Down Up Dick
Well-known member
Good for you! Enjoy!
my ukulele progress
- Thread starter ripock
- Start date
Oldscruggsfan
Well-known member
My wife was also away for a few hours today. I used that time to finally cut a side sound port for my uke. It started as two 5/8-inch holes at the D and O of Do Not Cross, on the bass side of Ginger Tom’s head. The end result is a slot that’s 2” long and 5/8” wide. Its outline is much the same as a kid’s standard-sized Band-Aid. The result is noticeably greater volume which was the goal.
AZChris
Well-known member
That's a gem. Thanks for that. Not sure if it's tattoo-worthy but certainly an epitaph.
I can’t believe that you cut a hole in your ukulele. That was audacious!
Oldscruggsfan
Well-known member
Thanks, I think….? I’ll post a pic in a few days. Primary difference is that the low G now seems less boomy. Both “As Time Goes By” and “King Of The Road” sound far better, and I’m working on incorporating “harp-ish” double-string notes into ATGB & Ashokan Farewell.
Cheers!
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ripock
Well-known member
I was just surrounding myself with awesomeness. That's actually an interesting word. What does it mean to be full of awe or full or dread? It seems to be something that links us to the divine of which we have a spark. The gods, and us to a lesser extent, can do things that inspire the audience to be dumbfounded. I remember sitting in on a discussion of the word deinos, the Greek word for awesome. It was in reference to the famous choral ode in the Antigone of Sophokles...if anyone wants context. I really remember in the discussion that one of the big German philosophers (Heidigger, Schopenhauer?) was cited as translating deinos as unheimlich and that was thought to be genius and somehow digging into the essentials of what awesome meant. If you look at the word, it just means un-home-ly. So mankind is typified by not having a home, a place to call his own, a starting point. Mankind is always adapting or perhaps it is better to say that mankind is always creating.
Anyway, I wasn't intending to go that deep. I merely meant that I was diving into all the awesome half-step intervals in the dom dim scale. And I don't know why half-steps are awesome. If you think about it, something as ubiquitous as the major scale is just a series of half-steps and whole steps. And it isn't awesome, but when you first step into alternate scales like the the phrygian dominant or the Palamidian scale (a fancy faux-Greek name for the altered scale) you immediately can see that everything is covered in awesome sauce and sounds like it comes straight out of Antioch.
So I'm not going to pretend that I understand why some scales are awesome and others banal. Maybe it is more about us than the scales. Maybe the arrangements appeal to a particular person's mind and the presentation is everything. Maybe the same intervals could have been seen in a major scale but it needed to have a different presentation.
And what I'm liking in the dom dim scale is the regular pattern of half-step, half-step, skip a fret, half-step, half-step. With that whole step between the half-step pairs, it really gives you everything you need to play whatever melody you want. You have those funky tight notes or you have notes that have separation.
This has been a very elucidating exercise. And the most urgent lesson I learnt is that I need to go cut my nails. I am not Taimane; I do not like for my nails to catch on the strings.
Anyway, I wasn't intending to go that deep. I merely meant that I was diving into all the awesome half-step intervals in the dom dim scale. And I don't know why half-steps are awesome. If you think about it, something as ubiquitous as the major scale is just a series of half-steps and whole steps. And it isn't awesome, but when you first step into alternate scales like the the phrygian dominant or the Palamidian scale (a fancy faux-Greek name for the altered scale) you immediately can see that everything is covered in awesome sauce and sounds like it comes straight out of Antioch.
So I'm not going to pretend that I understand why some scales are awesome and others banal. Maybe it is more about us than the scales. Maybe the arrangements appeal to a particular person's mind and the presentation is everything. Maybe the same intervals could have been seen in a major scale but it needed to have a different presentation.
And what I'm liking in the dom dim scale is the regular pattern of half-step, half-step, skip a fret, half-step, half-step. With that whole step between the half-step pairs, it really gives you everything you need to play whatever melody you want. You have those funky tight notes or you have notes that have separation.
This has been a very elucidating exercise. And the most urgent lesson I learnt is that I need to go cut my nails. I am not Taimane; I do not like for my nails to catch on the strings.
Why do some progressions of notes cause a tightness in the chest and bring tears to the eye, while others are just … meh … notes? What’s the physiology? What goes on in the brain?
Down Up Dick
Well-known member
Because I got all of them correct — all of ‘em — on the third try — while tapping my foot in time! Ahhh . . .
bbkobabe
Well-known member
I'm forever sanding and grinding on my ukuleles... particularly on the neck to head stock transition area so I have more room to bar across the first fret and play that b flat minor chord cleanly... I mean, that's what we took woodshop in junior high for, right? To learn how to drill, rasp and sand...
bbkobabe
Well-known member
I totally agree on this... before I started playing ukulele, I never used to care about my nails... now I cut them to the quick regularly and sand them to 320g... I hate the sound of my nails on the strings!
If I wasn't a former woodworker with a garage full of sand papers, I would probably be shopping for glass nail files by now... but a 220/320g sanding course is what I know so I'll stick with that...
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ripock
Well-known member
For most of my life I always supplemented my income with manual labor and I have caught my nails on stuff and ripped them off. So when my nail catches on a string, it gives me an extreme case of the willies even though my mind knows that the nail isn't going to bend back or rip off.
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ripock
Well-known member
I made a farinata with 2 eggs and carmelized onion. That onion is good (although adding 1/4 cup brown sugar was a bit too much) but I just don't know if the trouble is worth it.
Then I played some melodies. I didn't focus too much on the chords. For them I just played some ascending 9 chords whose chord tones were all part of the E dom dim scale but the actual 9 chords were all chromatic. I played A9, C9, F#9. When I got up to the F#9, I would descend out of the corner I had painted myself by starting on the B on the 14th fret and either use a dim7 arpeggio or use my half-step run to get me down to the E on the 9th fret where I could actually play the E dom dim and then I got back down to the 4th fret and my A9 by playing a sweet contradiction of descending the neck but ascending in pitch as I moved from the bass side of the neck to the treble side.
I liked playing a diatonic melody over chromatic chords. I had just enough sass to make it worth my while and those half-steps in the run do make a tasty melody if you phrase them with significance.
Then I played some melodies. I didn't focus too much on the chords. For them I just played some ascending 9 chords whose chord tones were all part of the E dom dim scale but the actual 9 chords were all chromatic. I played A9, C9, F#9. When I got up to the F#9, I would descend out of the corner I had painted myself by starting on the B on the 14th fret and either use a dim7 arpeggio or use my half-step run to get me down to the E on the 9th fret where I could actually play the E dom dim and then I got back down to the 4th fret and my A9 by playing a sweet contradiction of descending the neck but ascending in pitch as I moved from the bass side of the neck to the treble side.
I liked playing a diatonic melody over chromatic chords. I had just enough sass to make it worth my while and those half-steps in the run do make a tasty melody if you phrase them with significance.
Do you ever post audio for your melody noodling? I'd be interested to hear.
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ripock
Well-known member
I don't have the technology for that. As it is, this old computer cannot handle the color red for some reason. If I go to a webpage with a lot of red, my monitor goes out and I have to smack it to get it to flicker back on.
Oldscruggsfan
Well-known member
My new side port. I began with a 5/8-inch auger bit, then 'connected the dots' with a 1.5-inch plunge-cut (oscillating) saw. After several passes with fine-grit sandpaper, I briefly considered decorating/ reinforcing the slot's edges with 'friendly plastic' but have read that it tends to become a sticky mess if exposed to direct sunlight. Open to suggestions. Folding money can fit easily into the slot, not that anyone is tossing any my way, LOL.
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ripock
Well-known member
Just saw a little post about black friday sales. It kind of makes you wonder how badly you're getting fleeced the other 51 weeks of the year when merchants can give a $200 discount. That's another reason I prefer custom ukes: they're expensive but at least it is honest.
For chords I have just been walking down the fretboard. And I have been focusing on the treble side since that is so much more discernible. I am no even really thinking about what I'm playing; I'm just moving in a direction and letting the sounds of that direction serve.
I have been focused more on patterns and arpeggios. Octaves and tritones have also played a part in the sound I'm chasing, as well as revisiting some old stand-bys such as pentatonic scales and minor modes. I hope to be more methodical tomorrow.
For chords I have just been walking down the fretboard. And I have been focusing on the treble side since that is so much more discernible. I am no even really thinking about what I'm playing; I'm just moving in a direction and letting the sounds of that direction serve.
I have been focused more on patterns and arpeggios. Octaves and tritones have also played a part in the sound I'm chasing, as well as revisiting some old stand-bys such as pentatonic scales and minor modes. I hope to be more methodical tomorrow.
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ripock
Well-known member
I just saw a thread which resonated with me not one bit. It was about what do you play when people ask you to play. the set-up was you know when you have a uke at work and someone asks you to play. That wouldn't happen in my world. If someone brought a uke to work I'd be contacting leadership and HR. We're there to do our time, get our money, and go home. If someone's playing uke at work, they're not pulling their weight.
And no one with any social awareness would ever ask me to play a uke. That would be a complete solecism and trespass.
So that whole thread had me scratching my head because the premises seemed odd.
But odd isn't always a deal breaker. I have heard that umami has been added to the traditional salty, sweet, sour, and bitter flavors that we can perceive. I personally think it is BS, but although that assertion is odd I still use it and use umami in things like grains or a stir fry.
Another odd thing that's been working for me is pairing a dom dim run with pentatonics.
I'll play the tonic shape of the E minor pentatonic and then insert the A, A#, B from the dominant shape. That winds me up at the 14th fret, then I do a run to get back down to the E on the 9th. To type what I did would obscure the simplicity of the run. I'll try to create a chart showing the easy pattern.
And I am going back to the altered scale for practice.
And no one with any social awareness would ever ask me to play a uke. That would be a complete solecism and trespass.
So that whole thread had me scratching my head because the premises seemed odd.
But odd isn't always a deal breaker. I have heard that umami has been added to the traditional salty, sweet, sour, and bitter flavors that we can perceive. I personally think it is BS, but although that assertion is odd I still use it and use umami in things like grains or a stir fry.
Another odd thing that's been working for me is pairing a dom dim run with pentatonics.
I'll play the tonic shape of the E minor pentatonic and then insert the A, A#, B from the dominant shape. That winds me up at the 14th fret, then I do a run to get back down to the E on the 9th. To type what I did would obscure the simplicity of the run. I'll try to create a chart showing the easy pattern.
And I am going back to the altered scale for practice.
Oldscruggsfan
Well-known member
Great point about advertised "sales". My personal pet peeve is retailers' wildly successful bastardization of the term "save". If I'm buying something, it is possible to reduce my expense. It's impossible to save while spending.
Do you not get breaks at your work? Or do you just work through breaks and lunch and get the opportunity to leave early? I could see bringing a uke to work like bringing a book to work: there are brief periods of time during the work day for me to do with as I choose, so I could conceive of practicing a little during those periods.
Oldscruggsfan
Well-known member
Though, in terms of structure, I have a similar workplace to @ripock, I’ve done the “workaround” of periodically borrowing a Donner DUS-1 from the nearby public library. I keep it in my office supply closet & work in at least half an hour of practice during my lunch hours.
Because the closet door is exterior grade, I’ve even filmed several SOTU entries from there.
Meanwhile, the arrangement is short of ideal b/c the Donner has a 38mm nut while my DIY is 35mm, but it’s still far better than a sharp stick in the eye.
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