Season of the Ukulele 387: Shapes of Things

hendulele

Check your fleas
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Hi Seasonistas!

In this season, you have choices: Bring up to 4 songs. Your options are

1) using a non-standard ukulele. No double-bouts. So ... banjoleles, Fleas, Flukes, boat-paddle shapes, cigar boxes, be creative! (Trent and lynda, I have high expectations!)
2) performing a song with a geometric shape in the title: circle, line, square, hexagon, sphere, etc.
3) bringing an original with said shapes in the title, or a song about geometry.

Four songs total, in any combination, unless I change my mind toward the end of the week.

Rules: :rulez:

The usual.

Starts at midnight Hawaii Standard Time Sunday July 14. Ends 11:59 p.m. Sunday July 21.

The uke has to be prominent (especially if it looks really cool), but other instruments and overdubs are fine.

Collabs welcome!

Originals, of course (did you read the intro?)

There may be prizes. Trinkets of some sort. We'll see.

Please comment on others' videos.

HAVE FUN!

:smileybounce:

PLAYLIST
 
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What a clever theme, I wouldn't have though of it!
I hope to manage option 1+2 at the same time, if I can find the right song :)
Otherwise my Fluke will safe me.
 
and some people have the temerity to ask, "why do you need so many ukes?" DUH you need them in every possible shape, for this season! :rock: great theme!
 
What a clever theme, I wouldn't have though of it!
I hope to manage option 1+2 at the same time, if I can find the right song :)
Otherwise my Fluke will safe me.

I hoped the Flea/Fluke/Firefly community would appreciate this!
 
Darn it. I'd just gotten the Iceman Uke out of my system. And the Little Gem. And the Pineapple Sunday (lying - still trying to convince myself on that one, but couldn't get it in time anyway). Apparently I really like oddly shaped ukes. Does a solid-body Les Paul shape count? It's non-standard, but vaguely double-bout.

Lots of good options for songs, though my first thought doesn't quite have a shape in the title. Or is "Particle" a shape?

--Rob
 
That's a really clever idea, Rick! I always welcome the opportunity to be "non-standard"!
 
Kicking things off with some simple geometry...a line."Jesus is on the Main Line". An old gospel blues.Trying some slide uke in open D.Being plugged in helps a bit with getting the slide to work on nylon strings.This is loosely based on Mississippi Fred McDowell's version.
Thanks Rick!! been thinking about getting a fluke or flea....should have thought quicker!
 
I'm deep in the weeds with work, but I wanted to get something in this week, so here's a quick one taker of a song I did awhile back, on the closest thing I have to a square uke. I've always gotten a kick out of this song.

 
I opened the contest thread this afternoon while I was getting ready to leave the school where I teach. Reading it, I was vaguely disappointed because all my 5 ukes are regular pear-shaped ones. Ooo... New uke? Then it hit me . There's not much of a ukulele market here in Yangon, and there would be no way for me to buy one. Resigned, I looked up the "shape" I'm going to see. It needed a capo. I didn't have one, but I thought the eclectic music shop in Yangon's min market just across the road would have one - maybe even one made for a uke.

What did I find there? Lo and Behold! Uke #6! It's going to be my office uke.

Best of all, it's funny shaped!

20190714_210732.jpg
 
I opened the contest thread this afternoon while I was getting ready to leave the school where I teach. Reading it, I was vaguely disappointed because all my 5 ukes are regular pear-shaped ones. Ooo... New uke? Then it hit me . There's not much of a ukulele market here in Yangon, and there would be no way for me to buy one. Resigned, I looked up the "shape" I'm going to see. It needed a capo. I didn't have one, but I thought the eclectic music shop in Yangon's min market just across the road would have one - maybe even one made for a uke.

What did I find there? Lo and Behold! Uke #6! It's going to be my office uke.

Best of all, it's funny shaped!

View attachment 119857

Encouraging local commerce! Win-win!
 
I only have two non traditional shaped ukes and I hope to do a song with each one. First up, I pulled the banjolele out and worked up this old Grateful Dead song. Though I do like the unique tone of this uke, the tight string spacing at the bridge is a bit of a challenge for me to finger pick. But that's what you do with banjoleles right? So I stuck with it. . . Thanks for the season and the reason to pull this neglected instrument out of it's case Rick!

 
A quick question/clarification: Does a non-standard number of strings count as non-standard, or is this just all about the shape?
 
I haven't made a video specifically for The Seasons in over a year. Sorry for being a Class A Jerk, but things have been a bit tight... Another reason that I usually do things as one-and-done, aka "warts and all".

So, for Season 387 - The Shape of Things, played on my Tenor Fluke is Sheldon Harnick's "The Ballad of the Shape of Things" (as I learned it from the Kingston Trio recording...). And keep in mind, Sheldon Harnick is the composer of Fiddler on the Roof...

 
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