The festival classes had a blues orientation, supplemented with classical, clawhammer, and ukulele bass classes. Particularly useful to me were the blues improvisation sessions. I took my turn playing a solo based on the blues scale at one of them. I got a compliment from another student sitting in front of me. I’ll build on that.
I did 5 of 6 of the festival open mics. Only “Wasn’t Born To Follow” turned out well enough for a post. Thanks to Lisa for the video. I had not done a live audience open mic for a while, the last one hosted by the San Jose ukulele club earlier this year.
I’m not complaining; the festival organizers have limited control. I found the festival’s past open mics to have various challenges, such as no music stand, lousy lighting, no emcee, etc. At Palm Springs a few years ago, no power! The soundboard location was stage side, and the operator could not hear what the audience heard. Moreover, the soundboard did not provide a monitor for my bass/percussion track. For “The Galway Girl,” I could make out the drums but not the bassline or pennywhistle, though the audience heard everything.
Shawn's Ukulele Stuff 