Practice

my very first scale "assignment"
came from Brother Mikey in AZ

ever since i mastered the c scale on the uke and got to enjoy it, i try to come up with 15 min of music practice time every day.  and, finally, i am giving thought to precise playing/technique, in the hopes of earning some speed, ha.  sometimes i try to toss a scale between the other fun stuff i am doing too...




right now i am working on the C scale on piano.  for my product knowledge test i learned a two octave pattern, shown to me by the teacher there.  i do it with each hand separately, around middle C.  my friend told me that when i have it down pat with each the left and right hand, then i can try doing both at the same time while reading a book.  i also throw in a cool two hand at a time C scale shown to me by a co-worker.

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i am also working on a G scale on the guitar.  now that i have totally memorized the note pattern on the fretboard and can hear it, i am paying attention to which finger.  also, i had the invention today to incorporate the keeping-the-other-fingers-down-while-moving-one exercise.  i suddenly noticed the way each other finger was sticking straight up stoopidly while i worked on playing the notes.

i can't remember right now who drew me this one.
i like trying this finger pattern once in a while too...

mostly, always, i am trying to memorize song patterns, the story itself, with the minimum of chord change patterns to master, ha. i just love singing.

Searching Descriptive Words for Guitar Tone?

how about putting each word into the thesauras? i would love to dabble with helping with such a writerly chore!
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Timbre: The Color of Music          Module by: Catherine Schmidt-Jones. 

One of the basic elements of music is called color, or timbre (pronounced "TAM-ber"). Timbre describes all of the  aspects of a musical sound that do not have anything to do with the sound's pitch, loudness, or length. In other words, if a flute plays a note, and then an oboe plays the same note, for the same length of time, at the same loudness, you can still easily distinguish between the two sounds, because a flute sounds different from an oboe. This difference is in the timbre of the sounds.
   
    Timbre is caused by the fact that each note from a musical instrument is a complex wave containing more than one frequency. For instruments that produce notes with a clear and specific pitch, the frequencies involved are part of a harmonic series. For other instruments (such as drums), the sound wave may have an even greater variety of frequencies. We hear each mixture of frequencies not as separate sounds, but as the color of the sound. Small differences in the balance of the frequencies - how many you can hear, their relationship to the fundamental pitch, and how loud they are compared to each other - create the many different musical colors. The harmonics at the beginning of each note - the attack - are especially important for timbre, so it is actually easier to identify instruments that are playing short notes with strong articulations than it is to identify instruments playing long, smooth notes.

 The human ear and brain are capable of hearing and appreciating very small variations in timbre. A listener can hear not only the difference between an oboe and a flute, but also the difference between two different oboes. The general sound that one would expect of a type of instrument  - a trombone  for example - is usually called its timbre or color. Variations in timbre between specific instruments - two different trombones, for example, or two different trombone players, or the same trombone player using  different types of sound in different pieces - may be called differences in timbre or color, or may be called differences in tone or in tone quality. Tone quality may refer specifically to "quality", as when a young trombonist is encouraged to have a "fuller" or "more focussed" tone quality, or it can refer neutrally to differences in sound, as when an orchestral trombonist is asked to play with a "brassy" tone quality in one passage and a "mellow" tone quality in another.
Many words are used to describe timbre. Some are somewhat interchangeable, and some may have slightly different meanings for different musicians, so no attempt will be made to provide definitions.
Here are a few words commonly used to describe either timbre or tone quality.
Reedy
Brassy
Clear
Focussed or unfocussed
Breathy (pronounced "BRETH-ee")
Rounded
Piercing
Strident
Harsh
Warm 
Mellow
Resonant
Dark or Bright
Heavy or Light
Flat
Having much, little, or no vibrato (a controlled wavering in the sound); or narrow or wide, or slow or fast, vibrato

For more information on what causes timbre, please see Harmonic Series I, Standing Waves and Musical Instruments, and Standing Waves and Wind Instruments.) For activities that introduce children to the concept of timbre, please see Timbre Activities

Uke Orchestra, Blue Skies Festival Aug 2012

okay, so you saw me in the photos, but how many of my ukes???

over all, the Blue Skies workshop programming was amazing! i can't believe i didn't think to look at the schedule til after i was home. ha, egads etc.

its true i meant to participate in the choir.  but, excepting  the U2 and Neil Young tunes, the material didn't resonate with me. And, they were sight reading in their parts, which i can't do.  am i even an alto? I didn't even have my glasses for the words.  No wonder i never went back after the first practice!

Eve's uke workshops, for me, on the other hand, were amazing!!!  All three of them, and then the performance was fun.

First of all, she seems to have stuck it in my head good and for all time, finally, that your FIRST string is closest to the FLOOR!

the bass player i accidentally forced a uke on (in order to run back to my tent for extras), tabbed out the other Latin Times homework for me in 2 seconds flat.  So, I have take away stuff to work on, for all that missed tuning ukes for little kids ha.
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the rest of our set list included:
Sloop John B
My Girl
Feelin' Groovy
>> one of these had some intro picking pattern i don't remember, didn't it?
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 for me it wasn't the performances on the main stage, or even the wonderful Blue Skies workshops, it was the memorable musical moments of the informal jams. it was awesome that the fire ban lifted with the rain!!!  Standing by other people's canaopies listening and smiling, joining in, sometimes even sitting down and accepting a glass of wine and instrument, ha.  when i enthused about my nighttime adventures to my tent mate she said, "congratulations, you've arrived at blue skies"

Considering a Music Teacher?

“don’t place too much emphasis on the importance of performance ability.  Emphasis must be placed on a candidate’s capabilities as a teacher, not on their capabilities as a musician.”

 Instead look for:

Good communication skills

High degree of maturity and responsibility

Enthusiasm and a positive attitude

A true interest in musi education

Adequate performance ability

Knowledge and use of suitable age and level appropriate lesson curriculum

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A musical education is never wasted?  Check out this discussion...

For more benefits of a musical education, click this link as well.