2009 Aloha Falsetto Festival part 1

Wow what a weekend it was! It was like history in the making - a beautiful afternoon and evening with some of the biggest names in Hawaiian entertainment from the islands and Southern California: Kekaimoku Yoshikawa and Leokane Pryor knocked it out of the park, Pomaika'i Keawe Lyman's first ever solo concert performance, Weldon Kekauoha, Bryan Tolentino and Alika Boy delivered a solidly entertaining set which ended in Weldon's beautiful arrangement of "Queen's Jubilee"...and a very rare concert appearance by the legendary Uncle Richard Ho'opi'i - to name just a few highlights!

If you didn't make it to the show, I'll fill you in on what you missed but first I'd like to share one of my personal favorite moments: when the three kumu hula got up to dance at the end of the show! Pomaika'i sang a 3-song medley of Pauoa Liko Kalehua, Mauna Loa and Haleiwa Hula that was danced by Keali'i Ceballos, Rolanda Reese and Kekaimoku, respectively. The idea first came about when we were doing the live podcast with Piko on the Hawaiian Concert Guide and we were talking with Pomaika'i and her father Eric. They sang that medley to us over the Skype lines and someone had the idea to have the three kumu each do one of the songs. It could have been my idea because of my involvement with flamenco where that kind of thing happens very often at the end of a show - they like to get the singer or the percussionist or the guitarist to dance a little at the end to show what they know and it never fails to make the audience go nuts! Rolanda, also known as "Aunty Mohala" is a well-known kumu but is actually very shy and talk about historic moments - for her to get in front of the mic on the podcast and to get out on stage like that was a very rare thing indeed. Even I had never seen her dance before so it was such a treat to see! By the way, don't forget about the big show she's putting on August at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre Saturday August, 29, 2009.

More to come....

Beginning Ukulele Players

So last week Wednesday was the first day of a new class I'm teaching at the Torrance Adult School. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and seeing how they learned so much on just the first day, they said they were really looking forward to the next week's class (tomorrow).
First thing I wanted to show them was how easy it was to get started so I showed them the one-finger C chord followed by the one-finger C7 chord then F then back to C again. Everyone seemed to already be familiar with basic strumming but as expected, mostly with that typical "swing" feel. So I showed them how to count out beats while strumming and when to expect typical chord changes. Eventually I will show them the strumming pattern made popular by Bruddah Iz with his version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" which, if you haven't heard by now, must mean you've been living in a cave.

Check out this video for an explanation on how to emulate that strum and be able to figure out others as well. Let me know what you think!

New Class for Beginner Ukulele Players

Always wanted to learn to play 'ukulele but didn't know how to start? Frustrated with confusing books and instructional methods? Want to learn how to figure out songs and strums by ear in seconds, hours/days/years? Then this class is for YOU!

This is a new 8-week course being offered at the El Camino College Community Education series in Torrance, CA starting June 16th through August 4th. Class size is limited so please register here to reserve your space.

Check out some of my ukulele tutorial videos to get an idea of what we'll be covering. The ukulele is a fun instrument, totally portable and very underrated in its versatility!

See you there!

Ukulele Virtuoso Abe Lagrimas

I just got back home from watching a(n) ukulele performance by Abe Lagrimas in the Island Bazaar shop in Huntington Beach. This guy is amazing for not even being a full-on dedicated ukulele player. Abe's main instrument is the drums and vibes and he is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music if that tells you anything about his musical abilities. Interesting thing about him is that he actually prefers the high G string on the uke as opposed to a G tuned lower like most people who solo like to use. He actually incorporates that high G into his runs which is way more thinking than I want to do!

I first met him back in 2006 when I decided to get back into organizing concerts. This one featured Jeff Peterson, Dana Hanchard who is an incredible singer, Abe on drums (and some ukulele) and Ernie Provencher on bass. Abe has since moved to Los Angeles and is making the rounds on the jazz scene here. I was able to recruit him to play a little in my 1st Southern California Slack Key Festival and also my first Aloha Falsetto Festival, both in Redondo Beach. In the slack key show, he played with Jeff Peterson on guitar and Kristin Korb on upright bass, as part of a backup band behind Owana Salazar. And in the falsetto show, he played with Jeff Peterson again and Taumata Grey on bass as the "House Band" that backed up Steven Espaniola, Gary Haleamau and Raiatea Helm.

You must check out his CD - way more sophisticated than any other ukulele CD out there, TRUST ME. Plus he is the one, of course, playing the percussion on there. He's only like, 26 but you will be very impressed!

Top/Bottom, Up/Down?

Before I explain more about the Dominant 7th and other important chords, it's important for everyone to be on the same page and to use the same terminology, especially for those who like to read online without a personal teacher. And even then, some teachers don't know how to explain things well in the first place, they're just "Do what I do" and can't go beyond that.

What follows assumes that you are a right-handed individual.

Look at the ukulele face on, vertically, like in the image above. The notes of the open strings, from left to right, is G, C, E, A. What that means is when you pluck the string all the way on the right, without pressing anything down, the note you hear (when the ukulele is properly tuned) is A. The A string is also known as the "TOP" string and also the "FIRST" string. This messes up a lot of people. The E string is the 2nd string, the C string is the third and the G string (regardless if you have a low or high G string) is the fourth, or BOTTOM string.

Put your left index finger (this is your FIRST finger) on the 1st fret of the first string. Recognize that chord? If you strum all the strings while holding that down it is a C7 chord. Now, move UP 2 frets. Your first finger should now be in the THIRD fret of the same string and you should recognize that as the C major chord when you strum all the strings together.

Notice that the SOUND of the note you played at the third fret is HIGHER than the sound of the note you played at the first fret. That's how you remember that you went UP and not DOWN.

Play a Bb chord. Your first finger is holding down the 1st and 2nd strings, right? Now move UP 2 frets so that the same finger is holding down the same strings but at the third fret. You are now playing a C major chord. You can play this interchangeably with the one-finger version but the main difference is that now you can move this chord shape around to get other chords, more on this later.

Up/down/top/bottom may seem knit-picky but these are VERY important things to know that will help communicating with and learning from others. See my videos for other mini-lessons and let me know what you think or if you have any questions.

Ukulele Theory #1 - the Dominant 7th

Last blog I mentioned that in a particular song there was a "mystery" chord that preceded the Bm chord that drove my friend crazy because he couldn't figure it out. It was the bridge section of the song "Lei Ho'oheno" by Weldon Kekauoha.

Well, when you hear it, there is really only one choice as to what that chord could be. So, to save you a LOT of time, here's how to figure it out: take the letter "B" and count forward in the alphabet four letters. You get "F". So if you were to use the letter "B" as #1 - the starting point - "F" would be #5. 1 = B, 2 = C, 3 = D, 4 = E, 5 = F

Now take that "F" and look up in your ukulele chord book how to play F7 and try that as the chord preceding Bm.

I tricked you - it probably still doesn't sound quite right, eh? Now, here's the next thing you gotta do: add a "#" to that to make it an F#7 chord. Now when you play that chord leading into the Bm, it's a very strong resolution and sounds like surf music or Spanish music. Try it for "Hotel California", too.

This is what's called a Dominant 7th chord - it's always 5 letters away from your destination chord and will always be the strongest, most satisfying kind of resolution. Try just playing those two chords - Bm and F#7 - back and forth....sounds good eh? You can also go between Bm and a regular F# major chord without the 7th but note the difference the F#7 makes. Practice strumming it fast and slow and see the difference there, too.

Now try the Am chord and go through the same process to figure out what the Dominant 7th chord will be. Did you get E#7?

That is.....INCORRECT! Correct answer is E7! Why? See if you can figure it out on your own before the next posting!

If you live anywhere near the Redondo Beach/South Bay area in Los Angeles, please contact me for private or group ukulele lessons!

Music Theory for the 'Ukulele??

Starting a new blog for learning about the ukulele, intending to focus a little more on the playing and musical theory aspect of the instrument. If you have any questions about songs, chords, strums, flats, sharps, etc. please post them! Lots of folks play for years and years without knowing just a few key things that would make life a lot easier when it comes to learning songs and think it's all one big mystery or that it takes too much time to even bother to try to learn - they are robbing themselves of so much fun and pleasure!

For my first case study (lol), last night I was talking with a friend about a song by Weldon Kekauoha called Lei Ho'oheno and he said it'd taken him a long time just noodling around trying to figure out the chords and eventually got pretty much all of them except for ONE chord and it was driving him nuts. He knew that the 2nd chord of the bridge was a Bm chord but for the life of him, couldn't figure out the one that precedes it no matter how many chords he tried to plug in there. Well, I informed him it was an F#7 chord which, if you knew just a little bit of theory, was really the only choice, kind of an instantaneous process of elimination. Think of the time he would have saved!

Want to know how this all works? Stay tuned and subscribed!