UKULELE PLAYS IRISHUkuleles are very versatile string instruments and can be tuned to many pitches. To play Irish you will tune up one whole step from C to D. Instead of the usual GCEA the strings are now tuned to ADF#B. Now your uke handles the Irish repertoire with much greater ease. As well, believe it or not, ukuleles will sound even more fantastic when they are tuned to D! Try it and let me know. Irish Traditional Music, (ITM), is based around the Keys of D, G, Em and Am. These keys can be easily played if your ukulele is tuned to D. The scale pattern of C becomes a D scale. The F scale becomes a G scale and so on. Most of you will know a C scale if you have tried to play melody on your C tuned ukulele. It will be the first scale you learnt. That C pattern now becomes a D scale on your D tuned instrument. You are now prepared to easily play many Irish tunes. There are hundreds of catchy easy songs and tunes in D. You play in D by playing the patterns you learned on your C tuned uke. The chords are easy too. The C chord shape becomes a chord that sounds a D, F becomes G, and the G chord shape becomes an A chord. It’s that simple! The appropriate change in your mind occurs very quickly if you keep one uke always tuned to D. When you pick that uke up you start to think D tuning! I kid you not! Because ITM repertoire is so attractive to the ear you can quickly join in with lots of the music played in the ITM sessions around the world. Brendan Williams, mentor of 30 years, and I will be delighted to show you how to learn it. We taught ourselves to do it. Having played string instruments before, it came readily to us. We do understand it will be a bit harder for some other players, but we will guide you every step of the way if you wish. This is why we have designed our Toowong Bowls Club Thursday night sessions with a slow quiet ukulele based segment at 5:30 PM. Slow and quiet so you can hear yourself and us play easily. The material will be available as lyric sheets, chord progression charts and music notation on Dropbox. We can help you learn music notation too as we know that is the fastest way to learn music in any context. Music used to be learnt just by ear but now people learn best by ear and by reading at around the same time. When I now see the structure of the music I can learn it much faster! It’s amazing how little this is appreciated even today. ITM sessions are without charts in front of players, although you can have some music charts at the slow sessions at first. All the music is very gradually learnt by memory, usually songs first. You can do this by focusing on the easiest and catchiest music you hear, the music that you love the most. Then if you have a chart at home you can study a complete tune in your own time. It speeds things up too if you record the first piece you want to learn on your phone at the session or at another time for study purposes. The easiest pieces to learn are songs. Songs are lots of fun but if a piece doesn’t turn you on then don't do it! Make the rule to only do the fun bits. You can use your C tuned ukulele but it will work much better if you keep one uke especially tuned to D, like I do. Of course you will also have much more fun if you get some specific lessons on techniques and repertoire. It's going to be fun. It's going to work. It's going to work for you. Peter McMeel, |