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By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Metraux plays “Oh Danny Boy” while whistling the tune.
What was supposed to be the last lesson of a six-week ukulele class became a private lesson and a musical tour of the world between Natick’s Daniel Metraux and Wellesley’s Marie Taylor on Thursday afternoon at the Tolles Parson Center.
After using an app on an iPhone that allowed them to precisely tune their instruments by plucking the string and watching the digital scale flick between the A, B, C, and D, Metraux and Taylor began in Spain, where they worked on flamenco music by picking the strings using their ring, index and middle fingers.
“I think you’re ready for the tremolo now” he told her as he showed her the picking. “See, it sounds like Spanish music.” Later he would play “Malagueña” and explain to her that this is what she could be building towards, now that she had the basics of flamenco down.
Next, the duo moved to Ireland, as both played “Oh Danny Boy,” a tune they had worked on before. Metraux explained that with picking, “the difficulty is that it’s harder to keep the rhythm,” and began to whistle the tune to help himself. Marie Taylor had another issue with her playing: at various times, she squinted at her sheet music and declared “I would probably be doing better if I had my glasses.”
Marie Taylor sings along to the sheet music despite not having her glasses.
Metraux was highly supportive throughout, consistently complimenting Taylor on how well she was doing. And when it came time to play cowboy music, he walked her through a seemingly simple, but deceptively complicated skill. Taylor needed to strum the guitar up and down with her thumbs, then use her hand to quickly muffle the sound of the guitar.
But the slightest hesitation would throw off the rhythm and the wrong hand placement would result in a screeching sound that ruined the effect.
After trying it a few times, Taylor noted: “that will take practice.”
It was these cowboy songs that Metraux noted were far sadder than people realize, specifically noting the song “Red River Valley” was a sad song about an Indian woman losing her French-Canadian lover.
Marie Taylor enjoys Daniel Metraux’s flamenco stylings.
Soon after, the two sang a hybrid of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “What a Wonderful World” complete with a pretty good Louis Armstrong impression from Metraux.
When asked about the six lessons as the two were preparing to leave, Taylor said: “you can really learn a lot.”
“If you practice,” Metraux quickly corrected.
