Category Archives: Avoiding Injury

UD#104 Ukulele and Breath

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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#102 Happy Hands!

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When playing bar chords, all uke players, at one time or another, experience “dead notes.” This is when one string does not sound clearly because we haven’t managed to get it down onto the fret. In my casual survey of students, I found that their general approach to this problem is to squeeze like crazy until all the notes sound clearly, or until they give up in frustration. For some time I’ve been meaning to create a lesson with some practical information about the workings of the hand and fingers as it relates to barring. Here goes….

UD#78 How Do I Hold This Thing?

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UD#78 How Do I Hold This Thing? from Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek   I use to suffer from tendonitis in my left wrist from playing guitar. It was particularly bad in university. I was once unable to play my instrument for a year right in the middle of my music degree! I remember seeking lots of advice about how to “hold” my left hand: where the thumb should be, and how the wrist should be. I would understand the advice but, it seemed that when I went to play guitar, I would always revert to my habits.   …Continue Reading

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Bio

Guido Heistek holds a B.F.A. Music from Concordia University in Montreal and is a CANSTAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. He makes his home in Vancouver, BC.  Guido has performed in the US, Japan, Canada and Europe, and has worked as both an arranger and consultant for stage and film. Guido teaches private and small group lessons at his downtown studio: Yaletown Music . In 2011, Guido released Hear the Strum,  an instructional DVD which teaches ukulele students how to strum by ear and from the heart. In 2013 he released a CD, Guido Heistek – Solo Ukulele. In 2016, Guido released The Chord Melody Book for Ukulele.

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VIDEOS:

I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE:

BLUE BOSSA:

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW:

HEISTEK and PLATO:

BLUES JUST TAKE THEIR TIME (Heistek and Plato):

DON'T TAKE TOO LONG (Madeleine Peyroux):

Trip to Japan:

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