What is "Ukulele music"?

I've been thinking about something said in another thread.
The implication that high G is for "ukulele music" and low G is for wanna be guitar. Granted.. that's a bit of an exaggeration of what was said, but that's still the core of an idea that I've heard before.

So... what makes something "Ukulele Music"?

Jake, a Japanese Hawaiian American, playing a British band cover about a guitar on an instrument invented by the Portuguese, that isn't a guitar, is definitely "ukulele music", but I have no idea why other than it was played on an Uke.

What makes something "ukulele music" vs.. not?

spookelele said:

I've been thinking about something said in another thread.
The implication that high G is for "ukulele music" and low G is for wanna be guitar.

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Huh, I think I missed that thread. I play both low G and reentrant, yet I play neither "ukulele music" nor "wanna-be guitar." I just play music. Or, try to

spookelele said:

What makes something "ukulele music" vs.. not?

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I'll be looking forward to the replies on this one - I'm going to guess that it will vary by generation and by general perception. To me (tail end of the baby boom), when I think "ukulele music" I think of really stereotypical stuff: Tiny Tim of course, hapa haole standards like Blue Hawaii, Tin Pan Alley. I tend to avoid playing any of that unless it actually has merit on its own as "music" rather than "ukulele music."

When I listen to music played by others on ukulele, again, to me it's just music. My favorite players are Ohta-San and John King, and I wouldn't say either one of them plays "ukulele music" even though they happen to be making music on a ukulele.

ETA: as for Jake - I wouldn't consider that "ukulele music" either; same goes for the whole "shredder" generation of rockers whose instrument of choice just happens to be ukulele.

If you play it on an ukulele, it is ukulele music.

Or, more importantly, it is music played on an ukulele.

And that is it. I play ukulele; I don't play "ukulele music".

(As Peter Shickele use to quote Duke Ellington, "If it sounds good, it is good.")

janeray1940 said:

When I listen to music played by others on ukulele, again, to me it's just music. My favorite players are Ohta-San and John King, and I wouldn't say either one of them plays "ukulele music" even though they happen to be making music on a ukulele.

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:agree: This is the essence of it to me. ^^^

spookelele said:

I've been thinking about something said in another thread.
The implication that high G is for "ukulele music" and low G is for wanna be guitar. Granted.. that's a bit of an exaggeration of what was said, but that's still the core of an idea that I've heard before.

So... what makes something "Ukulele Music"?

Jake, a Japanese Hawaiian American, playing a British band cover about a guitar on an instrument invented by the Portuguese, that isn't a guitar, is definitely "ukulele music", but I have no idea why other than it was played on an Uke.

What makes something "ukulele music" vs.. not?

Click to expand...

Your observations are interesting. I thought that it had more to do with the characteristics of the individual instruments and their tuning, not with what music one plays on them?

It's the sound that comes out when you play the ukulele.

spookelele said:

Is definitely "ukulele music", but I have no idea why other than it was played on an Uke.

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I think you just answered your own question.

I spent the evening playing some French and German music. Yesterday, I worked on the fingerpicking pattern for Mad World. All are ukulele music to me.

ukulele music is any music played on the ukulele

next question, please . . .

I was thinking about this a couple weeks back, mostly when I pondered the different sizes. In general, I agree with Janeray's take (music is music), but "ukulele music" does imply a specific sub-category of it.

What I would call "ukulele music" are pieces that were specifically written for the ukulele, with the ukulele's traditional (that is: re-entrant) tuning and the instrument's anatomy in mind. This would include campanella, wide stretches that can't be performed on the guitar, making use of the unique tonal qualities stemming from the small size, and so forth.

Jake playing those rock pieces on the ukulele isn't "ukulele music" to me, just music he plays on the ukulele, but that wasn't originally intended for this instrument. A friend to whom I showed the Gently Weeps video said to me, "It's neat, but it sounds better on a real guitar."

There aren't many composers yet that write new music specifically for the ukulele, but I believe this will eventually become more common.

Luke El U said:

ukulele music is any music played on the ukulele
. . .

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It's the perfect answer.

Yeah, it's pretty much anything that can be played on the ukulele and sounds like music to your ears.

Adding on to that, though, I feel like you have the "oldies" like Ohta-san and Bill Tapia, the "classics" like Pure Heart and Three Plus, and the "contemporaries" like Kalei Gamiao and Kolohe Kai. To me, they all sound like different variations of "ukulele music" xD

Spookelele’s question is probably referring to an amalgam of these two posts;

Otherwise when strumming, the high G means that you always end a strum on a high note. It gives a different effect than on a guitar. I have recently restrung a concert uke low G and I'm not sure about it. On some songs it seems to work but on others it just doesn't seem right to me. I reckon it's a function of what you're used to and I was not a guitar player so reentrant sounds right and for me is the "proper" ukulele sound.

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I come to uke from 40+years of guitar. I am not looking for a 4-string guitar. I mostly play bari and always re-entrant. I play uke music, mostly fingerpicking, mostly campanella, which is perfect for re-entrant uke. I actually just play regular uke instrumentals on the bari and ignore that it's a fifth down.
I have a friend who was a bass player and now has taken up the uke. He strings linear and mostly plays rock stuff and no actual uke music. It's pretty clear to me that he is not interested in ukes - he just wants a guitar with fewer strings so he can play guitar stuff. That's fine if that's what he wants, but I don't "convert guitar" stuff to the uke - I play uke stuff. Otherwise just buy a tenor guitar and be done.

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…which are both from a thread titled “Help me understand re-entrant tuning.”

From time to time, there are posts here which espouse some sort of anti-anything different mentality. Sometimes it’s anti-baritone, sometimes it’s anti-tenor. Lately it’s been anti-low G, or anti-DGBE on anything other than a baritone, and even anti-low tension strings. There have been several threads recently where people have implied that if you don’t play re-entrant GCEA then you’re not really playing an ‘ukulele.

Enough with the schisms already.

Futurethink said:

There have been several threads recently where people have implied that if you don’t play re-entrant GCEA then you’re not really playing an ‘ukulele.

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It's a compelling argument.

Labels and names exist to describe and group together "things" that share a set of attributes unique to them. These defining aspects need to be distinctive enough to separate these "things" from other "things" that may be similar, but that are, in a more or less fundamental way, different. A butterfly is not the same thing as a moth.

There is nothing inherently bad or wrong about definitions, or things being different. Problems arise when you start to assign "values", or comparative qualities, to these definitions or differences, such as saying that a re-entrant soprano is a "better" instrument than a linear tuned baritone, but I think it's perfectly fine to say that they are different instruments.

To me, a linear tuned baritone isn't really a ukulele; it's either a tenor guitar or its own thing. That isn't "anti"-anything, because I don't feel that a re-entrant ukulele is better (or worse) than a baritone with linear tuning. Not all instruments with four strings are in the same family of instruments. Re-entrant tuning is, to me, a significant attribute of the traditional ukulele, and a major element that separates this particular instrument from other small, four-stringed instruments. It's not the only defining feature, but (again: to me) one of the core ones.

Whether that is relevant on a practical level (making music) is a different topic. It may also simply not matter, at least outside of our academic discussions and marketing.

The only ukulele music would be music specifically written/arranged in tab form for the ukulele fretboard, otherwise, it is just music.

spookelele said:

I've been thinking about something said in another thread.
The implication that high G is for "ukulele music" and low G is for wanna be guitar.

Click to expand...

Every hobby forum has its 'true believers'. The rest of us are the great unwashed. Not surprisingly, this forum has a small House Select Committee on Un-Ukulele Activities, which convenes whenever "reentrant" or "low g" is mentioned. Maybe I'm totally off base, but the Uke purists seem to me to be very inexperienced with other instruments and music in general.

I'm so drawn to the ukulele because it can play everything from renaissance folk music to delta blues, to kitchy hula stuff, and everything in between. And to me it does it in a way no guitar ever could, regardless of what tuning or strings I use. "Guitar wannabe"? LOL, when I play a guitar that sounds and feels even remotely like a uke, I'll let you know. After 30 years of playing guitars, I doubt that'll ever happen.

Futurethink said:

Spookelele’s question is probably referring to an amalgam of these two posts;


…which are both from a thread titled “Help me understand re-entrant tuning.”

From time to time, there are posts here which espouse some sort of anti-anything different mentality. Sometimes it’s anti-baritone, sometimes it’s anti-tenor. Lately it’s been anti-low G, or anti-DGBE on anything other than a baritone, and even anti-low tension strings. There have been several threads recently where people have implied that if you don’t play re-entrant GCEA then you’re not really playing an ‘ukulele.

Enough with the schisms already.

Click to expand...

As one of those quoted in the post above, I just want to make it clear I was not being anti anything. Simply stating a preference and also one of the characteristics that makes, for me, a ukulele distinctive from other plucked string instruments.

I have read somewhere that low G appeared early on in the ukulele's life so it's nothing new and I know many people really like it. As the strings on my concert uke were becoming worn, it was a good opportunity to try low G. I was then just stating my impression, that I'm not sure if I like it. I will keep the low G strings on for some time yet so it gets a proper try before I decide whether to change back or to keep it.

I don't think that if someone has an opinion, or a preference, or they just like something, that means they are against everything else.

Soundbored said:

Maybe I'm totally off base, but the Uke purists seem to me to be very inexperienced with other instruments and music in general.

.

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Are you defining uke purist, as someone who prefers high g over low g? If that is the case, then could I infer that you believe that people who prefer high g are inexperienced with other instruments? Just looking for a little clarification.

Rllink said:

Are you defining uke purist, as someone who prefers high g over low g?

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No. I am defining "uke purist" as someone who says re-entrant is "what makes a uke a uke", "low g is a guitar wannabe", and other such proclamations. "Preference" really has nothing to do with this thread.