Silent Night - fingerstyle guitar workshop

A student and I workshopped an ultra simple version of Silent Night to have a few more fingerstyle elements, and work as a solo piece for a potential Christmas recital.

Our original is from Steve Kaufman's Smokey Mountain Christmas. (This is a great collection. It has 2 versions for each tune, 1 is chords with melody and tabs. The other version is a more complex fingerstyle solo version.)

So the chords in the no frills version give an idea of direction for fingerstyle.

I've transcribed our workshop result on to old people 'large print' staff paper. I'm not using the most official RCM guitar  notation style. The idea is to give clues to the student/player about how to get the fingers ready for upcoming moves.

Incorporated here are elements from our lessons: note reading, hammer ons, pull offs, identifying notes within chords, slides, walk downs, walk ups, harmonic. 

Note: the harmonic near the end is artificial. This allows you to maintain chord position, since the same one comes up again right after the harmonic. Holding position gives less chance for error. But the student can also just do the slide in the bar previous and omit the harmonic.

Here's the link to an online album that has the original and then workshopped sheet music pages. As well as a short video of the piece played thru.

Wassail and merry Christmas!

Fingerstyle Yule-kulele, Part 2 - Coming up with your own arrangement with fingerstyle embellishments

The peculiarity of the uke is the re-entrant tuning, meaning what would be the lowest sounding string on a guitar, ie closest to your thumb, is not the lowest sounding on the uke.

The banjo also has re-entrant tuning. Likely that's why the banjo uke was such a perfect hybrid when it emerged in the 1920s. 

The drone effect of the banjo's, well, drone string gives an idea of how we can use the high G string on the uke to enhance the drone effect.

However I personally don't feel the vibe of stunt uke or George Formby banjo uke. Obviously Formby types gravitated to the instrument for its big sound projection in small package capability.

The vibe i do feel, tho, is sort of Pa Ingalls/post US civil war era tunes.

I looked for a Christmas tune in the Pa Ingalls fiddle songbook. But  it seems holiday tunes as the time were more serious hymns. (Found some - see Postscript.)

I had the image in my mind of Mary and Laura getting so excited about the piece of candy in their stockings, and their amazement at seeing a Christmas tree. Garth Williams' illustrations were simply the best!

In my simple Snowman uke Christmas tunes book,  pretty much all the tunes are in C and F major, so no need for the low g tuning. In that book, Jolly Old St. Nicolas jumped out. So I went around this tune 3 times, first in  full pinch mode, next in a  pinch and pick out mode, finally in a slowed down simplied pick out of the arpeggios. So that's to show the girls' excitement Christmas eve in 2 phases then slowing down before bedtime. Here is a link to my sheet music. You might need to download and enlarge in a photos app.

Similar to in my previous post on reading fingerstyle: 1. Play the melody in notes, 2. Play thru again with chords, 3. Make note of which notes within the chord you NEED to bring out the melody, and which notes within the chord you can DROP to simplify and gain nimbleness. Here's a little video clip.  In this case i think the flubbs work with the tired Christmas vibe i was going for (that's my story).

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. Happy holiday & best of the season. Have fun and keep improving your chops!

Postscript. In the collection of Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas chapters, there are mentions to songs Pa played on Christmas eve.  There are also verse excepts & a full  piece, Merry Merry Christmas at the end. Here's the link to a little online album with some pages relevant to this from that picture book. I'll make a note of songs and first lines Pa played on Christmas eve for future reference:

* Nelly Gray...

* Money Musk

*the Red Heifer

*Devil's Dream

*Arkansas Traveller (baby bumblebee tune).

* Oh Charley he's a fine young man

* Twas a calm still night...Lily Dale

*Polly put the kettle on

*Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines

*Merry Merry Christmas

Fingerstyle Yule-kulele, Part 1- Working thru a fingerstyle piece

For anyone wanting to work up a little bit special ukulele piece for the holidays -

There are lots of fingerstyle pieces for ukes tuned to low g. If you go to a sheet music site and search uke, fingerstyle, christmas, there are quite a few choices. The one here is from Musicnotes. com, i think. But my other go-to is Sheet Music Plus.

So let's look at First Noel used here. Step 1 - pick out the notes of the tune on your uke. Step 2 - Now go thru the song using chords. Remember that chords are just arpeggios. So the chords for a certain section will have the notes for the tune in that measure in it.

Step 3 - have a pencil ready and a flat surface. You're going to mark up your sheet music as you go with  tips to yourself about how to finger the chord so that you can emphasize the note and be prepared to have an easy fingering for the next note that's coming. This is a very wordy way of saying it, whereas the exercise of doing it isn't that hard.

Simplified - Identify the notes you NEED to hit the melody. Peel off or SUBTRACT the fingers from the full chord that you don't need. You rarely need the full chord.

Here's a link to a jpg of the sheet music.

For instance, at Bar 4, we have a C chord with notes C, E & G indicated. Well, I felt I need the G for the tune. For the chord effect, i don't need the whole chord and to twist my fingers up like a pretzel. Need G, so cant also have E on string 2. We can get a 2 note harmony from C on the low string at 5th fret. Like a double stop in violin. And the lower C doesnt dominate like the high C would over the G. Finger this stop in the F chord shape formation.

That's just one example. I'm not going to take your fun away and make all the suggestions for you. The main points are, you don't need the whole chord - subtract from it the fingers you really don't need.

Since we found a fairly complete arrangement, i played pretty much as written. Here's the link to a short VIDEO CLIP. (Be kind. I'm just a part-time uke player  - Chet-Knopfler joke.)

In the next post, Part 2, we'll take a look at how to come up with the barebones of your own fingerstyle adaptation or arrangement.

Mystery object - Hint 1,2,3,5,6

 

While we're all memorizing different scale forms...

Give up?

Major pentatonic

:D

Geez i'm picturing a 3 strand cuff style bracelet i could make out of these....

Xmas gift cards available

Shop local!

Package of 8 lessons for price of 7.

Postcard or digital form for in envelope, stocking or in tree branches.

Lessons for youngsters include craft or activity for finger strengthening. I have some smaller scale instruments here they can try for comfort level. 

Zoom or live.

:D

Lesson learned from Thrawn theme sheet music

 

Subtitle: How you can tell when a guitar part is generated by a keyboard player :D

A student really likes film/tv music. I found some sheet music online for the theme for Admiral Thrawn from the Clone Wars animated show.

[Note: I have provided a new set of fingerings in an updated post on this. Here's the LINK TO UPDATED POST. ]

It cost a couple of bucks online purchase. Vendor seemed helpful & friendly. No regrets.

But when i ran through it and got to bar 40, it was clear something was odd. 

You would have to turn your fingers into some kind of tentacled monstrosity in order to play this section as the tabs indicated.

Here's a closeup of the sheet at 40. You're supposed to go from fret 15 to 10 on 1st string. Barely do-able. Then 17 to 10. Then 18 to 10. Believe me, a guitar with a cutout won't really help.

It seems to me the arranger didn't realize you can play the D note that you get at 11th fret, 1st string also on the 2nd string 15th fret. So you start with 2 fingers comfortably side by side on 15th fr. To go up to 17, is just 2 frets, 18th is just 3 frets. You have to go down to 14-15 for the last repeat of the pattern. 

So easiest thing to do is base these few bars on the Dm shape. Keep your middle finger on 15th fr/2nd string. Play 15/15 with ring & middle. Ring can stretch up to 17, while middle stays on 15. Baby plays 18, with middle on 15. We've reserved index finger to play 14, while middle is on 15. 

With a Dm shape, you can  play this passage faster and more accurately. I've done a little video (CLICK HERE TO SEE IT) to show the difference in playing this section as written and then using Dm shape.

The lesson here, I would say, is if you encounter a piece of music that calls for a crazy awkward finger stretch, see if you can find some familiar shapes across neighbouring strings. Don't give up, and don't stop at just what you see.

Cheers!

Price per lesson

 

Mystery Object - 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7

One of my guitar students has happily taken me down a path I didn't pay enough attention to in the past - scales.

We've been reviewing major & harmonic minor scales with the goal of setting foundations for the Blues scale.

Which is basically a pentatonic minor scale with an added flatted (b as symbol) 5, so b5.

We went slowly along the low e string in a strictly linear way. And it occurred to me that the played frets could be beads on a string, the unplayed frets (or semi-tones) could be knots. Put the single different colour bead in for the b5.

That gives 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7 (8) to represent the hexatonic blues  scale. If you remember to take out the b5, it also shows your minor pentatonic scale.

When she tied it on like a bracelet, we realized we needed to indicate the starting point for the bead scale. At the time we put a different coloured knot on it.  But later i remembered i had these music symbol charms, and that a treble clef could  show where to start.

So there you have it - Blues scale visualization memory aid bracelet! Catchier title - Blues Scale Bracelet.

Pat self on back - job done :D

Uke Low G Experiment - Drop Tuning

How do you get the Low G range of tones for fingerpicking out of a uke tuned to High G, 4th string? In a way that the student doesn't have to swap strings.

This was the consideration when we tried to fingerpick Ashoken Farewell in key of D on uke. See this blog post for my Ashoken Farewell TUTORIAL. It has links to playalong tracks and sheet music.

Guitar players often play 'drop D' tuning. (There are other atypical tunings as well.) This means the lowest, thickest string, which is usually tuned to low E, gets tuned down 2 semi-tones to a lower D.

The trick is that you have to remember that all notes played on the lower pitched string will be found 2 frets up the finger board.

The same principle could apply to uke. But the problem is that 4th G string loses responsiveness when it's tuned close to an octave lower. It doesn't stay in tune.

I tuned an old uke down as far as it could go, which seemed to be an A. The song in question features low Bs, low As and a low G. It sort of worked to adapt the sheet music and drop the low G, instead playing a couple of Bs, and then the A.

I tried this re-tuning also on a newer uke. It wouldn't tune down to A. Only to B. But honestly, it worked as well, to tune to low B. You can't get the low A. But it works to just hit the high open A.

I did a video of the experiment. There's a false start after the initial tuning sequence, at around the 2 minute mark of the attached VIDEO. 

Conventional wisdom seems to be to use something like a D string from a classical guitar to get the low G. But the student may not be ready for the restringing operation at tis point. (That involves buying a D string, figuring out how to restring, and perhaps leaving the uke strung that way, while you may not be sure that's what you want to do.) 

Another option is having 2 ukes, each with distinct tuning. I suppose if you can come by a free or cheap 2nd uke, this is an ok plan. Again, not optimal perhaps for beginners.

Drop tuning offers a workaround while the student decides whether or not to commit to re-stringing for low G. 

If this ancient uke with strings from who knows when (likely the '60s. I think i restrung this instrument at one point. But i honestly can't remember) can do it, any uke can.

There are a couple more steps i should try to complete this experiment. Maybe a thicker string for the 4th  might hold a lower tuning. (either classical guitar D string or low g uke string.)*

*Low string tuning up experiment. I have a uke outfitted with D classical guitar string. Well settled. It doesnt tune up to high G. I only tried this to a certain degree. There was lot of tension on the string and instrument, and i didnt want it to pop, and break pieces off the uke. *Need to try tuning up low g made for uke string.But i suspect the string companies would rather you buy more strings than fewer.

Also, would another brand of string also both hold upper and lower tunings better. I will report on this in future?**

**Better string experiment result - i tried this with a fresh new good quality high G string. Gave it a couple of weeks to settle. It still doesnt tune far enough down to the low g.

This solution described here, which we'll call 'Tune 4th string as low as it will go,' is meant as a workaround for an on the spot adaptation  to fingerpicking lower notes on a soprano uke, which doesn't require  getting new strings or a re-stringing exercise.

Post script 1 - i've gone thru a couple of beginner to intermediate uke books lately. They seem to be written without needing to play lower than a low C note.  So a student likely can avoid encountering this problem for a while.

Post script 2 - Is changing strings such a bad idea? No - players are going to have to change them anyway if they break. What might be the 2nd best option is if a low g might tune up to and hold a high G, a player would have the opportunity to upgrade to a better quality string from off the shelf, and only do it once (at the beginning) and  have a wider range of tones and options. But i mean, even if you change to a low g, you can still get the high G range out of the 2nd (highest) string.  Changing to log g string for uke might be the most logical option.

Post script 3 - I have put on a bona fide for uke low g string. Aquila red. A wrapped nylgut string. You will read that it's expensive. I dunno. It was around $10. It settles faster. Has a better sound than classical guitar D. To be honest, i would immediately add this string to a new instrument.

Ashoken Farewell Tutorial

This is a great piece to end summer sessions.

Most of us know it from the Ken Burns Civil War documentary series, and it seems old. But actually it's not. (Here's a clip from the doc with the tune under it.)

It was composed by Jay Unger in 1982, and became a closing tune for fiddle camps run by he and his wife Molly in upstate New York.

Here's a link to Jay & Molly and friends playing it:

Ashoken Farewell video

This tune, whether done simply or more complex, stops folks in their tracks. So why not learn it!

Here in an audio track of the melody that you can strum along to:

Ashoken Farewell - melody track, guitar picked

It's done slow to be easier for playing along with. Remember to turn the volume down on the online player.

Just added - melody track on mandolin. About 54 bpm. Metronome is kind of loud. Entire tune repeated twice with different ending. Excuse the duffer tremolo. 

I developed this tutorial for a new uke student (with piano training) who wanted to fingerpick this tune in key of D on uke. We encountered the uke dilemma of how to pick notes below High G on 4th string of soprano uke without wanting to re-string to Low G. Here's the link to a post about experimenting with DROP TUNING ON UKE as a possible workaround for this.

Below is the sheet music. Chords indicated. You can also try to pick out the notes. Have fun with the rest of your summer!

Wellerman Tutorial 2 - Real treat

Susannah and Cameron, of Vivo Violin Studio, were home for a lovely long month this summer (and will be missed :'(   While here, they recorded an audio file with a local lad who is a keen on Wellerman as I am.

Their track is so sweet it deserves its own posting.

Strummers can also play along to these vocals. It's in the same key as Nathan Evans' Tiktok version.

Guitar players - put capo on 8th fret and play same chords that i indicated in Tutorial 1.  (Basically Em, Am, C, G).

Here's the link to the audio file:

Wellerman w M. Eldridge, S, McKenzie-Sutter, C. MacLellan

Wellerman Tutorial

The minute I saw the clip of Nathan Evans doing 'Wellerman,'  I knew I needed it. With the rhythm beat out on the back of his guitar and simple tune, i felt it would be perfect for beginner uke players.

So my idea was, get the kids to do the beat on percussion instrument of choice. For strummers, it's hard to do the minor chords for beginners on uke. But they can do the chorus.  It will sound fine using C, G and F major in the chorus if guitar supports with minor chords. So strummers would wait for the chorus and then come in.

 

The Wellerman is a long folksong/working song with many verses. So i picked 4 verses. The pattern in the audio files is 2 X verses, 1 x chorus, 2X verses, 2x chorus.

 

It's done here to guitar chords. Use any stringed, lute family instrument, with its own fingering for  corresponding chord name.

 

Also i didnt select these chords so that they would jive with  Nathan on Tiktok. I workd backwards from simple uke chords at chorus for beginners, and kept is simple, no capos or complicated chords in verses.

Here are links to audio files (remember to turn volume down on online player before hitting play)-

Wellerman picking only (play along with this if you are chording):

 

My picking is a bit choppy. But pretend you are accompanying someone who's had 1 too many in a pub. I also found doing single strums helped with being able to hear and wait for the picking line.

 

Wellerman pick & strum (to hear what they sound like together)

 

Here's a lyric sheet with notes on chording:

 

 

 

 

Here are the notes for the tune jotted down pretty roughly. It's a working song, so improvising goes with the territory.

With these pics, if they aren't readable, take a screen cap and enlarge it in Preview or your own photo viewer program.

I have a couple of devices to make chord playing easier for new players until they get up to speed. Or for folks with arthritis, muscular challenge, who just want to be able to play along. Pics below.

1. Chord Buddy (only give 3 chords)

 

 

2. Chord changer. From Troubador Music.  Gives option for more chords.

 

 

So there you go. A song anyone can learn this summer.

Friend in Me tutorial

Friends - it's been a while. (Got caught up in home-based pandemic learning, bla bla bla). Change in delivery - a series of videos.

I've been picking away at this piece for a while. Altho we all know it from the Toy Story movie, it's harder to adapt to guitar than you would think  - for a cowboy-ish type of song.

I started with the basic Hal Leonard publishing Disney tunes book that's 4 pages of piano music with chords across top. My rule of thumb is 3 pages max is functional on a music stand. 

 

Step 1: copy and splice into a hideous ( at left - egads) but useable format for me to lock down the picking to strum to.

Step 2: print out 2 column lyric sheet. 

Step 3: whittle down the chords to functional finger positions  that don't require rubber digits.

Step 4: find tempo that works - 70 bpm.

Result: I do think the chording here is solid intermediate. My chording sheet can be seen in a photo album of sheet music found HERE.

 

TIPS ON CHORDING

Intro chord run. 

To move from Am > Aflat7, it's easier to just put pinky finger on the D note string 2, 3fr. Surprisingly effective hack. For the B, Bflat, A run - barre chord B, slide up to barre Bflat, slide up to A (no barre). For transition to C where lyrics start - it comes at you fast. You have 3 beats to land it. For quick transition to G7, play just F note & strum highest 4 strings.

Bridge (Some other folks...)

Prep starts line before. Play 1 C chord strum to give yourself time to switch gears. Set up Barre F chord. The reason for this:  much of this section is variations on a barre chord.

Barre B.

For C6 hack, form partial barre across 4 high strings 5th fr and press ring finger on 4th string, 7th fret. Concentrate on higher/upper 4 strings. It helps to rotate hand, curling knuckle and pressing back and down toward outer edge of finger board. It's the highest string ringing clearly that makes the hacked chord sound right.

For the B that follows, just slide this exact finger formation up to 4th fret. Lock this shape. More sliding of it to come!

Slide back to C6, up to B, quick C6, B, C6. Now slide shape to 7th fret for 1 measure (or 2 long strums). Give yourself time to get back up to 1st position for the upcoming Dm.

Get Dm on in time for 'ever' in lyrics. Lift index to flick off the F note at the word 'love.' Hammer F note/index finger back on at word 'you.' Rest of chord sequence in bridge is straight forward.

To get in a little slide at end of bridge, form G chord that bridge ends with by sliding index finger down to 3rd fr, 1st st, then squeeze on middle finger at 3rd fret, 6th str for closing chord. (The slide  was more distinct with nylon strings vs steel strings).

3rd Verse.

At the closing verse, i'm tempted to throw in some colour (to avoid total repetition of earlier but colour can be skipped). For the hacked F#m, easiest way is to move from partial barre F. Eyeball 5th fret. Grab notes E & C at 5th fret, str 2 & 3 with ring and middle fingers, let index finger follow to hit F# for this chord at 4th fret, 4th string. (You can even use a sort of slanted A chord formation starting at 4th position.) After that,  some dramatic slowing helps with getting back up into 1st position.

Last line. I was tempted to half the tempo here. But don't - it throws you off sync with the melody as written. Use the G7sus as noted if you like. (It works to throw on that baby finger at D note again.)

Closing run.

If you're syncing up a dramatic slowdown with melody, hit the C chord and let it ring. The E7 comes in when melody hits the D# note. Then the rhythm flows naturally.

ON MELODY

Mostly guitar will strum along with a singer. If you want to pick the tune, start with the Hal Leonard.

Intro run. I found it easier to  lock down the notes here starting with a barre at 5th fret. So G note on string 4, A at 7th fr, C on str 3, D# at 8th fr, E on str 2...

 

THE VIDEOS

Metronome can be heard in all videos at 70.

Video 1. Just focuses on the well known picked run at intro, going into Verse 2 and at end. Maybe because the frets are closer together further down, i found this run easier to hit reliably by starting with a barre across strings 1-4 at 5th fret.

Video 2. Shows fingers for the strum line for whole song. Might be simpler to follow than the tmi notations above.

Video 3. Picked melody line, whole song. Illustrates setups to runs. May also be used as a practice track to strum against. Not synced with Vid 2. Altho the metre is same speed for both.

I hope some of this is helpful. I do think younger or mid-beginner players can use the tips here to be able to play along with a singer and have it sound somewhat like the song we all know and love. Cheers!