As I've mentioned, my musical training, and my brain wiring, is violin (with a smattering of piano, but like ukulele, I always have to think about what I'm doing with my left hand on the piano, lol). What got me interested in ukulele originally was Icelandic musician Svavar Knutur's work. I saw him perform live in Vancouver once and had no idea that a ukulele would be played other than strumming. Which is ludicrous; it's a stringed instrument, why on earth would I have that mindset? I guess because I'd not had any exposure to ukulele other than as a kids' toy (again, what?! crazy, it's a stringed instrument!).
My friend, who plays cello, got me further interested in ukulele this year, and has been playing ukulele for a couple of years. She suggested a few fingerstyle artists to learn from on YouTube (e.g. Lara Markowitz). That's what I've been working on since February. It still wasn't quite what I was expecting, but certainly was the style that I'd seen Svavar Knutur playing (who, by the way, is incredibly generous: I emailed him asking for a chord-notation song sheet for his "While the World Burns", and he then sent me the sheet music for both that and "Baby, Would You Marry Me?". So awesome).
I decided to investigate this "classical" ukulele genre (which delightfully comes with all sorts of arguments about "really, what DOES classify as classical?" Sigh. Purists. I remember that from iaido...). I landed on Samantha Muir's site, and bought a couple of her books and am starting on The Classical Ukulele Method. This, to me, resonates with my concept of "classical", in that it's very similar to the way I was trained in violin. While this is not as easy to quickly make pretty music with as the typical chord strum approach (which I am also thoroughly enjoying), this feels like what I'd like to aspire to eventually. So, I've added MacKillop's left hand exercises and these PIMA right-hand studies to my daily ukulele work. I'm still just playing for enjoyment as well, because that's joyful. This other stuff is challenging, but so satisfying (because I'm like that).
My friend, who plays cello, got me further interested in ukulele this year, and has been playing ukulele for a couple of years. She suggested a few fingerstyle artists to learn from on YouTube (e.g. Lara Markowitz). That's what I've been working on since February. It still wasn't quite what I was expecting, but certainly was the style that I'd seen Svavar Knutur playing (who, by the way, is incredibly generous: I emailed him asking for a chord-notation song sheet for his "While the World Burns", and he then sent me the sheet music for both that and "Baby, Would You Marry Me?". So awesome).
I decided to investigate this "classical" ukulele genre (which delightfully comes with all sorts of arguments about "really, what DOES classify as classical?" Sigh. Purists. I remember that from iaido...). I landed on Samantha Muir's site, and bought a couple of her books and am starting on The Classical Ukulele Method. This, to me, resonates with my concept of "classical", in that it's very similar to the way I was trained in violin. While this is not as easy to quickly make pretty music with as the typical chord strum approach (which I am also thoroughly enjoying), this feels like what I'd like to aspire to eventually. So, I've added MacKillop's left hand exercises and these PIMA right-hand studies to my daily ukulele work. I'm still just playing for enjoyment as well, because that's joyful. This other stuff is challenging, but so satisfying (because I'm like that).
