Community

I had another very busy week full of uke related activities. What I discovered was that Hawaiian music is not just about playing beautiful songs, it' about community. On Saturday I spent the morning with all of Saichi's past, present, and future students at his home assembling the Kapalakiko Newsletter which goes out to 5,000 families worldwide. Prior to the event I had no idea what to expect. I thought there would be about 10 of us sitting around trying to come up with newsletter ideas to write about. When I showed up 30 minutes early, there were already 30 people sorting paper, stapling packets, and preparing mailing labels all in an assembly type fashion. What a great surprise! As I took my place in the staple station I met several other uke lovers who exceptionally positive and spirited about the whole 'Aloha' spirit. This was my first real experience of Hawaiian love. For the next 5 hours we worked away while learning about each others' life (uke) stories and how we ended up learning from Saichi. It was heartwarming.

Monday night I had class again and we worked on Waikaloa. It's still really hard for me to sing and play at the same time. Mostly because I really don't know the words that well yet and it tends to throw me off as I try to spit/slur/mumble them out. I should really sit down and learn some basic Hawaiian language pronunciation. I'm sure learning the meaning of some key words would also help familiarize myself to the language.

Tuesday was my 3rd band rehearsal. We struggled through some songs in the beginning but after some warm-up we were sounding a lot better. I definitely could not sing along with some of the Hawaiian songs the first go around. The most challenging but beautiful are Manu Mele and Te Tiare which has some French in it too. My all-time favorite at this point is I Miss My Hawaii. I have the link of my first 'performance' of it. I hope you love it as much as I do. (Keep in mind I need to work on my voice).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8mg2tlvXzo

Today (Wednesday, April 29, 2010) I got together with some coworkers to start planning a talent show at work! I plan to play the 'I Miss My Hawaii' song with my guitar teacher along with 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' (although it's incredibly hard for me to sing this one since I have such a limited vocal range). BUT I did manage to convince a coworker who grew up in Hawaii to teach some people the hula to go with the songs I'll play. I can't wait. It will be on June 10th so I'll be sure to post the video.

One of my favorite coworkers is relocating to Chicago. I'm going to miss her a ton...she even thought about picking up the uke after she played some chords at our backpacking trip in Big Sur. I plan to get her a uke as a going away gift. One day when we meet again we would have to play together.

So...this week has been about community. The ukulele started as a fun activity for me to do. Now it's become my life and has opened the doors to an entirely new, loving, and passionate community of Hawaiians and Hawaiians at heart. I'm just as excited about this new part of my life as I was the first time I heard Jake Shimabukuro on the uke.

Here's another song I have been learning 'White Sandy Beach.' It's Bobby's favorite so far of the 'English' songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjhvuUbbiq4

Uke Week

Last week was my first intense week of ukulele. I had my beginners class on Monday, band rehearsal Tuesday, went to watch the band perform at Sundance Kitchen at Friday, and attended the monthly workshop in Alameda on Saturday. Sunday afternoon I went to the park with my sister and baby cousins and the uke. It was a beautiful Sunday in Golden Gate Park. We fed the birds by the lake on 36th Ave and then I played some songs for the kids to dance to. Jonathan, the youngest, loved it and danced throughout each song. He even attempted to play the uke.

Here's a link to the song/dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0nj7Q51H7o

This week will be similar. Monday night I had class with Saichi and Mark. We played Puamana (the first Hawaiian song I've ever learned) in the key of A and worked n harmonizing. Of course I struggled, often ending up on the instructor's note instead of my assigned harmony note. I definitely need some ear training. I can't hear the 3rd and 5th note in my head to start singing it right on cue. We also learned a new song, with a cha-lang-a-lang strum. It was harder than Puamana although the instructor said it should be easier to learn. It's called Waikaloa.

Tuesday night I had rehearsal - and I went an hour early so that I could copy the humongous songbook. It took me an hour to copy 1/4 of it which is probably around 150 pages of music. Unfortunately I left it there so I hope that it's still in good shape when I visit Saichi this Saturday. Band rehearsal was good - I met 4 other band members who were equally as welcoming and talented. I really feel fortunate to have been welcomed to this group. So far it seems like I have years to practice to get to the level of other members. I got my picture taken for the band website...so hopefully my profile will be posted soon. We worked on Mehameha, White Sandy Beach, Olomana Moon (written by Saichi), Kamalani, and Moanalua. My favorites are the first two and Kamalani.

Kapalakiko Hawaiian Band

Tonight I joined the Kapalakiko Hawaiian Band rehearsal.

It was the first time I was part of any performing band (outside of school). We started with a pot-luck dinner at 6:30pm, then set-up amps, mics, and music stands for the rehearsal at 8pm. We went right into practicing songs that Saichi chose. The song book is a binder with over 700 songs! Each song was beautiful with it's own story, history, and feeling. I got to record some on my iPhone so that I could listen and practice over the week. I have been informed it will take me 5+ hours to copy all the songs in the song book so that I can have one of my own.

There is amazing talent in the group. I met 8 members, most of whom were apprentices. Apparently, you will either be a 1st seat (pro) or an apprentice. They were incredibly welcoming. I was formally inducted to the band as I received 3 Kapalakiko Band t-shirts. This is truly an amazing opportunity to learn from the best. I was able to keep up with the songs (especially since verses repeat at least once) so as we played more and more of the same song I began to grasp more and more. I still need Hawaiian language lesson and apparently - voice lessons too. I'll see what I can do about that.

There is also an opportunity to learn slack-key guitar - so that's in my near future too. This is the start to a wonderful journey. I can't wait to see where I am 5 years from now.

Here's the Kapalakiko Website: http://www.kapalakiko.com/

Time for bed.

Ukulele in Atlanta, Georgia

This past weekend (Thurs-Sun) I was in Atlanta for a conference on Industrial Organizational Psychology. The ukulele I borrowed fit perfectly in my suitcase and so it traveled along. It was a good trip. The best part of it was visiting the Georgia Aquarium. It was amazing - even more fun, wonderful, and majestic than Disneyland (and I LOVE Disney). Here's a link to the video clip of the 'Gentle Giants' exhibit which featured 50 different species including sawfish shark, hammerheads, manta rays, sting rays, groupers, and 4 bus sized whale sharks. You can swim with them if you sign up and pay $$$. Definitely something I will do in my lifetime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7W2KYRV4w8

I played each night and practiced my favorites (I'm Yours & Somewhere Over the Rainbow). Here's a clip of I'm Yours in my bunny outfit from the Kenexa party at the conference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wOFYh6bmjM

I did get to perform for my niece-in-law, Hannah while she rested in bed feeling a bit ill. She recognized I'm Yours and even tried to learn the chords (C, G, Am, and F) for the song. We spent Sunday relaxing around the house - homes are amazingly large and beautiful in Atlanta. We did go to a paint your own pottery place and I made a mug with ukulele on it. It was wonderful to hang out with my nieces/nephew-in-laws.

Tonight I attended my 3rd ukulele class. I was the ONLY student. I thought it would be akward, especially when the teacher would hear me play without others covering up my mistakes. But it was fun. I especially enjoy hearing the stories about how various ukulele players started or changed Hawaiian music/history. Saichi Kawahara knows a lot of history and is excited about passing it on. He's 73 and he just won the Hawaiian Music Lifetime Achievement Award. Really nice guy too.

During class we practiced Puanama in the key of F, G, and A (which is new). We practiced over and over again. I think I have the double strum down, but I have a hard time saying all the Hawaiian words. I definitely continue to sing it the way I first learned it, wrong. We worked on harmony again - and boy did I sound bad. It's hard to hear where I should be, especially when Saichi sings harmony too. He kept requesting that I sing louder, which I did do when we were singing in unison, but once we hit a harmony verse, I was unsure and therefore quiet. It would be awesome to train my ear to hear harmony one day.

At the end of he class Saichi invited me to join his band! I was super excited for the opportunity. I'll be attending their practice tomorrow night so I will share how that went later.

Double Strum Uke

Tonight I went to my second ukulele class with Saichi Kawahara. It was a good class - we learned the double strum, written as 'rrraa ta ta ta tum.' You just play that super fast. It was definitely hard to keep that pattern going while learning new chord progressions and singing in Hawaiian. It's good to play with others because the teacher can't hear all your mistakes through the strumming of other students (although there were only two of us tonight). I realized that the first time you learn a song, it sticks to your head, whether you're singing it correctly or not. Tonight I sang Puamana the same way I sang it the first time - wrong. But I couldn't shake the way I carried some vowels longer than others (incorrectly) or when I took pauses when I shouldn't have.

We worked on the song in two new keys: the key of G and the key of F. That didn't help with the singing either. What was cool is that the teacher had each of us sing the 1st, 3rd, and 5th note of a chord simultaneously (each of us took one). It was the first time I learned how to harmonize and it sounded pretty darn cool. I definitely need to develop my ear to do it because once I heard someone else's harmony I lost my own.

This week I'll be heading for a conference in Atlanta, George. (http://www.siop.org/). It should be fun connecting with other organizational psychologists and learning about new research in the field. I absolutely needed to bring a uke and my fellow uke classmate (Mark) let me borrow his 'travel soprano uke.' I'll be sure to snap some shots of it because it is just so small and cute.

D Formation

I spent the bulk of my day working at my parents cafe...called Paris Cafe located near Union Square in SF. Of course, I brought my uke along for the ride in case I got a chance to pick it up and play for a familiar face. I did get the chance to do so for a friend (Vince) who came to visit. He is an accomplished guitarist and got to strum the uke a bit.

This evening I spent some time getting through the Fretboard Roadmap book. I read through the first chapter on D formations. It goes over the D, D minor and D7 formations. The D consists of 3 notes, D, F# and A which are the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the D scale. D minor means you lower the 3rd note half a step so that makes it consist of the D, F, and A while the D7 consists of a 7th chord (D, F#, A, and C). The same page then moves on to all the different locations of all the other notes to make it diminished, 6/9, augmented, major, etc. Although I could see how just learning the D formations would reduce the difficulty in locating all the other chords on the fretboard, it was already overwhelming to memorize. But it does remind me of how much time it took me to learn the fingerings on the flute for each note. Now I can just look at the musical note and play it mindlessly. It was so long ago that I don't remember the process of learning the correct fingerings for all the notes you can play on the flute. I guess I'll have to go through this same process on the ukulele if I want to be able to read music (not just tab and chords). It will be a long journey.

FingerStyle Solos - Twinkle Twinkle

I received the FingerStyle Solos for ukulele by Mark Kailana Nelson today. I started working through it, landing on my first fingerstyle song: Twinkle Twinle Little Star. The songs progress in difficulty as you work through it. Here's my first shot at playing Twinkle Twinkle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOkxuJr4ksk

It takes forever to upload videos on this blog site...so I tried to do so on Youtube which doesn't cut time but does improve in success rate. So this 1 minute song took about 1 hour to upload. Anyways, I also got another book, the Fretboard Roadmap - which is a lot harder because it requires that you memorize formations. But I guess once you do, you can play all over the fretboard seamlessly without thinking about the right flats or sharps in your chord.