily walks.

I‘ve heard of Drum Circles before, but, then, it sounded kinda dumb. However, what you guys are talking about stirs a nerve in my music box.

 

[Renaissance-Man]

The Drum Circle stuff sounds very interesting, I really like rhythm. A long while back I took up the snare drum to improve my somewhat plodding sense of rhythm. I dunno if it helped, but I surely enjoyed the exercises. I enjoy listening to Scottish Pipe Bands and Drum and Bugle Corps and Fife Bands and like that. Rhythm is very important when I’m whistling on my daily walks.

I‘ve heard of Drum Circles before, but, then, it sounded kinda dumb. However, what you guys are talking about stirs a nerve in my music box.

Hey,
It's really not dumb at all, although, like with ukulele, you'll find a spectrum of ability and knowledge at a drum circle. As with ukulele, you'll also find an abundance of people on the internet who teach the fundamentals. I own too many percussion instruments, but I enjoy the pursuit. I just recently bought a flat cajon, so I can take it along with guitar or uke. It's about the size of an average book. Unlike a drum circle, where the rhythms are rarely in any meter we play with ukulele, the cajon is usually used to emulate a drum kit.

Addendum:
I'm adding a copy of an obituary of my beautiful friend, Dorothy. She died of breast cancer at 56 years old. She loved all forms of music, but I remember her best for her kind gentle way. She headed a drum circle. There are none as talented as her.

Dorothy was a professional pianist who started her career at the age of 12. She continued to pursue her passion and graduated from The Berklee School of Music. Dorothy was an extremely talented singer, songwriter, sound healer, drum circle facilitator, teacher, harpist, loving family member and friend.
Dorothy Sikora

 

[Down Up Dick]

I think I’ll look around and see what I see. I usta have some Bongos. They’re probably buried in the garage. I never played them much. They were just a souvenir from Tijuana (?), Mexico.

 

[ripock]

I think I’ll look around and see what I see. I usta have some Bongos. They’re probably buried in the garage. I never played them much. They were just a souvenir from Tijuana (?), Mexico.

As a non-percussionist, my experience was I just showed up and followed along with what the room was doing. And I guess it is kind of goofy as all hootenannies appear from the outside. But once you just join in and become sincere, everything else follows. It was fun but it became quite warm with a roomful of people exercising their arms.

 

[Down Up Dick]

That exersize’ll getcha every time. It grows on me when I can’t make my Classical Guitar speak as it should.

 

[ploverwing]

But once you just join in and become sincere, everything else follows.

Well heck, if that isn't a metaphor for life, I dunno what is.

On drumming: I played an introductory level West African djembe (and a little bit of doundouns) for a couple of years, and there is nothing like grooving a polyrhythm in a group and have someone who knows what they're doing riff and drive the direction. It's amazing. I miss it.

 

[ripock]

There's an interesting thread going on about your preferred ukulele size. It is interesting because it is predicated on how you conceive of your relationship to the instrument. If you're a singer, all you need is a set of first position chords to accompany you and your voice does all the heavy lifting in terms of dynamics and melody.

I don't sing and I consider myself a soloist. Therefore I need all the notes I can get to make melodies. That being said I have never really felt that only having 4 strings has ever hampered me with chords. If you ever watch piano players, they have 10 fingers and they could play 10 notes at once. But they don't because anything above 4 notes or so sounds muddy. It reminds me of when I was 18 with my first kitchen. I had a spice rack and I used all spices in all dishes at all times. But everything just became a primordial soup with no real flavor. If you have more than three flavors or so, there is no flavor. I find that true with chords as well.

So I have never wanted a wider fretboard although I like having a longer fretboard. I'm out of time right now, but I'll try to expand on what i'm doing a little later.

 

[ripock]

I had a rather meaty lunch. I seared a porterhouse steak (about 20 seconds per side in a smoking skillet). Atop it I placed 2 fried eggs. And atop that I made an ad hoc velouté sauce. I had made some bacon for my wife's big Saturday breakfast. From that I had about 0.25 cup of bacon grease. I put that in a pot with 1 chopped shallot and then I whisked in a commensurate amount of garbanzo flour. After a while I spooned in some of my lamb stock. A good time was had by all...at least all that mattered.

 

[Down Up Dick]

Ahhh, I just remembered! I’ve got a Belly Dancer drum that I got in Turkey. The Dancer didn’t come wid it— shucks. I’ve got a book for it too! How ‘bout dat! Maybe I’ll dig it up and check it out.

 

[ripock]

I am struggling to melodize off the G# in the E dom. dim. scale. at some point the scale doesn't have the notes I want. It is funny how that happens. I am going to have to abandon the intellectual framework which I am using and go chromatic and get the note that's in my head.

For dinner, my goal was to clear out as many tupperware containers from the fridge as possible. So I am roasting rutabagas, making hot salad with green chard, frying salmon. I tried using my serrated knife. It didn't work so well with chopping rutabagas; it seemed to veer off to the side. However, it went through the chard as if it were butter. I am learning its proclivities. As for the hot salad, I am adding some kalamata olives to my usual coconut oil, mustard, and lime juice because two anniversaries ago, we were having a celebratory restaurant outing and my wife had a salad with olives in the dressing. I'll see if she likes me dressing as well.

 

[ripock]

For the second time this week I had a soup made from my lamb stock. It was essentially onions, mushrooms, roasted potatoes, stock, and seasoning. It was good but heavy. I forgot that I also put jasmine rice in it because I am trying to get rid of the jasmine rice I bought.

Musically I was playing arpeggios because I read somewhere on the forum that people shuddered to ponder playing scales on an instrument like the uke as opposed to something linear like a keyboard. And it is harder in a way because there isn't a graduated movement from string to string. I can do it; I do it everyday. But I tried doing some arpeggios--something I am not very well-versed in. I just picked a minor 13 chord and I can do it but it isn't pretty. By that I mean there isn't a nice pattern. You just have to know your notes and go to them. This is a considerable amount of shifting. For example I did the Em13 arpeggio and I know the notes: E G B D F# A C#. So I can play the E and then go where's my G, where's my B, et c. So it is possible and it takes some cogitation, and it isn't as symmetrical as it is on piano.

 

[ripock]

I've noticed that there's some new blood in the forum. That's good but what's better is the forum's stance with them. Throughout my life I have been involved in many online communities since circa 1995. In the past the youngbloods would start posting and the crusty old-timers would say "read the FAQ" or "use the search function" because new people asking the same old questions seems to trigger the established denizens. Around here the newbies ask the same old questions and get the same old (and true) answers. But there is always a nuance in the newest round of questions and answers, so I think it is a good thing.

 

[ripock]

I took some lamb down from the freezer to thaw and I think I'll just make a shepherd's pie. I don't know what I'm going to do but it isn't rocket science: lamb and vegetables, topped with mashed potatoes, and baked. I just have to see what vegetables I have and improvise.

I am also improvising with my m13 arpeggios still. Up above I mentioned how I was playing m13 arpeggios at the suggestion of the forum-at-large. I realize that I was playing a version of the 13 chord that no one plays. I was just stacking all the notes and playing them all. However when I actually play a 13 chord I don't play all those notes. Even if the uke could, it would be way, way too murky to play a 7 note chord. I always play the 3 (or in this case the minor 3) because that gives you the minor/major flavor, I play the 7b because this is a 7 chord, I play the 9 because the 9 is kind of the pass-key to more challenging chords, and I play the 13 because this is a 13 chord.

Those arpeggios have the beginnings of a routine since the one and the nine are always on the same string. The big challenge for the uke is arranging the notes so that they ascend. The uke uses whatever voicing is available but arpeggios sound nice when they move in an orderly fashion. So sometimes you cannot just play the notes in order because they are coming from different octaves.

 

[ploverwing]

Around here the newbies ask the same old questions and get the same old (and true) answers. But there is always a nuance in the newest round of questions and answers, so I think it is a good thing.

Thanks riprock - we newest mods feel that conversation and discussion have value in their own right, so it's nice to see that opinion shared at least in one other member We also understand that there is a wide spectrum of appreciation on this (and other!) topics related to forum management & protocols, but I really like the welcoming vibe that we've been running with lately in this community. It's good.

Do arpeggios have to be in a specific order, or is it just the fingerstyle use of a chord in whatever note/fingering order you're feeling like riffing on?

 

[ripock]

here's my view on arpeggios. When I was a kid I loved played arpgeggios. Playing 1 3 5 1 3 5 1 3 5 1 3 5 3 531 5 3 1.

But that was on woodwind instruments. If you just play on the uke left to right or right to left, the intervals aren't so regular. Some times the notes bounce between octaves because with the uke, beggars cannot be choosers. So as a uke player you can either alter your notes so that you mimic the piano or other orchestral instruments. Or you can say screw it. This is the uke and this is how we do it!

 

[ploverwing]

Or you can say screw it. This is the uke and this is how we do it!

Yeah! Ukes rule!

 

[ripock]

And what you're asking about is a gargantuan topic in my opinion. Music Theory is predicated on the piano. A lot of it can be replicated on the ukulele but a portion of it is not practical. So it is a big issue. "theory" should transcend instruments; it should be an intellectual basis that transcends the particular instrument...but it isn't.

 

[ripock]

I wanted to annotate one thing about my serrated chef knife: it pulls to one side. If you just let its weight do the job and slice, it doesn't slice perpendicular to the counter. I think it is the way the serrations are made. The metal is actually scalloped on the left and the right side is merely the back of the left side. So the knife pulls toward the serrations. I think I will be able to counteract that with some consciousness.

Right now I have my shepherd's pie in the oven. I used spinach and corn as the vegetables which aren't very traditional but it was what I had. I got fancy and put a design in the potatoes with a spoon. If I were a 14 year old girl I'd take a picture of it and publish it on my social media.

Musically I have been playing my Kumoi scale figuring if it is good enough for John Coltrane then it is good enough for me. It really isn't such a big leap in learning because the Kumoi is the same as the Hirayoshi I was playing previously except that the 6 isn't flatted. In that regard it is the same as the melodic vs the harmonic minor. The six is different. That seems to be insignificant but it is a big deal if you play in shapes because you organize your strings differently. Nowadays I try to conceptualize the entire frretboard as a shape, so where the 6th interval is located isn't so important because I'm not committed to a shape