Comments on: 10 Things I Learnt from John King

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:01:49 +0000

Alec: Thanks. I think it’s definitely a great way to play the uke. Really takes advantage of the re-entrant tuning.

By: Alec

Alec — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:20:18 +0000

I just had a true campanella epiphany, months into his book. I suddenly realize what I can do with all the songs I’ve arranged too. Every time one of my arrangements (or other people’s arrangments I play) sounded awkward (plunk plunk, same note and or same string), it could be fixed with a little Campanella. Sometimes it’s actually easier. Thank you, ukulelehunt.

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:12:22 +0000

Jimmy: His playing does make me wonder if Bach intended some of his stuff to played on the ukulele.

ron: Judging by James’s obituary, they were discussing boobs.

Jim: I can’t wait to read the book.

Tamster: Thanks.

todd: Agreed.

Terry: Thanks. Appreciate it.

Minamin: Thanks for the link. Gives hope to us all. He’s playing the five string uke that turned up on eBay in that clip.

By: Minamin

Minamin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:42:54 +0000

As easy as he made it look, my favorite video of him is this one shot by Mike DaSilva:

http://www.ukemaker.com/images/Festivals/2006_Portland/video/JohnKingAndJamesHill01.MOV

There was something incredible for me about seeing him so loose, just practicing, messing up and laughing. This was way more impressive to me than all his flawlessly played classical pieces.

He was the master.

By: Terry Truhart

Terry Truhart — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:02:08 +0000

Mahalo, Al

“You can be classy on the uke” Yes, and John King proved it.
His music brought a whole new level of class to the ukulele.

A great tribute to a master uke player, John King. RIP.

Mahalo nui loa, Al

By: todd

todd — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:20:31 +0000

“His intimidating musical skills also provided me with a perfect excuse for not improving on my three-chords-and-out approach to playing — why bother, since I’ll never be able to match John. I can’t tell you how much I miss him. Jim T.”

this is beautiful and full of great humor at the same time….

By: Tamster

Tamster — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:17:33 +0000

Great post. He seemed like a great guy. I love the song Ahe Lau Makani on his Royal Hawaiian Music CD.

By: Jim Tranquada

Jim Tranquada — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:42:46 +0000

Al: Thank you for mentioning John the historian. As his co-author on some journal articles, book chapters, and an upcoming book on the history of the ukulele, I can vouch for John’s meticulous, omnivorous, obsessive approach to research. He worked as hard on his history as he did his playing — and his knowledge as a working musician proved to be a perfect BS-detector when peeling back decades of mythology. His intimidating musical skills also provided me with a perfect excuse for not improving on my three-chords-and-out approach to playing — why bother, since I’ll never be able to match John. I can’t tell you how much I miss him. Jim T.

By: ronhale

ronhale — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:09:37 +0000

There’s a nice photo of John with James Hill, both with ukes (John with a Fluke), sitting casually together outdoors at the 2004 Nor. Cal. Uke Festival in Hayward. One of my favorite uke-world shots, you can’t help but wonder what they were chatting about.

By: JCMcGee

JCMcGee — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:25:16 +0000

Lovely post.

I had mailed John and had a wee yap about Bach, Eleanor, my girlfriend, taught herself piano using a Bach book and it’s one of my wee pleasures in life listening her play it…we watched John’s videos together and Eleanor said “Oh…THAT’s how it’s supposed to sound!”

R.I.P.