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.