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Lord, Forgive Me...I Have Sinned, and Played Ukulele Parts


Anderton

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It's dangerous how they sneak up on you. I have a Lag Ukulele and one day, while waiting for my computer to finish rendering something, I picked it up and riffed. However I came up with a riff I liked, so I recorded it. I looped it, used it in a song, and people really liked the song.

 

Oh, I was just going to do it that one time. A novelty...yeah, that's the ticket. An aberration that would be soon forgotten.

 

But then I was working on another song and I thought a uke might sound good. I should have resisted, but what would it hurt to try it just one more time?

 

Then it ended up getting included on a third song, with a dotted eighth echo effect...

 

But seriously, a ukulele? Well, it's not unlike a guitar with Nashville tuning in the sense of layering some high-frequency stuff over the guitars. And, the nylon strings add a different character. No, I'm, not doing Hawaiian slack key stuff...but it actually sounds pretty cool. Or at least I think it sounds cool. It may be the ukulele is doing some kind of mind control that only makes me think it sounds cool.

 

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STEP AWAY FROM THE UKULELES - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

Actually, the uke got to be pretty popular in southern old time fiddle and banjo strings bands starting in about the 1950s and it's still common today. It's a good rhythm instrument when the guitar player can't keep time or doesn't know the chords. Or they don't have a guitar player.

 

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Ukelele is a challenging instrument, if you allow it to be. I started out just messing around with one about 7 years ago after a trip to Hawaii, and seeing a demo of some $3-4000 handmade ukes...within a year, I had created a 'mini-set' of 5 ukelele songs for my solo act. I bought another uke...and then an Epiphone Les Paul Ukelele...I'm hooked. I like them for traveling, they fit in my backpack or suitcase and the overhead storage. I am working up to using the Epi uke with my jazz/R&B band at the end of the month.

 

I mean, come on, it's not like it was an accordian, right? ;)

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Ukelele is a challenging instrument, if you allow it to be. I started out just messing around with one about 7 years ago after a trip to Hawaii, and seeing a demo of some $3-4000 handmade ukes...within a year, I had created a 'mini-set' of 5 ukelele songs for my solo act. I bought another uke...and then an Epiphone Les Paul Ukelele...I'm hooked. I like them for traveling, they fit in my backpack or suitcase and the overhead storage. I am working up to using the Epi uke with my jazz/R&B band at the end of the month.

 

I mean, come on, it's not like it was an accordian, right? ;)

 

No, but I am a huge Astor Piazzolla fan...although technically, he played a bandoneon so I guess I'm safe with that.

 

So on my new songs there's lots of acoustic guitar, ukulele, and harmonica...and electronics. What I'm finding is far from getting into arguments, they complement each other very nicely. I guess my next album will be very different from Neo-...then again every song on Neo- was different, so at least I'm consistent in my inconsistency.

 

As to banjo...well, there is a Variax banjo patch...and Coral sitar...I suspect I'll come into Gibson someday and be whisked off to an intervention.

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Several of the songs on George Harrison's last album, "Brainwashed", were actually Uke songs that Jeff Lynne and Dhani Harrison discovered in George's archives and fleshed out. Harrison was a major uke fan and player and always traveled with 2, often giving one away.

 

So, yer in good company fellas.

 

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One word: sonic color. OK two words. I have a baritone uke and love the sound. The bad image has to do with music people associate with the instrument. Thinking about the lap steel, there's been the general image of Hawaiian music. But I've also heard some kick ass blues played on one.

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Ha, it's a great sound, and it really cuts through a mix- why the angst? Is it because it's trendy? Or that it's a simple instrument for new musicians to use? Yes, I know you're being silly on purpose.

 

I think the thing that somewhat annoys me about the instrument is how so many people go into that default shuffle groove when they play one- janka janka jinka jinka etc etc etc....... That odious, ubiquitous Tears on My Pillow chord progression notwithstanding, rhythmic cliches grate on me more than melodic ones.

 

Maybe if you're on that trip, you've sinned :)

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I have 2 pretty decent ones but bought this one to take with me to My place in Puerto Rico in February..

not bad for the money..http://www.lunaguitars.com/query?upc=819998044916

64.95..cheap little gig bag thrown in..if it self destructs in the heat..so be it.

 

I'll be singing ' Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the raid- eee -o ..'.

on the beach in Rincón with a cold Medallia, an empanadilla and my pale Gringo toes in the sand...

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Ha, just remembered a uke joke we played on someone: an arch-hipster friend had an idea for an arrangement of a Scott Walker song, so we set up a living room acoustic session to record it. Everyone else got there ahead of her, and just to mess with her, quickly figured out an all-ukulele version of You're A Grand Old Flag, which we played in an endless loop as she arrived.

 

Her expression told us it worked.

 

I guess I should add that we live in San Francisco. Patriotic songs and Scott Walker sessions are sort of coagulants.

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Ha' date=' it's a great sound, and it really cuts through a mix- why the angst? Is it because it's trendy? Or that it's a simple instrument for new musicians to use? Yes, I know you're being silly on purpose.[/quote']

 

I guess it's because it's associated with music that has nothing to do with rock, electronic, etc. so I just assumed it wouldn't work in that context. But your comment about "stereotyped" rhythms is spot-on. Once I started strumming it the way I would rhythm guitar or block chords, then all that mattered was the timbre, and it fit.

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Okay, further ukulele ignorance reduction at my end...I'm using a Soprano ukulele.I found out the difference when I broke a couple strings, and needed to figure out what kind of replacements to get :)

 

For those with ukes...does this mean that in order to get the FUX (Full Ukulele Xperience) I also need to get a baritone and tenor uke?

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One word: sonic color. OK two words. I have a baritone uke and love the sound. The bad image has to do with music people associate with the instrument. Thinking about the lap steel' date=' there's been the general image of Hawaiian music. But I've also heard some kick ass blues played on one. [/quote']

 

If I get a uke, I think I want a baritone, or whatever the next smaller (concert? tenor?) size is. Anything too small is bound to be a tuning nightmare for me...

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When I read someplace that a baritone uke was tuned like a guitar (I don't do that oddball re-entrant tuning) I wanted one. I played guitar for 5 years as a teen. With a Mel Bay chord book and playing along with "The Frewheelin' Bob Dylan" and the "Layla" (well, some of the simpler songs) albums. So I only learned the A, E, D, G and such. But I can play a simplified version of guitar chords on the baritone uke and they are the same. And I have figured out (on bari) how to play some of those T-Bone Walker style 9th chord voicings - maybe with only 3 notes in the chord. But it's a lot of fun. It travels really nicely on road trips. And even tho I don't touch it for months at a time these days, at family gatherings I can sit and plunk around on it out, rediscovering how to play some of those songs I figured out a few years ago. I've done "Dear Prudence" and "Sunshine of Your Love" for instance. I play mine like a bass player would, kind of similar to Jack Bruce. Single line stuff. But again, it's a lot of fun alternative for making music

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First Uke I bought was a Baritone because I had played my nephews uke in Hawai'i ..I liked the sound and that's what I knew..Next was the Tenor...really liked the sound plus it has some decent electronics..wasnt looking for that, but I bought it used.

This last one..the Luna Soprano isn't a quality instrument, but the tuners work well, it holds tune, compact, and is quite nice looking...good for toting.

Weird..It retails for 149.00...Musicians Friend had them on back order for 99.00...

I went to the Luna site..ordered one, for 69.99, no one else had them for that price..it wasnt a 'second' or used etc.

When the order went through it was sent out through a place called Caraudio..went to their website..yup, everything else they sold was High End car sound system stuff...but they also had Luna Ukes..?

 

scratchin' my Cabeza here...all I know it was free shipping, got it in 4 days..it shipped out an hour after I ordered it..( just before Christmas) ..

figgered I get another one for a gift two days later..they were out of stock.

 

I know this thread is about the tonal qualities and recording of a Uke..but I thought I'd share about the car audio supplier.

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But then I was working on another song and I thought a uke might sound good. I should have resisted' date=' [u']but what would it hurt to try it just one more time[/u]?

 

 

Be careful - That's how they get you hooked on the things... ;)

Yup, drug addiction ads from the 1970's...'The first one is always free...'

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First Uke I bought was a Baritone because I had played my nephews uke in Hawai'i ..I liked the sound and that's what I knew..Next was the Tenor...really liked the sound plus it has some decent electronics..wasnt looking for that, but I bought it used.

This last one..the Luna Soprano isn't a quality instrument, but the tuners work well, it holds tune, compact, and is quite nice looking...good for toting.

Weird..It retails for 149.00...Musicians Friend had them on back order for 99.00...

I went to the Luna site..ordered one, for 69.99, no one else had them for that price..it wasnt a 'second' or used etc.

When the order went through it was sent out through a place called Caraudio..went to their website..yup, everything else they sold was High End car sound system stuff...but they also had Luna Ukes..?

 

scratchin' my Cabeza here...all I know it was free shipping, got it in 4 days..it shipped out an hour after I ordered it..( just before Christmas) ..

figgered I get another one for a gift two days later..they were out of stock.

 

I know this thread is about the tonal qualities and recording of a Uke..but I thought I'd share about the car audio supplier.

 

 

 

That's really weird that they routed the sale through a car audio dealer... and that the dealer carried ukes.

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That's really weird that they routed the sale through a car audio dealer... and that the dealer carried ukes.

 

yeah, Phil..like I said, scratchin' my Cabeza here..and the weirdest part...no shipping charge..fast ship, great customer service..(emails of ship..tracking..followup questionaire of satisfaction with a real employee etc.)

and the price...WTF?

I thought maybe someone here could 'splain it to me...

 

I guess you have gleaned from my posts here..I am not the most loveable guy in the world (heh heh heh)

but I caught a definite Karma thing here for some reason...

 

Maybe its a Karma payback for when I helped that 85 yr. old woman out of her car about 30 yrs. ago....

 

Of course the car was going 50 mph at the time..:-)

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Hey Daddymack - are you sure about those tunings? My soprano was tuned CGEA and I thought tenors were too, with only baritones tuned differently. But it also seems that "alternate tunings" are common.

 

I'm going to try stringing a guitar with CGEA and no fifth or sixth strings, and see what happens...actually, I could use a Variax with Variax Workbench to "fake" that as a prototype.

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I've been playing the uke since I was ten; my grandparents and family "back on the islands" all had at least one lying around. At the time I really wanted to do cello, upright bass, and guitar - which I eventually got around to learning. Crazy that I actually make money playing and teaching the uke now...

I ended up with the family soprano (a really nice Kamaka from the '60s) and a tenor. I prefer the tenor.

And don't forget the great Roy Smeck!

 

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