New Patreon page - starts with Christmas uke play-along, 'Down in Yon Forest

I've been hesitant to build traffic to the home studio. Close family member came down with covid 10 days before Christmas. Second (positive) finally gone today, a full 15 days later. And this person was careful too, up to date on shots, etc. Not to get public health political, but it's not over.

So have decided to put fully supported play-alongs online for Patreon subscribers. I'll keep putting up little hints and tips on the socials. But I guess this is reasonable with respect to the amount of time that goes into them. Here's the link to my Patreon page. Here's the Yon Forest post.

My first Patreon post is a Christmas play-along for uke. I've done it on banjo uke. It's a slightly lesser known tune, ' Down in Yon Forest.' Canadians will perhaps recognize as a Bruce Cockburn Christmas offering.

It's adapted from Steve Kaufman's Smokey Mountain Christmas. Steve has 2 volumes of this, 1 for guitar, and 1 for mandolin/violin. I just adapted the notes and chords for ukulele.

The collection includes a breakout solo for the instrument on each song. My play-along includes finger-picked melody and chording files, as well as a combined clip. I also did a separate set for the solo part. Found a new app for combining audio files, BandLab. I'm kind of analog for doing it on phone. But it's working great for me on computer.

The main song is pretty easy, altho in Dm with the Bb in it. Here's a link to jpgs taken on phone cam for partial screenshot of sheet music. Album includes jpg of charts of chords used, as well as chord 'map,' which shows the order of the chords in song. Also a badly aligned video clip of the solo. 

The book is well worth it, with fresh arrangements for what can be over-played Christmas tunes. You can get the book or ebook on MelBay.com.

My goal is to post something fresh to the Patreon once a month. It's a toe in the water. See what you think!

And by all means shoot me a note if you have a play-along you'd like to see, or an explainer developed.

Free fallin' - playalong/jam track

 

Cleaning up the YouTubes - found a  quasi jam track not posted to the blog.

Student was interested in Tom Petty tunes.

I seem to have recorded a simple melody line on mandolin. Was looking for a sound distinctly dissimilar from guitar chording, as I recall.

I left a pretty loud metronome sound in. It's distractingly domineering. Tolerable maybe if you use earbuds and turn volume down.

'Map' of the song is in comments on the YT posting.

Perhaps useful as a jam track.

Beginner uke (or guitar) program, 7 weeks

 

This is a slightly longer program for beginning stringed instrument players. To keep kids going thru a few more weeks of winter. 

(I do have a short 4-week program for beginners. HERE'S the link to it.)

Virtual, Zoom-based for families trying to keep distant from face to face learning during pandemic until the weather warms up and there can be more outside interaction.

It's colour-coded, coordinated to desk bells for frame of reference.

Can be used for ukulele or guitar.

It's also important for new (especially young) learners to work on finger strength, so each lesson 30 minute lesson dedicates 10 minutes to a fine motor activity. The two methods used here are clay play (with plasticine) and forming coloured yarn strands. I've created an online album that shows a map (overview or flow) of the program. Click HERE for the online album for the 7 -week course.

Materials needed: uke (or guitar), plasticine, clear plastic page sleeve, small balls of red, green & blue yarn, lucet or yarn corker. (If you are local to me and can arrange to pick up, I can provide you with most of these material. You will need your own instrument.)

Here's of guideline of the content for each day:

Day 1. Learn what a scale is. Finger warmup - Plasticine string snakes.  Learn what a scale is. Watch video of 'Doe a Deer' from Sound of Music (link to in on YouTube HERE). Look at set of bells to see where notes/colours of C major scale fall on a staff. Find corresponding notes on open strings (important for tuning). Sing/play Doe a Deer picking tonic note.

Day 2. Strings & tuning. Finger warmup - plasticine - start clay dot art piece (will continue working on this in next lesson).  Review Doe a deer song.  Tune ukes to note names. Review at bell colour notes on staff. Find corresponding notes on uke fretboard.  Isolate arpeggio (1, 3 & 5 notes). Prepares the ear for these notes together forming a chord.

Day 3. Find all 7 notes of scale on uke. Finger warmup - plasticine - clay art piece. Look at bells against a piano keyboard. This shows that not all notes have a half tone between them. On uke/guitar, this shows how most notes have 2 frets between them, but some are just 1 fret apart0. Student don't have to memorize this, just be aware of it. Find corresponding notes on uke fretboard. Play Doe a Deer using all notes.

Day 4. Form C chord.  Finger warmup - make red lace representing C note. On uke - go up and down scale. Review arpeggio.  (Can look at arpeggio song from Aristocats. Link to 'Scales & Arpeggios Song on YouTube is HERE.) Form C chord. Play silly 1-chord song. Vary rhythm. Try pluck, then strum pattern.

Day 5. Form partial F chord. Warmup - make yellow lace for E note. On uke - review arpeggio. Students are encouraged to manipulate yarn with the left hand (or less natural hand) as well as this will strengthen the chording fingers (alternately string plucking fingers). Play 2-chord song, Row your boat from Kids Uke book.

Day 6. Form partial G chord. Warmup - make blue G lace. Braid 3 laces together. This becomes a physical representation of the 3 notes together in a chord.. What a chord 'looks' like. On uke - review arpeggio. Form part G chord. (Try walking fingers analogy for how to play fingers. Gives students chord is more than 1 finger. If this is too hard, do 1 finger G7 chord). Play 3-chord song, Twinkle little star from Kids Uke book. 

Day 7. New 3 chord song.  Review relevant learnings to day. Introduce song such as On Top of Old Smokey (orig lyrics are refreshing. Revert to On Top of Spaghetti for fun.) With these 3 chords, new players can play a huge range of folk or pop songs.

Lessons aim to be 30 minutes long. I will tend to go slightly over to have a song to takeaway, rather than go strictly by the clock.

Cost: $20 per lesson. I can work out a deal for 2 or 3 children from 1 family or location on screen at same time. Total: $140 ($20x7). I'm offering the Pandemic Survivor discount on this  program of 1 free lesson, which is $20 off). So Pandemic Survivor deal is $120 in total. I can take etransfer or cash. Payment for this package is due at start of first lesson. Please give 24 hours notice to cancel or reschedule.

This is a rough outline. We can cover more or less info than indicated depending on interest level. (It's not a race. Getting thru it faster isn't the goal here. ) But we'll end up at the same spot by last lesson.

Hope that helps. Send me a message at email bottom of blog for more info. You can also reach out by DM on my FB, Instagram of Twitter pages.

Stay well, everyone. Six more weeks until spring. We got this!

Circuit-breaker Ukulele Program (4 weeks) - for beginners, young or old

Given the weird stop & go re-start to school in 2022 due to Wave freaking 5 of this pandemic, I've come up with 2 programs of lessons, 1 short (4 weeks) and 1 longer (7 weeks). The longer program can be found in a separate posting HERE.

This shorter program, I'm calling the Circuit-Breaker Program. If kids have to be home for symptoms or quarantine or a class infection, it's a little something for them to do.

This is not meant to take the place of a day of schooling. It's just something fresh to break up the day.  It's virtual. I know that small children don't  respond the best to online. But if there's no choice for them, again it's a  fresh activity. As for screen time, it's just a short time frame - 30 minutes.

The lessons are meant to be understandable for young children. By the end of 4 sessions, they will come away with 3 basic chords (most popular or folk songs can be played with these chords), and some songs. Baked into the lesson is some colour-coded, music scale based structure that will form a good foundation for later music lessons. 

I've put up an ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM that gives an idea of how we'll be progressing thru the course. It shows the book I'll be using, the relationships of the strings to note names and chords, etc. Click on link at start of this paragraph to see the online album.

A good chunk of the 30 minute time period is spent on finger strengthening. In this case thru plasticine play. I've found that small children have trouble getting a sound on their ukes because their wee fingers aren't strong enough. So finger strengthening will be about 10 minutes.

In the playing part of the lessons, students will tune their strings every week. (Tuning will be the main musical activity for Week 1.) And then we will work on a chord and song or silly tune to go with each new chord. By the end of 4 weeks, they will have a 3 chord song.

This program is totally adaptable to any age of beginner.

I can also adapt this lesson to guitar. I have a small scale 1/2 size classical (nylon strings) guitar here that can be tried. You can also walk into Long & McQuade's guitar room and test a 1/2 or 3/4 guitar.

Since it's virtual, you will need: a uke, plasticine, a plastic protector (see online album) and a computer or tablet for our Zoom lesson. These items can be found pretty cheaply on Amazon, some of them at a dollar store.

If you are local to me and can pick up, I can put a kit together with printouts and plasticine. You can also try one of my ukes on site. I'm just not lending them out at the moment. If you can borrow one maybe from a family member, that would be best. If the instrument was something you were interested to buy anyway, they can be found on Amazon. I also use Musician's Friend to order instruments online. Long & McQuade also ships online. They are around $50. (An instrument lending library would be great, wouldn't it?)

I generally go a little overtime. I'd rather the students have a song they can practice before they leave, rather than go just by the clock.

Cost. My base rate is $20 per lesson. (I can work out a deal for a family with 2 or 3 kids viewing at the same time). In the spirit of getting thru this together, I'm happy to offer $10 off (which over 10% off) for the package of 4 lessons. So $70. 

I take e-transfer or cash payable at start of first lesson. Please give 24 hours notice to cancel or reschedule.

Once the student completes the course, you'll be amazed at how many songs can be found online that use the chords we learned. If you just type into your search bar, Song, uke, chords, a ton of options will pop up.

It's pretty easy to learn new chords. Many books have a little chord diagram that shows where you put your fingers down to form chords in the song.

Contact me thru the email here (on footer of this blog), or message me thru Leathertown Guitar Studio's FB, Insta or Twitter page if you are interested.

We can get thru this. Six more week 'til spring!

Tip Jar - New!

Friends - I added a new element to the studio - a virtual tip jar.

Link here: Tip Jar/ Buy LD a Coffee

I took this idea from #SpiritoStrings.

I think it's a good idea. It gives folks a short sharp way to show appreciation for something the studio offers - a tutorial, playing tip, video posting, learning tip etc.

It's via the Buy me a Coffee app ( @buymeacoffee #buymeacoffee ). The tip goes straight to my account, no transfer fee to you.

Just lobbing that out there.

Stay well, my friends. Less than a week to Groundhog Day. That's half the way to Spring Equinox. We got this!