ukulele for geeks

41
ukulele for geeks secrets of the pentatonic scales sxsw 2010 christian crumlish @mediajunkie

Upload: christian-crumlish

Post on 07-Mar-2015

625 views

Category:

Documents


22 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Ukulele for Geeks

ukulele for geeks

secrets of the pentatonic scales

sxsw 2010

christian crumlish@mediajunkie

Page 2: Ukulele for Geeks

ukulele for geeks

#ukuleleforgeeks

or#uke4geeks

Page 3: Ukulele for Geeks

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!!

Page 4: Ukulele for Geeks
Page 5: Ukulele for Geeks
Page 6: Ukulele for Geeks
Page 7: Ukulele for Geeks
Page 8: Ukulele for Geeks

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

Page 9: Ukulele for Geeks

Many songs use just 5 notes

• My Girl

• Under the Boardwalk*

• Suicide is Painless

• First There is a Mountain

_________

Page 10: Ukulele for Geeks

Open strings

• The open strings on a guitar are in a pentatonic scale (Gmaj / Emin)

• The open strings on a uke are in an analogous scale (Cmaj / Amin), and are in many scales being just 4 strings

• Thus “accidentally” hitting open strings is usually fine

• The uke is basically “in C”

Page 11: Ukulele for Geeks

C maj pentatonic

• C D E G A

• To make it bluesy add Eb (aka D#)

• C D (Eb) E G A

Page 12: Ukulele for Geeks

C min pentatonic

• C Eb F G A

• To make it bluesy add Gb (aka F#)

• C Eb F (Gb) G A

Page 13: Ukulele for Geeks

about that blue note...

Page 14: Ukulele for Geeks

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

Page 15: Ukulele for Geeks

Cowboy Scale (C maj)

Page 16: Ukulele for Geeks

One-string scale (C maj)

Page 17: Ukulele for Geeks

One-string scales (C maj)

Page 18: Ukulele for Geeks

One-string scales (C maj)

Page 19: Ukulele for Geeks

Little Dipper (C maj)

Page 20: Ukulele for Geeks

Little Dippers (C maj)

Page 21: Ukulele for Geeks
Page 22: Ukulele for Geeks

the “interface”

Page 23: Ukulele for Geeks

Little Dippers (C maj)

Page 24: Ukulele for Geeks

Little Blue Dippers (C maj)

Page 25: Ukulele for Geeks

Cowboy Scale (C min)

Page 26: Ukulele for Geeks

Blue Cowboy Scale (C min)

Page 27: Ukulele for Geeks

Little Dipper (C min)

Page 28: Ukulele for Geeks

Little Blue Dippers (C min)

Page 29: Ukulele for Geeks

Little Blue Dippers (C min)

Page 30: Ukulele for Geeks

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

Page 31: Ukulele for Geeks

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

Page 32: Ukulele for Geeks

Big Dipper (C maj)

Page 33: Ukulele for Geeks

Big Dippers (C maj)

Page 34: Ukulele for Geeks

Big Dippers (C maj blues)

Page 35: Ukulele for Geeks
Page 36: Ukulele for Geeks
Page 37: Ukulele for Geeks
Page 38: Ukulele for Geeks

More on pentatonics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk

Page 39: Ukulele for Geeks

Here, let me...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pentatonic+scales

Page 40: Ukulele for Geeks

Here, let me...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pentatonic+scales

Page 41: Ukulele for Geeks

03/11/10

also, I’m signing my book tomorrow at 4:20

Christian CrumlishYahoo! Design Pattern Librarydesign.yahoo.com

Yahoo! Application Platformapps.yahoo.com

@mediajunkie