ukulele for geeks: secrets of the pentatonic scales
DESCRIPTION
My five minute talk on how to hack the ukulele fretboard with the universal key: pentatonic scalesTRANSCRIPT
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ukulele for geeks
secrets of the pentatonic scales
ignite sydney ’09
christian crumlishmediajunkie.com
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An easy instrument to learn
• Just four strings!• Punk as hell• Enthusiasm beats expertise• Learn a few chords (not from me)• Learn a few fingering patterns (yay)• ???• Profit!!
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Pentatonic Scales for the Win
• Pentatonic means five tones
• The black keys on a piano are a pentatonic scale
• Every combination, even random ones, sounds good
• Pentatonic scales can be used to accompany any song
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Many songs use just 5 notes
• My Girl
• Under the Boardwalk*
• Suicide is Painless
• First There is a Mountain
_________
* ok, maybe six but mostly just the five… more on that later
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Open strings
• The open strings on a guitar are in a pentatonic scale
• The open strings on a uke are in several pentatonic scales (as there are just four)
• Thus “accidentally” hitting open strings is usually fine
• The uke is basically “in C”
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C maj pentatonic
• C D E G A
• To make it bluesy add Eb (aka D#)
• C D (Eb) E G A
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C min pentatonic
• C Eb F G A
• To make it bluesy add Gb (aka F#)
• C Eb F (Gb) G A
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Forget the note names
• It’s all about the patterns, yo
• Little dippers, all in a row
• That one weird string interval
• Find the root or key and the patterns “just work”
• Make “big dippers” to go to big-boy scales
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Cowboy Scale (C maj)
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Little Dipper (C maj)
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Little Dippers (C maj)
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Little Blue Dippers (C maj)
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Cowboy Scale (C min)
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Blue Cowboy Scale (C min)
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Little Dipper (C min)
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Little Dippers (C min)
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The Key
• Dippers are movable
• Whatever key a song is in, just find the relative dippers
• You don’t need to know the key
• Just fiddle around till it “locks in,” then follow the pattern up and down the fretboard
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Big Dippers
• Five notes often not quite enough
• “Under the Boardwalk” is hexatonic
• Many songs are diatonic, etc.
• So learn how to extend the little dippers into big dippers to make larger sales
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Big Dipper (C maj)
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Big Dippers (C maj)