Impressions of One on One Lessons

[ailevin]

Lol I suffer from that too! I'm working on it!

May I ask how?

As is usually the case, my wife leaves about five minutes before the end of the lesson to pick up our granddaughter, and that is my time to go off topic with Jordan. Yesterday, I asked Jordan to talk through how they would instictively play the melody that I was working on and comment on slides/fingering and why they chose the string and fret that they chose, and whether they considered anything else. I was kind of hunting for principles or rules that they were using, but of course it is a taste and judgement call informed by what the melody is doing and how the player is phrasing. The one thing I did pick up is that they rarely use the pinkie unless it is to play a fret already under the pinkie, and similarly for the pointer finger, except that the pointer is used sometimes in a step before getting back to what I call home position where the four fingers cover the first four frets. This melody had nothing above 9th or 10th fret, so I don't know what Jordan would do playing back from a very high note in a descending arpeggio or something.

This week while practicing, I am trying to think in frets, as in, how many frets am I moving when I move up the fretboard? I'm also trying to feel my way along the fret with the finger that is going to land on the note or at least be conscious of the frets going by. I'm telling my thumb (and hand) to follow that leading finger rather than shifting my hand to get my finger in position to play the note. It's really kind of hilarious. It would be like trying to change how you walk by thinking about exactly how you move each muscle and shift your balance as you take a step--I expect that what you'd be mostly stumbling around like you're drunk for a while. Hopefully my muscles will begin to get it.

 

[ploverwing]

May I ask how?

Well, I don't know that it's literally violin-ness - but it's the way I hold the neck. It's not conducive to engaging my pinkie finger without extra calisthenics; I'm working on shifting the angle of my wrist just ever so slightly so that I'm engaging all of my fingers with equal connectivity to the fretboard. I don't know that it's to do with playing violin per se, but it is to do with that I probably didn't engage my pinkie as it should have been with the violin, either. I played violin for years but I didn't achieve particular mastery, so it's really more likely a bad habit from one passing on as a bad habit with the other.

 

[ploverwing]

The one thing I did pick up is that they rarely use the pinkie unless it is to play a fret already under the pinkie, and similarly for the pointer finger, except that the pointer is used sometimes in a step before getting back to what I call home position where the four fingers cover the first four frets.

Huh. Interesting. My teacher uses all fingers quite a lot - he's constantly encouraging me to test drive different fingerings in phrases, to see what works well, how I can make the process more flowing. To him, it's all about transitioning smoothly and musically, whichever fingers work best for that (although what I think is easy, he seems to suggests something that, to me, feels extremely awkward, but that's because he's often engaging chord or partial chord shapes as part of the transition - after practice, it actually does work better, but not at first!).

It would be like trying to change how you walk by thinking about exactly how you move each muscle and shift your balance as you take a step--I expect that what you'd be mostly stumbling around like you're drunk for a while. Hopefully my muscles will begin to get it.

I'm also trying (but not succeeding) to mimic how my teacher holds the ukulele with his fretting hand, and I just find it so cramped and awful. So for now, I'm working on the tweaking to engage all of my fingers better. He recommends that if I imagine light coming from my fingertips, those lights should always be illuminating the fretboard, so that it's easy to engage (and disengage) with the strings in a smooth, musical manner. Baby steps. There's so much to improve that requires micro muscle adjustment and refinement. Like engaging (and disengaging) with the string on the right hand, not keeping my fingers "engaged" (curled up) after I've played the note, so that I can move anywhere and do anything with that finger that the music requires (move quickly, slowly, softly, loudly, whatever).

Doug is not an ukulele teacher. He does play (beautifully) a lot of different stringed instruments (including theorbo, oud, lute, guitar...) and I figure the fretting and fingerpicking techniques are pretty interchangable, at least fundamentally. But I'm not trying to play an ukulele specifically like an ukulele, I guess; I like the feel and sound of the instrument, and I'm playing music that was written for its ancestors.

 

[ailevin]

Huh. Interesting. My teacher uses all fingers quite a lot - he's constantly encouraging me to test drive different fingerings in phrases, to see what works well, how I can make the process more flowing. To him, it's all about transitioning smoothly and musically, whichever fingers work best for that (although what I think is easy, he seems to suggests something that, to me, feels extremely awkward, but that's because he's often engaging chord or partial chord shapes as part of the transition - after practice, it actually does work better, but not at first!).

I'm also trying (but not succeeding) to mimic how my teacher holds the ukulele with his fretting hand, and I just find it so cramped and awful. So for now, I'm working on the tweaking to engage all of my fingers better. He recommends that if I imagine light coming from my fingertips, those lights should always be illuminating the fretboard, so that it's easy to engage (and disengage) with the strings in a smooth, musical manner. Baby steps. There's so much to improve that requires micro muscle adjustment and refinement. Like engaging (and disengaging) with the string on the right hand, not keeping my fingers "engaged" (curled up) after I've played the note, so that I can move anywhere and do anything with that finger that the music requires (move quickly, slowly, softly, loudly, whatever).

Doug is not an ukulele teacher. He does play (beautifully) a lot of different stringed instruments (including theorbo, oud, lute, guitar...) and I figure the fretting and fingerpicking techniques are pretty interchangable, at least fundamentally. But I'm not trying to play an ukulele specifically like an ukulele, I guess; I like the feel and sound of the instrument, and I'm playing music that was written for its ancestors.

I need to make a couple clarifications. My discussions about specific fingerings with Jordan was strictly about playing melody. Chord/melody or fingerpicking are bound to be a different story. My point about the dominance of middle and ring finger was that those are the fingers on which slides or transitions of multiple frets are most often made. I think that fret orientation vs. hand position orientation is a more general issue. Jordan has made it clear that I am free to play any fingerings that get the right notes and make sense to me. However, I do see their point about losing touch with fret orientation and I understand the kinds of problems it is causing for me.

I also want to add some context to my comments about different ways of playing and teaching ukulele. Jordan and I have discussed violin playing and ukulele playing at some length. They stress their point of view that ukulele is a folk instrument with the two octave range of a toy piano. This in contrast to the violin, at least as I have experienced the violin, as a classical instrument with rather rigorous traditions of training, in my case the Franco-Belgian school. Very little about technique and how/when it should be learned was optional, and little was at the discretion of the student if you were a serious student. My earlier comments about finding a teacher with the ukulele as their primary instrument comes across as overly judgmental, as if there were only one right way to do it. It is refreshing and fun studying ukulele because it is less formal and there are many more approaches. My choice of Jordan is just that, my choice, and I am pleased with it so far, but that's just me.

 

[ploverwing]

My earlier comments about finding a teacher with the ukulele as their primary instrument comes across as overly judgmental, as if there were only one right way to do it. It is refreshing and fun studying ukulele because it is less formal and there are many more approaches. My choice of Jordan is just that, my choice, and I am pleased with it so far, but that's just me.

Oh goodness, I wasn't taking it in any negative vein, by no means! And this thread is all about your experience so no need to justify that at all. I am really enjoying reading about your (and your wife's) ukulele journey together, thanks a lot for sharing with us!

 

[ailevin]

We had our lesson this past Thursday. Earlier in the week we asked Jordan about emailing us a new song for this lesson. They gave us a couple options and we picked The Glory of Love. There is amazing variety in the interpretations of that song going back to Benny Goodman's 1936 original version. Jordan did an arrangement loosely based on the Peggy Lee version. So for the lesson we had a new song to work on as well as The Apreggio Meditations book and the Melodic Meditations book. I had practiced one of the melodic meditations that forms a duet with the arpeggio meditation we have been working on.

Two weeks ago I decided to be disciplined about practicing only with the tenor and limited my playing of other size ukuleles. And while I was happy with the result, I really missed playing my soprano. Right after last week's lesson I decided that I was going to play the soprano as my primary instrument for a week and see how that went.

It was a good and interesting week for practice. Adding the strap made the soprano much more comfortable for finger picking the meditations books. I spent most of the week practicing the usual: our fretboard orientation execises including scales, an arpeggio meditation and the duet melodic meditation, Hawiian Soul in three versions: chords, melody, and chord/melody arrangement.

In addition to consistently practiciing with the soprano, I stabilized the fingerings I was using on Hawaiian Soul, and a big part of that was realizing that while parts of the song used the same or similar fingerings for melody and chord/melody, other part of the song were quite different. I practiced melody and chord/melody separately thinking about them as separate pieces with different fingerings. I also augmented my scale practice to use first position fingerings and open strings on the say up and alternate fingering with slides mostly to 5th (or 4th) fret instead of open strings on the way down. This was good practice for the slides in the pieces I am playing.

The new melodic meditation part of the duet was challenging at first, but with practice came around pretty well. It was a bit weird melodically and rhythmically, which was part of the challenge, but it fits nicely with the arpeggio. The other challenge was that the potions of the melody were played rather high on the fingerboard staying between frets 5 and 10 on the E and A strings. Working it out helped me with fret orientation up there.

Working with the soprano for a week went well. I am very comfortable playing the shorter soprano scale and like its tonal balance. The lower string tension is nice in some respects and difficult in other respects. The low G on the soprano was mostly for consistency with what I had been studying on tenor. While it adds a fullness to the soprano, it does not have the tone of a low G on a tenor. It's not a big problem, but the thicker flourocarbon low G plays a bit sharp compared to the harmonic at the 12th fret. Perhaps because the saddle initially was set for a high G?

I'm now thinking about switching the soprano to high G for a couple reasons. First, I just want to hear how it sounds with high G. I also want to give high G a chance in terms of technique and repertoire and it seems much more natural to do that on the soprano than the tenor. For a while now, I have believed that the KoAloha tenor is my best ukulele, but my Pops Okami soprano is my favorite. I have also come to realize that high G and low G are really two different instruments. With the KoAloha in low G and the soprano in high G I am hoping I can work on both. I have begun a discussion with Jordan about whether this sounds like a crazy approach as far as study or if it makes some sense to them.

 

[ploverwing]

I'm now thinking about switching the soprano to high G for a couple reasons. First, I just want to hear how it sounds with high G. I also want to give high G a chance in terms of technique and repertoire and it seems much more natural to do that on the soprano than the tenor.

Having at least one favourite ukulele in high g and one in low G is a very, very good idea, if you're interested in exploring the experience and techniques of both tunings. They are different. I mean, the foundational stuff (fretting, picking, strumming) doesn't change, but the patterns change, the tones change, the "why" behind the arrangements changes. You can play some arrangements interchangeably, and some are very specific to one or the other. Based on what I've read so far about your learning style and personality, I think that you'll really enjoy, and really get a lot of positive benefit (in the long run) with devoting some time to each tuning in your practice regimen. I look forward to hearing your experiences in high g exploration!

 

[ailevin]

Having at least one favourite ukulele in high g and one in low G is a very, very good idea, if you're interested in exploring the experience and techniques of both tunings. They are different. I mean, the foundational stuff (fretting, picking, strumming) doesn't change, but the patterns change, the tones change, the "why" behind the arrangements changes. You can play some arrangements interchangeably, and some are very specific to one or the other. Based on what I've read so far about your learning style and personality, I think that you'll really enjoy, and really get a lot of positive benefit (in the long run) with devoting some time to each tuning in your practice regimen. I look forward to hearing your experiences in high g exploration!

This week I am practicing on both my tenor and my soprano. I think the week of focus on soprano was good for my tenor playing as well. First of all, I think the lower string tension of the soprano has caused me to generally reduce my fretting pressure a bit, so I have a better chance of keeping my left hand and arm relaxed and avoiding the death grip that I apply when I concentrate too hard. While the change of scale causes a few problems at first getting right behind the frets consistently, I think it makes me more conscious of the fret I am coming from and going too when I shift around the fretboard.

The differences are jumping out at me more and more. The first Arpeggio Meditation was written for high G and it is different piece played on the soprano. It also sounds quite pretty when we play it together, my wife playing low G tenor while I play high G soprano. The duet part is all on the C, E, and A strings so it I play that with either instrument. The melody of our new song, The Glory of Love, in the arrangement we have currently, has portions that are unplayable on the soprano with high G. But I think the soprano is better for chords with this one. We are doing an up tempo swing version, and the soprano sounds more like it would fit into the 1936 Benny Goodman recording.

I am now less worried about confusing my fingers by playing and practicing both soprano and tenor. I am still a bit concerned about spreading myself too thin in terms of practice time and generally trying to accomplish too much at once. The good news is that so much of what I am working on, and in particular the right hand is still the same for both at my level. It is kind of exciting to learning about the high G. I also think it helps me get over my self-imposed notion that the tenor is my serious study instrument and my soprano is just for messing around and having fun. I am having more fun with my tenor and studying more with my soprano. I like the balance that has brought to my relationship with both instruments. Today I feel like I've broadened the possibilities. Who knows where I will end up--that is a major part of the fun.

 

[ailevin]

This is an update on the week of practice from March 23 to March 30 and the March 30 lesson. I split my practice between soprano and tenor with more a little more time on the soprano, and slightly different emphasis for each instrument. On the Arpeggio Meditation and Melody Meditation duet, I practice the arpeggio more on the soprano, and the melody more on tenor because of its superior sustain. On the Glory of Love it was strictly chords on the soprano, while I could play chords or melody on the tenor. I continued practicing Hawaiian Soul chord/melody on both instruments. My wife is playing her new Kamaka tenor 90% of the time. She bailed on the Hawaiian Soul chord/melody arrangement, but we play duets switching between chord and melody parts and I also tried playing chord/melody while she played chords, and that was quite difficult at first, but it got better during the week

I had my first ukulele based injury last week. One evening after a day of vigorous practice, I got a sharp pain in the tip of the middle finger on my left hand. It was like I had a tiny bruise, or blood blister or hit a nerve or something under the callous. Even the slightest pressure, like softly drawing another finger over the callous on that middle finger caused that sharp pain. I stopped playing for several days to give it a chance to heal. The next morning it seemed a little better, but still very sensitive. By that evening I could tell it was improving and after two days of not playing, I tentatively picked up the soprano and tested it out. I practiced in short spells over the next day and then everything seemed back to normal. I was shocked at how I was at loose ends not being able to play the ukulele for several days. I had to laugh at how conditioned (addicted?) I've become to playing this instrument regularly.

Chris had a breakthrough last week. She has always struggled with the Fm chord and particularly the transition from F to Fm. To make matters worse, she loves that transition; we find in a number of songs, including Glory of Love in C and in particular in Danny Boy. She realized that she was having two issues. First she had to decide which finger would lead the chord change. I think the second issue was even more important. Her left hand position needed to shift for the Fm chord. Once she started to lead with the pointer finger and rotate her left hand a bit from the F position, the transition because easier. With the fingers coming toward the first fret a little more from the headstock, the pointer and middle finger more naturally sit side by on the G and E strings. It was really terrific, once those things clicked in, she was an Fm monster. It's funny how those little things become second nature and you forget about them. Yet, I believe it is very important to work through which fingers are stationary or at least staying on the same string, which fingers are moving strings but staying in the same fret, and if/how the hand position has to change if you are having trouble with a chord or chord transition.

We were both ready to give Hawaiian Soul a rest, and we didn't play it at our lesson on March 30. Jordan emailed a new arrangement of The Glory of Love transposed from C to G the night before the lesson. In G, the melody is playable on both soprano and tenor, and it also made a chord/melody arrangement possible. We had to get used to the new chords and the transposed melody, but Jordan helped us through. We also worked on the Arpeggio/Melody Meditation duet and started working on the second meditation. Chris hadn't practiced the melody part yet, so I played that part. Jordan's main comment was that I needed to work more on my sustain when playing melody. This has been an issue in the past too. I have a tendency to release too soon in anticipation of getting to the next note or chord. Jordan wants me to work on sustaining longer and then shifting more quickly and smoothly just as I am about to pick or strum the next note/chord. At the lesson we also talked about getting an arrangement of Teach Me Tonight. During the previous week we had been hypnotized by the James Taylor version of that song from his American Standards album.

We won't be taking a lesson this Thursday because of scheduling conflicts. I will try to report on progress during the week. We have plenty to work on with the new Glory of Love arrangement and the new arpeggio meditation. My wife is working up the melody part of the first arpeggio/melody duet, and I am trying to figure out the chord/melody verison of The Glory of Love.

 

[bilbo56]

Great for Chris. I still can't transition to Fm smoothly, always breaks my rhythm.

 

[Mfturner]

Yes, several songs on this weeks play list have F to Fm to C sequences, so I’m fumbling through that as well.

 

[ploverwing]

This is a great log, thanks for sharing with us. I think many beginners would benefit from your observations. I've done the same with my fretting fingers (specifically that middle finger). I've noticed if I leave my nails just the tiniest bit longer than I would otherwise think to (i.e. not shave them down fairly close to the nail bed), that helps a lot. If I cut my nails too short, I am more likely to have that same pain.

Congrats Chris! It's so satisfying to figure out something like that. And it makes playing all that more wonderful an experience.

 

[ailevin]

Practice has been a little sketchy this past week between Passover, Easter, and remodeling project starting up. On the bright side, part of remodel includes more convenient ukulele and music storage. Also, we had my wife's Kamaka set up by a luthier recommended by Jordan. She wanted a strap button installed, and I wanted follow Jordan's suggestion and see how the set up would change the ukulele. They must have lowered the action somewhat, since the Kamaka now feels more like the KoAloha in terms of playability.

We have been getting back on track with out practice the past couple days. We are both practicing both parts of the first Arpeggio/Melody Meditation duet. We are also working on the second Arpeggio Meditation. I'm paying a lot of attention to sustaining each note. There are actually a surprising nunber of ways not to sustain! Such as, releasing the finger pressure on the string prematurely, accidentally muting a note with either left or right hand, or not getting the finger down close behind the fret immediately (if it isn't placed there initially). If the finger doesn't get right behind the fret, there just isn't nearly as much sustain to work with, even if the note rings without any fret buzz. I'm surprised at how different things sound once I put more focus on sustain. It is one of those things that is most noticeable in slow melodic passages, but it really applies much more generally.

I am also working on a chord/melody version of The Glory of Love, but it is kind of slow going so far. Jordan and I didn't have time to go over it at the last lesson, and some of the fingerings and chord transitions are not very intuitive yet, but I'm sure that will come with some practice. There is this G5 to G7 to C, particularly the G7 to C that I find tricky. It is 0235 to 4535 to 5435. G5 to G7 is not bad, but somehow swapping middle and ring fingers between G and C strings while hold down pointer and pinkie is quite difficult. I don't have a good sense of isolating and moving the muscles in the middle two fingers while holding the outer two still. I'm sure it will improve with some practice.

 

[ailevin]

We had a lesson yesterday for the first time in a couple weeks. We had a pretty solid week of practice and the lesson went much better than I expected. We started with The Glory of Love as a chord and melody duet playing it in C. We practiced it in C and in G in a slightly different arrangement. Jordan did both of them. The G arrangement works much better for chord/melody, but my wife prefers the C version both for the chords and the vocal range. Jordan commented that my transitions were much smoother and I attribute that to the time spent practicing to get more sustain playing the melody part of the Melody/Arpeggio Meditations duet. Jordan also helped us with the strumming and muting patterns for the chords in the A and B sections of the chord and melody arrangement.

The next part of the lesson was kind a Q&A about the technical problems I was having with the chord/melody version in G. We talked about some chord substitutions and alternate fingerings. I had worked through the finger isolation and moving the middle two fingers independently of the pointer and pinkie on that 4535 to 5435 transition, but moving my ring finger out to the G string tends to drag my pinkie off of the A string. Jordan had some suggestions on how to practice that to build more independent range of motion for those fingers. There was also a bit of a harmony lesson. Jordan said that while I can formally name the chords in a chord/melody arrangement (5435 would be Cadd9 I think), what I was really looking at was the chord with the melody superimposed. They suggested that I could play open G there (0435) which would substitute a G note on the G string an octave down from the G note on the E string. It would still be a C chord, but without the root C note in it. Because the previous chord was G7 and becuase of what the melody was doing, the ear hears the missing C. This is kind of similar to the Hawaiian D7 that has no D in it. I love the way Jordan sees so many alternatives in a piece of music. It is probably their background as a singer and song writer. It is very refreshing to look at a piece of music as a set of opportunities rather than a set of strict instructions with just a little interpretive freedom.

Our rendition of the first Melody/Arpeggio Meditation is getting pretty decent and we can both play either part at this point. We now also have a melody for the second arpeggio in Arpeggio Meditations to practice as a duet. The second arpeggio seems much easier than the first, probably because we have developed a little technique practicing the first one for weeks. I am very happy with the Meditations books and the first arpeggio meditation is more and more becoming part of my standard warm up. Between the strumming patterns in our songs and the meditations, I feel like my right hand is finally catching up a bit.

 

[Woodsy]

This thread is pretty enjoyable to read. I'm just now trying to pick up the uke after an abandoned attempt about ten years ago. I didn't make progress after some one on one lessons and threw in the towel. I've stagnated a little after searching out some free resources and going through some old books. I'm finding myself strumming through the same chords I know about fifteen minutes a day and putting it down. I've picked up some good tips for organizing my practice, so I appreciate learning from your experience. You have a journal, but I can see I might need a spreadsheet, or at least checklist to work through.

 

[ploverwing]

This thread is pretty enjoyable to read. I'm just now trying to pick up the uke after an abandoned attempt about ten years ago. I didn't make progress after some one on one lessons and threw in the towel. I've stagnated a little after searching out some free resources and going through some old books. I'm finding myself strumming through the same chords I know about fifteen minutes a day and putting it down. I've picked up some good tips for organizing my practice, so I appreciate learning from your experience. You have a journal, but I can see I might need a spreadsheet, or at least checklist to work through.

I'm glad that you're trying to get back into learning the ukulele, and that you've found this thread inspirational. I'll add my $0.02 to the topic: I have found that if there's a song I want to learn, that's good incentive for me, especially if there are new chords or transitions that I've not yet figured out. I find it frustrating, too, though, so it takes intentional persistence for me to keep working on things when it sounds like crap.

 

[Nickie]

I once sought out a one-on-one lesson so I could learn to fingerpick the song White Sandy Beach. It stuck with me through the years.

 

[ailevin]

Sorry I haven't posted lately. We have been traveling to visit kids and grandchildren. Speaking of travel, we skipped our lesson April 27, because Jordan was traveling that day. They will be on the road in Europe for five weeks. It sounds like it is a combination of gigs, composing retreat, and vacation. We did have a lesson last week on May 4 just before we headed out on the road too. Pretty cool to be able to do FaceTime music lesson between Southern California and Southern France.

Our practice had been decent over that break and we were woking on some new material--mostly the next Arpeggio/Melody Meditation duet. We also continued playing The Glory of Love. I was mostly working on the G arrangement in chord/melody and my wife, Chris was mostly playing chords and singing the C arrangement, though we practiced both of them together. I was not able to keep up and play the chord/melody in G while she strummed the chords and sang, but it was getting closer. I had been practicing on both my soprano and my tenor, but as I was warming up before the lesson, I decided to use my tenor for the lesson since I had been practicing on the tenor more the previous couple days.

The lesson went well. I think Chris had more difficulty with it than usual because her practice time was predominantly singing and playing the chords to The Joy of Love in C. Everything else was a bit rusty for her. OTH, she has really mastered the solo part for the first Melody/Arpeggio Meditation, and made good progress on the arpeggio part of the second one. I continue to be amazed at how well Jordan can spot and remember all of our issues when we are both playing. They do sometime ask us play individually. We spent a while working on Chris's left hand position. It was one of those times where in-person would definitely have been better. I was able to help a bit because I knew exactly what Jordan was talking about based on analogy to left hand positioning for the violin. I'd also note in passing that Matt Stead does a very good job of illustrating this in his beginner course. The issue is maintaining the shape of the hand and the shape of the wrist which allow freedom of movement for the fingers and allow them to come down from above without touching adjacent strings. The most common problems are collapsing the wrist toward the neck of the ukulele, and collapsing the knuckles of the palm inward toward the fretboard. You also need to have the neck of the ukulele at about the correct angle and your left arm positioned correctly to make this not very natural positioning easier. If you put down the ukulele and hold your left arm slightly away from the body, keep your wrist fasing upward in a more or less neutral position, and imagine you fingers wrapping loosely around a small orange or maybe a handball, that is the kind of hand/finger position we were looking for. Then you could think about bending your elbow to bring that hand position (without the orange) where the neck of the ukulele will be. Like everything else it will take practice. Another thing that will take practice is that Jordan suggested playing the melody parts using pima fingers assigned to each string as in the arpeggios we have been learning.

One other interesting thing that came up is about placing the fingers right behind the frets. I was aware of this and try to pay attention to it when I am playing because it not only avoids buzzes, but it really improves the tone and the sustain of each note. Jordan said that while it is critical in the lower frets, once you get past about fret 5, it becomes much less critical. It makes sense, but I'd neve really thought about it. Up there it is more critical not to step on or over the fret.

At the end of the lesson we talked theory and arranging a bit. I asked if and how a C chord/melody arrangment would work. Jordan arranged the chord/melody in G, so there would be a little more room for the chords below the melody, which is a fifth higher. But we did talk about how to approach a C arrangement. Jordan also did a quick analysis of James Taylor's version of Teach Me Tonight. BTW, I highly recommend it. I was having trouble because I really couldn't figure out how to simply all the beautiful chords that he was using down to the basic song structure, and I knew I would have to transpose it for ukulele.


We are slightly up in the air about this week's lesson. We are going to reschedule on the fly according to Jordan's travel schedule. We brought our Enya Nova U soprano ukuleles on our travels, one in high G and one in low G. They were inside our checked luggage and did fine. We were not able to practice a lot, but we did get to play some almost everyday on the trip. The Enyas were perfect for this: light and indestructible with little worry should we need to replace them.

 

[Olmeck]

This thread has inspired me to seek out my first in person lessons. My first is scheduled for May 22nd. I’m trying to decide if I want to start with focusing on baritone or tenor for the lessons. I’m leaning towards the baritone because there is less available for it and I’ve played it far less than my tenor. I’ve basically been using the ukulele way and some books at home since August of last year to teach myself so I’m looking forward to having someone that can critique and teach.

 

[ploverwing]

This thread has inspired me to seek out my first in person lessons. My first is scheduled for May 22nd. I’m trying to decide if I want to start with focusing on baritone or tenor for the lessons. I’m leaning towards the baritone because there is less available for it and I’ve played it far less than my tenor. I’ve basically been using the ukulele way and some books at home since August of last year to teach myself so I’m looking forward to having someone that can critique and teach.

Enjoy and good luck! I hope the new teacher offers you what you need, and the fit is good. Remember: there's nothing wrong with deciding that you need to keep looking. Not everyone teaches well, or meets the needs of the student. But it's definitely a good start!