Live ‘Ukulele

This one was a request from jgkuuipo. Thank you! This is one of Jack’s best songs and I probably should have made a sheet for it earlier.

The strum is just a simple DU pattern, but I like to hammer-on and pull-off as many of the chords as I can to give everything a smoother feel.

• Better Together song sheet

~Hippie Guy

Anyone can learn to play as fast as Jake Shimabukuro. Anyone can practice playing clean to try to sound like Herb Ohta Jr. Anyone can learn pentatonic scales so he can play funky solos like David Kamakahi. But how many people can learn to let their soul come out of their ‘ukulele and play with enough feeling to make the crowd cry? Not many.

Pick up your ‘ukulele and play a note. Did you just make that note count, or did you play that note just because I told you to? Play that note again, and this time let your heart flow into that note. Add whatever you need to add to make that note express your soul. Playing notes is fine, but to make music that counts you must play with feeling. Not many people are going to remember “the guy who played a bunch of notes”. Your music should be special.

• Listen to a song by Jake, maybe “Dragon“. What feelings do you hear?
• Listen to a song or even just a solo by Carlos Santana, maybe “Love of my Life“. What feelings do you hear?

This whole idea might be lost to a beginner. That’s okay, they are learning the basic chords and focusing on implementing them in songs. They are not thinking about making each note count. More advanced players however should think about playing with feeling (a lot). I know too many players who are pretty good, but are just worried about playing fast like Jake. It is not important to them to play with feeling.

Playing with soul is not something that can be taught. I believe that it is a destination that you arrive at after lots of soul searching and self discovery. May the force be with you…

~Hippie Guy

This is a really cool song by the Police that I tabbed out a while back. The chord changes in the tab are the hardest part of this song, so be sure to take the time to get that dialed in. The rest of the song is fast downstrums for the first part of the chorus, then you slow down for the C#m to A changes, and then you go back to the verse riff. You can also play through a chorus pedal to give it more of an Andy Summers feel. This song is in the Finetune player down in the sidebar if you are not already familiar with it.

Message in a Bottle tab

~Hippie Guy

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