DAY 1
A friend of mine started blogging the other day (or was it resumed blogging?) and it reminded me of my own blogging failures. So here is my 2nd attempt at the 30 Day Blogging Challenge. Hope I do better this time (I did almost half the days last time)…
That picture was just a random screen shot from my iPhone of my current favourite app, Ukulele Chorda. I use it a lot right now cause… Surprise surprise, I’m learning how to play the ukulele.
That might come as a surprise to anyone who’s sen my Somewhere Overthr Rainbow tutorial, which by the way, has been taken down for copyright violation (I’m countering, though, with a claim of “fair use” so please pray that it works out in my favour).
But yes, I’m trying to learn how to actually play rather than how to play a few chords. So I’ve been doing some scales and generally working at it the same way I do with the piano.
It’s really frustrating though… As I’m sure most musicians who are pretty accomplished in one instrument and learning a brand new one, could attest to (especially learning an instrument cometely different from your dominant one). That’s because I know the theory behind what’s going on pretty well… It’s a matter of putting it to practice.
One example of this is knowing the chords that make up a key signature. For example, I know that major keys are made up of the following pattern: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished, major. So in the Key of C Major, the chords used are … C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, and Bdim. Knowing that, I can theoretically any song that is written in any major keys (with a little work, I can figure out the Minor Keys too).
But in practice, I can pretty much only play well in C and F… And even that is kinda dubious (since I don’t know how to play diminished chords on the Uke). It’s even more problematic because I’m planning to lead worship with the Ukulele, and being able to play in D, E and G is pretty important to do that
I got mandolin capo, which helps a little (so if I need to play in D, I capo 2 frets and play in C… and same for G.. But doing that for E is really weird). But I really consider it a cheat for playing in these basic keys (capos should really only be used for flat or sharp keys, or of you really know what you’re doing and just want a different sound for the ke you’re playing.. Which is what my church’s guitarist, Jeff and Craig do sometimes).
Anyway, on with the show… Develop calluses, learn strumming patterns, and learn how to flex my fingers into unusual shapes.. I wonder if pianists are supposed to be doing that…