Live ‘Ukulele

This is a very popular local song and I had a few requests to put this on the site from some of the guys in Pahala. I haven’t found a decent version of the picking anywhere, so here it is…

Kiss You in the Morning song sheet w/tabs

Major – D: 7655

Minor – Gm: 3231

Dom – C9: 0201

Open – Em: 0432

Other – G7sus: 0213

Well, I just got back from the Kahumoku ‘Ohana Hawaiian Music and Lifestyle Workshop. It was great fun, playing music all day and eating.

Kimo Hussey is incredible, he is like a music Jedi. I can’t believe I never knew about him before. The way he teaches is very different; he taught me how to practice instead of specific songs.

Everything else was about the same as last time except that Uncle Keoki seemed more relaxed this time around, which was nice.

The food was incredible; Uncle Craig and the kitchen crew did it again.

Hippie Guy’s photos of the event

Big thanks going out to the Kahumoku ‘Ohana, Uncle Kimo and his wife to be, Uncle Sonny, Konabob, Chuck Moore, the Baker ‘Ohana, all of the students, Uncle Craig and the ultimate kitchen crew, Auntie Susie, and Auntie Kaiwe.

John Jay McCarty!

I will be sending you the album ‘Ukulele Mike as soon as I receive your mailing address. If for some reason you have fallen off the face of the earth, I will draw again for a winner in a few weeks.

~Hippie Guy

In my opinion, the best kind of picks you can use are your fingernails. As they grow, just start playing and the nails will become what you pick with.

Thumb picks are probably second best to fingernails. It is a good idea to practice with a thumb pick occasionally so that if you break your thumbnail you have a backup. There are tons of different kinds, so just choose a couple that you like the look of and try them out. I personally like the Golden Gate GP-7s (shown below). Thumb picks allow your hand to rest at a more natural angle when you are playing.
When you first start playing with a thumb pick you might feel like you are going to break the strings off your ‘ukulele. Don’t worry, you just need to practice letting the pick slide off of the strings at a little bit of an angle. As great as they are, I wouldn’t use thumb picks exclusively, just in case you end up without it somewhere.

The only person I can think of who plays ‘ukulele with fingerpicks Is Ledward Kaapana. Most fingerpicks are made out of metal and you can bend them to fit your finger. Because of the way the picks go on your fingers, if you try to pick downward, you will most likely get tangled up in the strings.

Plectrums (flat picks) are not used by many ‘ukulele players, mostly guitar players who have just transfered over to ‘ukulele. There are several types: standard guitar picks, felt picks, and rubber picks. Standard picks will scratch the top of your ‘ukulele if you are not careful. Felt picks are just thick, stiff pieces of felt. The flat picks that I have experience with are the Wedgie rubber picks. They might work okay for you if are just doing simple picking, but if you try to rip it up, I think they would really slow you down.

Just so everybody knows, we are going to be in Pahala for the Kahumoku ‘Ohana Hawaiian Music and Lifestyle workshop for a week. So don’t worry if things get a little quiet around here… We will be sure to bring back some pictures.

Being away also means that the contest drawing will be postponed until the end of March. Entries stop today though!

Case: gives you a place to store your ‘ukulele when you are not using it. It also protects it from dings, scratches, and the occasional drop. Hard cases are the best protection for your ‘ukulele. Soft cases are okay for protecting your ‘ukulele from scratches, but do not really protect them from being dropped or having things set on them. If you really value your ‘ukulele, a hard case is your best bet.

Tuner: is a way to make sure that your ‘ukulele is in tune not only with itself but with all other properly tuned instruments. By far the best kind of tuner is a clip-on kind. There are several brands you can buy. I use the Intellitouch PT1 Tuner It works great but is a little bulky for an ‘ukulele headstock. The Korg AW-1 is another; Herb Ohta Jr. uses this one. Stand alone tuners that pick up notes using a small mic are also a widely-used option. I don’t believe they work as well because they pick up noises other than your ‘ukulele, but they are great for beginners because they are cheap. You can also get tuners that plug straight into your signal path when you are plugged in.

Capo: clamps down on all of your ‘ukulele’s strings to create a barre. It is very handy when you are trying to play a song in F# (or some other weird key). All you do is put the capo on the first fret and play everything in F. I don’t know of anybody who manufactures ‘ukulele capos, but Kyser makes a banjo/mando capo that works very well.

Cables: are used for plugging your ‘ukulele into an amp. They come in many different lengths and two kinds of jacks. The longer the total length of cable you are running, the more signal loss you will experience, so try to keep it under 20-25 ft. The 1/4 in. phone jacks that are used for instrument cables come straight or angled. Try plugging both into your ‘ukulele and see which kind works best for you. Keep in mind that angled jacks are nice for plugging into effects when you don’t have a lot of room to work with.

If you have read our Hammer-ons and Pull-offs lesson and have pull-offs nailed down, another thing to try is a one-string run (I don’t know if that is the official term). You use one-string runs mostly in soloing and for vamps.

Using an A major scale as an example, start by placing your finger on the 12th fret of the A string. Pick the note and pull-off to open A (the only pull-off you will be doing is to the open A string, so if you see “pull-off” it means pull-off to the open A note). Pick the open A note again (it is easiest for me to pick up using my index finger). Then pick the 11th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 9th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 11th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 9th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. (You see where this is going yet?). Pick the 7th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 9th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 7th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 5th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 4th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 5th fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Pick the 2nd fret and pull-off. Pick the open A note. Practice speeding this up until your pull-offs are consistent.

• Example in tab

A great song to practice this technique in is the Glass Ball Slack Key.
Use other scales and different starting points to add something new to the songs you already know. Practice one scale up and down a string, then go on to the next one.

On Santana’s web site there is a section called the musician’s corner. It is not in major use anymore from what I can tell, but there is still some pretty cool stuff on it. There is info on Carlos’ gear, and videos of him playing and talking a little bit about of some of his songs. The latter is what relates best to the ‘ukulele because Santana tells you who or what he wrote the song about, and the tones and playing styles he uses to express his feelings.

http://www.santana.com/musicianscorner/index.html

In the early 1910s Samuel Kaiali’ili’i Kamaka began building ‘ukuleles as an apprentice to Manuel Nunes. In 1916 he started his own business. His workshop was in his basement, where he would turn out a dozen ‘ukuleles a week and sell them for $5 a piece. In 1921 he moved to a bigger workshop where he created the first pineapple ‘ukulele. Kamaka continued making his fine instruments and introduced his two sons Samuel Jr. and Frederick to the art while they were still in elementary school. In 1952 Samuel Sr. became ill, going into semi-retirement. He died a year later. Sam Jr. and Frederick then took over the business and five years later moved to Kamaka Hawaii’s current location. Now into their 80s Sam Jr. and Fred have passed the company on to their sons who are still making fine Kamaka ‘ukuleles.