Week 2 - Jazz

8 April, 2014

Week 2

We have a new class room, much bigger, and a good thing; there are a few more people as well. 

We started out the week tuning, and then reviewing what we did last week.  A whole lot of handouts came our way, mostly songs that we could cover in the class.

We added the G chord, and then worked on moving from C to G during a steady strumming rhythm.   Then we strummed through the Hank Williams classic, Jambalaya.

We used a D – D – pattern where the strums alternated hard and soft.  At the end of the song, we learned a couple of fancy finishes for the song (Danno joked about doing the ukulele spin as well, but we didn’t get into that).

Next we got some strumming exercises to practice, learned just a bit about music theory and chords that belong to particular keys.  Then we added the G7 and F chords.  So now we have the primary chords for the key of C; C, G (or G7), and F.  We were shown different fingerings for the chords, and practiced moving through the chords while strumming.

I felt pretty relaxed on the chord changes and kept up without losing a beat.  The strumming hand is where I need more work.  I’ll spend more time on this outside of class working on the exercises. 

During the last 15 minutes of class, we worked on sounding out the song Happy Birthday (by ear) figuring out the chord changes, and what they should be in C.

We covered a lot:  by the end of our 2^nd class we have 6 different chords, a couple strumming patterns, a basic understanding of how to figure out simple songs by ear, we are getting dangerous! 

As Lou Reed said, “One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.” 

It Begins Again

2 April, 2014

Here is what I wrote 4 years ago when I took this very same class and started with this same ukulele:



30 March 2010

It Begins…

Back in February I signed up for a class at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Ukulele for the Almost Musical. It seemed like a fun class, and “Almost Musical” sounds about right for me.

Danno Sullivan is the teacher, and we had the first class. He is fantastic, a fun teacher and really talented. We learned a few chord (C and G7) and worked on strumming our way through a handful of songs. This is going to be a blast!


Four years (and 2 days) later, I return to take the class again. It has been a long cold winter and my arthritis was so bad that I had not touched my instruments in more than 7 months, and my hands, especially the left, were painful claws. This class is just what I need to help with my hands and get me back into playing again. Plus over the past four years, I had pretty much limited myself to simple 3 chord songs and had forgotten a lot of what I had learned before.

Danno is still teaching it, and he is still awesome. This class (like every class Danno teaches) is full, there are 16 of us. Unfortunately, the staff assigned us to a very small room which had 7 chairs set up in a circle, which completely filled the room. There is no way 16 students and the teacher, with chairs, music stands, and instruments will be able to use this room.

(On a side note, my Harmonica class which has 7 students and uses just the harmonica is being taught is a dancing room. The room is so large, we barely fill a corner.)

We all learned how to tune our instruments, learned about beats in 4/4 and 3/4 time (what most music we will be using is written in). We learned there are two components of each beat, the down and the up movement. Then we learned how that applies to strumming. We all learned the difference between sing notes and chords, then strummed the open stings learning that this was a chord, one we will almost never use, but it is a chord (a C6 chord). Next we learned the C chord, then strummed our first song, the children's song, "Are You Sleeping".

Next we learned the C7 Chord and played a few more 1 chord songs in C, using the C7 to accentuate certain parts, providing a little musical change, and well as strumming harder a little bit on certain down beats. We played "Low Rider" by War, "The Beat Goes On", and "Electric Avenue". (on the hand outs we also received "Whole Lotta Love" and "Helen Wheels" that we can try on our own, if we wish to.) In addition to the song hand outs we received a strum pattern handout and a chord listing handout.

The class has changed a little since the one I took before. We spent more time on strumming and learned one less chord. I think this is a better way to start out. As Danno says, the strumming is where the beat comes from.

I'm really looking forward to next week, and the new room that Danno assures us we will be in.