Janebug
Member
I’ve been learning for about two years. I love to strum and sing but I’m not much on fingerpicking. My singing is pretty good but my strumming is , er, well, I thought it was decent till I recorded myself, and then I was horrified. Although I’ve been making a steady kind of progress, I felt a little bit stale in my approach. Recently a couple of new ideas made a revolution in my playing.
The first was Danno Sullivan’s “Strum like a Drummer” video which I caught on one of his “Free Friday” lessons a couple months back. I’m not sure how much better my strumming is but I’m having a hell of a lot more fun with it.
The second was a few weeks ago when my teacher taught me the blues scale on the uke. It was galvanizing! I love how the notes are all close together and the same pattern just moves up and down the neck for different keys. It’s great finger exercise – stay in the pattern and every finger gets a chance. I never considered myself a blues fan at all (just because of unfamiliarity) but when I found out how fun and comparatively easy it was, I began to enjoy blues improvisation. My cable TV setup gets music channels, and if I select the Blues channel, I can find myself improvising with the likes of BB King and Muddy Waters. All I have to do is find a couple of notes in the key being played, and then the pattern shows me the rest of the key. It’s doing wonders for my technique beyond strumming.
So I just wanted to say, I had no clue about playing blues but now I totally love it!! I thought I would recommend it especially to those who’ve never thought about it.
I don’t have a link because it was from a live lesson, but I bet you can easily find online instructions for the blues scale on the uke.
The first was Danno Sullivan’s “Strum like a Drummer” video which I caught on one of his “Free Friday” lessons a couple months back. I’m not sure how much better my strumming is but I’m having a hell of a lot more fun with it.
The second was a few weeks ago when my teacher taught me the blues scale on the uke. It was galvanizing! I love how the notes are all close together and the same pattern just moves up and down the neck for different keys. It’s great finger exercise – stay in the pattern and every finger gets a chance. I never considered myself a blues fan at all (just because of unfamiliarity) but when I found out how fun and comparatively easy it was, I began to enjoy blues improvisation. My cable TV setup gets music channels, and if I select the Blues channel, I can find myself improvising with the likes of BB King and Muddy Waters. All I have to do is find a couple of notes in the key being played, and then the pattern shows me the rest of the key. It’s doing wonders for my technique beyond strumming.
So I just wanted to say, I had no clue about playing blues but now I totally love it!! I thought I would recommend it especially to those who’ve never thought about it.
I don’t have a link because it was from a live lesson, but I bet you can easily find online instructions for the blues scale on the uke.