Pachelbel Progression

When I learn of a musician’s departure, I instantly hear his or her music in my head. Last week, I checked my phone and read “RIP George Winston” in my Facebook feed. His Pachelbel Canon Variations entered my sound space immediately. Although I was on my way out, I couldn’t resist but record a short video clip on my piano. Since then I have been noodling over how to introduce his music to my piano students. Today I will show the eight-chord progression as an exercise in block and broken chords and inversions in my piano harmonization class in Zoom.

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Omoide 思ひで for ukulele, theme from Midnight Diner

One occupational hazard of being a musician is the susceptibility to ear worms. Certain tunes creep into your existence and take over your sound space. You can’t get rid of it until you’ve written it down, performed, recorded, published it, or let another ear worm take its place. Omoide, the song that opens every episode of the Netflix series Midnight Diner, is such an ear worm. Fingerpicked on the folk (steel-string) guitar, Mr Suzuki’s song has interesting origins. I had to transcribe it for the low G ukulele.

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3 Chord Thursday Games

Thursday 20th July 2023 is World Chess Day. We celebrate in 3 Chord Thursday with songs about games: board games, sports games, any kind of game. Scroll below to see suggestions. Show up wearing something you’d wear when playing a worked out the ukulele crossword puzzles? Some ideas: bridge, cards, chess, gambling, rummy, … Sports: baseball, basketball, football, golf, ping pong, rowing, snooker, soccer, tennis, ….

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3 Chord Thursday Cities

Thursday 6th July 2023 is Capital City Day, an official public holiday in Kazakhstan, though elsewhere it’s definitely NOT a public holiday. 3 Chord Thursday celebrates it with songs about cities, anywhere in the world. You can always submit a video of your performance if you can’t do it live in our one-hour session in Zoom. Check out the songs suggested below, in our previous theme of locations, on this list, or in this article.

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Taster Workshop on song writing and composition

The ukulele culture of sharing songs and sightreading song sheets sometimes leads to writing your own songs. It may start with a famous poem with words that seem to suit a tune whose origins you’re not sure of. Convinced it’s not an existing song, you proceed to turn the poem into a new song — something you can call your own. Alternatively, you may hear a song in your head, so mesmerizing that you have to drop everything to capture that “ear worm” in order to free yourself from it.

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Fingerstyle Ukulele Showcase

Curious about the NEW music intentionally AND specifically written for the ukulele? As an accompanying instrument, the ukulele can help us sing in tune and play in sync. As a solo instrument, there are plenty of transcriptions and arrangements made for the ukulele. But music composed with the ukulele in mind? Do you know any?

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Music Theory MELODY

Of the essential elements of music, melody is the single most important ingredient in a song. You can think of melody as a series of notes, one after another, defined by the distance in pitch (interval) and duration. What makes a catchy melody? A great melody that withstands the test of time? An instant hit?

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3 Chord Thursday Sea Creatures

On Thursday 29th June 2023, we celebrate National Fishermen’s Day with songs about sea creatures: clam, crab, fish, dolphin, (rock) lobster, octopus, oyster, plankton, sea cucumber, sea weed, shark, Sponge Bob, squid, whale, … For ideas, check out this 43-page ukulele song book of boat and sea shanties.

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3 Chord Thursday Original Songs

On Thursday 15th June 2023, we invite you to submit and perform your original song, that is, a song you wrote yourself. For copyright reasons, we will not publicly livestream this session but we will still record this 3 Chord Thursday song session for review purposes. You are most welcome to submit a video of your song if you’re not able to perform it live. It’s National Freelancers Day — that’s why!

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3 Chord Thursday Children’s Songs

Did you know that Thursday 1st June 2023 is International Children’s Day? We celebrate it with children’s song in 3 Chord Thursday. Check out the 24 most popular nursery rhymes arranged for high-G ukulele in the 80-page book “Fun with Uke Book“.

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