GETTING TOGETHER WITH FRIENDS

-+*+^+*+-

.^.

.

Today, I had the opportunity to get together with some friends for a little time playing some of the Jazzy Ukulele Arrangements by Glen Rose. -- Mr. Kim J. has really taken to Glen's workbooks and he was eager to get together with Chris, Byron and myself to play some and discuss the simplicity of major and minor chord progressions from the workbooks.

.

We played some old jazz standards: L-O-V-E, Autumn Leaves, Fly Me to the Moon, I Left my Heart in San Francisco. The four of us are all intermediate players and the arrangements went fairly smoothly as we worked thru some of the quicker chord changes like you normally do whenever you work on a new song.

.

I like to get together in small groups. But there's something that I really long for is more arrangements for ukulele duets, trios, or quartets. Or perhaps not the arrangements but the ability to play a complementary part by varying the strum, the chord, or by some light ornamental picking. (I worked on these a bit in Rhan Wilson's Uke U but it seems that I can never get enough playtime.)

.

Chris has a way of playing the chords but also picking a string and getting a softer one-note sound mixed in between his chording. He gets a very melancholy feel that comes from hours of experimenting. Byron is a fan and creator of some chord melodies and he also "feels" how to pick these melody notes quite adeptly.

.

I often noodle on my uke and have a few pages in my day-timer with chord boxes so that I can write them down. I like to keep a record of some of my doodles for a future creation very much like Judy's moleskin concept at the Ukulele Perspective blog.

.

Near the end of our playing, Kim had 3 teacher colleagues of his coming by to sing the standards we were working on earlier. So the 7 of us had some time to play and sing together. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.