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thanks for the link. cool stuff.I've been playing a uke off and on for a few years now...a gift from a friend who lives in Hawaii, and i'm really enjoying the simplicity and directness of the instrument. Here's a old, long languishing song i quickly recorded recently, just to sketch it out and show it to a group i will be performing the tune with in a couple of months. the uke is playing the simple picking part, with tremolo'd guitar and a some ambient guitar washes as well. http://mandaladanceworks.com/music/Jewel_In_The_Belly_(reprise).mp3 as for the tuning, it really freaked me out at first, because i've learned too many instruments at such a rudimentary level (the 'jack of all trades, master of none' trick), and learning ANOTHER instrument/tuning was daunting. However, if you take the four high strings of the guitar at the 5th fret, that's Uke tuning. I was suddenly relieved, and realized that interesting melodies and chord clusters learned on the high four strings of the guitar could be translated directly to the uke, and cool uke chords could be brought back to the guitar. It kindof tied the two instruments together for me. Also, on bass, I have a hipshot drop tuner, and instead of tuning down, I can turn the low E string up one semitone, do the same for the A string, and then now the bass is in Uke tuning as well, (albeit in Bflat 6, rather than the C6 tuning of Uke). oooh...that sounds sexy....Drop Uke Tuning hahaha.... On my uke, i also use a wound low G string and it's an octave lower than the traditional uke stringing, so it mirrors the guitar more that way, too. My uke is headed to the shop soon to get a pickup installed. looking forward to it....looped uke....nice! regards, Rich On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 8:11 AM, Daniel Thomas wrote: > Nice clip! inspiring. > > >> Our own Daniel Thomas (a very accomplished >> guitarist/multi-instrumentalist) >> once told me that he thinks he learned more about harmony from >> playing a ukulele than by all of >> his guitar playing because of the fact that you have the ability to >> fret all four strings simultaneously. > > > The thing that was most enlightening for me about the Ukelele is that, > with only four strings, you strip harmony right down to its most > fundamental elements. Allowing only four notes, the uke forces > guitarists to master four note chord voicings ..one finger to a note. > These voicings seldom involve a barre and as such, they allow for > super controlled note envelopes on each string (Hard to do with > Barre). Mastering four note voicing on the UKE really made me much > more savvy with respect to note choice (why have three Fundamentals > ringing?) and note duration. I am cleaner and more potent harmonic > player for it. > d > > On Apr 18, 2011, at 1:02 PM, Rick Walker wrote: > >> On 7/22/64 11:59 AM, RP Collier wrote: >>> Tuneyards on Sunday All Things Considered 4/16: >>> >>> >>> >http://www.npr.org/2011/04/17/135443035/tune-yards-expanding-and-grabbing-attention >> I also think it's very cool that she's recontextualizing the Ukulele. >> >> It resonates a lot with what I"ve been trying to do. >> >> I've been writing for the last 6 months on several four string >> instruments, including playing a lot of >> baritone Ukulele. Our own Daniel Thomas (a very accomplished >> guitarist/multi-instrumentalist) >> once told me that he thinks he learned more about harmony from >> playing a ukulele than by all of >> his guitar playing because of the fact that you have the ability to >> fret all four strings simultaneously. >> >> Interestingly enough, Joni Mitchell started her whole career by >> writing songs on a Baritone Ukulele that she bought >> for $36 because she didn't have enough money for a guitar. >> >> It's interesting that when you play one and really thing about modern >> songwriting, >> that the natural progression is to begin to retune it. I'm on >> this kick lately of tuning to a random open tuning >> and playing it as I go to eat my daily bagel before teaching. I >> give myself 10 minutes to learn how to play >> the new tuning (or at least find something interesting in it) and >> then another 10 minutes to write at least the >> bare bones of a song on the way home. In this way, I'm >> attempting to try to free myself of specific tuning >> concepts and be able to find whatever the instrument gives me to play >> simply. >> >> With it's range, you can get a couple of different sounding octaves >> from the instrument as a looping source >> and, of course, with 1/2 speed and 1/4 speed manipulations you can >> eek even more out of it. >> >> To add to all of that, I recently purchased a four string Ukulele >> bass instrument which has the body of a Baritone Uke, but >> has black silicon strings on it that make it sound somewhat close to >> an upright. A fantastic instrument. I'm saving to >> buy one that is fretless now. >> >> rick walker >>