When in doubt, I go back to the original score by the composers (artists).Ĭhief Noda, the multi-instrumentalist, who played the bass in the first half of our jam-turned-rehearsal session, referred to his Beatles fakebook whenever we were uncertain about melodies and chords. Moving from the piano to the ukulele, the notated sheet music to the one-page song sheet, I make assumptions in face of greater constraints. Very little is written on the song sheet to give you certainty. If you don’t know the song by heart, you’d have to guess at tempo, strumming pattern, and singing the syllable on the correct beat. To accompany yourself on the ukulele, you have to make many assumptions. It’s the definitive version, so-to-speak, to learn from the score. Growing up, I learned “Let It Be”, “Hey Jude”, and “Imagine” from reading the notes for the piano, not from listening to recordings or the radio. It’s a different experience altogether to approach Beatles songs on the ukulele, as opposed to the piano, my first instrument. How can we sing “Let It Be” and exclude “Hey Jude” the last number in the Beatles Carpool Karaoke? Besides, Paul McCarney sings it in the same key as the song sheet from San Jose Ukulele Club. By 9 pm, the ten chords in “Hey Jude” don’t look formidable anymore. As usual in our jam sessions, we get bolder and bolder the later it gets.
0 kommentar(er)
