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Ukulele update and reviews
05 July 2008
[indent]I finally got my page of ukulele reviews updated with my latest acquisition (a Pono solid mango tenor uke, arrived earlier this week). While nowhere near as comprehensive as my review of harmonicas, I think it's a fair bit of information and advice, especially for neophytes looking for comment of various makes and models. Of course, it's a work in progress and will change and update as I acquire more. Which I will probably do (read my comment under UAS...).
It's been a bit of a chore to get it online and proofread, simply because I haven't had a lot of free time - I work on my Web stuff in snippets. I face the same problem trying to practice and learn new songs. Simply not enough hours in the day for everything. But I do try to put in at least 30 minutes' practice, preferably an hour or more - often late at night, quietly strumming and picking in the living room while Susan sleeps upstairs.
I am still entranced with this little instrument, and continually surprised by its versatility, as well as the quality of the ukes I've purchased. I've got six now, and have had and sold two others. (One is on loan to a friend.) I am watching several on eBay, although my next purchase will likely be some time away, after I've sold a few more things to replenish my Paypal account. My North American Indian flutes and several harmonicas have all been sold - I have some shakuhachi, a quena and several high-end harps to sell, too. All to finance my UAS illness.
When I was a child, my father used to sing in the car on the long drives to the cottage or when we would visit my grandparents in the wilds of what is now urban Etobicoke. My brother and I sat in the back and warbled along, always entertained by Dad's tunes, songs we'd never hear on our local radio stations. He'd sing the same songs often many times, and we soon learned many of the words. Many of those lyrics have stuck with me, over fifty years.
My father was from England, near Manchester, and he sang the song he had learned when he was growing up, stuff from between the wars, and WWII songs. There were vaudeville songs, songs by Gilbert and Sullivan, Stanley Holloway songs, musical themes, and some from George Formby. I grew up singing When I'm Cleaning Windows and Leaning on the Lamppost, among others.
George was a musical hall performer who began as a stand up comic, and later played the ukulele, or more properly a banjolele. I saw him play on the TV - we had a black-and-white television and on the two or three channels we would sometimes catch British movies. George Formby was in several, including one where he played a motorcyclist in the TT Races. That one stuck with me, a collision of two interests. I had a copy several years ago, but sold it. Damn. I could watch it now and try to understand George's complex strumming techniques.
Along with George, we heard other ukulele players on our old 78s, which played on a wind-up gramophone we had in the basement, along with performers like Mario Lanza and Benny Goodman. I never thought much about the uke as a personal instrument back then. We had a piano at home on which I learned a few things, again mostly from my father. I took accordion lessons, too, but was too small to effectively open and fold the big instrument, so my lessons ended after a few months of struggle.
It wasn't until I was in my early teens and acquired an electric guitar that I began to really learn and play music. I was in a garage band at 15 or 16, and we played rock 'n roll. Playing a uke then wouldn't have been cool. We did Beach Boys, Beatles, Donovan, Dylan, and pop stuff.
Tiny Tim came along and breathed new life into the ukulele in the late 1960s, but as a novelty act. Teenagers were not big on being novelty - it clashed with cool - so I didn't pick up on it while Tiny Tim was around, either. It took another 40 or so years to gain a real appreciation of this instrument (and in passing of Tiny Tim's real talent). Unfortunate, since I think I could have enjoyed it much earlier - I experimented with a wide range of instruments including sitar, dulcimer, banjo, mandolin, autoharp, various wind instruments, keyboards and others over the years. I might have settled down and practiced more on a single instrument - even might have become reasonably good - had I found and stuck to the ukulele.
I wish my father had lived long enough for me to be able to play him one of his own tunes on the uke. That would have completed a circle. He would have liked that, I think.
Ah well, it's here now and I'm enjoying myself and I'm learning new things on it almost every day. It drives Susan just a little crazy, all this plinking and plucking, but she's becoming tolerant of (or immune to...) my efforts. And I'm gradually getting better. But that's not what matters. It's whether it's still fun and a learning experience. When it ceases to be both, that's when I start to look for another hobby. Somehow I think this one will be here for a while.[/indent]
I am still entranced with this little instrument, and continually surprised by its versatility, as well as the quality of the ukes I've purchased. I've got six now, and have had and sold two others. (One is on loan to a friend.) I am watching several on eBay, although my next purchase will likely be some time away, after I've sold a few more things to replenish my Paypal account. My North American Indian flutes and several harmonicas have all been sold - I have some shakuhachi, a quena and several high-end harps to sell, too. All to finance my UAS illness.
When I was a child, my father used to sing in the car on the long drives to the cottage or when we would visit my grandparents in the wilds of what is now urban Etobicoke. My brother and I sat in the back and warbled along, always entertained by Dad's tunes, songs we'd never hear on our local radio stations. He'd sing the same songs often many times, and we soon learned many of the words. Many of those lyrics have stuck with me, over fifty years.
My father was from England, near Manchester, and he sang the song he had learned when he was growing up, stuff from between the wars, and WWII songs. There were vaudeville songs, songs by Gilbert and Sullivan, Stanley Holloway songs, musical themes, and some from George Formby. I grew up singing When I'm Cleaning Windows and Leaning on the Lamppost, among others.
George was a musical hall performer who began as a stand up comic, and later played the ukulele, or more properly a banjolele. I saw him play on the TV - we had a black-and-white television and on the two or three channels we would sometimes catch British movies. George Formby was in several, including one where he played a motorcyclist in the TT Races. That one stuck with me, a collision of two interests. I had a copy several years ago, but sold it. Damn. I could watch it now and try to understand George's complex strumming techniques.
Along with George, we heard other ukulele players on our old 78s, which played on a wind-up gramophone we had in the basement, along with performers like Mario Lanza and Benny Goodman. I never thought much about the uke as a personal instrument back then. We had a piano at home on which I learned a few things, again mostly from my father. I took accordion lessons, too, but was too small to effectively open and fold the big instrument, so my lessons ended after a few months of struggle.
It wasn't until I was in my early teens and acquired an electric guitar that I began to really learn and play music. I was in a garage band at 15 or 16, and we played rock 'n roll. Playing a uke then wouldn't have been cool. We did Beach Boys, Beatles, Donovan, Dylan, and pop stuff.
Tiny Tim came along and breathed new life into the ukulele in the late 1960s, but as a novelty act. Teenagers were not big on being novelty - it clashed with cool - so I didn't pick up on it while Tiny Tim was around, either. It took another 40 or so years to gain a real appreciation of this instrument (and in passing of Tiny Tim's real talent). Unfortunate, since I think I could have enjoyed it much earlier - I experimented with a wide range of instruments including sitar, dulcimer, banjo, mandolin, autoharp, various wind instruments, keyboards and others over the years. I might have settled down and practiced more on a single instrument - even might have become reasonably good - had I found and stuck to the ukulele.
I wish my father had lived long enough for me to be able to play him one of his own tunes on the uke. That would have completed a circle. He would have liked that, I think.
Ah well, it's here now and I'm enjoying myself and I'm learning new things on it almost every day. It drives Susan just a little crazy, all this plinking and plucking, but she's becoming tolerant of (or immune to...) my efforts. And I'm gradually getting better. But that's not what matters. It's whether it's still fun and a learning experience. When it ceases to be both, that's when I start to look for another hobby. Somehow I think this one will be here for a while.[/indent]
