Ukulele instructor extraordinaire Jim D’Ville is touring through Northern California in June and has put little old Butte County on his schedule for a pair of info-packed workshops—and, if you’re willing, you might even be part of his newest instructional DVD.
“Play Ukulele by Ear” will be at 11 am on Saturday, June 12. “Chord Progressions and the Circle of Fifths, by Ear” will be at 11 am on Sunday, June 13. The two workshops are for players of all ability levels. Cost is $20 for each and both will be held in Chico, at the studio where he will be recording his next DVD (only the Sunday workshop will be taped).
I’ve taken workshops from Jim, I keep an eye on his blog and I bought his DVD (go here for a detailed review) so I can guarantee from experience that you’ll enjoy—and benefit from—either or both of these learning opportunities.
Here’s a link to a flyer about the workshops—and I’ll include some more information here:
Play Ukulele By Ear: Get off that piece of paper and learn to play the ukulele by ear! Workshop topics will include tuning by ear and tuning your ear, recognizing musical intervals and chord progressions and learning thousands of songs in advance! This workshop will give you the tools you need to tap into all the musical knowledge you already have stored in your head. Playing by ear is easy, it’s fun and it will propel your understanding of how music works to a new level. This workshop will make you a better listener! All skill levels welcome, however, knowledge of basic chord shapes (C F G7) is helpful.
Chord Progressions & The Circle of 5ths By Ear: Take your hearing to the next level by learning to recognize progressions with more that three chords. You’ll discover how all songs use the same basic structure and how to predict where the music if going to take you. Why learn one song at a time when you can learn how all songs work at once? Knowledge of C-Dm-Em-F-G7-Am-Bdim chords required. This is also a DVD shoot so you must sign a model release to attend.
To register, write to Jim at: dville@teleport.com. And, do register ahead of time as space is limited. This is a workshop you don’t want to miss—Jim travels all around (including Australia for goodness’ sake) teaching these topics; we’re fortunate that his DVD recording is happening in our own backyard so we get the benefit of his teaching talent.