Learn to Play the Ukulele, 2nd Ed E-Book

Bill Plant

• Herausgeber: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 98

Beschreibung

Learn to Play the Ukulele, 2nd Edition will teach anyone how to play the ukulele overnight. No prior musical experience is assumed. Beginners learn how to hold the instrument, position the hands, strumming techniques, basic chords, and beyond. An enclosed CD guides the reader through a series of exercises, which are organized in progressive fashion (practicing one strum and slowly building to more complicated rhythmic patterns). The CD also includes a variety of charming songs that readers will be able to strum along with (starting with one/two chords and progressing on to more complex). Encouraging tips are included as well as fun/interesting trivia and sidebars about the ukulele. Music theory is included, but the emphasis is on getting up to speed and on with the fun of playing quickly.

Leseprobe

© 2018 by Bill Plant, Trisha Scott, and Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.

Learn to Play the Ukulele, 2nd Edition, first published in 2018, is an updated and revised version of Learn to Play the Ukulele, first published in 2012 by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holders.

Print ISBN 978-1-56523-972-2eISBN 978-1-60765-523-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Plant, Bill, author. | Scott, Trisha, author.

Title: Learn to play the ukulele / Bill Plant and Trisha Scott.

Description: 2nd edition. | Mount Joy, PA : Fox Chapel Publishing, [2018] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018030366 | ISBN 9781565239722 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Ukulele--Methods--Self-instruction.

Classification: LCC MT645.8 .P53 2018 | DDC 787.8/9193--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030366

To learn more about the other great books from Fox Chapel Publishing, or to find a retailer near you, call toll-free 800-457-9112 or visit us at www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.

We are always looking for talented authors. To submit an idea, please send a brief inquiry to [email protected].

CD instrumentalists: Bill Plant, Trisha Scott, and Luke R. Davies

CD vocalists: Bill Plant, Trisha Scott, and Carmel Carmody (Ukulele Lady)

CD Harmonica: Luke R. Davies

Special thanks to Luke R. Davies and Mike Couch for their assistance with the sound engineering and production for the CD of our tracks.

Thanks to Peter Hurney (Pohaku Ukulele), Chuck Moore, and Gary Zimnicki for the use of the photos on page 14 and 15.

Thanks to Eric Bogle for the use of the song “Aussie BBQ” here.

Thanks to Ian Fisk for the photos appearing on pages 12, 13, and 52.

Pages 10 and 11: Images of sugarcane field, King David Kalakuau, historical newspaper clipping, Ernest Kaai, and Arthur Godfrey courtesy of Wikimedia Commons The photos on the following pages have been used under the following Creative Commons licenses: 25 (Nicky Mehta [photo by Nick of Chelmsford, Essex] and Jason Mraz [photo by Moses Namkung]) under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0); 11 and 21 (Tiny Tim [photo by Christina Lynn Johnson]) under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.5); 31 (Kate Micucci [photo by Kafziel]) under Attribution –ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0). To learn more, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses.

Shutterstock: 316pixel (80); Amineah (7); Anton Lukin (55); Berti123 (10 photo of Palace of Fine Art); ghrzuzudu (18 top); globalmoments (44–45); golubovystock (51); iDEAR Replay (31); Jason Benz Bennee (21 bottom); Jaturong Srilek (9 ukulele); jesterpop (35); jittawit.21 (56–57); Karin Hildebrand Lau (11 photo of Jake Shimabakuro); Kitnha (8–9 map); MikaHolanda (71); Mostovyi Sergii Igorevich (22–23); Olga Visavi (53); PitukTV (36 TV); Ramona Kaulitzki (7 musical notes); Randy Miramontez (28); Rawpixel.com (48, 49); Robert Cravens (75 bottom); SlayStorm (36 ukulele); Solomakha (2–3); Tang Yan Song (4–5, 7 ukulele); ThongPooN (38); Wuttipong Boonleang (66); yakub88 (11 photo of Amanda Palmer).

All other photos by the authors.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1: GETTING STARTED

Get to Know the “Jumping Flea”

Types of Ukuleles

Parts of the Ukulele

Buying a Ukulele

How to Hold Your Ukulele

Changing Strings

How to Tune Your Ukulele

2: THE BASICS OF PLAYING

Develop a Practice Routine

Keeping Time

Strumming

Playing Scales

Reading Tablature

Soloing with Pentatonic Scales

Playing Chords

Fingerpicking

3: HAVE UKE, WILL JAM

Playing by Ear: The Secret to Good Music

The Songbook Debate

How to Avoid “Strummania”

Jam Sessions

Going on Stage

4: SONGBOOK

Resources

About the Authors

INTRODUCTION

When we wrote the first edition of this book back in 2011, the ukulele revival had just begun and there were beginners galore. We always took a bag of loaner ukuleles along to our workshops and classes. Nowadays, all the participants turn up with their own ukuleles and a pretty good idea of how to play them. They want more from their music and are ready for the next step. If this is you, then you will love the additions to our book.

When you decide to learn how to play the ukulele, you begin your journey as a musician, soon grasping the nuances of the craft while discovering the joy of communicating with other people through song. We cannot describe the feeling music will bring to you, but we can help you reach it by showing you how to play the ukulele. Keep playing—you will find the joy for yourself.

We will show you how to play even if you have no musical experience whatsoever. And, if you can already play the ukulele, in this book you will find many tips to improve your technique and help you become a better musician—especially when it comes to joining other musicians in groups.

Always remember that you are here to learn, and that the learning experience should be stress-free. Relax. Aim to play music with your very first song. Not only will that set a pattern for your practice, it will allow you to enjoy watching your musical ability improve with each practice session. Don’t rush to master the book, but instead progress at your own pace and make beautiful music along the way. When you are relaxed and enjoying the music, your progress will be swift indeed.

Within these pages we present different playing techniques so that, with regular practice through this book, you can graduate from beginner to accomplished musician. To help you, we’ve included a CD with songs chosen for their range of styles, strumming patterns, playing techniques, and rhythms.

WHAT’S NEW IN THE 2ND EDITION

◾ How to change strings

◾ How to master strumming and fingerpicking

◾ How to work percussion into your playing

◾ How to develop your skill at playing by ear; how to play with others

◾ Advice on how to become an intuitive, performance-friendly player

Progress is easy, and taking things at your own pace allows you to put your personal stamp on a song and develop your own unique musical style. You can adapt our advice to fit your own needs as you grow in skill as a musician. When you revisit a chapter, you will quickly see how far you have come in just a few practice sessions. Soon you will be ready to play with other musicians and can look forward to a lifetime of musical enjoyment. That’s when the fun really starts!

Our advice is to go slowly, listen to the music you make, and enjoy it from the start. Along the way you will face challenges, experience breakthroughs, occasionally become frustrated, and have moments of pure joy.

—Bill Plant and Trisha Scott

1

GETTING STARTED

GET TO KNOW THE “JUMPING FLEA”

1878

The first of thousands of Portuguese immigrants who would arrive over the next few decades. Most of them were from the Azores and the economically struggling island of Madeira, land in Hawaii, where they went to work on sugarcane plantations.

1879

Aboard the SS Ravenscrag are Madeiran woodworkers Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias, and Jose do Espirito Santo as well as their musical instruments, including the small four-string guitar called the machête, or the braguinha. Upon the ship’s landing, passengers celebrate the end of the four-month voyage with music, dazzling the Hawaiians there to greet them.

1884

After fulfilling their contracts as workers, Nunes, Dias, and do Santo open their own woodworking shops, out of which they sell machête-type instruments made from Hawaiian koa wood.

1906

The name used to describe the instrument—‘ukulele, “Jumping flea”—is by now firmly established upon publication of the book, The Ukulele, a Hawaiian Guitar and How to Play It, by Hawaiian ukulele legend Ernest Kaai (1881–1962).

1891

Hawaii’s last king, King David Kalakaua (1836–1891), dies after decades of promoting Hawaiian cultural practices such as hula dancing, the luau, and the ukulele.

1915

A Hawaiian delegation plays the ukulele at the Panama Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco, introducing the instrument to mainstream culture and the millions of people who have come from around the globe. (Pictured is the Palace of Fine Art, the only surviving structure from the exhibition.)

1926

In a short film titled His Pastimes that opens for Don Juan, the first feature film to have pre-recorded sound, ukulele virtuoso and vaudeville performer Roy Smeck plays the ukulele on screen, lifting the instrument’s popularity to new heights and triggering a buying craze; guitar manufacturer C. F. Martin & Co. makes more than 14,000 ukuleles to meet demand.

1949

Guitar maker and plastics manufacturer Mario Maccaferri (1900–1993) begins mass-producing his Islander line of ukuleles, which are made not from wood but from Dow’s Styron-brand plastic, selling them for $5.95; TV celebrity and on-air uke strummer Arthur Godfrey (1903–1983) promotes the Islander on his shows, and millions are sold.

1968

In his first-ever TV appearance, on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Tiny Tim rushes out through the curtains, pulls a ukulele out of a shopping bag, and performs a mashup of “A-Tisket, a-Tasket” and “On the Good Ship Lollipop” to 35 million viewers.

2005

Jake Shimabakuro’s ukulele rendition of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” goes viral on YouTube, catapulting him and his ukulele to international stardom.

2012

Dresden Dolls cofounder Amanda Palmer releases “Ukulele Anthem” on Occupy This Album, two years after releasing her solo album Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele.

Today

The ukulele appears more and more in early musical education programs, community events, festivals, and mainstream music as its ease of play and soothing sound continue to attract music makers.

HOW TO SPELL “UKULELE”

The proper Hawaiian spelling of ukulele is ‘ukulele. The open single quotation mark that appears before the word is called an ‘okina. The ‘okina represents a glottal stop—an interruption of the flow of breath in speech (think of when you say “uh-oh”). The placement of the ‘okina can change the meaning of a word.

TYPES OF UKULELES

Ukuleles come in different shapes and sizes, producing all kinds of sounds and tones. If you want an upbeat bright sound, you’ll want to use a soprano ukulele, but for something more mellow, consider a concert ukulele.

Soprano. This is the smallest ukulele and also the most popular size. Its light, bright tone is well suited to vocals.

Concert. This ukulele’s tone is deeper and more mellow than the soprano, and it has a slightly longer neck with wider fret spacing. Those with large fingers will find it easier to play than the smaller soprano. It also sounds good with vocals.

Tenor. The second-largest ukulele, the tenor is loud and needs to be played softly as an accompaniment.

Baritone. The largest type of ukulele, the baritone has a deep sound that makes it a wonderful addition to a group of ukuleles.

PARTS OF THE UKULELE

BUYING A UKULELE

There is a wide range of ukuleles on the market, made from solid wood, laminated wood, fiberboard, plastic, or a combination of these materials. Prices can range from a few dollars to many thousands, but cost does not always indicate quality and tone.

If you are buying your first ukulele, take an experienced player along to help you choose. Look for a music store with a range of ukuleles tuned and ready to play. If you go to a store where the ukuleles are still in boxes or un-tuned, the staff might not be as knowledgeable about the instrument and will not be able to guide you in your selection.