Famous soprano ukulele solo players and their techniques

Is there anybody else who likes to play solo arrangements on the soprano ukulele? If so, which famous players are your ideals?

I've learnt most of my technique from Ohta-San's books and youtube videos. Some of Lyle Ritz' arrangements are also well suited for the soprano size. And of course there's John King and his campanela style. Steven Strauss plays a concert as far as I can tell, but his style works fine on soprano, too.

Do I miss someone important from whom I can learn?

I'm particularly interested in right hand techniques. I'd summarize the above 4's techniques like this:

Ohta-San: Thumb flesh for strumming, thumb nail for picking (up and down!), index for tremolo, index-thumb combinations for some genuine Ohta-San effects (that I have not figured out yet). A pioneer of the low-G tuning.

Lyle Ritz: Felt pick in the 50's recordings, later full chord strums with the thumb and index. Some single note picking. High-G and low-G tuning.

John King: Arpeggio picking with thumb, index and middle finder. High-G tuning campanela style.

Steven Strauss: Bass with the thumb, melody with the index. Low-G tuning.

Put this into google's search box - 'crazy dawg+ukulele'. Enjoy!

Mark Occhionero, all jazz, all soprano.

I don't know whether this style interests you, but I suggest you check out some of the early 20th century players, like Cliff Edwards and Roy Smeck (there are some awesome videos on YouTube). Bob Brozman is a modern-day master of those vintage styles.

Check out "The Ukulele Lady" May Singhi Breen's ukulele solo arrangements! Breen's New Ukulele Method and Collection of Ukulele Solos are both great. A patient online shopper can find these used at amazon for under $20 each.

One caveat for modern ukulele players: Breen was a proponent of "standard" tuning, ADF#B, so all her arrangements use that tuning. It's definitely been good for my music brain to read music for both "standard" and "Hawaiian" tunings.

Michael_ said:

Is there anybody else who likes to play solo arrangements on the soprano ukulele?

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*raises hand* Me! I like playing both concert and soprano ukes, but since I got my Kamaka pineapple I've been playing that almost exclusively. It really could be my "one and only."

Michael_ said:

If so, which famous players are your ideals?

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You already mentioned John King, who is my all-time ukulele hero and my inspiration (and justification!) for switching back from playing mainly concerts to mainly sopranos. My other favorite mostly-soprano player is Matsui Tomotaka, who plays in the Sweet Hollywaiians (from Japan). Check them out on YouTube.

My favorite solo performers (soprano only) would certainly have to be..

* Roy Smeck
* Shigeto Takahashi
* Ohta-san

I really like watching Shigeto play, he's an amazing performer and also a really nice person. You can tell that he's always genuinely happy when playing the ukulele. Roy Smeck was just insanely talented.

Roy Smeck. Some modern players I really like on Youtube are Phillipe Krouk, winanboy, and ukulelezaza (can't think of their real names). Also Steven Sproat, but I've only seen a few videos of him on YouTube.

One I wish there was more info on, and collected recordings of: Perry Botkin. Sr.

Check out his claim around 1:55 that "anybody can play Ain't She Sweet" on the ukulele!

Hard to beat Roy Smeck. I did a scan of my copy of the apendix of one his early instruction manuals: "100 Jazz Strokes - Including Roy Smeck's brilliant novelty strokes" (don't have the cover).

If you (or anyone) want a copy, drop me a line:

southcoast@inbox.com

Thank you for all the hints! I completely forgot the early strummers. I guess my wife will kill me if I practice this style at home. But I'll have a look into it.

He might not be famous, but he has a very good technique on his low-G concert, and there's a closeup video from which you can learn his style: The Inaleleman.
http://www.youtube.com/user/INALELEMAN#p/u/13/UHLIOyE54GA

Check out his version of Misty!

I adore soprano uke, it's the size that has always agreed with me the most. I would say Ohta-San, ukulelezaza, and John King are the guys I keep coming back to when I look for videos and music. I also enjoy listening to Cliff Edwards' arrangements but I believe I usually saw him playing concert.

shigeto takahaski is performing on FM radio today and Facebook too