The Ukulele Appreciation Thread

[Prince of Darkness]

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

 

[walrus]

This was the first video I watched that made me want to pick up a uke:

I saw Jake S. in concert in a small venue several years ago. Amazing talent!

The opening act was Greg Hawkes, the Cars keyboard player, on ukulele!

walrus

 

[shihan]

I grew up in Honolulu; so the uke means Hawaiian music to me. I tied to post a clip of Hawaiian Uke. Master Heb Ota, but content was all unavailable.
Here’s my uke’s, a ‘50 Baritone Royal and a ‘30’s soprano Aloha Royal.

 

[walrus]

I grew up in Honolulu; so the uke means Hawaiian music to me. I tied to post a clip of Hawaiian Uke. Master Heb Ota, but content was all unavailable.
Here’s my uke’s, a ‘50 Baritone Royal and a ‘30’s soprano Aloha Royal.

I can see the video on YouTube if I just click on "Watch on YouTube".

What model guitar is Ota's accompanist playing?

walrus

 

[Canard]

Meet the family ...

Ukulele - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Some random Youtube examples

Bass




Baritone




Tenor

 

[Canard]

Concert




Soprano




Pocket

 

[walrus]

The advantage of a baritone uke is that it is tuned the same as the four high strings on guitar. You can also tune a tenor that way, although the D string would be a much thinner gauge.

I've had three ukuleles. A Guild baritone, and a tenor Fluke ukulele, which you can just put down on the floor and it stands up - it has a flat bottom. A body of plastic. But I also had a very nice LoPrinzi tenor ukulele. All tuned dGBE. I sold them both as I moved to guitar only.



walrus

 

[Bill Ashton]

While I appreciate what people can do with a uke...and my daughter learned and uses one quite frequently
with her first grade class...I just could not get into it. That said, I did take a clinic at our local library, with the intent
on seeing if my cement fingers could play a uke, looking towards the mandolin. Success , but took a few years
before I actually purchased one...and know enough chords to get through a few 1-4-5 based tunes. Alas, not so
the uke...

 

[merlin6666]

I think uke is great and versatile, here's a sample of my cheapo Gretsch


I'm also guilty of having more than one

 

[Canard]

Guild Ukes?

They are out there somewhere.

I have never seen one in person. The only old ones I have ever seen ads for are all baritone; 2 different models, I think. Were there others besides the baritones?





Then later somebody (Fender or Cordoba?) made some newer looking ukes. I have only seen a pic of one. More info?

 

[Canard]

They are indeed everywhere ....

 

[shihan]

I really like playing the uke. I find the reduced strings help me understand chord function and it’s relation to melody.
Here’s my Bari in action. Just a quick video I did for my niece’s kids.
Please excuse the gratuitous Christmas carol.

 

[JohnW63]

I have a Cordoba concert sized uke I got for winning a random drawing at the Acoustic Guitar Forum. Got it from LA Guitar Sales.

 

[Canard]

I have a Cordoba concert sized uke I got for winning a random drawing at the Acoustic Guitar Forum. Got it from LA Guitar Sales.

They can be quite nice. I helped a friend pick one out for his sister as a Christmas gift last year. It plays very nicely.

 

[Canard]

The great Johnny Marvin.

Johnny Marvin - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Johnny Marvin (uke) and William Carola (guitar) in 1926 - hard core uke!

Memphis Blues​

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12th Street Rag​

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Later he seemed to focus more on singing. Like today, everybody in the late 20s liked a dude with gnarly hair who could sing better than a dude who played an instrument. Johnny sells out?

Singing on the novelty tune, All By Yourself In The Moonlight, 1929




Mental health disclosure -- I have both of these records on 78s.

 

[Canard]

Tom Petty speaks about George Harrison and ukuleles.

 

[walrus]

And George passed his love of ukulele on to his son, Dhani. He has a Fender signature uke.

Great article with several George/ukulele stories:

https://kamuke.com/2021/07/30/dhani-harrison-ukulele-tuner/




walrus

 

[Canard]

I like the look of the bodies and necks, but it could take some getting used to seeing that Strat-style headstock on a uke.

 

[Canard]

Amanda Palmer - Ukulele Anthem

With this performance of Ukulele Anthem, done in white lingerie and safety harnesses, seemingly atop the Sidney Opera House, Amanda Palmer makes a number of points and demonstrates a number of things, and not always intentionally. The video shoot was allegedly done in a single take; this is easy to believe.

Some of the more interesting points and demonstrations follow.

• She demonstrates that she has way more theatrical chutzpah than musical talent. She really cannot sing. No safety harnesses would have upped the chutzpah score a bit, but the opera house admin probably wouldn't allow it – even though the height is an illusion. She wanted to do the shoot naked, but admin wouldn't allow that either.
• She makes the point that the ukulele is painfully easy to play while perhaps unintentionally demonstrating that things that are easy to do are not always easily done well, sort of like dry walling.
• She makes the point that idle hands do the devil’s work, while, perhaps, demonstrating that the ukulele in certain hands might be viewed as the devil’s work. "It takes about an hour to teach someone to play the ukulele - about the same to teach someone to build a standard pipe bomb. You do the math." Many of the world’s problems are caused by people with too much idle time. The world might have been a better place if George Harrison had survived to hand out more ukuleles, a lot more.

The song is pretty funny if you can stand to listen to it.

Warning – Trigger Alert – Contains cheerful and enthusiastic musical incompetence; contains some salty language.

 

[spoox]

I liked it! But then David Thomas of Pere Ubu is one of my favorite vocalists...
And my oldest friend and co-founder of our band has a similar vocal style...
I'd much rather listen to this than that hackneyed "Over the Rainbow" one more time!