What is an unpopular/controversial opinion you have regarding the ukulele?

[Pyewacket]

@ukudancer @Nickie

I had actually forgotten - not who Fred MacMurray was, but how he had influenced me.

In my era, girls were not allowed to play brass, including sax which is actually a brass woodwind. So when I got to school band age, I was not allowed to play the sax, which was my fondest desire. I was only "allowed" by the band teacher (who was a clarinetist) to play either flute or clarinet (well plus piccolo or oboe, but those were even less desirable to me than the flute). I chose clarinet as it is sort of sax-y sounding, but my mother nixed that for being "unseemly" - I was a couple of decades away from understanding where THAT came from. So I ended up on the flute.

What has this to do with Fred MacMurray you may ask? Well he played the sax piece that was the theme for "My Three Sons" and I loved that piece. That's where a girl born in the 50s got the itch to learn to play sax.

Ukulele - not so much. Sorry! My dad did have an ukulele, but he never had time to play it. I would occasionally pull it out and pick at the strings, but it did not create in me an urge toward learning the ukulele. It was the era of the folk guitar. (My dad, btw, was like a really handsome version of Fred MacMurray - so a little extra oomph to the ability of Fred MacMurray to be an influencer for me).

But back to Fred MacMurray - if you don't recognize him from his more serious work (such as The Apartment with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine) he was the original Flubber professor in the original Disney Flubber movies, also the protagonist of Disney's Shaggy Dog. The original Flubber movies were WAY WAY better than the remake. Just sayin'.

 

[ripock]

That reminds me of some hilarious research. I am a philologist and one of my specialties is the ancient whore. Something that is interesting is that in the ancient world "good girls" didn't play woodwinds. There seems to be a very prominent connection with playing the skin flute and playing the nickel concert flute! Good girls played lyres...until they were married. Not really germane but fun facts. By the way, what is "pyewacket"? In the 90's I went to a nice restaurant of that name which locals told me was a place where the gay community met. I don't know about that or how it affected my soup consumption. But wasn't pyewacket a literary cat?

 

[Sea]

Can I contribute a potentially controversial view about music in general? I think that US names for musical notes are too on the nose. Whilst I agree that eighth notes, quarter notes and half notes are universally easy to understand, I just can’t help but feel that the fun of saying play a ‘hemidemisemiquaver’ makes the UK system of naming instantly superior

 

[Pyewacket]

That reminds me of some hilarious research. I am a philologist and one of my specialties is the ancient whore. Something that is interesting is that in the ancient world "good girls" didn't play woodwinds. There seems to be a very prominent connection with playing the skin flute and playing the nickel concert flute! Good girls played lyres...until they were married. Not really germane but fun facts. By the way, what is "pyewacket"? In the 90's I went to a nice restaurant of that name which locals told me was a place where the gay community met. I don't know about that or how it affected my soup consumption. But wasn't pyewacket a literary cat?

Pyewacket was the name of the cat in the book "Bell, Book, and Candle". A movie was made in the late 50s starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. Jack Lemmon played Kim Novak's brother. I think the two male leads were superbly cast, but I did NOT feel Kim Novak was a good choice for that part. She played it far too slyly. Audrey Hepburn, to my mind, would have been the perfect choice. And she was only 4 years older than Kim Novak, while Jimmy Stewart was 14 years older than Hepburn and 18 years older than Kim Novak. Reading the book first (several times) probably "spoiled" it for me. I had my own ideas about how that character would behave LOL!

I ended up with the moniker because a school mate was trying to insult me. She went to one of those fire-and-brimstone churches that was rife with all sort of weird superstitions (weird even for the 60s) where they apparently still believed in witchcraft. One Sunday the preacher's sermon was all about the Debbil in movies, like the Wizard of Oz and Bell, Book and Candle (which was a relatively new movie at the time). So she took to taunting me with the name "Pyewacket". It really pissed her off - and totally confused her - when I adopted it readily. Loved the book. Did not feel the slightest bit insulted to be named after such a Cool Cat.

 

[Dave Holiday]

Pyewacket was the name of the cat in the book "Bell, Book, and Candle". A movie was made in the late 50s starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. Jack Lemmon played Kim Novak's brother. I think the two male leads were superbly cast, but I did NOT feel Kim Novak was a good choice for that part. She played it far too slyly. Audrey Hepburn, to my mind, would have been the perfect choice. And she was only 4 years older than Kim Novak, while Jimmy Stewart was 14 years older than Hepburn and 18 years older than Kim Novak. Reading the book first (several times) probably "spoiled" it for me. I had my own ideas about how that character would behave LOL!

I ended up with the moniker because a school mate was trying to insult me. She went to one of those fire-and-brimstone churches that was rife with all sort of weird superstitions (weird even for the 60s) where they apparently still believed in witchcraft. One Sunday the preacher's sermon was all about the Debbil in movies, like the Wizard of Oz and Bell, Book and Candle (which was a relatively new movie at the time). So she took to taunting me with the name "Pyewacket". It really pissed her off - and totally confused her - when I adopted it readily. Loved the book. Did not feel the slightest bit insulted to be named after such a Cool Cat.

In the middle ages, in anti-witchraft writings such as The Witch's Hammer, the name Pyewackett is found in a discussion about witch's "familiars." Animals--often cats--that are supposed to be hosts for demons that assist and protect witches:

 

[Hoopoe]

Not about the ukulele itself, but I believe all the good players and influencers more or less come from the guitar world.

 

[Pyewacket]

@Dave Holiday

Ah, I had learned - apparently erroneously - that Pyewacket was the made-up name for a demon that one or more of the girls involved in the Salem Witch trials claimed to have seen cavorting with or at least in the general vicinity of one or more of the accused witches.. Instead it seems it was the made-up name of a made-up demon used as an excuse by the whack-job "witch finder" Matthew Hopkins to persecute some hapless woman he didn't like. She was probably Not Properly Reverent (with regard to his, in his own mind, "exalted" status).

Apparently it DOES, at least, have a New England origin. The Salem witch trials post-date the reference by nearly 50 years.

Matthew Hopkins died at age 27 of tuberculosis, just 3 years into his massively misogynistic "witch finding" campaign. Makes one think maybe there IS a god.

 

[ukudancer]

Not about the ukulele itself, but I believe all the good players and influencers more or less come from the guitar world.

I agree. I'm honestly still looking for a ukulele player that has phrasing like Martin Miller or Alex Hutchins

 

[TerryM]

What has this to do with Fred MacMurray you may ask? Well he played the sax piece that was the theme for "My Three Sons" and I loved that piece. That's where a girl born in the 50s got the itch to learn to play sax.

My Three Sons was a weekly TV event at our house. One night during the intro theme song my mom had the epiphany that the piano ditty playing in the background is the four-finger "Chopsticks" she taught all us kids to play on our old upright.

 

[ukudancer]

Not about the ukulele itself, but I believe all the good players and influencers more or less come from the guitar world.

I agree with this.

Also, I haven't really found any ukulele players with the phrasing like Martin Miller or Alex Hutchings, but then again, I haven't really been seeking them out either.

 

[Another Ukulele]

@ukudancer @Nickie

I had actually forgotten - not who Fred MacMurray was, but how he had influenced me.

In my era, girls were not allowed to play brass, including sax which is actually a brass woodwind. So when I got to school band age, I was not allowed to play the sax, which was my fondest desire. I was only "allowed" by the band teacher (who was a clarinetist) to play either flute or clarinet (well plus piccolo or oboe, but those were even less desirable to me than the flute). I chose clarinet as it is sort of sax-y sounding, but my mother nixed that for being "unseemly" - I was a couple of decades away from understanding where THAT came from. So I ended up on the flute.

What has this to do with Fred MacMurray you may ask? Well he played the sax piece that was the theme for "My Three Sons" and I loved that piece. That's where a girl born in the 50s got the itch to learn to play sax.

Ukulele - not so much. Sorry! My dad did have an ukulele, but he never had time to play it. I would occasionally pull it out and pick at the strings, but it did not create in me an urge toward learning the ukulele. It was the era of the folk guitar. (My dad, btw, was like a really handsome version of Fred MacMurray - so a little extra oomph to the ability of Fred MacMurray to be an influencer for me).

But back to Fred MacMurray - if you don't recognize him from his more serious work (such as The Apartment with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine) he was the original Flubber professor in the original Disney Flubber movies, also the protagonist of Disney's Shaggy Dog. The original Flubber movies were WAY WAY better than the remake. Just sayin'.

not so many years ago, well maybe a few decades….
women were told, “You are taking a job away from a man who needs to support his family’
certain aspects still haven’t changed.

 

[msmitty63]

I don't know if this is controversial or unpopular but I absolutely prefer high tension strings over normal or light strings. I've converted a number of my ukes to high tension strings and much prefer how they sound and feel.

 

[TBB]

Apologies to anyone who does this, and I know there are some (otherwise lovely ) people on here who do, but it drives me NUTS when people refer to their ukuleles as “she”. And as for talking about “her curves” etc… It sounds downright weird, please stop it.


Thank you for allowing me to get that off my chest.


(also guitars, cars, any other inanimate object that isn’t a ship)

 

[chris667]

Thank you for allowing me to get that off my chest.

I wanted to like this more than once. It makes my toes curl too.

 

[DuckyI]

Apologies to anyone who does this, and I know there are some (otherwise lovely ) people on here who do, but it drives me NUTS when people refer to their ukuleles as “she”. And as for talking about “her curves” etc… It sounds downright weird, please stop it.


Thank you for allowing me to get that off my chest.


(also guitars, cars, any other inanimate object that isn’t a ship)

I couldn't agree more! The connotations are very distasteful, in my personal opinion.

I also play double bass and I can't even count the number of times audience members have made the analogy between the bass and a woman - it doesn't help that it's more or less person-sized. I always tell them that to me it's just a valued tool, not something that I anthropomorphise.

 

[cletus]

Not gonna lie,but Abby (Normal) might be a name I could deal with.

 

[Pyewacket]

not so many years ago, well maybe a few decades….
women were told, “You are taking a job away from a man who needs to support his family’
certain aspects still haven’t changed.

Tell me about it. They used to tell ME exactly that, LOL! Often it was coming from some white guy (ALWAYS white, and I am white as well) with little or no education who thought they ought to have my job as a software design engineer, without them having to deal with the bother of going to college first (as I did). When I pointed out that I was supporting myself and my son as a single mother, they invariably opined that I should have stayed married. (Skipping over the parts that explain the divorce and moving along...)

Anyway. In the '80s. Which is now 40 years ago.

Where did the time go ...

40 uke-less years. Now that could be considered controversial!

 

[Neil_O]

Apologies to anyone who does this, and I know there are some (otherwise lovely ) people on here who do, but it drives me NUTS when people refer to their ukuleles as “she”. And as for talking about “her curves” etc… It sounds downright weird, please stop it.


Thank you for allowing me to get that off my chest.


(also guitars, cars, any other inanimate object that isn’t a ship)

But ships are ok? How about spaceships? Not disagreeing, just curious why this exception.

 

[TBB]

But ships are ok? How about spaceships? Not disagreeing, just curious why this exception.

Yes, ships are ok. It’s tradition, innit. Please don’t ask me to be logical or consistent.

Not sure about spaceships, I’ll give it some thought and get back to you.

 

[Dave Holiday]

not so many years ago, well maybe a few decades….
women were told, “You are taking a job away from a man who needs to support his family’
certain aspects still haven’t changed.

We are not too far away from a time when it was perfectly common for a man to haul a woman-- a daughter, sister, wife, mother, etc. to an asylum, register the complaint that she was "melancholic... or unruly... too willful... too much of a daydreamer... fantastical in thinking... not prayerful enough... not compliant enough... reads too many novels, and so on..." and commit her there. Consigning her to being drugged, chained, given ice baths, deprived of sleep, put under bizarre dietary restrictions, given over to surgical procedures up to and including lobotomies and sterilization.

It usually happened when a woman became inconvenient, or failed to live up to a man's expectations or desires.