Live ‘Ukulele

My family and I just flew back to the mainland to end our three year adventure in Hawaii. It was sad leaving, but we will be back (they can’t get rid of me that easy).

We will be visiting and moving for the next week, so you probably will not see any new posts for a while. …But coming up is a “Message in a Bottle” tab, two interviews, and an ‘ukulele building page.

~Hippie Guy

Effects come in many varieties from little stomp boxes ($) to rack mounted effects ($$$$). Effects essentially change the sound the of incoming signal, by adding to it or changing it. There are many different kinds of effects. Only some are practical for ‘ukulele players.

Delay/Reverb is the first effect that comes to mind. Almost all of the pros use at least a little bit of delay or reverb when they perform or record. A delay pedal records notes and then plays them back after a specified amount of time. A reverb pedal uses the same idea, but instead of sounding like one individual note, the repeat is like a bunch of notes bouncing around an empty room. The typical controls for a delay or reverb pedal are:

• Level/mix adjusts the volume of the delayed signal
• Time controls the time between the first note you play and the delayed note(s)
• Feedback/regeneration is the number of times the delayed note is played back (at specified delay time) as it fades away (watch out for this, because if you get carried away and turn this up too much you can start the “loop of death” - or a delay that starts to feedback and “take off”)

and sometimes:

• Mode changes the different delay time segments (300ms-800ms, 600ms-2600ms) or overall reverb sound (hall, spring, plate)
• Tone controls different frequencies and the overall sound

An EQ (equalization) pedal is an effect that allows you to raise or lower the level of individual frequencies. EQ is nice to have control over because the average ‘ukulele sounds trebley when you plug it in. An EQ pedal can help boost bass frequencies and fix that problem. You can also use equalization to create a sound that is unique and more interesting than un-EQed ‘ukulele.

Volume pedals control the level (volume) of the incoming signal. They are mounted on a rocker so that you can use your foot to adjust output. If you put the pedal in the “toe up” position no signal is heard, so you can use it as a mute when you are tuning. By starting with the toe up, picking a note, and then rolling the pedal to toe down, you can achieve violin-like volume swells (think Jeff Beck).

Some of the less practical effects include:

• A noise gate cuts off any sound that doesn’t reach a certain noise level
• Compression balances tone and increases the sustain of a note
• Distortion is the result of to much input, which overloads a circuit and starts to distort the signal
• Overdrive is the sound of an overdriven tube amp (same idea as distortion)
• Tremolo turns the level of the incoming signal up and down
• The flanger was originally invented when a studio engineer played two analog tapes back at the same time and held his finger on one to slow it down. It creates a swirling Eddie Van Halen type of sound
• The phaser is the sister to flange except it is a frequency-based effect instead of delay-based (same EVH sound)
• Chorus makes the signal sound as if there are two instruments playing
• An octave pedal instantly adds a duplicate of your playing an octave above or below (or both) the original signal
• The wah-wah is a rocker pedal that removes treble frequencies

The videos at Expert Village give you a good idea of what each effect does

There is more info at: http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/effects-explained.html

Learn how to plug effects in on our Amplifying Your ‘Ukulele page

Sam!

I will be sending you the three ‘ukulele songbooks as soon as I receive your mailing address. If I don’t hear back from you in two weeks I will draw for another winner then.

Thanks to everybody who entered in the contest, the turnout was really good - 18 entries!

I hope to do more contests in the future, so any ideas for what might be next would be appreciated.

~Hippie Guy

I have three used (but in great condition!) ukulele songbooks that I will be giving away on May 1st. The songbooks are: E Kanikapila with a play along CD, Jumpin’ Jim’s ‘Ukulele Island, and Jumpin’ Jim’s ‘Ukulele Tips ‘n’ Tunes. These are all books that a beginner would get the most out of; no tabs or advanced chords.

To enter for a chance to win just comment on this post and I will put your name in the hat. The last day to enter is April 30th, and the drawing will be held on May 1st. The winner will hear from me via e-mail.

~Hippie Guy

Slack Key Kid found and told me about the site Finetune a while back, but yesterday was the first time I have actually explored the site. On Finetune you can create your own playlist(s) using songs that are available free on their site. (It is kind of an odd deal; with music piracy as big as it is. I can’t figure out how they are keeping the MPA off their back.) I put together a playlist that has many tracks to go along with our tabs and songs. The only bad thing is that they have a very short list of Hawaiian songs and that means no ‘ukulele. Almost all of the songs are mainstream and since you need 45 songs to make a playlist I had to add some of my own favorites. The music player is in random order and is located down in the sidebar. Hopefully you can use it to learn a song along with the tab.

~Hippie Guy

Once you get past the down, up and down, down, up, up, down strums, most of the time you just have to learn by watching and listening. But, the good thing about strums is that you can play them how you like as long as they fit the song. All strums can be played either swing or straight. Most of the time a swing strum is easier.

Swing is lopsided - it takes longer to come back up than it takes to go down (listen to almost any simple strumming Hawaiian song and they are probably using swing). Straight is even - going up takes just as much time as going down (practice this with a metronome: down on one tick, and up with another). Here are some one-finger strum patterns (D=down, U=up, (space)=rest, X=chop).

• DU
• DDUUD (used in a lot of contemporary Hawaiian songs - i.e. “Surf”)
• DXUUD
• XDUUD
• D UX XUUD DU

Triplet Strum

Used by James Hill and Kimo Hussey, this is a nice addition to your strumming arsenal.

Strum down with your index finger. Then strum down with your thumb. Strum up with your index finger. Practice this over and over slowly. Try starting the rotation with different fingers.

Ten Finger Strum

Note that I myself cannot play this. I feel that it is more of a Jake performance thing than useful technique, but I do know how it works.

Strum up with your thumb. Then roll/brush up on the strings starting with your pinky,and going to your ring, middle, then index fingers. Next you roll/brush down with all fingers starting with your pinky ending on your index. Then strum down with your thumb. Repeat this with blistering speed until you can’t see your hand moving.

~Hippie Guy

The chop strum (usually shown as “X”) is used in many different strum patterns, especially contemporary Hawaiian songs (”Surf”, “Honey Baby”, “Kiss You in the Morning”, etc…). The chop is pretty easy; you are already halfway there when you strum down. All you need to do is add your palm to the mix.Start by making your right hand into a very loose fist. Hold the chord of your choice. Then strum down with your hand in the same shape. When your finger nails hit the top string, open your hand so that your fingers are fully extended, striking the strings on the way by. As you follow through with the strum bring your palm down to mute the strings a split-second after they sound. You will need to do this quickly to make it sound decent. Chop strums need to be integrated into strum patterns. Playing chop strums throughout a whole song would sound horrible!

Try adding chops to the DDUUD strum pattern. With chop strums it would go like: DXUUX.

It is best if you can use this tab to learn the melody of the song and then add your own variations, and vamps.

Check out the Youtube video below to see what Herb Ohta Jr. and Keoki Kahumoku are doing to get ideas for your own improvisations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d9Jta-RwnE

• Tab for ‘Ama ‘ama

~Hippie Guy

Slack Key Kid just finished up some of Live ‘Ukulele’s own chord charts. While here are quite a few of the main chords we would like to continually add to our collection, so keep an eye out for more sheets in the future.

• Major
• Major 6th
• Major 7th
• Minor
• Minor 6th
• Minor 7-5
• Dominant 7th
• Dominant 9th
• Suspended 7th

~Hippie Guy