ukulele

for geeks
secrets of the
pentatonic scales
sxsw 2010

christian crumlish
@mediajunkie
ukulele
for geeks
#ukuleleforgeeks
or
#uke4geeks
An easy instrument to learn
• Just four strings!
• Punk as hell
• Enthusiasm beats expertise
• Learn a few chords (not from me)
• Learn a few fingering patterns (yay)
• ???
• Profit!!
Pentatonic scales for the win
• Pentatonic means five tones
• The black keys on a piano are a
pentatonic scale
• Every combination, even random ones,
sounds good
• Pentatonic scales can be used to
accompany any song
Many songs use just 5 notes
• My Girl
• Under the Boardwalk*
• Suicide is Painless
• First There is a Mountain

_________
 Open strings
• The open strings on a guitar are in a
pentatonic scale (Gmaj / Emin)
• The open strings on a uke are in an
analogous scale (Cmaj / Amin), and are
in many scales being just 4 strings
• Thus “accidentally” hitting open strings
is usually fine
• The uke is basically “in C”
 C maj pentatonic
• CDE GA
• To make it bluesy add Eb (aka D#)
• C D (Eb) E G A
 C min pentatonic
• C Eb F G A
• To make it bluesy add Gb (aka F#)
• C Eb F (Gb) G A
about that blue note...
 Forget the note names
• It’s all about the patterns, yo
• Little dippers, all in a row
• That one weird string interval
• Find the root or key and the patterns
“just work”
• Make “big dippers” to go to big-boy
scales
Cowboy Scale (C maj)
One-string scale (C maj)
One-string scales (C maj)
One-string scales (C maj)
Little Dipper (C maj)
Little Dippers (C maj)
the “interface”
Little Dippers (C maj)
Little Blue Dippers (C maj)
Cowboy Scale (C min)
Blue Cowboy Scale (C min)
Little Dipper (C min)
Little Blue Dippers (C min)
Little Blue Dippers (C min)
 The Key
• Dippers are movable
• Whatever key a song is in, just find the
relative dippers
• You don’t need to know the key
• Just fiddle around till it “locks in,” then
follow the pattern up and down the
fretboard
 Big Dippers
• Five notes often not quite enough
• “Under the Boardwalk” is hexatonic
• Many songs are diatonic, etc.
• So learn how to extend the little
dippers into big dippers to make larger
sales
Big Dipper (C maj)
Big Dippers (C maj)
Big Dippers (C maj blues)
 More on pentatonics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk
 Here, let me...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pentatonic+scales
 Here, let me...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pentatonic+scales
also, I’m signing my book tomorrow at 4:20

Christian Crumlish
Yahoo! Design Pattern Library
design.yahoo.com

Yahoo! Application Platform

apps.yahoo.com

@mediajunkie

03/11/10