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.

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