Ever encountered guitarists who are snobby towards the uke?

Andy Chen said:

And what do you say to them?

Click to expand...

Does a bear poop in the woods?



I say nothing to them. Not worth it.

Bill1 said:

The answer is relatively simple. Most guitarists can easily hear how bad your toy grade uke is and recognise the fact that you have been too lazy to learn much about music.
They enjoy coming along to ukulele group because it is totally recreational and not serious, when they want serious they go to a group that has a background knowledge of music and use instruments that are well beyond toy grade.
If you want to be taken seriously, get a serious instrument and put in some work learning about music and how to play seriously. It is no use dreaming that you can answer the guitarist with a jake like tune, you actually need to do the work to learn how to play it. Then you will probably be invited to join several bands or groups and they wont care what instrument you play.

Click to expand...

Sage and wise words indeed .......

It has been quite a few months since I last posted on this thread, and I have yet to run into a guitar snob who puts down ukes, but I've sure run into plenty of ukulele snobs who like to put down other ukulele players.

Rllink said:

It has been quite a few months since I last posted on this thread, and I have yet to run into a guitar snob who puts down ukes, but I've sure run into plenty of ukulele snobs who like to put down other ukulele players.

Click to expand...

...Even sager and wiser ones ..two thumbs up there..

I have been involved in making music most of my life. People including musicians, and tone deaf or rhythmically dysfunctional musicians have put down my efforts all to often. (This goes beyond the music world as well). For many years I took this critical crap to heart. Listen to what these idiots say, there may be some valid criticism, but most of it is simple ignorance. After they have had their say ignore them. "Illegitimi non carborundum". The girls here understand. "Live with it". It doesn't change the fact that you are you, and as such a valid human being.

Bill1 has some solid advice: http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?p=1598768#post1598768 , but it isn't necessary to "be taken seriously". I am an entertainer, not being taken seriously is frequently advantageous. I don't want to play like Jake either. I want to play like me.

When I am confronted with gratuitous put-down artists and I've reached the limits of tolerance I say: "Other people have opinions. I have values. I play the Ukulele".

Andy Chen said:

An otherwise nice guy told me once he doesn't think singers who accompany themselves on the uke are musicians. Such a line of thinking completely baffles me.

Click to expand...

I only would get annoyed if it was a comment coming from a person I respect. The world is full of people who know nothing but get off showing others how stupid they are.
Think for yourself.
Remember, don't drink the kool-aid even if they tell you it tastes good and sometimes the "emperor does not have clothes no matter how many people tell you he does."

Don't know any guitarists...including myself...

your talent level won't impress them. Think Tiny Tim. Got ridiculed for being "funny" or "odd" but is much more talented than I am or even might ever become. An anti bias is just ignorance and it won't be budged. Don't matter if they are guitarists, ukers or what not.

calling them toys is crazy to me. I come from flint michigan and there are hard times. people do their best with what they got. I think the talking down is not only snobbish but a bit elitist/gauche. Definitely not aloha spirited.

Music is music. Don't matter the price of the instrument or even if you own one. Some fine drumming can be done on a 5 gallon bucket for instance or a 2 dollar kazoo.

My goodness you are a tolerant bunch.

What about =u[< o££ 4R$$401E

Bill1 said:

In addition to my recent post.
Personally, i do not play the ukulele to be taken seriously. I play it for recreation and to please myself, i really don't care what so called "guitar players" think. Obviously some of them are actually good musicians and i would not bother getting my ukulele out of its case if i have the chance to sit and listen and enjoy their playing. Most ukulele players don't really want to learn much about music either because they are very busy with life or they really don't have a need to learn much about music. Recreational music is not necessarily about playing well or musical knowledge, although it can be for some, it is about recreating, socialising, enjoying life doing something you may be really bad at, but you love doing it and so on.
But i posted my comment for those who are stupid or brave enough to try and compete with them. Unless you do some hard work like they have done, you are never going to be able to compete with them and a good thing to do is recognize your own limits and know when to sit down and be quiet so you might learn something.

Click to expand...

...So you are dissing the ukelele then ??..

I actually do take it bloody seriously ..(I don't expect or want ME to be taken seriously ...F*** That)

I may play the uke like someone killing snakes with a rock ..but I do that to all my instruments..and I may be as daft as a brush with no bristles, but I always try and work hard to produce the goods as well as I am able and get right peed off if I cannot..........

People need to just get used to the fact that not all musicians are necessarily nice people..there will always be good natured rivalry and piss taking ..and then there will be the genuinely snide and there will inevitably be the lofty intellectuals who will look down on others who play less "sophisticated " music...(actually the usual answer to them is nick their scores ..they are then generally buggered ):biglaugh: They also stride these cyber corridors..and they are "fellow" ukers..
So ...basically .....be yourselves ...play what you play,play how you play, live and let live and remember ...some people are Dicks and not because their name is Richard....sorry girls and ladies but I cannot think of a name that works in quite the same way for your lovelinesses.....

Bill1..nice one..I get what you are saying ...some may disagree...but I get it.

Hey, this thread has come to life again...

The one thing that nobody has touched upon is that the VAST MAJORITY of “guitar players” kind of suck as musicians. They are no better or worse (on average) than players of any instrument, so the old 80/20 rule pretty much applies. The one glaring difference, however, is that guitar players are more likely to have had lessons, at some point. This is mostly due to the fact that String Monkeys are so common in the wild that finding a teacher is pretty easy. Unfortunately, those handful of lessons (again, a good 80% of guitar players don’t stick to the lessons very long) seem to imbue mediocre guitarists with a sense of superiority.

The other dirty little secret is that large numbers of guitarists see playing the instrument as some type of competition. The culture of “Guitar Gods get the chicks” is ludicrous, but considerably warps wannabe musician’s minds. It is this group that is most likely to make snide remarks about your ukulele. Not because they are super great guitarists, but because they are insecure and need to put others down.

The truth is, the truly good guitar players are musicians first and foremost. They do not care if you play a diddley bow or a harp guitar. They just want you to make some music.

As for Bill1’s comment regarding the social aspects of ukulele - I completely agree. A fellow member of our local ukulele group asked me recently why I was part of the group, since my skill set was way beyond that of most of the other members. “What do you get out of it,” she asked. The answer was simple... I go to the meets to have fun making music and socializing with people from a variety of backgrounds. That is enough for me. (If I wanted to show off my chops, I would just sit in with the Berklee kids at Wally’s Jazz Club... but where is the fun in that?)

On conclusion... everybody just do you. It is your birthright as a human to make music Do it any GD way you want.

Psssst Wicked ...what am the 80/20 rule :anyone:? and shhhhh don't let on that I don't know...







They're behind me aren't they ?:uhoh:

JoeJazz2000 said:

Great thread; reminds me a bit of a thread over at the Slide Meister forum on the perception that the chromatic harmonica was a toy. The discussion went on for page after page. I can tell you, as a jazz guitarist with 45+ years of playing and study, taking up the uke has really broadened my playing of stringed instrument playing. I see chords on the uke that never used on the guitar, even when focusing on comping on the high strings. In jazz you strive to improvise, including rhythm. Well, I've picked up more rhythmic ideas in two years on the uke than from a shelf full of swing and bebop comping books. I've worked out wonderful, swinging arrangements of tunes on the uke using strum patterns I don't use or even try on guitar. Being an experienced guitarist gave me a jumpstart on the uke, but playing the uke as its own distinct instrument has made me a better musician. Guitarists who are snobby about the uke are 1. missing out on a wonderful musical experience that is SO accessible to them, and 2. idiots.

Click to expand...

Over the course of some 40 years of being a singer/guitarist mostly solo and sometimes in small bands, I'd actually never come across a Ukulele. The first time I did I loved the look of it. Given that in GCEA it represents strings 1 to 4 on a guitar from the fifth fret down, my first "uke" was one of my guitars with a capo on the fifth fret. A couple of days later I had my first Uke. Like JoeJazz2000 here, I discovered so many more innovative ways of strumming the Uke than I ever did with a guitar, mainly because I can ditch the plectrum. For me it has always been about entertaining and I've had way more fun with that since I started playing the Uke. Mainly because I have a whole group of people playing with me, including guitarists. As JoeJazz points out the world of the Uke was so accessible to me I am very pleased to have found it, and absolutely love using it to share music with lots of people, many of them completely new to playing music.

Interesting thread. As someone who considers himself a guitarist (not a good one), mandolinist (worse than guitar), banjo player (the neighbors are petitioning against my play) and ukulele player (not bad, but nowhere near traditional), i've learned there are good folk, okay folk and a few downright waste-of-oxygen types.

The good folk are at all skill levels on all instruments, and are the most tolerant and gracious. The okay folk just stay out of everyone's way. The W-O-O types are logo-conscious, snobbish and will go out of their way to be obnoxious - and no amount of "training" will ever change them

Bottom line: half the people you meet are below average (by whatever criteria you have) and a quarter of them may not be worth feeding, let alone paying any attention to their self-righteous dribble. If those slugs happen to play guitar as well, it just shows that anything can happen.

Time to get out the banjo....

CeeJay said:

Psssst Wicked ...what am the 80/20 rule :anyone:? and shhhhh don't let on that I don't know...

Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

Don't worry, it will be our little secret...

In this case, I'm estimating 20% of the guitarists play well, 80% do not.

One thing you could tell snobby guitarists that's absolutely true, is that it take a much finer ear to tune the shorter strings of the Ukulele properly, particularly with peg tuners.

Do you mean those bloody awful wooden things that you have to ease out of their holes and hold firmly whilst you put them back before you take them out to retune before you put them back before you take them out to retune them to put them back before you take them out again ...then p**s off and play the piano.....those pegs ??

ld:

SteveZ said:

Interesting thread. As someone who considers himself a guitarist (not a good one), mandolinist (worse than guitar), banjo player (the neighbors are petitioning against my play) and ukulele player (not bad, but nowhere near traditional), i've learned there are good folk, okay folk and a few downright waste-of-oxygen types.

The good folk are at all skill levels on all instruments, and are the most tolerant and gracious. The okay folk just stay out of everyone's way. The W-O-O types are logo-conscious, snobbish and will go out of their way to be obnoxious - and no amount of "training" will ever change them

Bottom line: half the people you meet are below average (by whatever criteria you have) and a quarter of them may not be worth feeding, let alone paying any attention to their self-righteous dribble. If those slugs happen to play guitar as well, it just shows that anything can happen.

Time to get out the banjo....

Click to expand...

I've always considered myself a mediocre musician.It's a long step up from not being a musician. Not knocking anyone here you understand but "In the land of the blind.... The lame lead the blind". Hey Steve my UAS just spread. I just ordered an Eastman Whyte Laydie. Made per 1904 specs except for modern tuners. Always wanted one. and I'd burst if I didn't let it out.

ive actually met more guitar players transition to playing only the ukulele more then there guitar. but not the opposite.