If You Had a Lesson with Jake

I got an email that Jake will be streaming a concert, and one can add additional things in the shopping cart, including a lesson with Jake. Pricey, but I'm sure there will be takers.

Aside from that cost not being in my budget, and that I'd be embarrassed if Jake heard me play, (not a good sign if he's likely to run the other way screaming, LOL), I don't know what I'd do with an hour of lesson time with Jake. It's probably a really fantastic opportunity for someone who can be focused on something specific, but I'm not sure what that would be for me.

What would you do if you had an hour private lesson with Jake? Something specific you'd want him to show you? Something you'd like him to critique?

I will be buying a ticket for the streaming concert, anyway, and look forward to that.

Show him what you can do and let him guide you.

If I knew exactly what I wanted to learn, I could probably look it up or figure it out myself without a teacher.

So I am with EDW on this, play your best and describe what kind of sound you are going for.

I would like to learn the fast and rhythmic strums.

---

This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 39)

Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
Member The CC Strummers: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

Mike $ said:

If the lessons are on-line, I would ask him to make an hour long video lesson and put it on YouTube, like the great ones his brother Bruce makes, so we all can learn from it. Whatever he feels is most important.

Click to expand...

I think that Jake has done a bit of that, but suspect that part of the point of the private lesson being offered in conjunction with the concert is so Jake has some income during the pandemic, since he can't tour. I'm not sure it would be appropriate to ask him to provide it for free on YT. IMO.

I've seen some others do this type of thing, (David Bromberg recently streamed a concert for his 75th birthday, and an add-on option was a private lesson with him), and I guess it just makes me realize that I would have no idea how to make good use of something like that, even if it wasn't priced way too high for me. (I don't play guitar, so a lesson with Bromberg would definitely not make sense for me - though he'd be fascinating to talk to, I would think.)

So, I was just curious if others here have better focus on what they want/need to learn.

The idea that you would just let him figure out what you might benefit from hadn't actually occurred to me.
Can you tell that I haven't taken any lessons?

Anybody know how many lessons or how long? Is it just an hour or a series?

Jake is hands-down the most rockstar ʻukulele player in the world. He has a tour bus (or does when he's on the road) and pretty major fame for what he does. It's super impressive, really.

You can learn to play the uke from anybody. I'd take the opportunity to ask him how him become so successful as an ʻukulele artist and what business steps he's taken to curate his image and appeal.

ghostrdr said:

Anybody know how many lessons or how long? Is it just an hour or a series?

Click to expand...

Here is the link for the various options, (streaming concert, lessons, t-shirts, signed uke, and more):

https://jakeshimabukuro.colortestmerch.com/collections/concert-merch

Brad Bordessa said:

Jake is hands-down the most rockstar ʻukulele player in the world. He has a tour bus (or does when he's on the road) and pretty major fame for what he does. It's super impressive, really.

You can learn to play the uke from anybody. I'd take the opportunity to ask him how him become so successful as an ʻukulele artist and what business steps he's taken to curate his image and appeal.

Click to expand...

Interesting thoughts on what to do with the lesson time.

I won't be doing the lesson, but it's making me think outside my little box.

I wouldn't know what to do with lesson time with anyone, since my goals always seem to focus on wanting to play a particular song, (I'm currently working on Jake's version of Eleanor Rigby, but modifying to fit me a bit better), rather than broader things.

And some days, I'm not working on anything at all, other than a distraction from the outside world.

Makes me think about what I'm missing, in terms of goals, which is a good part of the reason I asked the question.