Learn to play an instrument online.
Practice drills for music theory.
An impressive version of One Note Samba on ukulele by James Hill:
Finally, just because there are occasions when one is needed … an instant rimshot.
Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
A few music links for Thursday morning
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008ANZAC Day
Friday, April 25th, 2008I don’t know how long this link will be good (it looks like the link will be for the entire trip … ANZAC Day is Day 5 of the trip), but we have Colorado representation Down Under for ANZAC Day.
Here’s a song that was written about it – Eric Bogle’s The Band Played Waltzing Mathilda.
Too funny (II)
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008Tom Waits on Fernwood Tonight:
Found at Tacky Raccoons.
I have a new hero
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008… but not a Guitar Hero …
A learning experience
Monday, April 7th, 2008I entered a contest recently. I didn’t win, but I had fun.
I had to learn how to use iMovie, which turns out to be a toy I’ll probably use more now that I’ve learned enough to be dangerous.
If you’re interested, you can find all of the contest entries here. I’m #48. The entries that impressed me the most are #3, #19, and #22.
Sing Joy Spring
Monday, March 24th, 2008I didn’t note the arrival of spring, but Maggie’s Farm did.
A little late for St. Patrick’s Day, but …
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008Here’s one place to go if you like Irish drinking songs.
Sounds interesting (or, interesting sounds)
Thursday, February 21st, 2008Radio David Byrne – a two-hour-or-so loop of new music that changes monthly.
And here’s Pamelia Kurstin, theremin virtuoso. I was aware that there were theremin virtuosi, but hadn’t heard one perform before.
And, if you like Bossa Nova, you can find it here. There’s some Jobim I’d like to learn to play.
Music hath charms …
Monday, January 14th, 2008
But this band doesn’t. Despite the peaceful image on the cover, Tusk plays loud, violent, atonal, and profane screeds. It’s hard to make out the lyrics, which are screamed by an adenoidal teenager with a grammar impediment, but the theme of the album appears to be “Environment good, technology bad,” which seems incongruous, given the amount of amplification they use.
I know people who enjoy “death metal” music, and even they think this album has no merit other than volume.
Recommendation: don’t buy it.
Novelties
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008Swallow Hill will be hosting a Ukulele Festival in a few weeks. As far as I’m aware, it will be Denver’s first. Should be fun. I’m still trying to decide which ticket level I want to purchase, and what I want to practice up for the open stage (if I decide to get up on the open stage).
A couple of weeks earlier, we’ll have the regular Denver area ukulele group meeting at Swallow Hill. I missed the December meeting, at which musical themes were decided for the upcoming year. January’s theme is “Novelty Songs.” That happens to be the type of song that is probably my favorite – I know lots of them. Most, unfortunately, I can sing. As opposed to sing while playing, that is. Singing while playing is a skill I’m working on, complicated by the fact that I don’t know how to play many of the songs I can sing.
In any case, I have a few such I can already perform (such as Their Brains Were Small and They Died, Don’t Pet The Dog, and It’s Hard to be Humble), and I’m working on more. I can play and sing Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport – I just need to make them happen simultaneously. I’ve been working out the chords for The Witch Doctor Song (“Ting tang walla walla bing bang”). It was pretty straightforward getting the chorus to sound nice when I tried to play it in C, but I couldn’t make progress on the bridge until I retried it in A.
It’s a matter of finding the right sound, and I couldn’t find the right sounds up the neck in C. I’m actually better at working out chords on the banjo, but sometimes that doesn’t produce things that sound good to me on a uke. As an illustration, I found some chords online for Madiera, M’Dear, but I couldn’t get them to sound right on the uke. That may be due to the fact that I’m more familiar with a version by Dan Murphy, and not with the Flanders & Swann version.
To finish, here are a couple of novelty songs for your enjoyment. The first is via Bits and Pieces, and the second via The Last of the Few (site NSFW).