Category Archives: Learning Songs by Ear
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#95 Confessions of a Uke-by-Ear Zealot…
UD#95 Confessions of a Uke-by-Ear Zealot…from Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek When I started Ukulele in the Dark in 2012, my first plan was to create “audio only” lessons. No visuals! Hence, the name, “…in the Dark.” I came around to the idea that this would be a tad extreme, thankfully. But, I still wanted to create and share some material that would fill a gap in the way that uke was being taught. I wanted to get away from the traditional “do this, then do that” approach and create lessons that would facilitate experiences for students that would help …Continue Reading
UD#93 Five Pitfalls Playing by Ear
NOTE: If you don’t feel like reading today skip to the “CHALLENGE” section below and learn a couple of songs by ear! UD#93 Five Pitfalls when Playing by Earfrom Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek …but something was missing. I remember seeing one of my favourite jazz guitar players play a gig. Most of the songs the band played were familiar jazz standards, so they didn’t need any sheet music. A few times though, a lesser known song would come up, and the guitarist would have to pull out a chart. On these sight-reading songs, I could feel a …Continue Reading
UD #54 & #55 Green Day Ukulele Duet (When September Ends)
Green Day Ukulele Duet (When September Ends) UD #54 & #55 from Ukulele in the Dark with Guido Heistek Today I’d like to teach you a simple and beautiful arrangement of Wake Me Up When September Ends, a song by Green Day. Here’s a recording of the arrangement. The backing part is in the left speaker and the melody is in the right speaker. Give it a listen and we’ll learn it! When September Ends Ukulele Duet: https://ukuleleinthedark.com/filesUD/September-Duet.mp3 Okay, there have been some requests for more transcription lessons (learning by ear) so, I thought we would learn this little …Continue Reading
UD#43 Another Round? (DONA NOBIS PACEM)
UD #43 Another Round? from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek Learn a beautiful new round to play and sing with your ukulele group! In UD #32 we talked about rounds. I introduced “Jubilate Deo” a beautiful 12 bar round. It was so wildly popular that I’ve been on the look out for a follow up ever since. Happily, one of my students at Ruby’s Ukes introduced me to this gorgeous round, Dona Nobis Pacem. If you are not familiar with musical rounds, please go take a peek at UD #32 and come right back. Here is …Continue Reading
UD#37 Horse First Then The Cart: One String Melodies
UD#37 Horse First Then The Cart: One String Melodies from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek LETTING THE INNER MUSIC LEAD YOUR FINGERS: I remember being amazed by this experience when I was a kid: I used to listen to the same album again and again. I became so familiar with the songs on the record that when one song finished, the next song would “pop” into my head before the song had even started. This always seemed magical. Have you ever had a similar experience?This effect is one of the most magical things about music making: When …Continue Reading
UD#34 The Magic of Chord Melody (SILENT NIGHT)
UD#34 The Magic of Chord Melody (SILENT NIGHT) from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek This week we are talking about chord melody. Here is a little video of me playing through a chord melody of Silent Night. First I play a fairly stylized version with a finger-style treatment. Then I walk you through how I usually approach teaching a simple chord melody arrangement of the song. These are the usual steps: 1. Learn the melody 2. Learn the chords. 3. Put the chords and melody together. Here’s the video: Here are a few notes to help you …Continue Reading
UD#32 The Thrill of Accidental Harmony (Jubilate Deo)
UD#32 The Thrill of Accidental Harmony (Jubilate Deo) from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek Singing or playing in harmony is one of the most thrilling things to do in music. This week I want to introduce you to a type of composition called a round. A round is kind of melody composed in such a way as to allow different groups to start at different points. When the melody is “staggered” in this way it creates harmonies. Here’s a recording of some of my intermediate students from Ruby’s Ukes singing a beautiful round called Jubilate Deo: Some simple …Continue Reading
UD#19 What Key is it in?
UD #19 What Key is It in? from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek I love this video of Bobby Mcferrin: What he demonstrates in this video is that on hearing a few notes of a pentatonic scale (5 note scale) people intuitively know where the rest of the notes are. This is because scales are all about the relationships between the notes. Once we’ve intuitively clued in to what scale we are listening to, we can guess the rest of it without hearing all the notes. It’s a kind of musical extrapolation.The same effect can be demonstrated with …Continue Reading
UD#18 How To Figure Out Songs By Ear
UD#18 How To Figure Out Songs By Ear from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek Here’s the scenario: You hear a song that sounds pretty simple that you would like to learn to play. You can’t find the chords anywhere on the internet. How do you figure out how to play it? Last week we talked about diatonic chords (the chords that come from one scale). If you haven’t read that newsletter, please go here: UD #17 The Building Blocks of Songs. The first thing to do when you are figuring out a song by ear is to determine …Continue Reading
UD#6 Lost in Progressions? (Hearing Chord Patterns)
UD #6 Lost in Progressions? from Ukulele in the Dark w/Guido Heistek A student came up to me and asked me this question: “I can hear the chords changing but I loose track of where I am in the progression. I can’t tell where the progression begins and ends and I get all confused. How can I work on that?” We had been working on a simple song in class. The tune was “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” by Bob Dylan. It has a repetitive chord progression that goes like this: G Am C G 1 2 3 4 …Continue Reading
UD#5: Scales, Intervals and Ukulele Ear Training
UD#5 Scales, Intervals and Ukulele Ear Training from Ukulele in the Dark w/ Guido Heistek -The C Major Scale: Here are two ways to play the C major scale on a ukulele: 1. Up the C string: (the numbers tell you which frets to play) 2. Across the strings or in “open position” -INTERVALS in a C MAJOR SCALE: The distances between the root note C (open C) and the other notes in the major scale are described by intervals. The distance between C and D is called a Major Second interval. (M2) C to E is called …Continue Reading
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