One of my goals for this year is to focus on polishing up a set of vocal ukulele covers to get it to “performance quality” where I would feel satisfied with my mastery over the material to the point that I could present it with pride. This is not that.
This is where I am today, and the hope is that in a few months I will be able to run this set again at significantly higher quality. Or at least by the end of 2025. Guess we’ll see. The idea is that I’ll pick 3 songs a week to work on, and try to tune them up to standard. Maybe I’ll make a tutorial for the mini-set, or just do a minor presentation of the weekly progress. That’s the plan.
These are the songs I want to play well, and how I sing them currently. Some songs are almost there, but most need much improvement. Lots to work on!
A better way to do this would be to join up with other people and get both the external and internal feedback from the experience of live performance. Since I’m disabled and basically bedridden, it makes it very hard for me to leave my room. So, I’m relying on other methods.
Luckily, everyone has a camera in their phone these days, and so we can all record ourselves and see what we look and sound like. It’s… not really super fun to watch your self flub up and identify all the mistakes, but I’m not doing it for “fun”. I’m doing it because I want to do better. It’s actually quite nice to have such a powerful tool for self-improvement at our fingertips. And it does become fun to work through the issues and get good.
But don’t get me wrong: I am definitely embarrassed by this performance. The shame is only slightly buffered by the thought that very few with care to watch through this in the vast sea of content. I also recognize that even though I am hyper critical of all my flaws, there are those out there who may appreciate or even enjoy seeing the work in progress.
I hope this might be something inspiring, either in the way of “I could do better, maybe I should make my own content too!” or “wow that level of skill seems attainable, and I can see how that eventually becomes solid. I can do that too!” And I truly hope that in a few months I’ll be able to run this set much more proficiently, and will look back at this recording and laugh. Here’s hoping.
The main issues I notice to work on are intros/endings, first note pitch and pitch in general, instrumentals and breaks, and of course, memorizing the lyrics and chords. I really need to sit down and work out proper instrumentals for many of the songs to compliment the singing. Also the break sections in many of the songs give me trouble, typically because of a change in pitch and chords.
Also, add reverb to the vocals. My lord. I was hearing reverb while I was playing, but it didn’t get recorded because the wrong button was pressed on my mixer. Well, suppose that’s one way to make it seem like I’ve drastically improved in a very short time!
I don’t like trying to brute force memorization, so instead I play through the setlist daily. So yeah, that means I drill into 3 songs specifically to work on them, and then play through the whole set, daily. This equates to about two hours of practice. I’d do more if I could, but that’s about as much as my voice and brain can handle. I usually take a several hour break and continue with instrumental / electric uke practice in the evenings.
Well, ideally at least. I’ve had relatives in town for the holidays so I haven’t been able to drill down as much as I’d like – and I expect that this is a common problem for all of us. Life often gets in the way. Nothing to be done. Its rare for all my siblings to all be back in town, so I choose to spend time with them while I can. They all head home tomorrow though, so hopefully then the rubber hits the road.
Here’s the set list on Spotify and the charts for it on Ultimate Guitar. About a third of the songs are actually relatively new to me so I’ve had to listen to them a bunch. I also make the whole set list to double check how it “flows” and feels when placed next to each other. I do re-interpret a couple of the songs by making them slower (or taking out the instrumentals because I’m weak). That’s all part of the process.
I also run through the set as a “performance” practice by streaming that in the Uke Tribe Discord Woodshed at around 12pm HST unless otherwise noted in the #progress channel. If you have any interest in streaming or want to work out nerves in front of a small and supportive audience of fellow uke enthusiasts, feel free to join up and jam in the woodshed too!
And last but not least, here are the time stamps for my setlist:
0:00 Intro
0:51 Nujabes – Luv Sic Part 2
5:00 Old Crow Medicine Show – Wagon Wheel
8:44 Counting Crows – Mr. Jones
13:10 The Smiths – There is a light that never goes out
17:03 The Temptations – Just my imagination
20:15 Blind Melon – No Rain
23:30 The Cure – Lovesong
28:07 Depeche Mode – Enjoy the Silence
30:50 Bruno Mars – Count on me
34:50 Van Morrison – Brown Eyes Girl
38:23 Crosby, Stills, & Nash – Love the one you’re with
42:08 Jimmy Cliff – You can get it if you really want
44:36 Jack Johnson – Better together
48:20 Loggins & Messina – House at Pooh corner
51:46 Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – In this life
55:50 Hapa – Ku’u Home o Kahulu’u
1:00:40 Neil Young – Harvest Moon
1:04:08 Plain White T’s – Hey there Delilah
1:09:12 The Killers – When you were young
1:13:09 Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The impression that I get
1:16:30 The Platters – My Prayer
When I have a bit more time I’d like to write a bit about why I chose each song. Maybe I’ll do that in the follow up posts as I refine them.
If any songs catch your ear and you are interested in seeing a tutorial or hearing them get polished up first, let me know on YT or Discord. I’m just playing it by ear, don’t really have an order of refinement. There’s enough variety here that I can kind of gravitate toward whatever I feel like working on, at the moment at least.
And I think 12 songs for a full set sounds better than 11, so I’m open to a couple more suggestions to make a nice round double if anything comes to mind that you think would fit my style and vibe. I’m all ears!