I have adored learning this instant classic by Lin-Manuel Miranda. I think everyone has had moments where they felt like Luisa, whom I saw as fighting to understand the distinction between herself the human and her amazing gifts and accomplishments. For me it’s been a long road to see my own validity separately from the value I bring to others. I’ve been reflecting a lot on that concept lately and have seen it start to emerge as a recurrent theme in my life.
It’s been cathartic to learn this song from the movie “Encanto.” I hope my work in creating this song sheet and arrangement helps you to also find a pathway to emotional release.
Page 1 is the song with lyrics and changes, page 2 shows the chord symbols and strumming patterns I’ve used.
If you’ve been following my posts for a minute you might know that I teach the ukulele. I’m excited to share that I’ll be running two beginning ukulele courses through Lessonface – One for kids and one for adults 13+. They will be live on Tuesday afternoons (PST) starting March 15th.
These are designed for complete beginners, so if you’ve had an ukulele sitting around for a bit and haven’t been sure about how to start it, this would be a great starting place! I plan to share this through my YouTube channel (almost 30k subscribers now!) – so grab a spot while it’s available. 🙂
Check the links below for specifics on class content, times, and please feel free to ask if you have any questions. I also am available for 1:1 lessons through Lessonface.
In this easy, beginner-friendly ukulele tutorial we’ll be learning “We’re Going to Be Friends” by The White Stripes. This song is perfect for celebrating friendship, returning to school, singing with kids, singing with grown-ups, enjoying things…
In this easy, beginner-friendly baritone ukulele tutorial we’ll be learning “We’re Going to Be Friends” by The White Stripes. This song is perfect for celebrating friendship, returning to school, singing with kids, singing with grown-ups, enjoying things…
I’ve been getting into TikTok lately and I won’t go too crazy with the details. As a musician, one of the most exciting features to me would be the “Duet” feature. You can make up your own part or respond to another video.
But I encountered a persistent problem: After recording my part with the other video, there would be a substantial lag. Not fun. Not musical. None of the solutions provided on the Internet would fix the problem – not clearing the cache, not restarting my phone, not using different headphones or microphone. I was living on a lonely musician island with no way to play with others as a lone tear crawled down my cheek.
I finally found a workaround and I’m excited to share it with you. Unfortunately this relies on you having a second device that can support TikTok and a video editing app on your phone. I hate that it’s not just fixing the lag in the app. But we do what we can.
Step 1: Find a Video to Duet. Save it to your phone AND add it to your “Favorites.” To do both of these things you need to click on the “Share” arrow on the bottom right corner of the screen.
Step 2: Access the video on your second device. I used an iPad. Go to TikTok, click on your own profile, and access your “Favorites” by clicking the little heart under your profile picture.
Actually this is to access videos you’ve “Liked” – the point is that you need to be able to access the same video on both devices.
Step 3: Practice? Or at least, figure out what you’ll be recording. Set up your phone to record.
Step 4: Record your part of the duet on the phone. Use headphones or ear buds so the sound of the original video doesn’t double.
Step 5: (This is the part that I wish you didn’t have to do) Edit the 2 videos on your phone. I use Cyberlink Powerdirector. I have the paid version and, for ease of use, I think it’s a great investment. I believe you can probably do this on the free version as well.
In my video you can see how I work within the interface to edit the videos together, and I’ll break it down here for you.
Step 1: Click “New Project” and choose the 1:1 ratio. Yes, I know TikTok uses 9:16. To me, this will give you more flexibility in formatting.
Step 2: Choose your video as the base recording. Edit to crop as you like.
Step 3: Add the original video as a layer, then line up the videos and make sure the audio is how you like it.
I hope this has at least been a little helpful. I know I’m excited to make more duets with my fellow TikTok musicians!
Here’s a great song that’s fun to sing and easy to learn! It only has 4 chords, and it presents a great opportunity to work on fingerstyle and vocal technique. This song is in A major.
This was a request – sometimes I get requests for songs that are done by soooo many people, but if you’re particularly drawn to my teaching style, and want to practice your fingerpicking and faster chord changes, this would be a good choice!
The video covers just chords for GCEA tuning, but I have chord charts for both GCEA and Baritone tunings.
Notes and Embellishments 