‘Ukulele for Advanced Players

The advanced stage (in my opinion) encompasses a huge range of skill levels. When someone says they are “advanced” you automatically assume that if dumped onstage with someone, they would figure out how to make things work to their advantage. Just knowing how to play difficult songs perfectly doesn’t necessarily make you advanced. If you don’t know how the notes and chords are put together, you will be lost in music other than the songs you know.

Face it – at this stage, unless you have a mentor, you are teaching yourself. This can be a good thing and also your worst nightmare, because even though there is an unlimited amount of material to learn, you have no idea what to work on or where to start. I think the best part of teaching yourself is that you are forced to figure things out and develop your own style. You will have to get used to learning from guitar material. There are no books to my knowledge that teach advanced ’ukulele (saying it in the title of a book doesn’t always make it count), so if you don’t know how to transpose or read standard notation, that’s where I would start.

Keep Listening to Music. Listening is the best way to learn, so keep your ears open. If Hawaiian and mainstream music is getting old, try some more diverse things like Afropop or Indian music. Obviously there aren’t a lot of ‘ukulele players jamming with Tuvan throat singers, so listen to the other instruments instead of saying “what? there’s no ‘ukulele in this!”. Don’t be closed minded or you’ve already lost.

The Advancing Guitarist By Mick Goodrick. This is by far the best book about music I have on my shelf. It is around 115 pages of intense material. All examples are written in standard notation, so you don’t have to transpose TAB. There are no real lessons, which I like, but it is full of observations and ideas that guide you through the book. Advancing Guitarist is broken down into three sections. The first covers “The Approach” – fingerboard mechanics, open and closed position playing, intervals, modes, playing up and down a single string, etc… The second covers “Materials” – triads, diatonic four part chords, modes, chord type/modes, slash chords, pentatonic scales, voicings from the symmetrical diminished scale, etc… The third “Commentaries” is my favorite part of the book – the guitar’s complexity, harmony, tuning, harmonics, silence is golden, feeling “stale”?, no one knows what’s next, time, tempo, etc… If you sat down and worked your way through all of the material in this book, without getting sidetracked with other books or learning, the material would last years. At the same time, there are no “lessons”. So if you’re not very motivated this might not be a good choice. There is as much in this book as you would like there to be.

Dissect Solos. Taking solos apart note by note is a great way to get ideas. It is also a way to improve your ear. I think the most important part of dissecting a solo is knowing it really well in your head from listening to it a hundred times (be able to sing most of it). Then, start at the beginning and work your way through. Most solos sound a lot more complex than they really are (but some don’t). Just take it slow. Even if some notes elude you, that’s ok; you are just looking at the overall harmonic and melodic structure. A program like Transcribe is made to figure out songs by slowing them down. You can also use Audacity (open source/free) and its “change tempo” effect to get the same result.

Dissect Songs. Same idea as solos, you are just looking for chords and the main melody.

Arrange. Herb Ohat Jr. stressed this as one of the most important things I should work on. This keeps songs unique. There are many, many recorded versions of E Ku’u Morning Dew. How come we don’t go insane from hearing the same song over and over? Arranging. Most everybody does the song differently and has their own version of how to play it. The intro and outro are the most important parts of arranging because, while you can give it your own spin, the melody needs to stay the same. Otherwise it’s not E Ku’u Morning Dew anymore. So what you do is basically write a new intro. Start with chords and find the melody inside them. Then you can go into the song that everyone knows.

Write. Creating your own songs is one of the fastest ways to a distinct style. The reason being: you won’t write songs that you don’t like. You won’t know the perfect song until you hear it so there is no way to teach this. All you can do is become familiar with sounds you like (chord progressions, melodies). I find that part of writing is getting inspired somehow, whether it is an event in your life or a place. Rarely do I get an idea for a song when I’m in my bedroom practicing. Usually it comes to me when I’m somewhere different – walking down the road, the beach, the park, anywhere.

Teach. Teaching a beginner is a very humbling experience because they honestly have no idea what you are talking about (“okay, lets try it again…”). Guys who know what they are doing can just show each other a new song and get it figured out in minutes, beginners can’t. You have to explain everything to them at first, but once they start getting it, it’s great to see the joy on their faces as it all clicks. I have more patience for non-players now after teaching. It also makes you remember what it was like learning your first chords and you can see how far you have come. But above all of that, it is good fun and a duty of sorts to pass the knowledge on. My advice is go slow. The odds of you underwhelming a beginner is small and if you do it should be pretty obvious. The other thing is; if the student is just not getting something you have to think of a different way to explain it. Sometimes all it takes is looking at it from a different angle. Maybe you have to relate the idea to something or come up with a game or show it to the student on paper. Anything different. I found a nice site a while back on teaching guitar. It can be applied to ‘ukulele easily so it’s a valuable resource: Teach Guitar.com.

Perform. Playing music in front of people can be a mixed bag. It’s fun to do and can be a great kick, but at the same time it is nerve wracking and a great host for butterflies before the performance. The first few outings are by far the scariest, mainly because you haven’t done it before and many times you are still in the beg.-intermediate range (what are the chords again?). You have less confidence in you playing ability so you are worried about your own playing instead of thinking about the song or entertaining the crowd. After that it seems to get easier. Performing is kind of what all the hard work adds up to. Think of it as “sharing your music” instead of “performing”, it seems to give the whole ordeal a more pure feeling. By the way, play for free until people know who you are. You are learning from each show, so it’s like free lessons. Be professional and have fun.

Learn about the music business. If you ever have plans to record, tour, write your own songs, start a band, etc… you need to know about the music business. This can be boring, but “Everything You Need to Know About the Music Business” does a great job of explaining most things you need to know in a fairly entertaining format.

Find the pro’s web lessons. There are many great artists (mostly guitarist) that have written lessons you can learn a lot from. Just Googling a specific non-ukulele music term is probably the best way to find these gems. Here are some that I have found (let me know if you find any more!):

http://www.fareed.com/lessons.html
http://www.tuckandpatti.com/tuckscorner.shtml
http://www.vai.com/littleblackdots.html – Steve Vai’s interesting view on developing uniqueness and techniques
Guitar World Lesson Archive – Eric Johnson’s pieces are great

Guitar Player Magazine. I subscribe to this magazine, and it is by far the most exciting thing I get in the mail every month. It is a great way to expose yourself to new music. There are plenty of interviews and features with unique artists to give you ideas for your playing. The lessons are great, all are noted in TAB and standard notation. Every month there is a “10 things you’ve got to do to play like [so and so]” which delves into an artist’s playing style and uncovers a lot of mysteries. Beyond that, there is usually a master class and a section of little riffs and ideas. Then there are reviews of equipment – usually guitars, amps, and effects. There are no significant ’ukulele magazines in print, so if you have an open mind you could find this very helpful and interesting.

Make use of the many online scale and chord generators. These are designed for guitars, but can easily be used for ’ukulele – just retune and use the bottom strings. Most have hundreds of weird scales and chords.

Don’t be an Impostor. Many people want to play like Jake, but why? Is it because he plays fast? Is it because he plays with so much energy? Is it because you don’t know what you want to sound like? At some point you will need to know how you want to sound. Because if you just try to play like Jake, you will end up sounding more like Jake then yourself. By all means learn from Jake’s playing – the dude is awesome, but don’t forget that in the end, the music is flowing through you. Learn from Jake and move on, learn from James and move on, learn from Herb and move on. Take your favorite part of the artist’s playing and adapt it to your playing. Then, you can find your sound.

“Taking ideas from one person is stealing. Taking ideas from many is research” ~ Carlos Santana.

Play From the Heart. There is not enough info about playing from your heart and finding your sound, but what I have found is great:

The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten. This book is a huge resource of unconventional lessons. Wooten (bass player for the Flecktones) takes you on a journey through the life of a struggling young musician who is looking for his voice in the world. In the story, a mysterious man then appears and becomes a great mentor to help guide the poor chap in the ways of music. While this is a fictional story, almost all aspects of music are covered in a way that you have probably not seen before. Awesome.
Multi-dimensional Miracles: Carlos Santana Celebrates The Power Of Intangibles. This is a fantastic article about spirituality in music.

I’ll keep adding to this as I think of more things that have been useful to me.

Please feel free to share any resources you like to use.