I've Got Rhythm...

It's as simple as walking and chewing gum at the same time....or at least it should be. The YesterUkes spent the afternoon with Kiya Heartwood, half of the duo "Wishing Chair", learning about rhythm. Our group is basically an all-ukulele band but a little percussion puts pizazz in our songs.

We worked on rhythm patterns while strumming our ukes. The hardest is getting muted sound at the right time. (First we worked so hard to make the chords sound right and now we only want a little thump sound......geez.) Then we learned about different rhythm instruments. No drum kits here....we need instruments that will fit in a tote bag. Kiya had members shaking, tapping and thumping. Spoons, egg shakers, tamborines, a paddle drum (not all at the same time) rattled, jingled, tapped and boomed. It looked pretty easy until it your turn to try. Learning to make "remedial" spoons might help us add that soft-shoe rhythm that we want.

Like everything else, it's mostly a matter of practice. So if you see someone counting "1-2-3-4" over and over while tapping on their steering wheel or if your neighbor is on the back porch pounding out tribal rhythms, it could be one of the YesterUkes working on songs for their next show.