Madeira - and I visited a luthier workshop! Machetes, rajaos....

barefootgypsy

barefootgypsy

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Yes, fellow UUers, we were away on holiday in Madeira last week, home of the machete, (braguinha) and rajao, fore-runners of the ukulele as you will probably know - and we had a surprise visit to a luthier's workshop - Carlos Jorge Pereira Rodrigues, who builds these fascinating instruments! I've been busy doing blog posts all about it, if you're interested.... see link below to the blog!
 
I like your blog, and especially the ones about the Machete. I live in Puerto Rico during the winter, and here the Cuatro and the Tiple are two stringed instruments that are very popular. Many of my friends here have suggested that I learn to play the Cuatro, but I have my hands full with the uke. Ha ha, is that a pun? Also, the Cuatro is somewhat limited in what you can play, or perhaps what is available to play especially outside of PR. Anyway, I enjoyed reading your blog, and you can count me in as a follower from now on.
 
@Rllink - Thanks a lot, I'm glad you got something out of it - and thanks for becoming a follower, I do appreciate that! I do believe there are some players on here who play the Cuatro... :)
 
barefootgypsy said:
Yes, fellow UUers, we were away on holiday in Madeira last week, home of the machete, (braguinha) and rajao, fore-runners of the ukulele as you will probably know - and we had a surprise visit to a luthier's workshop - Carlos Jorge Pereira Rodrigues, who builds these fascinating instruments! I've been busy doing blog posts all about it, if you're interested.... see link below to the blog!
Click to expand...

That's very cool. I envy your adventures there. Unfortunately, here in China I am blocked from seeing your blog.

I have the "Collection of Pieces for Machete" and have played through some of the material on uke. I love it all very much. And I often wonder, "hey, are there 20th or even 21st century compositions for the Machete?" I mean it doesn't make sense to me that the Madeirans would simply stop playing/composing for it after the late 19th century. Did you get a sense of any such music?
 
Luke El U said:
That's very cool. I envy your adventures there. Unfortunately, here in China I am blocked from seeing your blog.

I have the "Collection of Pieces for Machete" and have played through some of the material on uke. I love it all very much. And I often wonder, "hey, are there 20th or even 21st century compositions for the Machete?" I mean it doesn't make sense to me that the Madeirans would simply stop playing/composing for it after the late 19th century. Did you get a sense of any such music?
Click to expand...
I do believe that the players Roberto Moniz and Roberto Moritz are keeping the music of the machete alive, and it is a living instrument in Madeira! Roberto Moniz certainly has video'd some original pieces - I would think he would be using traditional DGBD tuning. Some of his stuff is on Vimeo rather than Youtube, but I should think he can be contacted. It's a shame you can't see my blog in China.... can you get Youtube and Vimeo?
 
Very cool to be able to see the ancestors of the ukulele being built--they look so similar!
 
wayfarer75 said:
Very cool to be able to see the ancestors of the ukulele being built--they look so similar!
Click to expand...
They do look virtually the same!

@Luke El U - this poster has just gone up in Funchal - you'll see that it's saying that these performers will be performing some 21st century pieces!machete funchal poster.jpg
 
barefootgypsy said:
@Luke El U - this poster has just gone up in Funchal - you'll see that it's saying that these performers will be performing some 21st century pieces!View attachment 76195
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! Now, I'm really curious as to these 21st century compositions. Last week I wrote to this address: aferam.madeira@gmail.com
asking about new Machete music. I wasn't sure at the time I sent it, but now I think that might be the address for Mr. Moniz or Mr. Moritz. I haven't received
any response yet, but will let you know if/when I do.

At work we have an effective VPN that breaks through the Great Firewall of China, so yes there I can check out the YouTube and Vimeo vids, and hopefully your blog, when Chinese New Year vacation is over. Happy Year of the Sheep (or is that a Goat?)!
 
Luke El U said:
Thanks for the tip! Now, I'm really curious as to these 21st century compositions. Last week I wrote to this address: aferam.madeira@gmail.com
asking about new Machete music. I wasn't sure at the time I sent it, but now I think that might be the address for Mr. Moniz or Mr. Moritz. I haven't received
any response yet, but will let you know if/when I do.

At work we have an effective VPN that breaks through the Great Firewall of China, so yes there I can check out the YouTube and Vimeo vids, and hopefully your blog, when Chinese New Year vacation is over. Happy Year of the Sheep (or is that a Goat?)!
Click to expand...
Great stuff, Happy New (Chinese) Year to you too, (and Happy Sunday.....) and I hope you get a response from your inquiries! :)
 
Finally got a chance to check out your blog - very cool! Thanks for sharing.
 
I had meant to chime in here - got distracted. Luke, did the strings ever make it to you?

We have on our Open tuning pages a modern composition. At one time I knew who wrote it. Now I'm not sure, but the names Gypsy mentioned sound familiar.

Not sure what sort of music you're looking for, but we also posted on the Open Tuning Tips page an instructional video from TV Cifras for "Carinhoso". Go to YouTube and search TV Cifras Cavaquinho and you'll get close to 200 songs. Instruction includes tab, so knowledge of Portuguese is not really needed.
 
Cool blog, Lesley. Madeira has been on my list of must visit places for ages and if I go I now know an absolutely MUST visit stop ;)

Did you visit the cliffs -or have you no head for heights?

I play a couple of my ukes in open G (DGBD) on a few of my videos. See especially the ones where I use the Resonator and a slide. Were his instruments expensive?
 
Great blog, I've added it to my bookmarked reading list :)
 
southcoastukes said:
I had meant to chime in here - got distracted. Luke, did the strings ever make it to you?

We have on our Open tuning pages a modern composition. At one time I knew who wrote it. Now I'm not sure, but the names Gypsy mentioned sound familiar.

Not sure what sort of music you're looking for, but we also posted on the Open Tuning Tips page an instructional video from TV Cifras for "Carinhoso". Go to YouTube and search TV Cifras Cavaquinho and you'll get close to 200 songs. Instruction includes tab, so knowledge of Portuguese is not really needed.
Click to expand...

Hello Dirk,

Thank you for asking, but no, the strings never made it to me. And I was so bummed because I pretty sure the fault lies with my former school to which I had you send them. I was also expecting some mail from Montana at the same time and it also was missing. That summer the school had some reconstruction in the area where they usually put mail. In addition, the secretary who had been monitoring the mail quit her job, so nobody knows anything. :(

Thanks for trying and for the Youtube Cifras tip, however. I will definitely check that out.

Bill
 
Barbablanca said:
Cool blog, Lesley. Madeira has been on my list of must visit places for ages and if I go I now know an absolutely MUST visit stop ;)

Did you visit the cliffs -or have you no head for heights?

I play a couple of my ukes in open G (DGBD) on a few of my videos. See especially the ones where I use the Resonator and a slide. Were his instruments expensive?
Click to expand...
Hi Bernie! Thanks for those kind comments about the blog, much appreciated! About Carlos's instruments - I don't know what his prices are. But he's on facebook, if you are.... you could message him to find out! Otherwise I have an email address for him if you wanted to ask him that way.

Cliffs - I'm okay with heights if there's a fence! And we did visit some amazingly high places! I do recommend you go there - it's stunning!
 
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