Who knew? The guy that’s been running our sound for the last two years, Dave Egan, turns out to be a wonderful ‘ukulele player and instructor, as well. His Ukulele Ergonomics workshop was so popular at the West Coast Ukulele Retreat last spring that we had to offer it twice! Even so, you will still usually find Dave behind the sound board, even though being a sound technician was not what he had in mind when he arrived in Santa Cruz in 1976 to major in music at the University of California. But his ensuing career as a guitarist with a number of rock bands convinced him that he didn’t really like super-loud music. And, since he was the one who complained the most about it, his fellow rockers told him to “fix it.” One thing led to another and Dave found himself working with artists such as The Rastafarians, Everette Harp, Jackson Browne, and Gregg Rolie as a sound technician, not a musician. But, as rock got louder and louder, Dave found himself moving farther and farther away from that and in the direction of the post-Dixieland jazz of the ’20s and ’30s, which was much more challenging, harmonically and melodically. His Jazz Standards workshop is one of the happy results. An accomplished guitarist and banjo player, as well, Dave has been playing the ‘ukulele for more than ten years and also teaches ‘ukulele at U.C. Santa Cruz. I’m very happy we could convince Dave to give up his post at the sound board this year to teach a couple of workshops for us instead.
Workshops
‘Ukulele Ergonomics
Do your hands and fingers hurt when you play? If so, then you’ll be happy to learn a few simple techniques that will help you reduce that stress to an absolute minimum. Not only that, being more relaxed will improve the way you sound. All players–new, old, young, old–will benefit from this workshop being taught by an instructor with thirty years experience. This workshop will be offered twice, once on Saturday and again on Sunday. (All levels)
Jazz Standards for the Ukulele
Explore the “rest of the uke” while learning “American Song Book” standards. In this class you will learn to move familiar open chords up the neck of the ukulele and to select options for chords that contain melody notes. A bit of music theory will be addressed, but the goal here is to demystify theory to reveal options, not to bog you down with details. Mostly, however, you will learn to play some great tunes with all of the rich detail of the original score, not the “dumbed down” version we so often hear. Many of these songs work so well on the uke, you will think they were written just for it. Music, with arrangements by the instructor, will be provided. This is a two-part workshop. For maximum benefit you should take both parts. (Level 3 – 4)
