By: Annna [2001-05-01]

Ukulele Week: Day Two

why uke?

Image stolen from Carol Lay

I have always wanted to be able to play some musical instrument.

In the past, I have tried unsuccessfully to learn to play: piano, harmonica, recorder, guitar (electric and acoustic), violin, pan flute, accordion, Jew's harp. I can sort-of play piano and read music, thanks to years of piano lessons, and that's about it. I thought I was going to be doomed to play nothing more complicated than the kazoo and the nose flute.

Then I found my uke at a garage sale. I still remember some of the surrounding events; I have a fairly good memory for junking. Pop and I were in the yuppie and retired section of Medford. At the time I was looking for a guitar in earnest, hoping I'd be able to master the six-stringed devil by using superior equipment. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that when people planning a garage sale mention the guitar they're selling in their ad, it usually means they'll want more than $20 for it.

Perhaps I should mention that I had a policy of never paying more than $20 for a musical instrument. This policy was both the result and, frequently, the cause of my musical dilettantism.

Anyway, first we went to a sale that had an RCA videodisc player and discs of Burt Reynolds movies. There I bought an 18" plaster Jesus 'n' Mary set and my own copy of How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, slightly soiled. Up the street was a guy Pop knew who owned many, many chalk figures. He and Pop talked about cartoon characters while I looked through his junk.

The ukulele was in a cardboard case with "Hawaii" stenciled on the side. I idly opened it, expecting a crappy tourist uke like the one I'd been hit over the head with in previous years. Inside lay a wonderful thing. This ukulele had a little "Made In Hawaii" decal on the head, true, but it had mother-of-pearl accents around the sides and the soundhole, curly Koa wood and no scratches or dents on it. It was everything the guitars I'd been looking at weren't.

I talked the guy down from $30 to $20.

For a few months I played the ukulele a little, badly. Pop had a few old songbooks, but I couldn't find much else in the way of ukulele guidance. For the longest time I thought I had a baritone uke, just because it was a little larger than I thought it ought to be and also that was the only Mel Bay book they had at the store. What it didn't say in the baritone uke book is that a baritone uke is 30" long, which is sort of a helpful identifier and something I'd put in the foreword, if I were writing the baritone uke book.

I also never thought to change the strings, which were really one guitar E string from the 1950s, or buy a tuner. (One thing that has really frustrated my stringed instrument attempts in those days is that I kept trying to tune them by ear. I have no ear. After a minute or so of plucking a string and playing a pitchpipe, they sound like they'll never be reconciled and I just want to start crying and put the instrument under the bed with the autoharp and the AUTOHARP TUNING TAPE SO YOU CAN TUNE ALL 500 AUTOHARP STRINGS, WHICH ALL SOUND IDENTICAL.)

Time passed. I went to college and acquired an accordion, on the theory that half of it was like a piano and also it was only $20. In the dorms, however, I was too embarrassed by my nonexistent accordion skills to actually practice it. What portable instrument did I have that could be played quietly?

Bingo! Ukulele! I bought a tuner and new strings and am now the ukulele playing machine you ~~see~~ hear before you. Learn from my struggles:

I love this Talking Heads song - it makes me want more than ever to wear a color-coded jumpsuit, live in a dormitory and sing the company anthem in the morning. Let's Don't Worry About the Government! (2.8 MB)

Then again, we could always twist away those Gates of Steel with Devo (1.5 MB).

Sort of a mellow mood today. Tune in tomorrow for more tunes.

POE [2001-05-01 00:59:45] König Prüß, GfbAEV

I like the Japanese uke lessons that are linked to Portal of Evil. If you've started piano, I'd keep going with that, too. There's a thing called "Cakewalk" for computer that let's you use 128 instruments or sampled sounds on two channels, 256 different sounds if you like, and compose and play back. I have considerable fun with Fractal Music; it's freeware, and has 128 instruments, and mutation tweakers, various
keys and rhythms. There are several online Music Theory Journals; they are very meaty, more than enough to keep one interested. One might think that music has been all mapped-out, but it seems that there's still a lot of theoretical exploration. Some people tune-up using the dial tone from the phone. I'll have to hold my tuner to the phone and see what note it is.

phone tone [2001-05-01 01:46:48] staniel

I think the buttons actually use 2 different tones apiece. discordant ones, it seems.

E&G [2001-05-01 02:50:26] König Prüß, GfbAEV

Some butthole told me that the dial-tone was concert A, but my tuner says a little bit flat E (left red-arrow) and it green-lights G.

dun *dee dee* dun... dun dun... [2001-05-01 13:05:13] Vicarious

I managed to compose Machine Head's "Davidian" on my phone. I was sad and lonely enough to make it into an MP3.

Songs sung sans sangfroid [2001-05-01 14:42:33] Jonas

Hey Vicarious, post a link to that MP3 -- it may be the only Machine Head I'll ever listen to.

Again, most excellent strumming power excercised on the New Wave faves, Annna! You musn't stop the rocking, this is what university is all about. You should probably think about entering Song Fight with excessive ukelele strength. Speaking of which.....

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HEY!!!!!! IT'S A SHAMELESS PLUG!!!!!!!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My first song for Song Fight is up, so everyone should go there now and listen to it, and then vote for me!! (Unless you like any of the other songs better, then you should probably vote for them.)

More with the Devo [2001-05-01 15:00:19] Jonas

Tristan Wolfe's little song on Song Fight sounds just like "Gates of Steel", which is an interesting little coincidence -- made even more coincidental when WinAmp decided to display the Devo skin when it played Tristan's song!! Quelle craziness!!

Voted [2001-05-01 19:25:17] König Prüß, GfbAEV

OK, I voted for you, Jonas. When I was in Van, someone introduced me to the work of the flute player, Paul Horn, who made one session of conversations with a porpoise at the aquarium. I had a Gemeinhardt flute then. Now, I've got a saxophone and a classic guitar. I heard John Willams play Bach's Lute Suites, so, I got a copy of that, and the book of Bach's Complete Lute Suites, which are in the order that John Williams plays them, so it's a good practice method for me. So far, I've learned Boureé. I've got some lute music of the Italian Renaissance transposed for guitar by Julian Bream. I like Spanish, too, with a lot of thirds; sad Mexican music.

[2003-01-25 15:39:00] pappy

i just bought a uke and wasnt sure if it was baritone but the 30" comment helped, it was

Ukelele inspiration [2003-09-22 22:07:00] Vatusia

There I was, another lost and restless wannabe musician, looking for (do they make them?) color-coded strings for my autoharp (well if they don't make them, they should) when I somehow happened on this website, and the delightful and inspirational rendition of "Don't Worry About the Government". Talking Heads, and even Devo on uke? And the vocals were...sort of like I sing, too. Wow! I feel better about my secret attempts to play Eno on the autoharp. I am not alone! Thank you Annna! Keep it up!

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