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Decoding Any Strumming Pattern by Ear...In Seconds!

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Decoding Any Strumming Pattern by Ear...In Seconds! LESSON #1 Pomaikai’i Keawe Lyman, granddaughter of legendary Hawaiian singer & entertainer Aunty Genoa Keawe, at the 2009 Aloha Falsetto Festival in Redondo Beach. Photo by Marsha Aguon THE BEST STRUM LESSON EVER! Strumming Unlock the secret to decoding any strumming pattern by ear...in seconds! Frustrated? Stuck in a rut? level skyrocket in a very short time they learned how to emulate what with just a few minutes a day. You’d they heard. Confused by the many so-called be surprised - when you look So dust off those old favorites, “experts” online and hard-to-grasp forward to practicing and you put revisit them with an open ear and instructional books? Stop wasting yourself in that mental state of HAVE FUN! hours of your valuable time trolling discovery mode, ten minutes easily discussion forums and spend just a turns into 30 minutes, 2 hours...all few minutes mastering these simple day! Contents techniques that will refresh your But in the end, there is no approach to strumming the ukulele Counting Beats 2 substitute for LISTENING. Eric and will allow you to decode any Clapton, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Swing vs Straight 3 given strum within SECONDS...BY Frank Sinatra - you can be sure they EAR! Ghost Strokes 4 all spent a LOT of time sitting by Practice the following concepts their record player lifting that needle Additional Resources 5 diligently and you will see your skill and replaying their favorite parts as Noteworthy George Harrison Ohta San Byron Yasui Tiny Tim Lyle Ritz Bryan Tolentino Ukulele Players Bill Tapia James Hill William H Macy (surprised at some of these names?) Jake Shimabukuro Troy Fernandez Greg Hawkes Benny Chong Abe Lagrimas Johnny Winter Other beat patterns 4/4 may be most recognizable to us but 3, 5 and even 7 beats in a measure are not uncommon. Here are some well-known examples: Three Beats Happy Birthday Star Spangled Banner Amazing Grace Edelweiss Rainbow Connection Sweet Baby James (James Taylor) Counting Beats Start with the C chord. Stick out your index finger Five Beats like a record player stylus, Mission Impossible If you can’t count “them”, how Take Five (Dave Brubeck) strum across the strings can you keep “it”? Whether you’re Everything's Alright (From Jesus down toward the ground Christ Superstar) playing solo, or in a group, a strong and count ”ONE”. Now move your sense of timing and rhythm is of the hand across Seven Beats utmost importance. the strings Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel) The most common time signature toward the Money (Pink Floyd) is 4/4 time which means that in a ceiling and given song or piece of music there is say “AND”. an underlying pulse of four strong On the beats. In fact, 4/4 is so common, it’s next downward strum count “TWO”, also known as “Common Time” and is followed by an “AND” on the way often represented on a sheet of music back up. Repeat with “THREE AND with the letter “C”. FOUR AND” for one full measure Don’t worry - just because you Count out loud while you are (phrase) of 4/4 time. Be sure to give practicing strumming. If you’ve didn’t know the terminology doesn’t equal volume to both up and been having a hard time mean you weren’t feeling it all along. downstrokes. Yes, upstrokes feel a coordinating singing and Notice how you tend to tap your foot little weird at first but you’ll get used strumming, this will help you on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4 naturally to it quickly. Consistent practice is immensely when listening to a catchy song on key. the radio? You’ll see quicker results when Ever been to a concert or event you practice strumming very where they want to fire up the crowd robotically at first, with a certain by getting them to clap their hands emotional detachment. In a way, together? You’ll know what I’m when we practice, we should “It takes a lot of devotion and talking about if you’ve ever attended “behave and feel like scientists, work, or maybe I should say a Jewish wedding or seen the scene observing, dispassionately, the play, ‘cause if you love it, from the movie “The Deer Hunter”. results of our experiments.”* that’s what it amounts to. I haven’t found any shortcuts, *On Practising by Ricardo Iznaola Let’s apply counting beats in and I’ve been looking for a common time as it relates to playing long time.” - Chet Atkins the ukulele. Kunia Galdeira, grandson of Hawaiian music pioneer Swing vs Straight- Gabby Pahinui, in his appearance at the 2010 style Strumming Southern California Slack Key Festival in Los Angeles. Photo by Oceanfront Here are some well- Photography known examples of songs in both styles Swing Little Grass Shack Tiny Bubbles In The Mood All Of Me Pearly Shells Love Me Do Eight Days A Week Can’t Buy Me Love Five Foot Two New York, New York Swing strumming Bye Bye Love Probably the most natural thing to do when one picks up the ukulele for the first time. This style of strumming swings - ala Tiny Tim, Count Basie big Straight/”Rock” band - with the up a little softer than the down - ka-CHUNK ka-CHUNK ka- Twist & Shout CHUNK. Think tropical breezes, sipping a drink, relaxing on a hammock La Bamba under a palm tree...ahhhhh..... Brown-eyed Girl See the sidebar on the left for some very familiar examples of this style. Under The Boardwalk I Wanna Hold Your Hand Rock You Like A Hurricane (Just checking to see if you’re Straight/“Rock and Roll” Strumming paying attention) I call this the rock strum because so many of the songs people love to play on the ukulele are simply adaptations of popular rock and pop songs originally written for guitar, such as “By Bye Love”, “Under The Boardwalk”, etc. Notice how these songs do not fit the image of a big band performing them alongside tunes like “Unforgettable” or “Fly Me To The Moon? In this style of strumming we give equal volume and conviction to every beat - both up and down strums - with the consistency of a metronome. Of As you listen to the songs listed course, rarely will we play a song the whole way through like this and that’s above, it will help you get a where the magic of Ghost Strokes - the topic on the next page - comes in! feel for the strums if you cover the ukulele strings with your Visit www.UkuleleWebsite.com for a complete listing of products, including left hand (muting the sound) the video companion to this lesson. Plus: and strum along lightly with your right. • Advanced Strumming Techniques • Create complete harmony/melody ukulele solos! • A super-easy method to learn chords & keys just 1, 2, 3, 4, like the Strumming Variations beginning of “Benny and the Jets” (G chord) Using straight-style or “Sandman” by strumming, practice America (Em chord). ghost strokes to get the Try one of the patterns familiar sounds of in the left sidebar. these well-known tunes (Note: the “Rock/Folk” pattern is one of the (x = ghost stroke) most prolific strum As of this writing, Bill Tapia is still going strong at 102! patterns out there) Blowin’ In The Wind Once you’ve played one a couple times, (Bob Dylan) “Ghost Strokes” 1 x 2 x 3 & 4 & stop counting and focus on the Here is where it gets fun! This is sound itself as you assign the probably the single most important movement to muscle memory. Leather and Lace lesson you’ll ever learn on the Muscle memory is important - at (Stevie Nicks) subject of strumming and it will work some point you have to stop thinking 1 x 2 x x & 4 & equally well for both swing and and start feeling. straight “rock” styles and can be The fun part comes from creating Best Of My Love easily adapted to guitar and your own patterns as you practice (Eagles) mandolin as well. omitting different beats at random and replacing them with ghost 1 & 2 & x & x x Ghost Strokes is a term strokes. Sit down with your uke and originally used by drummers but I play whatever comes to mind - Angel Mine find it to be a perfect way to you’re bound to stumble across a (Cowboy Junkies) describe what one needs to do to strumming pattern for that favorite 1 x 2 & x & 4 & emulate any strum while maintaining song of yours that you’d been trying a strong sense of rhythm and pulse to figure out for the longest time. regardless of whether the tempo is Combining different strum Sister Golden Hair slow or fast. patterns with different chord (America) A ghost stroke can fall on either progressions such as C-G7-C, G-C- 1 x 2 x 3 & 4 & a downbeat or an upbeat and a D7-G, F-Dm-Gm-C7-F, etc. will help x & 2 x x & 4 & variation/combination of both will keep things interesting and make it produce familiar sounding grooves even easier to “discover” songs. (see sidebar on the left). Check out the video companion to Start with a repeating pattern of this report if you need even more strumming all beats: 1& 2 & 3 & 4 clarity. &. Now replace all the “&”’s with a “The music has generated all Several other strumming secrets silent upstroke, completely missing the techniques I use. When I sit will help you recreate the sounds the strings but moving your hand as down to learn to play you hear and the songs you love - if you were strumming them.
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