Led worship on a baritone ukulele this morning...

...lifted a few eyebrows. Unfortunately, most of them were lifted because the darned thing kept squirming all over the place and I couldn't hang on to it. Rehearsal/sound check went flawlessly - then I took my sweater off because it was hot - didn't discover until I was into the set that my strap slipped all over the place against my shirt where it had been practically glued to the sweater.

Argghhhh.

Oh well, people sang along and that's what really matters.

John

I'm so happy when baritones get out to meet the public. I'll have to remember that about the sweater, since I have never been able to get a good grip on any instrument I've tried to play, strap or not (excluding piano!).

kvehe said:

I'm so happy when baritones get out to meet the public. I'll have to remember that about the sweater, since I have never been able to get a good grip on any instrument I've tried to play, strap or not (excluding piano!).

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Heh, heh, if your piano starts sliding around you've got serious problems! I remember when they came in to do some foundation repair at our church and we had to tear out the whole platform. When we put it back me and one other guy were trying to stretch the carpet back out - he used to do carpet for a living but now has an artificial knee so his wife made him get rid of his kneekicker and other stretching tools. We ended up using the grand piano that we had at that time to stretch the carpet. We'd roll it across the floor on it's itty-bitty casters and it stretched the carpet quite nicely!

John

At school, at some music events I need to wear a suit. My ukulele slips around like an angry mackerel. Worked out a few weeks ago that if I plug it in, I can use the cable as a counterbalance, looped over my arm to prevent fishy flailings.

Might not help you in worship, and you might not have an electro-acoustic. Just a thought for general consumption.

that's great John, would have loved to have been there brother!

OldePhart said:

...lifted a few eyebrows. Unfortunately, most of them were lifted because the darned thing kept squirming all over the place and I couldn't hang on to it. Rehearsal/sound check went flawlessly - then I took my sweater off because it was hot - didn't discover until I was into the set that my strap slipped all over the place against my shirt where it had been practically glued to the sweater.

Argghhhh.

Oh well, people sang along and that's what really matters.

John

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So...what was the set? what songs?

OldePhart said:

Oh well, people sang along and that's what really matters.

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What kind of songs did you play/sing? Traditional hymns or contemporary worship songs? And, have you ever used a soprano or concert to lead worship? If so - How did the congregation react to it?

I have one of those Uke Crazy straps that has a leather or leather-like pad that's supposed to keep the strap from sliding against clothing. Sometimes the pad itself slides along the strap, though.

What songs did you play? Did you play them in the same chords you would have with your soprano, or did you c"cheat," like I do with baritones, and play the chord shapes you would have played on your soprano?

haolejohn said:

So...what was the set? what songs?

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filipinouker said:

What kind of songs did you play/sing? Traditional hymns or contemporary worship songs? And, have you ever used a soprano or concert to lead worship? If so - How did the congregation react to it?

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mds725 said:

What songs did you play? Did you play them in the same chords you would have with your soprano, or did you c"cheat," like I do with baritones, and play the chord shapes you would have played on your soprano?

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I started with Sing to the King and added the chorus from The Gaither's old song The King is Coming between the final two choruses of Sing to the King. That was in the key of D. Second song was Our God, also in the key of D (or Bm) and played pretty much straight. Third was the old hymn There is Power in the Blood played traditionally and in the key of C (I also do a blues version but we have enough people in the church that were raised on hymns that it's hard to get them to follow the swing rhythm when you play something they've been singing straight for 40 years). This one did give me some trouble because once the strap started frustrating me I lost my concentration and started playing the chords as if I was on a C-tuned uke...oops. We closed with the old medley Jesus, Lord to Me and I Love You Lord in G with a key change to A and changing words from "I" to "we" and so on for the second pass.

Next time I'm going to get a staple gun and staple the strap to my shoulder... LOL

Actually, I think all I really need to do is put a piece of the non-skid shelf liner on my shoulder under the strap next time. Some of that was actually available because we use it under the small monitors that sit on the keyboards. I just didn't think of it until after the worship set.

John

I use a soprano uke with my three-year-old Sunday school class, they love it.

Pondoro said:

I use a soprano uke with my three-year-old Sunday school class, they love it.

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I really wanted to use one of my sopranos but enough of our members are of the "tiny tim" generation and I didn't want the instrument to become a distraction from the worship for them. Now that I've broken the ice if I ever have to fill in again I may use a soprano.

Interestingly, I was making a little small talk during the offering and I asked if anybody knew what the instrument was - most of the adults looked blank but practically the whole youth department shouted, "ukulele!" - there is hope for those young'ns yet~

OldePhart said:

I really wanted to use one of my sopranos but enough of our members are of the "tiny tim" generation and I didn't want the instrument to become a distraction from the worship for them. Now that I've broken the ice if I ever have to fill in again I may use a soprano.

Interestingly, I was making a little small talk during the offering and I asked if anybody knew what the instrument was - most of the adults looked blank but practically the whole youth department shouted, "ukulele!" - there is hope for those young'ns yet~

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I've never led a sunday worship service with the uke but I have led small group worship with the uke (it is the only thing I play). I did sit in with our worship team on sundays occasionally. I miss playing on the team.

Our family uke group has played at church several times. usually during the offertory but we did do a whole service once.
It usually goes over quite well. We usually stick to hymns and southern gospel but can do a few contemporary songs.