For months now, I have been watching and listening to good ukulele players playing songs and tunes in a style that plays the chords, but also picks out the melody - and wanting - no, yearning to be able to do it. The other day I was thrilled to discover that one of my ukulele heroes, Matthew J Richards, has done two tutorial videos on Bye Bye Blues as an introduction to playing this way. Matthew uses basic chords in this arrangement, and shows how to pick out the melody with the thumb, strumming the chords in the spaces between the notes. Watch the videos, you'll see what I mean. Matthew is a superb teacher. Following these videos has really helped me to begin to understand just how this technique of playing melody-style is done...
The song is the 1930 jazz standard "Bye Bye Blues" - the same song that I featured yesterday in a chord tutorial by that other great uke teacher, Mike Lynch. The arrangement is completely different, and I love both - Matthew's for the melody-style arrangement, and Mike Lynch's for the jazzy chords!
Now watch Part 2 to see how to play this Melody Style....
Matthew is a fine musician and a very nice person, I can attest. Piano tuner, entertainer, a stalwart of the George Formby Society (GFS) along with the rest of the Richards family, his banjo-uke playing is simply a joy, and he also plays keyboard with the band to accompany other players at the GFS Conventions in Blackpool. I'll be posting more of his videos. Read more about him here.
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