The 2016 Presidential Candidates

My view on the Presidential Candidates:
ANYTHING is more entertaining than the candidates.
Such as:
Watching grass grow, a golf match, a raindrop on the window, paint dry, washing my hair, getting chemo, playing Solitaire with a deck of cards, waiting in line anywhere (but especially the bank), taking a nap, flea combing the animals, being stuck anywhere with someone who b*tches non-stop, going to the dentist, reading any directions originally written in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, whatever...  Oh my, the list is endless!
And there's my political "rant" for the day. Let's talk about sex!

The Ukulele and Transposing Songs (Starting Out)

"Always" from the Daily Uke Book
with my scribbbles

So here's the deal.  I have tons of music and now two ukulele books.  Plus there are some great uke sites out there with tons of songs.  I think doctoruke is the best.

Great!  Fabulous!  Love it!

Tons of music but damnit, very very few pieces out of this massive collection are in MY key for singing.

I don't mind learning to play stuff in a "Not my key" key but being a singer first and foremost, I don't want to focus on memorizing ukulele stuff that ain't in my key.  Why the hell would I do that?

Here's the weird part.  I was taught Reverence For Books.  I drew in my books as a child and yes, my parents let me.  Which was, in retrospect, very nice of them.

I order two ukulele books. At first I was thinking, "Ooooh, it's a book.  I better not write in the book.  That would be BAD!"  Then I thought about that and I said to myself, "It's a darn music book; it's not a first edition of anybody's! Go ahead, write in the damn book,  It's yours!"

So my uke teacher gave me an assignment:

Three songs transposed by sight (mostly) in a week!  I chose these three:

"It Had To Be You" (from F to C)
"You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" (from F to C, that one was pretty easy) and
"Always" (from F to C and F to Bb).

"All Of Me" was one step off from the Daily Ukulele book, but I can sing it in that key.

Of course, I had to look up weird chords on the internet like Ebmin6!

Oh, yeah, I just have that one tucked away in my Ukulele Chord Memory Bank.

Uh, that would be, "Hell, No."

Reverend Mother, I confess that on "Always" I had to use the old, paper musical slide rule for 2 chords.  I couldn't make the transposition by counting, by ear or in my head, especially from F to Bb.

Now the trick is to PLAY them --- especially the upbeat songs!  Sheesh!  Singing this stuff is easy, easy, EASY!  I still suck at strumming.  My uke teacher says I'm doing just fine.

Learning to play: hard.  Playing AND singing together is REALLY HARD!

Me, Al, Leo and Dale
(photo by Paula McKenzie)

How does my friend and mentor Dale​ do it?  I'm in awe of people like him!  He was the guest artist for our show on August 29th.  He did "Dream A little Dream Of Me" with us and "Dream." He just watched Leo's hands on the piano and played along. Seriously?  Who the hell can do that shit? It's amazing!  I could only aspire to being that quick and that good!