LorenFL
Well-known member
I've been plunking around on ukes for 11 years now. I know a lot of chords, and I can play some tunes. I can improvise on some mostly memorized chord progressions. (muscle memory is a wonderful thing) And I can improvise "solos" on a few different scale patterns. Mostly the major scale and the minor blues pentatonic scale.
While I've studied my share of music theory, and I *can* understand it... I wouldn't say that I ever fully absorbed it an I don't remember a lot of it. My eyes glaze over when I get too deep!
But, while I was amusing myself riffing on the minor blues pentatonic scale a while ago, I realized something that I've been noticing more and more lately. That is... while I have NO idea what notes I'm playing (I'm generally not even playing the CHORDS that I think I'm playing because I'm tuned 2 semitones down, and playing standard shapes), I'm learning the SOUNDS and the RELATIVE SOUNDS, and my fingers and ears have learned where "home" is on the blues scale that I play so much. I can end a lick in a lot of different places and make it sound good... but, if it's not "home", it feels incomplete! So, I'll play another riff, and bring it back around. It almost sounds like I know what I'm doing.
Yeah, many of you are like, "yeah, I knew that after 3 minutes", but it's something for me. A lot of you grew up learning music, and you have that innate sense of what the "root" or "tonic" of a scale is and all of those other terms that go with it. For me to suddenly come to the realization that I now KNOW what the root of my scale is BECAUSE it feels like "home"... that's something.
I guess this is just a connection between being more inclined to be one of those "self taught, non-music-reading" musicians who plays by ear and actual music theory.
I'm sure there are a lot of other people like me. So, I just thought I'd share. Maybe it will help somebody. If you plunk around enough... eventually it starts making sense! And you can certainly enjoy playing, even if it doesn't make sense. The more you play, the more you develop muscle memory, AND train your ear.
This might help me actually start becoming more inclined to learn the notes on the fretboard! I can start by learning the C string, which will let me know (I'm not kidding when I say that I don't know) what KEY I'm soloing in! Once I figure that out (down 2 because of my tuning!), I could actually jam with other people or with recorded music. That would be an accomplishment for me.
To me, this is all about "feel". I'm developing a feel for where the sounds that I want to hear are within a scale shape. A sense of "home", a sense of that fabled "tension and release". A sense of rhythm and timing, even though I absolutely can't consciously COUNT while I'm playing. (just like I can't SING while I'm playing)
I think... I might actually be becoming a "a guy who plays a ukulele" rather than just "a guy who plays WITH a ukulele". I'm starting to think just a little bit like a musician.
In hindsight, I think maybe I might have figured this out sooner (well, first, simply by WANTING to) if I wasn't playing in Low G. With the root of the scale on the C string, I can effectively play above AND below the root and still be on-key. I dance all around that area! I'll easily go two notes below the scale, and I'll jump up to the next octave and go one note above the scale on the A string. Fun stuff, I'm playing 10 notes on a "pentatonic" scale. But, that doesn't put the "root" in an obvious place.
Another thing that probably helped was getting a better set-up uke that SOUNDED better. I used to play a lot more on the E string simply because it SOUNDED better. I couldn't get good bends out of the other strings, etc. Now that I've found a setup that works for me, I can bend on all 4 strings and have a lot more fun... my playing is becoming more fluid... and I've started consciously finding my way back home!
While I've studied my share of music theory, and I *can* understand it... I wouldn't say that I ever fully absorbed it an I don't remember a lot of it. My eyes glaze over when I get too deep!
But, while I was amusing myself riffing on the minor blues pentatonic scale a while ago, I realized something that I've been noticing more and more lately. That is... while I have NO idea what notes I'm playing (I'm generally not even playing the CHORDS that I think I'm playing because I'm tuned 2 semitones down, and playing standard shapes), I'm learning the SOUNDS and the RELATIVE SOUNDS, and my fingers and ears have learned where "home" is on the blues scale that I play so much. I can end a lick in a lot of different places and make it sound good... but, if it's not "home", it feels incomplete! So, I'll play another riff, and bring it back around. It almost sounds like I know what I'm doing.
Yeah, many of you are like, "yeah, I knew that after 3 minutes", but it's something for me. A lot of you grew up learning music, and you have that innate sense of what the "root" or "tonic" of a scale is and all of those other terms that go with it. For me to suddenly come to the realization that I now KNOW what the root of my scale is BECAUSE it feels like "home"... that's something.
I guess this is just a connection between being more inclined to be one of those "self taught, non-music-reading" musicians who plays by ear and actual music theory.
I'm sure there are a lot of other people like me. So, I just thought I'd share. Maybe it will help somebody. If you plunk around enough... eventually it starts making sense! And you can certainly enjoy playing, even if it doesn't make sense. The more you play, the more you develop muscle memory, AND train your ear.
This might help me actually start becoming more inclined to learn the notes on the fretboard! I can start by learning the C string, which will let me know (I'm not kidding when I say that I don't know) what KEY I'm soloing in! Once I figure that out (down 2 because of my tuning!), I could actually jam with other people or with recorded music. That would be an accomplishment for me.
To me, this is all about "feel". I'm developing a feel for where the sounds that I want to hear are within a scale shape. A sense of "home", a sense of that fabled "tension and release". A sense of rhythm and timing, even though I absolutely can't consciously COUNT while I'm playing. (just like I can't SING while I'm playing)
I think... I might actually be becoming a "a guy who plays a ukulele" rather than just "a guy who plays WITH a ukulele". I'm starting to think just a little bit like a musician.
In hindsight, I think maybe I might have figured this out sooner (well, first, simply by WANTING to) if I wasn't playing in Low G. With the root of the scale on the C string, I can effectively play above AND below the root and still be on-key. I dance all around that area! I'll easily go two notes below the scale, and I'll jump up to the next octave and go one note above the scale on the A string. Fun stuff, I'm playing 10 notes on a "pentatonic" scale. But, that doesn't put the "root" in an obvious place.
Another thing that probably helped was getting a better set-up uke that SOUNDED better. I used to play a lot more on the E string simply because it SOUNDED better. I couldn't get good bends out of the other strings, etc. Now that I've found a setup that works for me, I can bend on all 4 strings and have a lot more fun... my playing is becoming more fluid... and I've started consciously finding my way back home!