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"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!
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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!
The awesome shoes that my new son-in-law, Matt Boggs, decorated for me! I have had these high tops since 2000 (I bought them in Vegas) and while they are actually quite uncomfortable to wear, I have never, For some odd reason, gotten rid of them. Now I will wear them (occasionally, because they are, after all works of art) with great pride and joy! Thank you Matt and Milicent B!
