Schedule

9:00-9:45am Session

Easy Pickins (Beginner to Intermediate) w/Devin Scott - An introduction to picking workshop designed to have your fingers flying in no time! This mostly two finger picking pattern class will have you playing songs like “Hallelujah” and “Walking in Memphis”. Join me and be all the rage at you next ukulele jam!

Learn the Hawai’ian Songs of the YELLOW Daily Ukulele Book (All Levels) w/William Ernestburg - Join me on the beach under the palm trees and learn or strum along with all the songs of Hawaii contained in the Daily Ukulele yellow book. How many of them do you know? Learn how to play Hawaiian vamps to start your songs.

Just What Do I Study When Going It Alone? (All Levels) w/Curt Sheller - How to organize what to learn when going it alone without a dedicated teacher. This workshop will help you organize what to study based on your short and long term goals. It will help you see the forest through all the trees.

F.U.N.-damentals for Playing your Ukulele (Beginner) w/Petey Mack - The name says it all! This workshop will teach you everything from how to hold your ukulele to your first chords then right on to your first song.

10:00-10:45am Session

Musical Awareness, Subtleties In Connecting the Analytical To The Heart (Level: Comfortable with basic chords) w/Bryan Tolentino - Using a fun and interactive approach, I will provide the tools for you to internalize songs so you can feel and express the music as you play, rather than relying on a songbook. This will allow you or your ensemble to focus less on playing the music accurately and correctly and more on making yourself and those around you sound better together. This elevated musical awareness, or “next-level thinking,” can add layers of complexity and harmony to your performance. You will benefit the most from the workshop if you are comfortable with basic chords.

Soulful Singing and Playing on the Ukulele (All Levels) w/Danielle Ate The Sandwich - Loosen up your body! Free your spirit! Let your voice be heard! This workshop focuses on relaxing the muscles and approaching your playing with a loose and soulful attitude. When we find the rhythm in music, the movement in our bodies and the soul in our voices, we can concentrate on giving better performances and achieve a higher level of playing. All levels of experience are welcome, but we will use basic chords and play standing up and moving around.

Ukulele Player’s Intro/Guide to Hawaii’ian Music (All Levels) w/Glen Hirabayashi - Learn Hawai'ian vamps (turnarounds), Hawai'ian strums (traditional and contemporary). Learn about pronunciation of common Hawai'ian words (traditional, slang, & Pidgin), hidden meanings of Hawai'ian language lyrics, construction of traditional Hawai'ian songs, and favorite ukulele players from Hawai'i.

11:00-11:45am Session

Improv - Taking a Solo (Intermediate to Advanced) w/Curt Sheller - Know what to do when someone at a jam says "Take it?" Learning to solo or improvise draws from four sources. It is creating spontaneous melodies, licks, riffs on the fly. This workshop will get you started and sounding great, right from the git go.

Performance Skills (All Levels) w/Danielle Ate The Sandwich - Learn techniques to help improve your performance, whether practicing at home, in front of your ukulele group or at a sold out show in Madison Square Garden! Learn ways to perform thoughtfully, develop a stage persona and even get the chance to play in front of the class during the class mini open mic! This is a great chance for shy players to gain some experience in a fun and friendly environment.

Tin Pan Alley - Where a Uke Really Sounds Like a Uke (Beginner to Intermediate) w/UncleZac - This workshop is designed for any player who wants to have some fun playing swing and jazz styles of Tin Pan Alley. The course is designed to accommodate ukes of all sizes and tunings as well as players from beginner to intermediate. We will explore several tips, tricks & techniques to take your playing of all sorts of songs out of first gear and into the wonderful world of swing. From chord substitution to melody rhythms, putting a new set of tools in your “UkeBag” and taking your playing to the next level is the ultimate goal of this course and getting you there is the ultimate goal for UncleZac.

Lei Making (All Levels) w/Debi Velasco - Come and make the perfect accessory to wear while playing your uke! We will make a wristlet with fresh flowers using the Wili method (winding).

1:00-1:45pm Session

Craft Melody and Chord Arrangements (All Levels) w/Curt Sheller - A few guidelines for creating melody and chord arrangements on ukulele. Creating Melody and Chord Arrangements, in theory are as simple as harmonizing the melody with a chord. Which is playing a chord that has the melody note as the top note of the chord voicing. In practice it's a little more involved, but not much more.

Chord Melody or Melody and Chord is the art of playing the melody and chords at the same time. This is what solo piano players do all the time. They have two hands to do it. On ukulele we have to do it all with one hand and only four strings. In the common high "G", C tuning, the available range of notes for creating melody and chord arrangements on ukulele is around two octaves, give or take a few notes. A little more on the lower end for a low "G", C tuning.

Ukulele JAM - Surprise Leader

Relearn the Ukulele (Beginner to Intermediate) w/Glen Hirabayashi - Learn to play the Ukulele again. This time, fill in the blanks, learn what you skipped.

2:00-2:45pm Session

Navigating Up and Down the Fingerboard in a Logical Way w/Bryan Tolentino - Attendees will get the most out of it if they can hold C, F, A, C7, A7, E7, G7. But I’m sure they‘ll all have fun! You paid for it, you might as well use it! By playing inversions, 2nd, 3rd, 4th positions chords, you will be able to add “vocabulary” to your musical language!

Songwriting Basics (All Levels) w/Danielle Ate The Sandwich - Use your ukulele to write better and more personal songs! In this class, we will focus on finding melodies in the chords and notes we play on the ukulele and writing lyrics that are more meaningful and poetic, to help tell our stories and complement our playing styles. Beginners are absolutely welcome, but those with a basic knowledge of chords and strumming may find it easier to concentrate on the writing and singing aspects of this class! Please bring a pencil!

Baritone and Ukulele Slack Key (Beginner to Intermediate) w/Isaac Ho’opi’i - Isaac was raised in Waianae on the island of Oahu. Now a Slack Key guitar artists with the Aloha boys, Isaac received the love of music from his father, who only played ki'ho'alu Hawaiian Slack Key. Isaac plays guitar, ukulele and bass. Some things you will lean in this workshop, the background of Slack Key, identify the different tuning of slack key, apply a drop G tuning on the ukulele.

Learning objectives: Upon completion of the course ukulele players will be able to play ukulele. The background of Slack Key
Identify the different tuning of slack key Apply a drop G tuning on the ukulele

Hula (All Levels) w/Debi Velasco - Come and learn the folk dance from our 50th state, the hula! Simple steps and lovely hand motions combine to tell a story. Comfortable clothes and no shoes suggested.

3:00-3:45pm Session

Spice Up Your Strumming (Beginner to Intermediate) w/Devin Scott - I mean how many songs can you play with the old D D U U D U???? All of them!! Kind of. With just a few minor variations of that pattern you can have your songs going from drab to fab!! In this workshop we will learn things like the “chuck” and “finger fanning” so that you can really “spice up your strumming”!

Learn the Hawai’ian Songs of the BLUE Daily Ukulele Book (All Levels) w/William Ernestburg - Join me on the beach under the palm trees and learn or strum along with all the songs of Hawaii contained in the Daily Ukulele yellow book. How many of them do you know? Learn how to play Hawaiian vamps to start your songs.

Baritone Ukulele Three Ukes In One (Beginner to Intermediate) w/UncleZac - Come explore the most misunderstood member of the ukulele family. Is it really a uke? Or is it a mini guitar? What do you do with it? UncleZac will take you through the Bari's unlimited flexibility to support the group or shine alone. Using the Theory Of Four Method for chording and demonstrating some barring techniques he hopes to take some of the mystery out of playing up the neck so that you can get the most out your wonderful Baritone Ukulele. *There is something for all Bari players at any level.