SeilerBird's ukulele baptism

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

SeilerBird

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 25, 2012
Posts
18,055
Location
St Cloud Florida USA
Wednesday night an adorable little 12 year old girl named Grace Vanderwall won this season of America's Got Talent. She is a singer, songwriter and ukulele player.

https://youtu.be/epYS1mmn8Lg

Tonight I went to Plaza Live in Orlando for a concert by Jake Shimabukuro and was blown away. He is much better in concert than he is in his online videos. He is the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele. He did a song called Dragon in which he starts out very quietly and he has a tape machine recording himself. Then half way through he plays back the tape and plays along with himself. He is playing lead guitar (lead ukulele) to his rhythm guitar (rhythm ukulele) accompaniment. He take the uke to places you cannot imagine. He is probably the only uke player in the world with a wah wah pedal and a pedal board.

https://youtu.be/mljFr7yuYzk

So in honor of ukulele week I ordered a concert uke from Amazon. I have never played a uke other than occasionally messing around on one so this will be interesting. A new hobby. Should take me a week to master it. ::) It is a cheap one but it will get me started.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015XD4YLY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

Attachments

  • Jake 0.jpg
    Jake 0.jpg
    116.5 KB · Views: 39
  • Jake 1.jpg
    Jake 1.jpg
    81.7 KB · Views: 30
  • Jake 2.jpg
    Jake 2.jpg
    66.2 KB · Views: 31
  • Jake 3.jpg
    Jake 3.jpg
    80.8 KB · Views: 39
Jake S is a unique and extremely talented uke player. I like his rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB3RbO7updc

I was blown away by some of the stuff played by one of our uke band members who also played lead guitar in a pro band. His rendition of Apache on the uke:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCYHLa1tGIg

He is probably the only uke player in the world with a wah wah pedal and a pedal board.

Nah. The guy I mentioned above used to turn up to practice with his amp, pedal and box of tricks.

Should take me a week to master it.

My hat is off to you if you can do that. OTOH I've noticed that guitar players get up to speed on the uke quite quickly.
 
My hat is off to you if you can do that. OTOH I've noticed that guitar players get up to speed on the uke quite quickly.
That was a joke. You can't master any musical instrument in your lifetime. I have found a local uke group and they are meeting at ten tomorrow. I will go without my uke just to meet everyone.

http://www.meetup.com/Winter-Park-Ukulele-Meetup/
 
A uke meetup group I belong to in OH holds monthly jam sessions; Not really my thing. Similar deal with 3 uke groups I attended while in Southern California (unstructured jam sessions). I prefer the structure & discipline of our uke band weekly practice sessions with a Music Director who takes charge and is also a good teacher.

Our MD is an accomplished musician (guitar, banjo & now uke) and singer. He's also been MD of a local mixed chorus for a number of years. I twisted his arm to join us a few weeks after I joined the band 5 years ago, and many of us are glad he agreed.
 
I was blown away by some of the stuff played by one of our uke band members who also played lead guitar...

The first time he attended a practice session, he sat in the back. At the end of the evening,  I asked him how it went, and his reply was "I have no idea how to play this uke". The following week, he did, and he became increasingly more accomplished every week.
 
An oversized uke jam - Sons Of The Beach in Santa Cruz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8QUm_qPn04
 
Aye Margi, I smile every time I hear it. I've never attended (not my scene) but several friends say they have a blast playing with 150 folks on the beach.
 
You're right Margi; Tom S would fit right in  ;D
 
Tom said:
The first time he attended a practice session, he sat in the back. At the end of the evening,  I asked him how it went, and his reply was "I have no idea how to play this uke". The following week, he did, and he became increasingly more accomplished every week.
Well I had a total blast. I showed up without a uke and the first guy I met had a spare that he lent me. There was about 15 people there with a great mix of women outnumbering the men two to one. And they are all older. We played some Stones, Beatles, Elvis, 50s and 60s stuff and a few Hawaiian tunes. The interesting thing is that the songs I did not know I had no problem playing them. Where I had problems was with the songs I knew real well, like House of the Rising Sun. I have been playing it forever and muscle memory kicked in. When it said Am I would of course play a Dm.

They have a monthly meeting and there is another group in the area that meets every month. And they voted to put in a float at the Christmas Parade. My uke is not coming until Friday and I could not wait so me and my credit card made a visit to Guitar World on the way home. I realized after I ordered it that they also make ukes with a built in preamp and tuner. So I got a Kala Tenor. Same price as Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Kala-KA-EBY-TE-Ebony-Acoustic-Electric-Ukulele/dp/B00Y215H7E/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1474135771&sr=1-1
 
Tom said:
You're right Margi; Tom S would fit right in  ;D
Heck yah I would fit in. I would probably be running it in a year. One of the largest uke groups in the country is located in Tampa. 1400 members. I will have to go check it out.

http://www.meetup.com/tampabayukes/
 
Rene T said:
You should be able to go into your Amazon account and cancel the 1ast order unless you want two.
I am going to keep it and it has already been shipped. One can never have too many instruments. Besides, it was less than a hundred bucks. It is a concert so it is smaller than the tenor I bought. I am going to have to figure out which size I like the best. I will probably also pick up a soprano one also.

It was bizarre playing the uke. I have been playing my bass guitar almost exclusively the last five years. So to go from stings the size of my little finger to strings the size of a piece of thread was crazy. It will take me a week to get used to the feeling.
 
Glad you had fun.

You'll be a lot happier with the Kala than the no-name. I have several Kala products, and really like my Kala 8-string. I also like my two Kala Baritone ukes - tuned like the (musically) highest four strings on a guitar. They'd be really easy for you or any guitarist to play.

I will probably also pick up a soprano one also.

Why not just play it in the store? I started out with a Lanikai soprano; It sounded OK, but I found it was "too short", and eventually sold it. The gal who bought it still plays it 5 years later.

Can't wait to get home and play my banjouke; Didn't bring it on this trip, but need to practice for the 'banjo breakouts' in our upcoming concert.
 
One of the largest uke groups in the country is located in Tampa. 1400 members.

Doesn't look like many of them turn out for their jam sessions (40 tonight). This happens when groups get too big. It's one reason we've talked repeatedly about capping our membership. We've actually raised the cap several times, and are currently over 60 members; Looks like we'll have 50+ regulars.
 
Tom said:
Why not just play it in the store?
It is dangerous for me to be in a music store with several credit cards in my pocket. :eek: I was positively drooling over several guitars and some of their basses. I was too afraid to venture into the keyboard and drum departments.  :-\
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
131,670
Posts
1,382,735
Members
137,455
Latest member
MtnRV
Back
Top Bottom