Jen Plays Ukulele

 So, holy crap, it's been a hot minute (or two or three) since I blogged here, eh? The truth of the matter is that I got completely bogged down in real life stuff, as in, trying to pay my bills while taking care of our 19 laying hens and 5 guinea fowl, 2 bunnies, and figuring out a routine that works while my son does fully remote 7th grade this year in the middle of a global pandemic. Not too much on my plate, right? Anyway. I've kept up with my ukulele, and even managed to add a few new beauties to my collection, and now that it's January, I'm thinking about what I want to do with my ukulele this year.  Watching all of these amazing players on YouTube and Facebook (sorry, I don't have TikTok yet, but I suspect that I will at some point soon), I know that I want to work on my ukulele technique. Over the Christmas break, I even participated in an online Christmas ukulele workshop where I learned some new-to-me jazz chords and worked on some new-to-me strumming techn...

Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome. If you're one of the folks that loves everything ukulele, you're sure to have heard this term. It refers to those of us who look at ukuleles like potato chips - you can't have just one!  To be fair, there are a number of wonderful ukes out there that are reasonably priced and sound fantastic, so why not have more than one? You can also find some great deals on ukuleles through some of the online auction sites like eBay. The nice thing about most ukuleles is that you can create a nice collection of ukes of all sizes without breaking the bank, especially if you're on a budget. But why would you want to have more than one ukulele? I mean, that's a fair question, right? Well, here are four reasons to have more than one ukulele: 1. Different sizes of ukulele. There are at least four different sizes of ukulele: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. Add in some of the tiny sopranino ukes, or soprano ukes with concert or tenor-length necks for...

So now that we understand a little bit about what music theory actually is, I'm going to write a little bit about the thing that makes the ukulele world go 'round: CHORDS. But what is a chord? Simply defined, a chord is three or more notes that are somehow related to one another through their location on the scale in a specific key of music.  Did I lose ya? Here's what that means: every piece of music you play is made up of notes, or tones, on a scale. These tones are a whole or half step apart and repeat in a predictable pattern, depending on whether you're playing a major or minor scale, or some other type of scale. A C major scale is the most basic, consisting of 8 notes (an octave) that have no sharps or flats - if you sit down at a piano and locate the middle C, the next 7 notes you play are all the white keys. There are no black keys - the sharps and flats - in a C major scale, so it's usually the easiest one to play on any instrument.  You probably already ca...

Whether or not you know it, by playing your ukulele or singing or doing any kind of musical activity, you're using the concepts of music theory to broadcast your vibration out into the world. When I was a music therapy major in college, I spent my first year taking classes called Tonal Harmony which were all about music theory. But what is music theory, exactly? Well, music theory is a set of concepts that try to explain and show just how music works. We all hear tones, sounds, timbre, and rhythm - but how do you capture those ideas and present them in a way that makes sense to someone? These are all abstract concepts that are meant to be felt, so how do you put them into visual form so that you understand what you're doing when you play a major scale or work through a chord progression? By using a set of symbols developed over hundreds of years, music theory does just that - it takes the ethereal concept of something like music and turns it into something you can read with you...

Back in 1992, I started college as a music therapy major. I really didn't know shit about music therapy at the time, except that it seemed like something I wanted to do. I loved playing the piano and the violin and singing, but I hated the pressure of getting it perfect every time. And because I was being graded on my performance and my technical ability, which, to be honest, ain't all that great, I eventually dropped out because I felt like I just wasn't good enough to major in music. (Even on one of my auditions, one of the judges noted that I was going to have to work "very very hard" in order to keep up.) Years later, I found myself teaching kid's yoga a few times a week, and one of the exercises we did to get calm and centered was called deep listening. It's fun, really: I would ask the kids to sit cross-legged and comfortable, and put their hands on their knees. With their eyes closed, I would strike my little chime and as soon as they heard the tone...

Since I started this blog, I've had a lot of people asking me what I think the best ukuleles are for absolute beginners. Not that I'm an authority on ukes (I mean, I've only been playing for what, 15 months now?), but I decided to put together my top 5 ukulele recommendations for beginners. If you've never ever picked up a ukulele before, here are a few ideas to get you started. Even better, most of them are $100 or less, so it's not a huge investment! 1. Kala Learn to Play Soprano This was the uke I got started on, and I can't recommend it enough. It's the perfect size for someone who has never touched a ukulele or a guitar before, it's a solidly built instrument, and the projection is really quite good.  2. Kala Exotic Mahogany Concert See a pattern here? (Don't worry, there are other ukulele brands out there besides Kala, I promise.) That said, this concert size ukulele is really stunning for the price. Like the Learn to Play series, it's a so...

Chord melody is one of those things that I wanted to do from day one when I decided to learn how to play ukulele. So many of the great ukulele artists and musicians play these incredible arrangements of classic songs using chord melody.  But what is chord melody, anyway? Basically, chord melody is a way of taking your basic fingerstyle on the ukulele and adding in the chords for each note. This brings a beautiful rich, full sound to your song. While you're still playing the melody, you're adding in these deeper layers of tones and harmony.  If you want to play songs using chord melody, it's easy enough to find loads of books and sheet music out there that have the chords already written out for you. But if you're really up for a fun music theory challenge, learning how to write your own chord melodies for songs you love requires a little bit of effort in understanding your fret board. Meanwhile, if you're looking for a great book to help you get started with chord m...