Any ukulele experts?

[Dave5N]

RT, I was trying to find out when/where you're playing next, but my eyes hurt now after looking at your website!

Do you have a gig list?

 

[Arch]

Hey, cheers everyone! OK, I went and bought the cheapo one - I realise it may be false economy, but I do know that I have a tendency to lose interest in a thing after a while, so didn't want to spend much. If I want to upgrade, I can give it to Oli to play with. I got a very basic little 'learn to' book and I've mastered several chords (having had a go at the guitar before might have helped - not that I was ever that much good at it), albeit with some rather clunky changes between them at the moment, and now I just need to wait for my dainty fingertips to toughen up, so that I'm not in so much agony. Or just play through it....

I think my main limitation is strumming - since that's not something you do on a violin, I'm not capable of much beyond down, down, down, down etc. Any tips on mastering the different rhythms? (I realise that 'practise!' is probably the best tip...) Bobg - thanks for the offer, if you can think of anything general that will help, that would be great - if I think of any specific questions, I'll pm you....

My mother has forbidden me to play any Formby in her presence, she can't stand him....

I'm listening to the Uke Orchestra again now - they are inspirational! Had a quick look at their website, if I have any Christmas money, I might get an album...

 

[Dave Davenport]

The Ukulele Orchestra of GB are great, going to see them Friday.

 

[Arch]

oh, lucky you. No dates near me yet...

Although they are in Leicester in Feb, could go home to my Mum's for a couple of days....

 

[PrettyboyTim]

I have a couple of Ukuleles - a £12 special like yours and a more expensive one (£45?). The main problem with the really cheap ones is that they tend not to be fully in tune with themselves which can make tuning them tricky. However, the fantastic thing about cheap ukuleles is that you can just bung 'em in your backpack and take them places without having to worry too much about them getting damaged. Ditto for letting small children play with them.

A fun place to look at is Brook Adam's site, which has loads of songs translated into easy Ukulele format for you. I learned to play 'Live and Let Die' from there, which is a lot of fun.

Another good site is Pineapple Pete's School of Ukulele

There was some other really cool uke songs site, but I can't find it at the moment...

 

[PrettyboyTim]

Oh, also there's a great little Ukulele Blues Workshop on how to play blues on the Uke. It's 10 minutes long and can get you started on really simple blues very quickly.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

RT, I was trying to find out when/where you're playing next, but my eyes hurt now after looking at your website!

Do you have a gig list?

We're on Radio Shropshire on Sunday night at 8pm (ish). You can find it at 96FM, or (more likely where you are) at www.bbc.co.uk/radioshropshire We're on the Sunday Folk programme, but it's very rare we play anything which could be classed as folk music.

 

[Dave5N]

Ta. ANy gigs? I haven't been to see anything live fer ages.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Ta. ANy gigs? I haven't been to see anything live fer ages.

Erm ... 1st April we're supporting someone or other at The Robin 2 in Bilston. That should be a good gig as we normally aim to blow the headline act off the stage. Otherwise, we're at the Chindit on Merridale Road in Wolverhampton on April 17th. It'd be nice to meet you, I might even buy you a beer.

 

[Dave5N]

Erm ... 1st April we're supporting someone or other at The Robin 2 in Bilston. That should be a good gig as we normally aim to blow the headline act off the stage. Otherwise, we're at the Chindit on Merridale Road in Wolverhampton on April 17th. It'd be nice to meet you, I might even buy you beers all night.

Great. I'll be there prompt at 3pm.

 

[Amanda P]

More gigs. (Not the Rhythm Thieves, though).

 

[Fnaar]

My son bought a black flying V uke from http://www.dangleberrymusic.co.uk/ on their eBay shop.

I like the quote on that website "a ukelele isn't just a comedy small guitar, you know"
I had a uke for a few years in my late teens/early 20s (I was going through an 'experimental' stage, let's say... I also tried a 'tache for a bit, and smoking a pipe... i got over it in the end )
Never really learned to play properly, sad to say, but i wasn't too bad; I have absolutely no idea what happened to the instrument...

 

[abchandler]

Aimed at guitars I know, but strumming techniques/rhythms/patterns are covered on justinguitar.com

 

[Arch]

Aimed at guitars I know, but strumming techniques/rhythms/patterns are covered on justinguitar.com

Cheers, that's helpful. I've found that I can do more complicated strumming (than simple down, down, down, down) for a bit, but only until I think about it, and then it goes wrong. Note to self: stop thinking!

I'll have to try and work through a few online workshops - the blues one looks fun, but the trouble is, I don't have internet at home, so I'd have to bring the Uke into the department, and find a time when no one was trying to work in here!

(ot, but related. I'm sure I've seen that you can download a video off youtube. How? Do you need special software?)