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Re: Ukulele Loop Dreams was looping on npr



i do think i messed up the link, however...

http://www.mandaladanceworks.com/music/Jewel_In_The_Belly_(reprise).mp3

picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue, i guess.


On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 9:31 AM, thetoyroom@charter.net wrote:

> 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
>>>