Chords for Kimo Hussey Ukulele Video Series: Right Hand Technique

[Dm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ [N] Hello.
I thought what we'd do this time is talk about right-hand technique.
The
reason why right-hand technique, I think, is so important is that in my estimation
it is the most neglected aspect of ukulele.
Why is that?
I think it's because
we're so concerned with the left hand and getting to learn how to hold chords
and figuring out how to get from one chord to the other that more often than
not we take the right hand for granted.
And a lot of times _ what we do with that
right hand is just automatic.
More [C] often than not when we learn songs and once we
learn the chords we just take like an automatic approach to that right hand.
And there's nothing [F#] wrong with that.
But [C] the degree to which [N] you try and improve
the quality of your music is the degree to which you actually create a balance
between the left and the right hand.
The reason why I think the right hand is so
important is all the left hand needs to do is to hold chords.
So we teach that
left hand to go to various places on the fretboard and press down the strings to get different chords.
But the right hand, it is extremely important.
I want to tell you that in my
mind and for me and my playing, the right hand controls five different things that
are extremely important.
Those five things are melody, I'm going to get the
melody with with the finger on the right hand, along with melody the right hand
controls harmony.
I get harmony by using the thumb.
So now I've got my thumb and
forefinger busy on the right hand creating melody and harmony.
Right hand
technique also involves rhythm.
Rhythm is so extremely important in music and in
ukulele playing.
So the degree to which we pay attention to good rhythmic
practices is the degree to which our music comes out sounding a lot better.
_ In addition to that, the right hand also controls dynamic, which in music refers
to loud and soft and making changes in dynamic adds a lot of color to the music.
The other thing that the right hand does is control tempo, which is the speed at
which we play the music.
And so I want to repeat again those five things.
Melody,
harmony, rhythm, dynamic and tempo.
And so again if you take a look at the fact that
just the right hand controls those five things and the left hand just is
concerned with holding chords, the degree to which we ignore the right hand is the
degree to which our music is getting way, way out of balance.
Let me see if I [F] can show you.
_ _ _ [C#] That's example number one.
[F] _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Dm] _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
[N] So in this next example what I'm going to do is to pay more attention to the
melody and the harmony and the rhythm, but I'm also going to make some very,
very subtle changes in dynamic and tempo in order to add emotion to the music.
I
think the degree to which we always add emotion and have an emotional impact in
the music we do is the degree to which we endure _ _ our ukulele more.
_ _ _ _ First comes the japanese music.
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
[C] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Dm] _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ [Cm] _
_ [Dm] _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _ [C] _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ [D#] _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ [D#] _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _