Csus4 ukulele chord – 31 Jan (Photo credit: Ukulele Chords)
Fancy learning a new chord every day? Then hop over to Curt Sheller’s All Things Ukulele site.
There are also a number of other useful free resources on there – including lots of lessons covering chords, techniques, learning the fingerboard, strumming, finger-picking, scales, rhythm, ear-training & songs.
Jeanette
Mojo practices the uke (Photo credit: petehoffswell)
We’ve mentioned in some of our previous postings that it can be helpful to split up your playing into different components – eg chords (melody), strumming (rhythm) & singing – either to help you focus on improving each of those aspects or just when learning a new song.
Rod Higuchi (Uncle Rod), from Seattle Ukulele Players Association (SUPA), has produced a number of useful free resources to assist with developing your ability to make smooth, consistent chord changes: Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a fine uke cover of Half Man Half Biscuit’s It’s Clichéd To Be Cynical At Christmas. Seasons greetings everyone!
Number One in the UK Singles Chart on 15 Dec 1979 was Pink Floyd‘s Another Brick In The Wall (Part II). This Ukulollo version has two ukes, a cajon & an egg-shaker. Play along with Richard G’s chords.
The latest offering from the uke-playing rock & roller (often incorrectly described as a ‘Chirpy Cockney’, despite the fact he was born in Lincolnshire), is an entire album of songs arranged for ukulele. Also appearing are his daughter, Sam, & her band, the International Ukulele Club Of Sonning Common.
There’s an interesting mix of uke standards – including Formby’s When I’m Cleaning Windows; favourites such as I’ll See You In My Dreams; the Chas ‘n’ Dave singalong There’s No Pleasing You; plus more unexpected numbers, including Pinball Wizard & Mr Blue Sky.
All the tunes are available for preview on YouTube. As my parents had a greengrocers shop in Sarf London, here’s my musatoid choice.
Jeanette
Woman listening to Music (Photo credit: RelaxingMusic)
Here’s a free on-line ear trainer from Rick, who writes the I Was Doing All Right blog. There are full instructions on the page & it has several different customisable options for you to identify note intervals, chords & melodies, so you can make it as hard or easy as you wish.
You’ll need Java running (answer any prompts you receive on-screen & scroll down to the bottom of the page for troubleshooting if you encounter any problems).
Rick’s article also describes other hints & tips for ear training & gives his song mnemonics for learning intervals (you may want to use your own – it;s easier to pick tunes you know well if you use this method).
The ear trainer is also available for free download if you want to use it off-line.
Other quizzes include: PLUC Weekend Workout – EarMaster Reference Songs For Intervals; PLUC Weekend Workout – Speak Ukulele Challenge!; PLUC Weekend Workout – memrise on-line courses; PLUC Weekend Workout – Theta Music Trainer; PLUC Weekend Workout – Flashcard Machine; PLUC Weekend Workout – Music Reading Knowledge; A Question Of Uke – TV & Movie Themes
chord-ukulele (Photo credit: themissy)
Turn up your volume & see how many of the chords you can correctly identify in the Speak Ukulele Challenge! from the Uke Can Play site.
Jeanette
Other quizzes include: PLUC Weekend Workout – EarMaster Reference Songs For Intervals; PLUC Weekend Workout – On-line Ear Trainer; PLUC Weekend Workout – memrise on-line courses; PLUC Weekend Workout – Theta Music Trainer; PLUC Weekend Workout – Flashcard Machine; PLUC Weekend Workout – Music Reading Knowledge; A Question Of Uke – TV & Movie Themes
Reading Music Mnemonics – Treble Clef from http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-read-music2
Notes on the lines are E – G – B – D – F = Every Good Boy Deserves Football
Notes in the spaces spell F – A – C – E
Another interesting learning resource site I found this week is memrise. Its main section is on-line language courses, with novel ways of getting you to learn the vocabulary (along with mnemonics, submitted by fellow learners, which may or may not seem useful to you!) but it covers a lot more under Other Topics..
It’s a free sign-up. You do short, timed tests to build your knowledge & can return as often or infrequently as you wish to practice. There is a reasonable Musical Notation section with all manner of items to help your music theory knowledge, such as:
