experiment

[Luke_]

Not sure what AMI means you mean finger names? Like P is the thumb and so on?... PM me your email, and net time I practice I'll record my version for you

[tbeltrans]

I meant the A minor chord that is used to play the fingerpicking part of Stairway. On the guitar, it is at the 5th fret.

Tony

[Luke_]

I don't strum it...

[Fuzzy125]

I totally get what the OP is saying. I want to play like Willie, the guitar store owner he mentioned. I've beem making use of a website/online app at www.iwasdoingalright.com to work on my ears. A feature I particularly enjoy using is the Ear Training Song Randomizer. It spits out songs randomly, gives you a start note, say Bb, and of you go. I try to do a song a day. Pick out the melody, then figure out the key and then the chords, and if I really like the song, work out a fingerpicking arrangement. And I try to do it all on the fretboard. I believe if I keep at it, one day I should be able to rattle off any number of songs, standards, seemingly off the top of my head--like Willie.

Yeah, I believe in getting to the point where music seems to effortlessly flow out of my fingertips, as effortlessly and naturally as I carry on a conversation with someone or typing up a post.

[tbeltrans]

Fuzzy125 - thanks for your response! I am really glad that there are otehrs here who "get it". Now we have a few folks with similar goals. I will have to check out that site because it sounds exactly like something really useful for this goal.

I think the reason the ukulele is appealing to me right now is that it is much simpler in certain respects than the guitar fretboard, was well as being different enough to not allow relying on muscle memory. You really could do the same sort of thing on the guitar, but as Nate (Willie) pointed out, the uke lends itself particularly well to this sort of thing. Considering how well he is able to do that, I believe him. I was thinking along the lines of what you say this site does, but simply making a list of tunes from my fakebooks with the name of the tune and the starting pitch number relative to the scale. In the key of C, for example instead of "E", I would use "3". I would list all the tunes that I know well enough to be able to hum the melody, and list that starting note.

So far, I have been able to just pick a tune off the top of my head and just start picking out the melody. I have decided to NOT rely on ukulele chord charts, which seem to be plentiful on the net, but isntead learn the notes on the fretboard, apply my knowledge of diatonic theory, and find my own chord voicings. The entire process uses nothing more than me and the uke. But the web site sounds intriguing too.

Funny thing is that my getting this uke was really a spur-of-the-moment thing. I had seen Nate play and was amazed at what a uke could do (after having just seen Tiny tim as a kid on TV with his "Tiptoe Through The Tulips"). After seeing Nate play, I was interested, but not enough to actually get one. I did strum several at various shops that had them, but never found one that sounded like the one he played. When this deal was offered, I jumped at it. I am really enjoying playing the ukulele. Who knew?

Tony

[Fuzzy125]

What you're doing with your fakebook is similar to what the website does for me. The twist being that I don't know what song will be thrown at me on any given day. It could be a Christmas carol. A jazz standard. A pop song from the 80s. And it could be any starting note. So it's a challenge--I'll take anything you throw at me. In the last couple of days, I've worked through Winter Wonderland, Rasberry Beret, If This Is It (Huey Lewis & the News), Old McDonald, and Plush (Stone Temple Pilots). Quite a variety. Again, I love it because the exercise prepares me for what I'm aiming for: to be fluent in the language of music, to speak music. I'm finally starting to identify myself as a musician.

And yes, I agree with what you said, that it should be just you and your ukulele/guitar/instrument of choice. I'm really enjoying the process of becoming intimate with the fretboard.

[tbeltrans]

One problem I might have is that some of the tunes you mentioned, I wouldn't know. I was never a Prince fan (though I did run into him a time or two in person and think he is very skilled as a musician), and so have only heard small parts of Raspberry Beret. I have heard the name "Stone Temple Pilots", but that is as far as that goes, same for much of Huey Lewis. The site is blocked at work, so i will check it tonight. If you can pick genres, i may have a better chance.

Tony

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by Luke_

Me to! I play it in first position hbu?

I play "Stairway to Heaven" on the fifth fret, just like on guitar. So it ends up being in Dm, a fourth higher in pitch than the standard guitar version, which is in Am. That also happens to fit my singing voice much better too, as Am is WAY too high for me to sing. I like to play this one on my baritone guitar too, for that reason. I am just doing everything that I would on guitar, except I don't have the fifth string bass notes available to suggest certain chords.

My primary uke is a low G tenor, although I have others with a high G. I have gravitated almost exclusively to low G for fingerpicking. "Stairway" sounds a little weird on high G ukes, because some of the melody notes are actually jumping octaves with the re-entrant high-G tuning..

Once I was in a shop in Honolulu and they had a six string guitar-lele. I broke into a version of The Entertainer, and every head in the place turned to listen and watch. I briefly thought I had committed some faux pas, but people were just surprised to hear that sound coming from a ukulele.

[fazool]

I thought this thread was about an experiment espousing the virtues of learning an instrument entirely by ear and unencumbered by theory or method or training or knowledge. I was preparing for an interesting battleground of discussion.

But, instead, it morphed into the discussion of a $4500 ukulele?

[mc1]

Originally Posted by Earl49

... People always smile when I do "Stairway to Heaven" on the uke.

...

more like "stepstool to heaven", if you ask me.

just kidding, just kidding. i actually think it would work well.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by fazool

I thought this thread was about an experiment espousing the virtues of learning an instrument entirely by ear and unencumbered by theory or method or training or knowledge. I was preparing for an interesting battleground of discussion.

But, instead, it morphed into the discussion of a $4500 ukulele?

What??? This thread is almost entirely about playing. I have mentioned in some of my posts about my new uke. I am amazed that these instruments can cost that much, so I felt it was interesting and I am in the throes of a new instrument. I have never seen anybody rain on somebody else's new instrument except your post which is really an exaggeration and in another thread somebody else took a pot shot under the guise of a "sorry...". Please don't continue down this path, and instead join in the rest of the discussion if you care to. As far as "battleground", I really hope not. There is nothing to fight about, but a lot to learn from each other. Please don't make it otherwise. I don't know you, so I apologize if you are kidding and I am taking it wrong.

Thanks,

Tony

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by mc1

more like "stepstool to heaven", if you ask me.

just kidding, just kidding. i actually think it would work well.

I would be interested in hearing a solo fignerstyle rendition of "Stairway" on a uke. In general, it would be interesting to hear various tunes as solo fingerstyle that other folks have come up with. In time, as I get more familiar with the instrument, ad later this summer after I retire, I would like to make some videos of my own progress. It would be motivating for me and hopefully an interchange of ideas in this manner would be helpful to others, as seeing others' efforts would be for me.

Tony

[fazool]

Yes I was mostly kidding.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by fazool

Yes I was mostly kidding.

Fazool - thanks for the response. I have read some of your posts in other threads and found them to be very insightful, so I do hope you have input here too.

Edit: I should add that I hope I didn't sound like I was bragging about the cost of the uke. I am amazed that these can cost so much. I traded a guitar I have owned since the mid-90s for it and no cash changed hands in the deal. If I had to purchase it with cash, i would not have been able to, nor incentivized to do such a purchase. I wanted to sell/trade the guitar and this was in interesting opportunity to take a different musical direction. So for, me the actual price of the instrument is largely academic, rather than a display of wealth that I don't possess. However, it is a new instrument for me and that is always exciting, so I would mention it in my posts.

Tony

[Earl49]

I have also tried playing some of my slack-key repertoire on ukulele. Slack-key guitar mostly uses an open G or taro patch tuning (D-G-D-G-B-D). On the uke, you don't have the fifth and sixth bass strings. You can get the same intervals as on the upper four of the guitar (pitchwise) by tuning the A (1st) string down to G, so you get G-C-E-G, which happens to be an open C tuning. The turnarounds and harmonized melodies sound good, but overall it loses something without the alternating bass underneath. Again, I use a low G string on my ukes for fingerstyle work, specifically because it better emulates the guitar.

Tony, I didn't take your post as bragging about a high $$$ uke. If you could get such an awesome instrument traded even up for a guitar that you were not using anyway, then more power to you! BTW I have played fancy ukes that retailed for twice that. Awesome, but just not for me personally. No reflection on your choice.