Estrellita - Solo Ukulele

MikeHollandGuitar

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This is my arrangement of a beautiful piece of music written by Manuel Ponce. Played on an Ohana TK35G high G! I hope you enjoy it. Merry Christmas to you all.
 
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Thank you Brenda and Campbell, happy New Year to the both of you......Mike
 
Wow, this is beautiful! Wish I could play as well as you.
Happy New Year!
 
Absolutely gorgeous! Thank you for lifting my spirits with your beautiful music. I needed that, especially tonight. :) Happy New Year to you!
 
Thank you Nickie,Twokatmew and Ukecaster. Sorry it is a TK35G.......I should read my posts more carefully before pressing the reply button. It is a beautiful tune and that alone inspired me to arrange and play it. happy New Year everybody! Mike
 
Thank you Nickie,Twokatmew and Ukecaster. Sorry it is a TK35G.......I should read my posts more carefully before pressing the reply button. It is a beautiful tune and that alone inspired me to arrange and play it. happy New Year everybody! Mike

I have a Kala solid mahogany, satin finish. I'm thinking about adding a second tenor to have one with high G and one with low. I've been eyeing the TK-35G and the TK-35 (satin finish). Does your TK-35GS have fret markers on the side? I know that some Ohanas do and some don't. Also, I know some say a satin finish offers improved sound. But I do love the gloss finish on my Kala baritone. I think I'll buy gloss if/when I can find it. Would you mind sharing your thoughts? Happy New Year to you, too! :)
 
Hi Twokatmew, I have since added a low G to the Ohana and I must say that I prefer it. It just makes more sense to me. The TK35G does not have fret markers on the side. It also bizarrely has the dot marker on fret 10 rather than fret 9.....? That through me a little at first but I have found out you get used to anything if you play the instrument long enough. I also play Flamenco guitar and there are no fret or side markers at at all. You do get used to it. I have not got any real experience of different ukuleles so it is difficult for me to make any comparative comments. I will say that the Ohana sounds imho really nice. It seems to have a warm mellifluous tone which I enjoy. I can't really imagine there being any noticeable difference between a matt finished instrument and a gloss finished instrument unless the lacquer is applied with different thicknesses! The one thing that does throw me a little is the G string is a bit close to the edge of the fretboard and if I am not careful I can push the string of the board. Then again you get used to what you have and play accordingly. Overall I have to say I am very pleased with the Ohana and think that if mine is representative of the Ohana range then you should not be dissapointed. Happy New Year!
 
Very nice, thank you. Btw. my TK35G has fret side markers on fret 5,7,10,12 -that's normal.
It's a steal for the money compared to my Kanilea K1. I play mine a lot.
 
Hi Twokatmew, I have since added a low G to the Ohana and I must say that I prefer it. It just makes more sense to me. The TK35G does not have fret markers on the side. It also bizarrely has the dot marker on fret 10 rather than fret 9.....? That through me a little at first but I have found out you get used to anything if you play the instrument long enough. I also play Flamenco guitar and there are no fret or side markers at at all. You do get used to it. I have not got any real experience of different ukuleles so it is difficult for me to make any comparative comments. I will say that the Ohana sounds imho really nice. It seems to have a warm mellifluous tone which I enjoy. I can't really imagine there being any noticeable difference between a matt finished instrument and a gloss finished instrument unless the lacquer is applied with different thicknesses! The one thing that does throw me a little is the G string is a bit close to the edge of the fretboard and if I am not careful I can push the string of the board. Then again you get used to what you have and play accordingly. Overall I have to say I am very pleased with the Ohana and think that if mine is representative of the Ohana range then you should not be dissapointed. Happy New Year!

Thanks Mike! As a life-long guitarist, I too found it difficult to wrap my head around the re-entrant G. I bought my two ukes within a couple weeks of each other and started with the baritone, as that made most sense to me as a guitarist. :) When I added the tenor, I too noticed that the G is closer to the edge of the fretboard than the A string. I figured this is to limit the possibility of pulling the A string off the edge, as the re-entrant G just comes along for the ride on chords and is pretty much ignored otherwise. Realizing this helped me to make sense of re-entrant tuning. I certainly don't *need* a linear-tuned tenor, as I simply play low-G arrangements on the baritone, obviously in a different key! I've been experimenting with my own string concoction on the baritone, as I haven't found a packaged set that I like. (Aquila Super Nylguts are too floppy, and the D'Addario Titanium bass strings are awfully tight in comparison to the titanium trebles, B string is too buzzy. Other sets don't have matched basses, which I prefer.) BTW, what string are you using for low G? I might like to try wound C and low-G (matched pair), but I'm concerned about putting too much tension on a neck w/o a truss rod. Fortunately my baritone has a truss rod, so adding tension has not been an issue.

I've owned a few classical guitars without fret markers and do prefer the look of a plain fretboard. I got used to no side markers, but when I'd pick up either of my electric guitars that have them, I just felt more at home. :) I'm such a nit-picky musician! ;) My rule now is that I won't buy a fretted instrument w/o side markers. But if I were to find an instrument I love (without side markers), I'd buy it, feel cranky about the lack of side markers ... and ultimately get used to it! :)

May I ask what software you use to write your arrangements? I've downloaded MuseScore but haven't tried it yet. I'm a Windows user and would love to find a program that would let me write both clef and tab ... and transpose from tenor- to baritone-tuning with the click of a button. And finally, have you thought about selling your arrangements, for example, via PayPal? Thank you for sharing your arrangement of "Vincent," BTW. I'll be a frequent customer should you decide to market your work.

Thanks again for sharing your lovely music and taking time to respond. Best to you!
 
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Very nice, thank you. Btw. my TK35G has fret side markers on fret 5,7,10,12 -that's normal.
It's a steal for the money compared to my Kanilea K1. I play mine a lot.
Interesting that your TK-35G has side markers and Mike's doesn't. Mim has two TK-35s (satin finish) on her Ebay site, and one has open tuners while the other has closed back tuners. I guess Ohana isn't entirely consistent with otherwise identical instruments.

I notice that many Ohanas have fret board markers at the third fret too. I don't understand that, as I'm used to 5-7-10-12 and can easily find the third fret! There I go being nit-picky again! ;) Thank you!
 
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Hi Twokatmew, I bought the Ohana secondhand a few years ago but did not play it very much until recently. Ohana may now have added side markers to there newer instruments!!!!
The strings are the ones that came with it so I assume they may be the Aquila Nylgut that Ohana fit as standard........but can't be sure. I swapped out the high G for a low G by Fremont "squeakless Polished String Wound Low G". Now this string made a lot of difference imho. I will definitely be using them again.
I use Tabledit software for tabbing out my arrangements. I have had this program for a while and it's OK for making a record of my arrangements. It does have an advantage that it can play back the arrangement to give you an idea of what it should sound like. I then tend to save them as a pdf file. I have arranged all the tunes I have posted here and on YouTube so I do have tabs for them all. If I can find an easy way to post them on this site I will do it. I have no intention at the moment of selling the tabs but people who are interested can certainly have them. I do need an easy way to upload them though!!!!!
Thanks for your interest and have a happy new year.
Mike
 
Thanks for the info campbell. I just looked at your tab on the "Box" site and it works pretty well. I used another upload site in the past but the link keeps getting broken!!!!! Not sure what the technical problems are but it would be nice if we could upload Pdf files in the tabs section on this site. Hope you are having a great New Year!
Mike
 
Hi Twokatmew, I bought the Ohana secondhand a few years ago but did not play it very much until recently. Ohana may now have added side markers to there newer instruments!!!!
The strings are the ones that came with it so I assume they may be the Aquila Nylgut that Ohana fit as standard........but can't be sure. I swapped out the high G for a low G by Fremont "squeakless Polished String Wound Low G". Now this string made a lot of difference imho. I will definitely be using them again.
I use Tabledit software for tabbing out my arrangements. I have had this program for a while and it's OK for making a record of my arrangements. It does have an advantage that it can play back the arrangement to give you an idea of what it should sound like. I then tend to save them as a pdf file. I have arranged all the tunes I have posted here and on YouTube so I do have tabs for them all. If I can find an easy way to post them on this site I will do it. I have no intention at the moment of selling the tabs but people who are interested can certainly have them. I do need an easy way to upload them though!!!!!
Thanks for your interest and have a happy new year.
Mike
Thanks and Happy New Year to you, Mike! My Kala solid mahogany tenor came with Aquila Super Nylguts, but I found the strings too tight with not enough sustain. The same strings came on my baritone, but they were so floppy in comparison. I felt I needed to switch to strings that would feel similar. Elderly recommended Fremont Blackline flurocarbon strings for my tenor, and I've been very happy with them. If I were to go low G, I'd just use the Fremont Soloist wound string that you've settled on. Glad to hear you like it! :) I ended up making my own string concoction on the baritone, and I'm very happy with both ukes now. :)

Ah yes Tabledit! I believe I used that for a bit a lot of years ago. Will check that out again, so thanks.

I would love the tab for your Estrellita arrangement! :) I use Dropbox and Google Drive. I use the free Google Drive, but I actually pay Dropbox for a TB of storage, as I use it for offsite backup (even though it's not really designed for that). :) Both offer free accounts, so unless you have a need for lots of storage, either should work nicely for you. I've never had Dropbox links break (even when I used the free service), FYI.

Best to you!
 
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Mike, I just listened to you play "Sleep Walk" on YouTube. Beautiful! May I trouble you for that arrangement too? :)
 
Mike, I just listened to you play "Sleep Walk" on YouTube. Beautiful! May I trouble you for that arrangement too? :)

Hi twokatmew, I will post both of these up somewhere today.......if I fail I will email them to you!
Have fun,
Mike
 
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