Starting Sunday, January 12, 2025 Eric West will be offering online workshops in playing a variety of music on the ukulele.  This 8-week series will offer a range of tunes from around the world – traditional, folk, pop and classical.  You’ll learn to play both melodies and accompaniments as well as chords, scales, arpeggio patterns and other techniques.  This term we will learn some lute music from the Renaissance, Irish harp and fiddle tunes, as well as popular and traditional songs from around the world. Besides learning a new song or tune each week, there will also be exercises in rhythm, strumming, transposing music, using a pick, chord substitution, etc. All classes will be recorded and made available for viewing after each session, so if you miss a class you can view it later.

The classes will be divided into two groups:  

Group A – Beginner/Intermediate Ukulele will include songs played mostly in the first position (i.e. using the first 4 frets of the ukulele). The accompaniments for this groups will use standard versions of the chords. We will also cover melody playing as well as scales, strums and arpeggios. Note: this is not a class for absolute beginners. Students should already know how to play common ukulele chords and be familiar with reading standard notation or tab. If you are considering attending this class for the first time, please contact the instructor before registering.

Group B – Intermediate/Advanced Ukulele will involve tunes in the higher positions on the ukulele, more complex chords, and learning ‘chord solo’ versions of some of the songs. We’ll also be covering scales and modes using different positions as well as slurs, strums, arpeggios, ornamentation and fingerpicking patterns.

Date/Time:

• Group A –  11:00AM-12:00 PM NT

• Group B – 1:00-2:00 PM NT

• The eight classes are scheduled to take place Sundays on January 12, 19, and 26; February 2, 9, (no class Feb 16) and 23; March 2 and 9.

Cost: $120 (standard fee), $100 (low-income/underemployed) and $140 (supporter) for the series of eight workshops.

Materials: PDFs of the sheet music and tabs for each of the songs will posted on the “Materials” webpage (follow this link) along with videos and audio recordings of the tunes. The password and Zoom link will be sent to you upon registration.

If you miss a class: the classes will be recorded and the links sent to participants to use for catch-up or review, for the duration of the course and for a period of time after.

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