Cowpoke by Ear Self-Paced

Ukulele by Ear: Cowpoke Songs Introductory Notes Welcome! As you work your way through this self-paced course, you may refer to the Syllabus provided below for recommendations about pacing yourself and organizing your practice of the included material. Feel free to adapt and adjust as feels appropriate for you, your goals for your practice, and your day-to-day assessment of your own progress. I expect a wide variety of students to be interested in this course. Perhaps you are relatively new to playing and excited to dive right in. Perhaps you are excited to expand your repertoire with this genre or music. Perhaps you are an experienced player looking for more organized practice playing by ear. Whatever your background and interest, the material provided in this course aims to help you improve both your playing and your musicianship. I recommend you take a moment before starting this course to decide what your initial goals are for your work with this material. The materials provided give you a lot of options for your practice. Pick the things that feel most aligned with your goals, and remember you can always return the material again later to go a level deeper. Think about what challenge(s) will fill that sweet spot between boringly easy and frustratingly difficult. Finally, I’d like to know a few resources to help support your practice: • To familiarize yourself with our Cowpoke Songs (especially those you don’t know yet), listen to original recordings: • I’ve included hyperlinks to original recordings on YouTube on our song chart pages. Look for the underlined text under the song title. • I’ve also created Cowpoke Songs Playlist on Spotify, which you can listen to outside your practice while you wash the dishes or go for a walk. • Video tutorials and play alongs on the Cowpoke Songs Practice Page can also help familiarize you with new songs, especially with the arrangements in our course. Look for additional tips in the Syllabus below for using these videos in your practice. • (Tip! Bookmark the Playlist and Practice Page to your browser for quick access.) Enjoy! 1 Syllabus Note: I have designed this six-week curriculum for students who are already somewhat familiar with the ukulele and with playing three-chord songs in the keys of C, D, G, and A. I also expect you’ll know several of these songs already, too. However, if there is a lot of new material and content for you here, I recommend giving yourself 8 weeks (or more) to make your way through. Week 1 • Learn the songs of Part 1 (pp. 6-9). • Familiarize yourself with these songs first by listening to original recordings (via hyperlinks or Spotify playlist). Learn the songs using the videos provided our Practice Page. • The songs in this first part of the course use chord patterns that follow the graphics provided at the top of each song chart. These should help you count out the number of measures you need to each chord. As you practice this first set of songs, notice if these graphics are helpful in committing these patterns to memory? • Review and play along with the videos on the Practice Page as much as you need this week. • Playing By Ear • The idea of playing “by ear” is a little misleading, I will admit. We actually use a lot of senses and abilities to play a song from memory. After spending some time with each song, ask yourself: What else is helping me make sense of these chord patterns? How might I organize them in my mind? Take notes for yourself and notice what you’re learning about yourself as a musician. (I’ll have some more ideas on this next week.) • Visualization. If the visual graphics I present are not helpful, consider how you would sketch out these patterns? Or, perhaps it’s easier simply to visualize the chord shapes on the fretboard for yourself? There are many ways to use our eyes and various visual cues we can use to support our listening. Week 2 • Warm up each day: Pick one song from Part 1 to play through with the song chart, and then try playing it through without the chart. What do you remember, and what don’t you remember? What is helping you learn this song most? Use the information you gather from your warm up to help guide your practice. • Review the songs of Part 1 and make a Cheat Sheet for each. • Download and print the packet of Cheat Sheets on the Practice Page. • For each song, ask yourself: What information do I really need to play and sing this song? Recall from last week: What else is helping me make sense of these chord patterns? How might I organize them in my mind? • Whatever you feel you need, distill it down to the minimum and make those notes in the blank space at the top of each Cheat Sheet. Once you’ve made a Cheat Sheet for a song, practice and play this song *only* from the Cheat Sheet. Feel free to adjust or add to your notes if you need. 2 • The purpose of this assignment is two-fold: • As you learn about yourself as a musician, and what notes are most meaningful for you, you’ll be translating the full song chart into a short hand that is most effective for your learning. • Simply by going through this process and writing your notes down helps solidify the patterns in your mind, so that you may not even need the notes after you do. • Playing By Ear • As you consider what notes will serve you best on your Cheat Sheet, here are some song elements that you might not have thought of, but can be really helpful: • Lyrics. As you listen or sing along with the lyrics, notice how any words or phrases that correspond to the chord changes. Things to look for are: phrases that repeat with each chord change, or chord changes that come on the last lyric of the line, etc. What patterns do you notice? • Melody. As you listen or sing along with the melody, notice how its movement corresponds to the chord changes. Are the notes making a big jump? Are they going up or down the scale toward a chord change? What patterns do you notice? • Rhythm. Besides just counting the beats for each chord, what other rhythmic cues can you use? As you listen or sing along, take away the notes and the words and see if you can clap out the rhythm of what you’re singing. Notice how this rhythm corresponds to the chord changes. Is there a repeating rhythm that corresponds or leads to a chord change? Is there a rhythm that changes with the chord change? What patterns do you notice? Week 3 • Warm up each day: Pick a song that you’ve made a Cheat Sheet for. Play through it with the Cheat Sheet, and then try playing it through without. What do you remember, and what don’t you remember? What is helping you learn this song most? Use the information you gather from your warm up to help guide your practice. • Review / Learn About Transposing. • Download the Transposing Worksheet on our Practice Page and use it to help you transpose one song from your Cheat Sheets to a new key. Play the song through to make sure you’ve got it right. The chords may sound a little different, but does it still basically sound like the original song? Can you sing along? • Transpose your chosen song into all the keys you know: C, D, G, and A. (Extra points for trying F if you like!) • Over the course of the week, try transposing all Part 1 songs into all the keys you know. • Note: I’ve never met anyone who understands the I-IV-V system and transposing all at once from the very beginning. I return to it in every class to give students the chance to continue deepening their grasp and understanding of it. As you work through this week’s assignments, focus on what you do grasp and what you can do, and keep track of your questions. When you reach a dead end, please email me to schedule some time to answer your questions. 3 • The purpose of this assignment is two-fold: • What makes a song is not the chords you play, but the relationship between the chords you play. Understanding these relationships can be helpful in recognizing common chord patterns across multiple songs in multiple keys. For example, there are countless songs that use the Boomerang pattern I - IV - I - V. The better you know and understand this system of relationships, the quicker you’ll be able to pick up on chord patterns in new songs you hear. • Understanding the relationships between the I, IV and V chords also helps deepen your ear. The more you listen, the better you’ll be able to hear the relationships between these chords without seeing the pattern on paper. • Playing By Ear • Around the World: As you feel more confident transposing, try doing it on the spot! Playing a song from your Cheat Sheet (pick one that feels easy to play), try to switch keys each verse or chorus! This will sound ridiculous, and you will likely struggle to find the melody notes to sing, but do your best. The purpose is to put that new knowledge of chord families and I-IV-V structures to use! Week 4 • Warm up each day: Play a song or two from Part 1 without your Cheat Sheet.

Load more