[FYI: This is part 1 of 2]
[edit: after re-reading this and finding some typos, I realized that what I'm writing here is maybe similar to what the Hawaiians call 'talk story', and also wanted to add that missing from all the text below is the fact that because of the ukulele, I have become fascinated by Hawaiian culture and find it all very interesting]
May I invite you to
read the bio on my web site [offline currently as of 7/2/2017] for the pre-ukulele timeframe of most of my musical experience.
However, it does not explain how I came to the ukulele.
I will detail that here now.
October 2012 brought Hurricane Sandy, which as many folks know was the worst storm ever to hit the east coast of the USA, with it's reach from the eastern edge of the Atlantic coast, almost to the Mississippi River.
Like many folks, we lost power, land-line telephone, cell phone, internet and cable TV. However I was prepared for 'camping at home' in the most literal sense. Plenty of candles, batteries, portable solar panels, flashlights, blankets, 100 gallons of bottled water for bathing, drinking and flushing the toilet (we have only well water, with an electric pump, so no running water during this time).
Cooking with sterno and the outdoor barbecue was how food was made. Just days before the storm I was stuffing the secondary freezer with gallon ziplock bags filled water that froze solid, kept ALL of our food fresh for 2 weeks, including ice cream, frozen meats, poultry, bread etc. We also had canned goods like tuna fish, salmon, and lots of fruits and vegetables, both fresh and canned, and of course peanut butter and jelly were well stocked...
Well, no computer, no internet no cable tv...how to pass the time?
During the day was mostly making sure that the food did not spoil and carefully planning meals. Keeping up with news via a hand-crank radio in the kitchen and a smaller hand-held radio I kept in my bedroom for listening after dark. I was actually grateful for this time because I rediscovered NPR, and their news was current, compassionate, and all day and night folks were calling in to the radio station to speak with the hosts on air, and report their experiences...it was a real comfort to have NPR run this kind of program.
I no longer felt isolated or afraid. Listening to the stories people told was an eye-opening education in how much a community all people are, and how all of our basic needs are essentially the same.
Keeping batteries charged via solar power was easy as well.
When not listening to the radio, preparing meals or taking care of my elderly mother (who still lives with me), I would pick up my guitar, my old Yamaha classical guitar which I've had since 1985, and always loved to play.
I wrote a new song each day. Yes a whole song. There was nothing else to do really. This was also a huge benefit to me, since I had hit a dry spell with my songwriting and was going through a sort of 'writers block' for the previous 9 months. Hurricane Sandy lifted the block.
I was free of distractions for the first time in a long time. Life was simple: Eat, sleep, bathe, keep the house safe, keep my mother comfortable.
We camped at home for 14 days and lived like folks did before all the modern conveniences...
During the time when I was playing my guitar, I remembered the baritone ukulele that my grandfather had given me when he and my grandmother moved to Florida in 2003.
At the time, I did not know really what to do with it and just put it into the closet.
My grandfather was a masterful Ragtime, Foxtrot and Stride piano player. He did not play professionally, but played all the time at home, and often had short-term weekly gigs at a local hotel bar, lobby or restaurant. It was his passion, along with model airplanes. He would never accept money for his piano performances and was offered it all the time. He was also asked, begged and offered lots of money many times to let someone record him and to release an album, but the requirement to tour in support of the recording, as well as the fact that the music was his pleasure and felt it would be ruined once money was involved, he always declined.
So, I have this baritone ukulele (which I later discovered to be a vintage 1950s Harmony all-solid mahogany), and no internet and no knowledge of how to tune it.
My grandfather passed away in 2009. When he passed I also inherited his collection of sheet music. Must be about 5,000 individual song sheets, all mostly in very-good to like-new condition.(this reminds me that I need to contact fellow UU brother Ian Chadwick)
I promised myself that I would make music with this baritone ukulele as a tribute to my grandfather and the music that he shared with me.
Yes, we played together many times, him on piano, with me on guitar or bass, and sometimes I would sing, but he was not a singer, yet he knew the melody and lyrics to almost any song that had been on the radio or in popular culture from about 1920 onward. If he did not know the song itself, after hearing it maybe 2-3 times and fiddling around on the piano, he would tell me the key it was in, and have the basic chords, and in about a hour later, he would have the exact melody and chords in the proper inversion, and also his own styling of the song, in much the same way that Richard Clayderman does with pop music... I was always in awe of my grandfather's skill. He was always a mentor, inspiration and example to follow. I miss him dearly and think about him, his music and the time we shared every single day.
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So, after about 2 weeks, we got power, telephones, internet and cable TV back, and there were all the concerts on TV to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy who had lost everything, and there were folks who were lucky to be alive.
In one of the concerts, one of my lifelong musical heroes was performing -
Sting.
But he was playing this
tiny guitar, it was not an ukulele, but in fact like a small 22" scale guitar. I became obsessed with this guitar and now wanted to have one like it, and saw it maybe as a bridge to learning the ukulele.
Well, I came to find out that it was a parlor-size short-scale Martin Terz guitar, and was a limited run of only 100 instruments and Sting owned 2 of them, and when I saw the offering price of $2,500 I almost cried, first because they were all sold out some years ago, and second because I figured that if I could ever find a used one, it would cost even more than that. I dont have that kind of money lying around...
[end of part 1, please continue to part 2 below]