my ukulele progress

Life has been a bit of a downer lately. With the pandemic running its course and more people coming back into the public sphere, I realize I had forgotten what douches most people are. And the book that I am reading is most unsatisfying. And I wasn’t able to chat about Flight ukuleles. By the way, why are they endorsing an advanced beginner as the face of their company? I also wonder what goes into that process. Does the person seek out the company and make a pitch?

Anyhow, I felt like transitioning toward something new since the status quo is leaving a stale taste in my mouth.

Naturally I thought of the Phrygian mode. It was natural to me, an unendorsed roots musician, because I had recently been playing the Neapolitan scale which is just the Phrygian mode with its seventh interval raised a step.

So just to make a plan so that my practice is more focused, here’s what I remember the harmonization of the Phrygian mode:

I bII bIII iv Vdim bVI bvii

In the key of E that would translate to

Em F G Am Bdim C Dm

It is odd, but when I look at that progression, it seems to lack something. There are no black keys at all. I know it is all a matter of luck and all the chords will sound good...but I miss seeing the sharp sign.

Anyway, that’s my progression and I’ll figure out which chord qualities to add and which inversions to use.

I also want to add one fly to the amber. I wonder if scales that are visually similar can work together musically. What I mean is that Phrygian mode and the Dorian #11 have the same note pattern, but on different strings.

Let me try to clarify. No, on second thought, let me not. I will play around with it and report back if there is anything in it.
 
I got home just as my wife was going to bed, so I couldn't explore too much.

I played around with this:

Em6 Dm9 Bdim Cmaj7
 
I'm still struggling with the Phrygian modal harmonization. Struggle, perhaps, is an inadequate word I am not at all resentful or frustrated with the hurdles placed before me.

One of the bigger challenges of composing with the Phrygian is the fact that the I chord is minor while some of the other chords are major. I know that that sounds stupid because all keys and modes have major and minor intervals. But in this case there is a different vibe. To my ear, the I chord is mellow and the major chords are brash. Accordingly when you try to turnaround from the major to the minor chord, it is kind a let-down. It feels almost like a petering-out of sound rather than a renewal. I found that easing back into the I chord had some results. Here's what I found pleasing

Em Am F G C C (different voicing) C add9 Am Dm Bdim Em

However it is the Am which seems to feel like the tonic. When I return to it, there seems to be a bit of a sense of closure and a sense of "okay let's do that again." Maybe I should just go with the feeling and, at that point, just jam out that roundabout from the Am to the Cadd9.

Yet I feel there are some options I should explore. To wit, pitch. There is, I know from my study of pentatonics, a psychology of pitch. Blues solos start low in pitch and end up high on the fret board. What if I alter my chord voicings to resemble that? I could move chromatically upward in pitch. Then, when I re-started at a low E minor chord, perhaps there would be a sense of renewal.

Or perhaps I could affect the sound with chord qualities. I am definitely going to experiment.
 
I wasn't feeling very strummy today, so I worked more on picking. I was taking advantage of both the linear and re-entrant patterns. Let me try to explain my idea. If you have linear tuning, you start on the G string and ascend to the octave on the E string. If you have re-entrant tuning, you start on the C string and proceed to the A string. And if you have linear tuning, then you can play both.

So I selected four scales that are very similar. The G# Phrygian and B Phrygian dominant (played linear) and the E Harmonic minor and E Hungarian minor (played re-entrant).

So what I do is start on the G string playing one of the linear patterns, but when you get to the C string in the pattern, you have choices. You can either keep on playing the pattern you've started or you can start playing the re-entrant shape.

Here's an example:

Start playing the linear G# Phrygian
When you get to the E on the C string, start playing the re-entrant E Hungarian minor
When you get to the B on the E string, start playing the linear B Phrygian Dominant and descend back to the B on the G string
When you get to the B on the G string start playing the G# Phrygian again.

So that was the basic thing I was doing. Just imbricating scales to make up countless variations.

While I was doing that, I was making manifest a vision I had during a nap. I used to dream of naked women and the things we'd do, but today my dreams were of soup. Upon waking I made the soup...or, at least, I made the components of the soup. I baked two trout. I will extract the meat, add broccoli and broth and that's my dream. Perhaps I should add a grain. I'll see.

We've had a moth infestation. I've been morally upset by this. Moths are definitely annoying, but harmless. However, my wife hates them, so I kill them for her although I would rather just let them bounce around light sources. So I played a few CD's the privilege the Phrygian sound I am after (Coltrane's Olé and the Scorpion's Fly to the Rainbow) and wantonly killed moths.
 
In my locality, businesses have re-opened at 25% occupancy but patrons must employ face coverings which is a joke. Many people are using cotton bandanas and I myself use a wintertime neck gaiter pulled up over my nose. I drove around to see what was open. I stopped by my beer store. The biggest privation I suffered throughout the pandemic was drinking supermarket beer. At least that tragedy is over.

I decided to put my Yorkie back in its case and let it enjoy the humidified environment for a while. Accordingly I have pulled out my Kamaka with its shrill re-entrant voice. Obviously my finger picking will be severely hampered but I will make the most of it by playing what the Kamaka can play.

I found a piece of paper with many almost unreadable chord formulae. I think I will take time and try them out and scratch off the ones that do not resonate with me or which seem redundant. There are also a lot of dominant chord substitutions, some of which I do not like. I will organize the ones that make the cut later on in this space.
 
well, I played around with the formulae that I mentioned last entry and I was rather dissatisfied with them. I won't detail all the dominant chord substitutions I sampled, but in general they either sounded like etiolated anemic versions of the dominant chord, or they sounded like passing chords. Perhaps that testifies that I am a Roots player and not a Jazz player: subtle differences leave me cold.

There was one progression that caught my fancy. It was

I7 VI7 IIm7 V7


In my key of E, that would be E7 C#7 F#m7 B7


Quite frequently I would substitute a F#7 for the F#m7 and prefer it. There was also this variation

IIIm7 (secondary relative minor) VI7b9 IIm7 V7

Now that was a variation I could live with. The tonic substitution and the b9 chord were different enough to warrant it.


So now I'm able to throw away that paper and all those recondite substitutions. No doubt they are all valid, but they are lost upon my ear.

However I do have to say that my Kamaka did look great while I was figuring all this out. Obviously its spruce sound board is bleh--just a big expanse of creamy neutrality. But the koa on its sides is so shiny and quilted. And it is well accessorized with its leather strap.
 
I've seen a video or two over the years that portends to humorously typify the ukulele player. The caricature usually focuses on the stultifying brisk strum patterns and the tendency to emasculate any music by transforming it into toothless reggae. Although there is an uncomfortable amount of truth in that travesty, I was thinking how different the video would be with me as a subject. Just to take one instance, I was at work and noticed that the pinky nail on my left hand was unwontedly (and unwantedly) long and I immediately thought how difficult that would make my chords rooted on the E string. That's my ukulele moment for the day. And I don't see why ukulele can't be taken seriously (except it is marketed that way to alleviate the intimidation factor).

Anyway I am up and waiting for my wife to rise from sleeping so I can try some stuff with a B dominant chord. The B7 is very central to my Rhythm Changes in E. And I was trying to find different accessories for the B chord. The two obvious candidates for scales to go with B7 are B mixolydian and B Phrygian dominant. They both have all four chord tones. The Hungarian Minor has three of the four, lacking the fifth degree, the F#. I think the benefit of the Hungarian minor are two-fold

1. it brings in a novel note or two into the improv because it is a different shape
2. the shape itself. At this point in time, I tend to think of things in terms of strings. I don't see the entire scale shape; I see the notes on a particular string. So a different shape lends itself to different improvisations because of its layout on the strings.

To be honest, there is a third, puerile, reason. The Mixolydian is just so ubiquitous. I don't want to use something so common. Yes, I know how silly that is. I remember reading Alexander Pope saying that if you always avoid the crowd, then you are led by the crowd. However, there it is: I just want to be different for its own sake.
 
I've been noticing an increase of guitar-people around here lately. It is unfortunate because they are different and they just don't understand.

Anyway...I don't really have time for their superciliousness; I have some items to attend to. To wit, I've started feeling (as I occasionally do) a bit uncentered. I've been moving around and advancing to the point that I feel that I'm losing some integrity. So I thought I would spend a little time getting back in touch with my roots--literally. So I am focusing on roots and shapes of 7 chords. I'm naturally prioritizing m7 and 9 chords because they play a somewhat central position in my personal sound. Obviously, I won't be annotating anything so mundane unless I stumble upon something noteworthy.

****

As I mentioned, there wasn't much to write about. I just communed with my 7 chords and re-affirmed and firmed up my knowledge. I did make some progress with 9 chords in terms of being very conscious of the relationship between them and 7 chords.

I ended the day by throwing together a blues progression. The guitar gestapo were out and about today and informed us that ukuleles aren't guitars and cannot be played as such. Luckily the piano police hadn't arrived and I could play this progression:

Em6

F#dim7 | B7+

Em6

E7

Amaj7

B7

Em7

Em6

F#dim7

B7+

A13 | G#13

F#13 | Bm7b5 / Bmaj7


And that's what I like about ukulele. I didn't get into it with the guitarocentric people, but what's fun about the ukulele is taking the "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" instrument and trying to squeeze something good out of it.
 
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pursuing a thought from the last update: since we're not allowed to play ukuleles like guitars but since we haven't been forbidden to use piano music, I played around with Rachmaninoff's prelude in C#m. Just those opening chords meant to imitate the pealing of lugubrious Russian church bells. I used the A on the 5th fret, the G# on the 4th fret, and the D on the 2nd fret. I freely admit that the D is probably wrong. D isn't in C#m. If anything it is probably C# or D#, but I like the D better.

I would play the notes in their original cadence but then I would also connect them with a rough D aiolian shape. I would also use the A as the fifth in a D minor pentatonic shape and do that criss cross pattern that makes the iconic riff of "Aqualung."

That's all I had time for since I have to take a nap before work.
 
I thought I'd thrown down a favorite scale of mine, the Iwato:


Screenshot from 2020-05-28 10-35-09.jpg

It is a nice pentatonic scale...although not "the" pentatonic which we all know and love.
 

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The Iwato is nice and it isn't as "exotic" as others, such as the Hirayoshi. I immediately started to link my previous thoughts on Rachmaninoff to the Iwato. There was in Rachmaninoff that half step from A to G#. The Iwato has half steps in its scale, so that it is easy to bounce back and forth between the two.

I think that's a good illustration of the impov-lifestyle. Impromptu improv is built upon many, many hours of scales and other less than glamorous things. I was going to say that I think in scales, but it is more than that. It is is more accurate to say that I react in scales because I am not really thinking; my fingers just do it. It is a randomness inscribed by the strictures of the scales. So I recommend playing scales. The ukulele is a blessing in that regard. Scales are so easy--just one shape for all keys. Compared to my experience with the flute, where every key had its own shape, the uke is a breeze. However the uke also has its downsides as well. It is difficult on the uke to sight read from sheet music because of the options involved. Notes occur more than one place on the fret board.

I am going to put up my Kamaka. I've been playing it for a week now and I feel I can go back to my Yorkie with a clean conscience. I was playing the Kamaka to justify having it. I must justify it. There's no sense in having an instrument that isn't used. That's why I don't have a vintage Martin soprano. I want one, but it is pure covetousness.

I did find one good thing about the Kamaka and re-entrant tuning. I was pattern picking an Eb add9 and that high G string sounded good.

I was playing that chord because I found it. I ran across a document on my computer with the name untitled1.odt. When I opened it all it had was this progression:

Bb9 Gm7sus4 F Ebadd9


I don't quite remember why it is there. I seem to recall that it is something of Prince that I jotted down...probably around the time of his death. I wouldn't have otherwise been interested.

At first the progression didn't make sense to me, but that's only because it is in a key that I never work in. However once I thought about it, it is just a I vi V IV progression despite the crazy note selection and chord qualities. Now I am going to play around with it and find the inversions for those chords that sound best to me. The first few observations I made are:

1. It is very cluttered. I played all the chords around the 19th fret--just moving a few fingers. I guess that's good for economy of movement, but I want more sonic movement.

2. Gm7sus4 doesn't make sense as a name for the chord because it isn't a minor chord. The suspended fourth obscures the flat third which makes a minor chord a minor chord. It is probably written as a minor chord to keep all the terms consistent. In a harmonization of the Ionian the 6th is minor and this G minor is what this system anticipates.

So, as I said, I will work on this progression after I eat. I made some amaranth as part of my new life plan. I am getting a raise at work and I want to be a better person to match my better salary. It is like I was saying to some younger co-workers who were discussing how the choice in women has become depressing. They were looking outward blaming feminism and other cultural forces. I said they should look inwardly. If they wanted better women they should be better men. If they wanted women who weren't gold-diggers they should stop being money-grubbers themselves. They wouldn't be exposed to these women if they weren't going where these women were and doing what these women did. I don't apply different rules to myself. If I want better things, I need to be a better person. To that end, I am going to refine my lifestyle, re-start my physical regimen and re-gain some of the health that I've lost through idleness.
 
well I made some in-roads on this progression.

As I said above, the chords are very cluttered. Once you locate a Bb, the G, F, and Eb are also right there and concomitantly the chords are very subtly different. My ear needs more movement from chord to chord. So I separated the chords and played inversions at different regions of the fret board. The problem with that solution is that it lends itself to linearity instead of a repeating circle. I started mixing and matching and finally found a version that I finally liked.

I start with the Bb9 rooted at the 13th fret.

Then I move to the Gm7sus4 on the 10th fret

Then to the Fm on the 8th fret.

Then I go back up to the Ebadd9 rooted on the 11th fret.


When I tried going from Ebadd9 to the Bb9 something seemed to be missing. There seemed to be some transitional chord that was missing. I wanked around 'til I found what I was looking for. It was actually very close. I just took my Eb add9 chord and moved its E string up a half-step and I had the sound I wanted. The analysis of this new chord yields a Gm13 (which doesn't make sense) or a Fmaj9sus4 which makes sense (although its name is appalling) because that would make the chord a V chord and the V/I turnaround is the commonest in music.
 
I was doing some reading on the forum and couldn't believe my eyes. I know that anti-intellectualism is rampant and even acceptable with our current president as a role model, nevertheless it seemed beyond the pale that people were arguing that music teachers aren't the best way to learn. That's ludicrous. Obviously I don't avail myself to one, but I would never dream of suggesting that having a teacher wouldn't streamline this process.

Speaking of dropping a fly in the amber of streamlined process, I recently became side-tracked with another idea. I should start off by including the shape of the Hungarian Minor
hungarian_minor.jpg

I don't think I currently have the ability to articulate what I want to say. I think I will sign off, think about it, and return with some cogency.

Alright. I took some time and here's what I came up with for an explanation of what I'm currently undertaking. Usually when I use a scale as a basis for something, I think in terms of notes and intervals and traveling within the melodically guaranteed confines of the scale. However, now my emphasis is more geometrical. I'm not really concerned with notes; I'm concerned with tracing a trail and making designs. It works because music is mathematical at its root. The symmetry of the music lends itself to viable melodies. Furthermore, the more or less random path I choose allows me to step outside of the box musically. Here's one illustration: if you look at the Hungarian Minor diagram, you'll see there's a dense box of notes. Now what I do is determine how to travel around that box. For example I might visit the diagonal corners of the box. It may sound a bit random at first but after you do it twice or thrice...then you have a motif. It is like that old adage "do it once, it's a mistake, repeat it and it's jazz." In essence, that's what I'm doing. I'm just trying to use designs to create melodies. It is fun. It is sort of like using an etch-a-sketch or a spirograph--for those who were born before the internet.

Before I leave I did want to mention something that blew my mind, but which really shouldn't have. I was playing the D Hungarian Minor in both the linear and the re-entrant tunings. In the box of the Hungarian Minor, which I mentioned above, I decided to play the notes horizontally. When I played that linearly the result was a major arpeggio. That was cool. But when I played it re-entrantly it was minor arpeggio. I was very confused. I painstakingly double-checked myself and, yes, I was playing the exact same notes. Therefore, how could I be playing different arpeggios if all the notes were the same. After a while, it finally dawned upon me that the relationship of the top three strings is not the same as the bottom three strings. Although the notes are the same, the same notes aren't next to each other. It probably makes sense to everyone else but it took me a while to figure it out. The upshot of all this is that here we have another instance of the difference between the two tunings (beside the vapid observation that the G strings are different). It is another motivation to choose one tuning over the other in terms of arrangements. For instance, you might prefer one tuning over the other because they are played in different positions and you might have a preference for lower or higher frets. You might like the configuration of notes better in one tuning or the other. For example, minor scales work better on linear tuning whereas major scales are more straightforward on re-entrant. Or in this brand new case that I just stumbled across, you can get different sounds.
 
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The day has had its crests and troughs. I bought 4 imperial stouts and 12 IPA's. That's good. My roof was repaired. That's bad. I have a traditional adobe home with bigas and 1X8 planking for a roof. Dirt came down the cracks and the house is a mess. One of the workmen put a hole in the roof right over my Yorkie. I saved my Yorkie just in time. As I was bending over the ukulele stand, a lot of dirt fell from the hole and landed on my head. I saved Yorkie's life, or least I prevented it from getting dusty. I can now hear that the job is almost over because I can barely hear the workmen's radio; the roof must be sealed. All that's left to do is dust and mop up the house to the wife's standard.

I have been pursuing my geometric music and in a while I'll have something to report, even if the report mentions that there is nothing to report.
 
I'm lazy, I suppose. I could easily google the scales you mention. However, having the screenshots easily accessible has spurred me on to play and listen to the hungarian minor myself. I'll now scroll back and check out the previous attachments. Thanks for providing those!

I'm not a fan of stout. However, I love a good IPA, double IPA, etc. I didn't care for them before I moved to the UK. Growing up in Belgium I preferred Belgian Tripels once I graduated from the cherry beers I drank as a teenager (legal drinking age is 16 for beer and wine, 18 for hard liquor). These days I don't drink much at all, maybe a pint a week, and often a non-alcoholic beverage. Normal Belgian beers taste fantastic but I can't cope with all the gas anymore. There are a few microbreweries around that produce great beers. Once the lockdown measures ease further I'll pick up a few beers for a few warm summer nights.
 
thanks for dropping by. I used to make my own beer. Imperial stouts and IPA's were my main emphasis. I did get inspired by Belgian white ale into trying an open fermentation. Apparently on the western coast of the U.S. we have different lactobacillus than Belgium. My beer turned out to look and taste like mop water. When I was driving to work yesterday, I saw some people sitting on the patio of a local pub. Things are starting to return to normal. Of course, that means we are about to initiate the second wave of the virus through our carelessness. Nothing to do, I suppose, except avoid body fluids and hope for the best.
 
You're a sensible guy. You and your wife will look after yourself and each other.

The UK is starting to open up again as well. It's way too early here up North. The current Prime Minister has taken many pages out of Trump's book. Fortunately, it's mostly young people that venture out and go back to their normal lives. Most other groups are still keeping to themselves.
 
The day is almost over. I only have laundry left to do. Following the aforementioned roofing debacle, I mopped and cleaned the entire house.

However, I did spend some time with a double IPA and the Hungarian Minor. I arbitrarily chose to play it in G merely because that latitude befitted my attitude.

There are patently almost endless possibilities with this scale. Here is just one of several things I did today just as an example.

I chose the re-entrant tuning because this tuning has one note that hangs below the others on the E string (or I guess I should say it hangs above the others since on the uke, up is down and down is up). And I just liked the look of that note.

For whatever reason I was in a perpendicular mood. Accordingly, my main two movements were up and down the three notes of this scale on the C string and moving laterally, playing those minor arpeggios. I would end up either on that note sticking out on the E string or back on the G on the 7th fret. If I ended on that egregious note on the E string, I would usually slide up to the G on the 15th fret. That G is part of the dominant shape of the E minor pentatonic. So I would just use that pentatonic shape to descend back to the G Hungarian Minor shape. Alternatively, if I ended on the initial G note on the C string, then I would descend further down the neck using the tonic shape of the E minor pentatonic and then re-ascend to the G Hungarian Minor.
 
I just watched a video on negative harmony which seems to be a hot topic although it has been around forever (vide the Beatles). I'm not going to address the theory behind it all. I'm just going to write down my system of acquiring all the chord substitutions that comprise the negative harmony.

To start with, we have Cmaj:

Cmaj=I
Dmin=ii
Emin=iii
Fmaj=IV
Gmaj=V
Amin=vi
Bdim=vii

Okay, that's the harmony, a harmonization of the ionian mode. To get the negative harmony, you just take the Phrygian mode of the fifth, G in this case:

G
Ab
Bb
C
D
Eb
F

You start at C and go upwards are wrap around:

C
Bb
Ab
G
F
Eb
D

Lastly you change all the major intervals to minor and vice versa:

Cmin=i
Bbmaj=II
Abmaj=III
Gmin=iv
Fmin=v
Ebmaj=VI
Ddim=vii

That's it. now you can change any element of the harmony with the negative harmony. For example you can substitute an Amin from the original with a Ebmaj.
 
I didn't do anything with the negative harmony that I just described above. I only wrote it down because I could perceive that my understanding was a very transitory glimpse into the empyrean realms of Platon's music of the spheres. My understanding would fade like the ripples in a pond if I didn't cement it down in writing. To be honest, I don't think I will ever be using it in an improvisational setting (which is my usual scene) because it takes a bit of planning. I suppose I could plan it now since I always play in E. That's not what I want to do.

I have to make some chicken adovado and I want to continue what I was doing. I have been focusing on the Edim7 and play it quickly and fluidly in all positions to affect a cascade of notes. I'm still exploring how to do this best. I've been trying to use double pull-offs and open strings as well as different shapes to transition between the inversions. I know that's vague, but I will try to be more explicit after dinner.
 
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