5 Comments
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Ron: I think I was the only one who did a smell test. And I haven’t done a uke review for quite a while.
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You tell ’em, Ron!
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Bloody nora! What a selection this week.
Ah ah ah ah, staying alive, staying alive. Ah ah ah ah, staying aliiiiiiive!
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Kyle: Glad you enjoyed it!
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Be a Blues Boss
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Master Ukulele Strumming
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Ukulele Lessons
Aren’t those gypsy ukes just the cutest things,
Al? Can imagine Django racing around the fretboard with only one finger.
Finishing up GET PLUCKY, so herewith a few random comments on same:
“I subscribe to the philosophy that it’s a uke –
an inexpensive, fun instrument – so it wants to
sound like an inexpensive, fun instrument.”
Amen. If this common sense can counter the drive
for ever fancyer Nancyer instruments, then bravo. Doubt that it will, though.
“I think it’s okay to strum your ukulele with a plectrum. Really. No problem.” “…why not?”
Why not, indeed. “Ukulele ‘experts’ often get very upset about this…”
Well, boo hoo hoo. Said ukulele ‘experts’ might try going the John Renbourn route and using ping
pong balls for their false nails.
“It’s a ukulele, and we’re here to have fun with it.”
The naivete of the idealist. Some are, but a ukulele psychologist/psychiatrist would be necessary to plumb the depths of just what we really are doing here with it.
“…for this you’ll need an electronic tuner. You can tune a ukulele by ear, but this nifty little gadget does it all for you.”
Coming from the days of the pitch pipe, the tuner – especially the clip-on type – is a modern miracle. Those born to the tuner cannot truly appreciate it. They just cannot.
Is tuning by ear still the fad it once was?
WGW is big on UAS. You might think that folks with a ‘smaller is better’ credo as far as their instruments are concerned would be consistent and adopt a ‘fewer is more’ philosophy as far as numbers are concerned.
You used to hear about UAS all the time, now not so much, though. Is it still the rage it used to be?
Paging that ukulele shrink.
One thing not mentioned was the fine art of sniffing one’s ‘ukulele. Are the connoisseurs
of that fine woody aroma – with gluey accents – still hard at it?
Or, is that something better discretely left unmentioned these days? Like the ukulele/chopsticks experiment. Which seemed to impress Will.
Do reviews still include it? As far as I know, they’re tasting the darn things now. And who knows what else?
The book’s casual acceptance of virtuosity while not fawning over it is appreciated here. As is its
emphasis on the ‘uke as a rhythm instrument.
As James (Hill) says in MIGHTY UKE, the ukulele is a strumming machine. And as I say here, no one ever JUST strums a ukulele.
It’s a uke. It wants to be strummed. It’ll tolerate being picked. But, it loves being strummed.
Geared tuners. Yes. Unless you love the sharp flat sharp flat sharp flat dance. And some do.
But, not the youngest Uke. Oooops, now where’s
that screwdriver?
Didn’t you say once that if the uke Marilyn played in SOME LIKE IT HOT was a painted Martin, it was a crime against the ukulele?
Someone get the tar. Someone get the feathers.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ukuleles for Peace kids got into melees. Things are that far gone and this group isn’t going to change anything.
The banjo uke signed by Duke Ellington is right up there with the guitar signed by Paganini and Berlioz.
Thinking about that ukulele-string murder. The killer was knowledgeable enough to tie the new
new sting on at both ends well enough that no one would notice the change.
But, not knowledgeable enough to put the correct string on? And, where did the tell-tale string come from?
The victim’s case? Brought by the killer?
But, the detective recognized the wrong string? A little ukulele string? From looking at it?
Strummed AIN’T SHE SWEET over the body and something sounded off?
Or, did the detective notice that one string was
tied a bit differently than the others?
Uh-oh…