UD#115 I Spy With My Little Eye: a Uke!
UD#115 I Spy With My Little Eye: a Uke!
UD#115 I Spy With My Little Eye: a Uke!from Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek As a music teacher who also teaches the Alexander Technique, I am often looking for simple ways that my students can gain awareness of habits that may be interfering with their best functioning while playing.Looking down at the ukulele? Being able to look down at our instrument without unduly disturbing the balance of the head on the neck can be invaluable! There are benefits, of course, to NOT looking at the ukulele at all, which we discussed in an earlier lesson of Ukulele in the Dark. However, when we DO look at the ukulele the WAY that we …Continue Reading
UD#114 Funky Bassline on the Uke!
UD#114 Funky Bassline on the Uke!from Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek I’ve made a little uke ensemble arrangement of Low Rider. There are five parts: bass, strumming, melody, harmony and a solo. Have a listen! Below is the tab which includes the bass, melody and harmony parts. I forgot to include a chord diagram for the C7 chord, which we play like this: Here is the tablature: Last lesson we looked at rhythm and time and we talked about counting. Here is the bass line for “Low Rider” with the counting written in. More on this in the video! Here is …Continue Reading
UD#113 A Deep Dive Into Time and Rhythm
UD#113 A Deep Dive Into Time and Rhythm from Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek It can be helpful to think of rhythm and timing as two separate layers in music making. Rhythm is the pattern of long and short sounds. It happens in music as well as in all sorts of things outside of music, from bird song to noisy washing machines. Rhythm is everywhere. Time, on the other hand, is the ongoing pulse that gives rhythmic patterns a context to exist in. It’s an INNER sense that guides the placement of musical events. Rhythmic patterns don’t make sense unless they are played IN TIME. When a sense of time is lacking from …Continue Reading
UD#112 Hark! The Herald Ukulele Duet
UD#112 Hark! The Herald Ukulele Duet from Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek Last year we did a duet arrangement of “Coventry Carol”, which, from all reports, people really enjoyed. I was hoping to do something similar this year! One of my online groups requested that we do a version of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” So, I found a traditional arrangement and transcribed the soprano and alto parts for two ukuleles: high G and low G. I also added a third uke strumming chords. Have a listen! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” duet: I know some of …Continue Reading
UD#111 The Adventures of Mr. Thumb
UD#111 The Adventures of Mr. ThumbUkulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek Thumbs are important! As ukulele players, we use them for picking, strumming and fretting. Many of my students complain about pain in their thumbs. So, today, let’s take a little look at these vital digits! If are having trouble with your thumbs in your uke playing, it may be helpful to examine how you are using them in other areas in your life. Maybe it is possible to make different choices! These days, our thumbs are often called into duty for texting purposes: I often encourage students to experiment with using their …Continue Reading
UD#110 The Strum-o-lo-gy of Swingin’ the Blues
UD#110 The Strum-o-logy of Swingin’ Bluesfrom Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek I’ve created an arrangement of “Blue Monk” by Thelonius Monk. Have a listen, and then read on! CLICK TO LISTEN TO “BLUE MONK” The music sheet is below. Try it out with some uke buddies! Today, I am going to focus on strumming the chords. In the song we use three chords: G7, C7, D7. A lot of times when we play jazz music on the ukulele we use chords “up the neck.” So today, instead of playing the open G7 like this… we will play the …Continue Reading
UD#109 So What: Ukulele Jazz Band
UD#109 So What: Ukulele Jazz Bandfrom Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek NEWS: Today’s lesson: I thought I would share with you one of the tunes that I’ll be teaching at the BC Swing Camp. It’s a song called “So What” by Miles Davis. Have a listen here: One of the really unique things about this song is that the melody is played by the bass. The students that I have taught this song have really enjoyed learning the bass part on the uke. The original key is D minor, but I moved it to C minor for the ukulele arrangement. Have a listen… …Continue Reading
UD#108 Magical Skipping Ropes: Harmonics
UD#108 Magical Skipping Ropes: Harmonicsfrom Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek I have written another piece for this week’s lesson. Every part in it is played with natural and artificial harmonics, except for the main melody. Can you hear how the notes in the backing part sound a little unusual, maybe a little more bell like? That’s the sound of harmonics. Have a listen: >TABLATURE for HARMONICS PIECE< NATURAL HARMONICS The easiest way to play a natural harmonic is to place your fretting finger lightly on the midpoint of the string: the exact middle point between the nut and the bridge. If you look at this …Continue Reading
UD#107 The Great Race to the Melody Note
UD#107 The Great Race to the Melodyfrom Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek When we play chord melody style, we play both the chords and melody of a song at the same time. We often use a simple thumb strum through the chord that finishes on the melody note. One of the challenges of this is getting the timing right between the chord notes and the melody note. That’s something that I would like to focus on in today’s lesson! For that purpose, I’ve written a short ukulele piece. Here is a recording of the song we will look …Continue Reading
UD#106 Wipe Out!
I love to teach Wipe Out to my students. One of the great things about it is that the main melody of the song uses melodic patterns that repeat again and again with variations. I like to show my students the notes in the patterns and the shape that these notes make on the fretboard. Then, we learn the melody by ear, a little at a time. If that sounds fun, read on! Or, if you prefer, you can jump to the end of the lesson and grab the tablature there.
UD#105 Christmas Uke Duet: Coventry Carol
UD#105 Christmas Uke Duet: Coventry Carolfrom Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek One of my students suggested that we learn this carol. I have created a little two part ukulele arrangement that is loosely based on the traditional harmonization of the song. Have a listen! For those of you who are interested, let’s learn the main melody by ear! Here are the notes involved. They come mostly from the G harmonic minor scale. There are some notes that are altered in the song. This creates a really cool affect. On a couple of occasions, the Bb note is changed to a B natural …Continue Reading
UD#104 Ukulele and Breath
UD#104 Ukulele and Breathfrom Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek I’d like to show you a little experiment that has been very useful to me and many of my students. It uses a procedure I adapted from an exercise by Kenny Werner. Kenny Werner was introduced to me by my friend Dominic Conway of Malleus Trio. Shout out to Dominic! Here goes. 1. First, I get my student to play something. So, if you want to, go ahead and do that now. It can be a piece you’ve been working on, something you are “struggling” with, or a song you know very well. With or without voice …Continue Reading
UD#103 Harmony of One: Chord Melody Backing!
I love harmony singing and the richness that it creates. Sometimes when I am doing a song on my own, I miss that feeling: the feeing of two voices interacting. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with how to create a melodic interaction between the uke and the voice that can give a similar effect….
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