Story of My Life

Wailing away on my new Tenor.  It's fun, takes a little getting used to.  Whereas with the Pineapple uke, I can just pivot my thunb to get the chords, with this bigger axe I have to slide a bit -- which is a little more difficult because holding the body take a bit of getting used to.

New Uke!

Makai TK-55 -- special thanks to Dan at http://amusicconnection.com/, who has a living room full of stringed instruments in sAn Mateo.

There were at least 3 $1609 ukes that I was willing to go into financial hoc for, but I didn't feel getting my electricity shut off, so I went with the $89 TK-55 and saved myself about 70 bucks

Hacking away

This is me dicking around

Revisiting Old Songs

There's a little improvement -- especially, Tonight You Belong to Me.

Wish I could sing a little better, kind of flat but oh well.

Anarchy in the U.K. (or my troubles with the D-Chord)

I think its just the width of the neck on my pineapple uke, but I have some major D-Chord issues, as evident from this rendition of my favorite non-American punk song.

Chord combonations (or, where I expose my ignorance on music theory)

Starting to notice a link between certain chords. 

S, I learned that Dm+G7+C is a common turnaround on uke, and it pops up in all sorts of places -- I'm trying to learn You Got a Friend In Me and it ends the verses.

Other chord combos I'm noticing:

G->C -- Hotel Yorba, Story of My Life

More later on this subject.

Hold Me Now

For some reaosn, I'm becoming obsessed with playing 80's pop songs and mod rock on the uke. Actually, the reaosn is not all together elusive -- I'm currently fairly obsessed with Nouvelle Vague, and they're at their best doing 80's pop and mod in bossa nova.

I've been doing a little study of bossa nova, I think it's still above my skill level. In fact, I have a hard time singing and strumming in any other rhythm bsides that of the tempo tha tI'm sining. I hope that gets better.

Anyhoo, I present unto you: "Hold Me Now"

UkeFest -- Here I come

That Bastian of civility and class, Sparks, Nevada, can expect me on March 19th

Hotel Yorba

I find it very difficult to sing and play at the same time.  Firs tof all, using the tempalted strum patterns (up, up-down, up up or whatever) really messes with my sense of timing, so I try to sync my strum patterns up to the melody and cadence of the lyrics.

It sort of works, but I stumble a few times, as you'll be able to see on my cover of the Hotel Yorba by the White Stripes.



I don't worry too much about lyrics, at least not right now. Not like I'm auditioning for Ukulele Idol or anything.  Pretty pleased with my progess thusfar: I do have a hard time playing at a slower tempo.  My buddy tells me that's the frustrating thing about new intrument players -- we all try to play too fast.

He might have a point, but again, who cares?

The giggle at the start of the video is my five month-pregnant wife.

Not ready to share the video on FB yet, still a closet uker.

My Troubles with Chuck

Dude, chucking is hard.  I guess I have no rhythm.  I'm trying to practice, but I don't ant to subject anyone to mindless drills.

Tonight You Belong to Me

You know how when people put up videos of themselves singing and/or playing an instrument, they're all -- "Oh, this is me and I suck but who cares because I like this Depeche Mode song"?

Well, I'm not that guy. 

I will tell you that this is the best that anyone has ever played this song on a ukulele in the whole world ever and if you disagree with me then I will steal your wallet and charge your credit cards to the max with orders for Time Life books about The Spanish-American War.  And send all of the books to your 10th grade History teacher with a note that says that you have always been madly in love with him/her.

So, this is the song I've played the most in the 4 or 5 months since I've started playing the Hawaiian lute, and it is one that I'll probably revisit every so often as a mark of my progress on this little damned little thingy..

Songs I know on Uke

In August, I got and started to learn the most delightful instrument I've ever run across -- a Makai PK-55 pineapple ukulele

I love this little damn thing -- after spending a little more than 2 years learning guitar, I found this remarkably easy to pick up and strum. 

I'v already learned several songs (in one form or another):

Mele Kalikimaka
Tonight You Belong To Me (from The Jerk)
Hotel Yorba
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Hold Me Now