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....

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!