Hi everyone!
Lately, besides playing the ukulele, I've playing drums in a samba bateria. And I've been thinking of something: many baterias in Brazil use amplified cavaquinhos, as the high pitch of the instrument cuts through the drums quite well. Since the cavaquinho is closely related to the ukulele, it would be nice to add one for some of our tunes, don't you think?
.... sound of crowd cheering in unison: "YES! MORE UKULELE FTW!" ...
Thank you, I thought so too. Glad we agree
The uke would definitely need to be amplified though, because the drums are LOUUUUD! And there is the problem: I don't have an electric uke or one with a pick-up. I don't know anyone in my area who has one I could borrow, so I can't really test this idea without actually buying one, and I don't want to order one and realise this doesn't work or that everyone in the band hates it, or I buy the wrong one and have to send it back and get another one ad eternum.
So I was wondering: Do you guys have experience in playing the uke (or the cavaquinho) with samba drums or other massive walls of drum sounds? If so, any advices in terms of types of ukes and amplification that works best for this? Brands, wood types, uke size, strings, pick-ups, (powerful) amps...? Also, do you know if there are cavaquinho playing techniques specific to playing with a bateria?
To give you an idea of the sonorities: we mainly play surdos (low, medium and high), snares (caixa de guerra and tarol), repiniques, agogo bells and tamborims; no pandeiro or cuica. We're about 15-20 people (it varies). The type of music we play is bossa nova, jungle, and of course various kinds of samba.
All advices warmly welcome!
Thanks!
Lately, besides playing the ukulele, I've playing drums in a samba bateria. And I've been thinking of something: many baterias in Brazil use amplified cavaquinhos, as the high pitch of the instrument cuts through the drums quite well. Since the cavaquinho is closely related to the ukulele, it would be nice to add one for some of our tunes, don't you think?
.... sound of crowd cheering in unison: "YES! MORE UKULELE FTW!" ...
Thank you, I thought so too. Glad we agree
The uke would definitely need to be amplified though, because the drums are LOUUUUD! And there is the problem: I don't have an electric uke or one with a pick-up. I don't know anyone in my area who has one I could borrow, so I can't really test this idea without actually buying one, and I don't want to order one and realise this doesn't work or that everyone in the band hates it, or I buy the wrong one and have to send it back and get another one ad eternum.
So I was wondering: Do you guys have experience in playing the uke (or the cavaquinho) with samba drums or other massive walls of drum sounds? If so, any advices in terms of types of ukes and amplification that works best for this? Brands, wood types, uke size, strings, pick-ups, (powerful) amps...? Also, do you know if there are cavaquinho playing techniques specific to playing with a bateria?
To give you an idea of the sonorities: we mainly play surdos (low, medium and high), snares (caixa de guerra and tarol), repiniques, agogo bells and tamborims; no pandeiro or cuica. We're about 15-20 people (it varies). The type of music we play is bossa nova, jungle, and of course various kinds of samba.
All advices warmly welcome!
Thanks!