In early April, as I was looking ahead towards a couple of months of not a lot of employment whilst living in a country on the verge of civil war, I thought I'd take the time to do something I'd never done: get professional ukulele lessons. Where to turn? Where I've been since 2009 - where we are right now. UkuleleUnderground.com
What have I learned? In no particular order of importance:
1. the worm and the ukulele dexterity challenge
2. the importance of warming up
3. The major scale, HHhHHHh
3.5 The minor scale HhHHhHH
4. a new way to play the E chord on a GCEA uke
5. Inside-out plucking technique
6. A song is in the key of whatever scale we find its major chords
7. The II V I chord progression
There's lots of other little trivial things as well like Jake Shimabukuro got known for the flat top headstock on his uke accidentally. And important stuff about myself as a player came from self-reflection as opposed to direct tutelage. It's self-reflection I wouldn't have been doing had I not been a student. I also learned the Aldrine Guerrero is the nice guy he seems to be, but a no-nonsense teacher. The one time I tried mildly disagreeing with him on something, with a "well, what about...", he give me a look and made a noise that made things perfectly clear who was the teacher and who was the student.
They have a monthly song-writing challenge there for students, and on the very night of the deadline, I felt compelled to get SOMETHING submitted, even if it was schlock because the winner is chosen at random. The post above this one was my previous entry into the challenge incorporating the theme of "My dog has _____" and an optional II V ! chord progression. This next hack job had a Mad Libs theme again with "On the _____, we do it _____ style, and a Mad Libs chord progression of I ___ V. (the IV just belongs there!_) and tried the ii in the middle position, and you'll hear the results the (I ii V)(I ii V) redefines its measures and becomes: I)(ii V I)(ii V I) - the same II V ! that sounded cool in the Every DOg has its Day
They accepted my last minute submission, and due to the luck of the wheel, guess what? This stream-of-conscious improv won the contest - and I'm getting some of Aldrine's signature strings sent to me here in Myanmar. Cool.