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Aloha, Here is a new baritone lesson for one of my favorite pieces in the series of Catalan folk songs by Miguel Llobet: Canço del Lladre It uses a rubato feel, lyrical melody, overlap of parts, and interesting harmonics blending with natural pitches for a nice cascade of sound. There is a GCEA arrangement for the piece as well here: Canço Del Lladre for Low G Ukulele Mahalo, Jeff

Aloha Ashley, I really enjoyed your recording of your original Gospel Blues song. We can relate with the Summer heat here in Hawai'i as well! Excellent 6/8 feel with nice chord accents, walk up to the B7 chord, walk down from Eb to Eb7, and from F to Eb for the turnaround. You listened to the metronome all the way through while singing and playing which is not easy to do. Great job! It is fun to see how your…

I was recently listening to the Live Ukulelel podcast with Brad Bordessa, who spoke about the advantages of learning songs by ear Super important realization. I played classical guitar for several years - mostly self taught - eventually too some lessons and had to undo tons pf bad habits. But that aside - I was always always playing from score. As a result my ears went completely undeveloped. When I picked electric guitar and signed up for a summer camp…

EOW reflection: 18th Sept 2026 I was recently listening to the Live Ukulelel podcast with Brad Bordessa, who spoke about the advantages of learning songs by ear, and it struck me that I have been focussing almsot entirely upon reading music while spending very little time actually listening to the songs I am learning. This may be why, even after weeks of rehearsing a song, I would often sit down to play, look at the music and have no memory…

PS. Drum Genius has Gospel 12/8 in "Jazz - New Orleans & Traditional" library - not sure if it is a paid part of the app. There seem to be also some 6/8 swing and gospel drum loops on YT - did not try them with Jeff arrangement yet.

I don't have same ease in making up vocal blues phrases as you but I sang some blues at the jazz jams and I played guitar there many times. My impression is that we are conditioned to strive for complexity - because that is what musical heroes of ours can do in their virtuosic ways. But we sometimes overlook how great they are in patient timing and building the groove up. Maybe because we know tune back and forth we…

Hey Tom! Yes, indeed, what I am attempting is definitely hard and really testing my fingers! If I one day get to the point where I can play it solo in public, great. Otherwise, it’s an excellent exercise overall in timing and feel. I have Drum Genius but haven’t found a regular 6/8 groove that fits this specific form (saw Gospel 12/8 and 9/8, and lots of Afro 6/8 options which are also too rhythmic). Haven’t heard of Genius JamTracks…

Yes - most def " rubbing my head and patting my stomach" ;-) Actually your vocals are soulful and smooth as smoke over midnite, worn blue velvet, '59 Caddy driven on fresh asphalt and butter over bald monkey - all combined. But the problem seems to be that you treat ukulele as laying the groove against which your voice syncopates AND you allow it to syncopate - that is where the Cadillac hits the speed bumps - metronome alone is…

Been working on the Gospel Blues exercise and am loving the feel in my fingers, so memorized it and am now attempting to keep it steady while singing (lyrics not important yet so I’ve been making up random ones just to channel a bluesy feel in my voice). Definitely still feels like rubbing my head and patting my stomach at the same time, but once I have my fingers automated (still having to think about what comes next sometimes), then…

Thank you for all the directions, Jeff. I will work on the chords and the transition between them. I am glad I jumped on the wagon and did the recording, I can see how much tension I have on my fretting hand!!!

Aloha Wendy, The video uploaded perfectly in the Forum. Thank you for setting up the YouTube account. I like to place fingers down as needed instead of all at once when playing arpeggios like you do here. It gives you more time to get to each new fingering and can help with sustain. In this case going from Dm to Bb to F to Eb the technique works well. I would suggest setting up the barre across the top 2…

I hope this works! I have been working on the first 8 measures How great is the pleasure, and I have some questions: 1) Is there a disadvantage in not placing all fingers down from the beginning of the bar when it is played arpeggio? I find it hard to get good tone when all 3 fingers are down. 2 seems to be my limit?! 2) I try to flatten out my finger instead of barring 2 frets in measure…

Aloha Wendy, If you paste the URL of the YouTube video into a Forum post it will embed the video after you click on “Submit” to post the message.

Can someone tell me how to embed the video instead of including the link which would bring you to Youtube?

ok, thanks for the response. I was just a little nervous abou setting up a Youtube channel. But I suppose it is totally private if I set it up as "Unlisted"