Tone and Responsibility

Tone and Responsibility. No, I’m not revealing a hitherto unknown Jane Austen novel, unfortunately. Rather, I'm broaching a topic I haven’t seen before on this site, how a player’s touch figures in the whole ukulele game. We have endless discussions of the virtues or infelicities of various strings, ukulele sizes, makes and makers but when do we discuss the most important aspect of it all, the magic touch?

I have a close friend, a very successful songwriter, whose name shall remain undisclosed because he cherishes his privacy, who can pick up any guitar or ukulele and pluck its strings in such a way that the most beautiful tones emerge, even if he is playing only a single note or just a simple melodic phrase. It doesn’t matter whether the instrument is expensive or inexpensive, he brings out beautiful sounds that other players can’t produce. He has the magic touch, and I have discovered his secret and wish to pass it on to members of the Ukulele Underground.

His secret in its profundity is rather simple as are most profound secrets:
He listens very carefully.

He touches the strings very gently at first and listens to their sounds when the sounds are almost inaudible. His touch is light at first. Gradually he increases his pressure and begins pulling the sound from the strings. He stops when he has what he wants. It’s almost as though he were saying that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. He listens carefully and you hear the results.

So, a word to the wise: Before you place the responsibility for the sound on the instrument, the maker, the material or the strings, carefully weigh what you bring to the feast. Can you refine your contribution?

HMS has a number of videos where Corey, Kalei and Tobis all play the same instrument. Three world class players but all with a different “touch” make the same instrument sound different.

I believe this is something a player develops with time and experience. I've seen many instructors say that you have to know when to belt it out and when to be more mellow. That's the big advantage of the piano over its ancestor, the harpsichord. The piano allows for the light touch that the harpsichord doesn't.

So it's not the uke...it's me! .

Good food for thought there!

Very good observations, Kimosabe! I can confess that, VERY OFTEN, I need to be reminded about the importance of "dynamics" in our playing. So many times, I'll realize that I'm just "banging away" full-strength and full-speed as I make my way through a song, whereas it could be so much prettier and more interesting if I would only make conscious variations in the volume, and sometimes the tempo, of my playing and singing. Your post is a great reminder of this!

I can always refine my cobtribution more.

Some people are more musically gifted, and can quicker pick up on how to play something. This player obviously have a very good ear, being able to pick up on it first time he plays an instrument.

Being less musically gifted, I wonder how to make myself listen and learn better. My most expensive, hence supposedly best ukulele, I am not that comfortable playing. Perhaps I should focus on playing that ukulele untill I like the sounds I squeeze from it.
And when I want to play and sing, perhaps I should take the time to learn to play without singing first, so I can really listen to the Ukulele.

That being said, some ukulele are more forgiving when it comes to precision than others, when it comes to producing good sound.

Good thread going here and good title too.

I think some of that can indeed be learned in time with experience, but some people will always be more gifted than others.

Of course an uke that is fretted accurately, setup well, etc. is going to sound better. So there is merit in having a decent instrument. I agree with the above post on that.

YES, PLEASE!

Nine times out of ten this is where I find myself pressing the delete key on a post in order to not put my foot in my mouth. It's so important, but there's a certain amount of deafness that goes on around the subject.

People often get the impression that others who bring this up are tooting their self-righteous horn about how THEY have the touch and noobs don't, blah, blah. But it's not about how well you play or how nice your uke is. It's about expecting different/better sounds to come with a NUD instead of putting in the time to explore what you have.

UkingViking said:

Being less musically gifted, I wonder how to make myself listen and learn better. My most expensive, hence supposedly best ukulele, I am not that comfortable playing. Perhaps I should focus on playing that ukulele untill I like the sounds I squeeze from it.

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I think this is a very interesting concept. IMO, you learn to play TO an instrument/strings/etc.

This is where I feel a lot of people short change themselves by having a bunch of ukes. By playing 10 instruments you're spreading your finger memory so thin that's really no surprise that the overall touch of the player isn't that great.

Get yourself a quality instrument that's set up well and learn to play TO it (i.e. play it a lot/exclusively). I feel like two players of equal skill, one who has played a run-of-the-mill Kala for five years, one who plays a bunch of fancy ukes in rotation, will portray different confidence in their tone and touch. FWIW, my money is on the Kala guy.

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Just. Play. Music. That's what it comes down to. The Western school of thought likes to intellectualize everything to death. Music happens, you don't think it into existence.

DownUpDave said:

HMS has a number of videos where Corey, Kalei and Tobis all play the same instrument. Three world class players but all with a different “touch” make the same instrument sound different.

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I think the videos with the fretless uke are really interesting as it caught Corey and folks by surprise but when Mr Manley showed up, he made that uke sing!

Bill1 said:

If you think you don't have any talent, just use a systematic approach. Its not hard and there are only 12 x 4=48 fretting positions to try on a 12 fret uke, if you know your scales, there are even less. A piano has 88 keys, your ukulele has about half that in fretting positions.
Step 1. Play a scale with the string pressed hard against the wood.
Step 2. Play a scale with only just enough pressure to make the string ring.
Step 3. Play a scale with half way pressure.
Stick to a scale where you play one note at a time, not a whole chord. Play a single note melody or tune if you get bored playing a scale.
You have to be deaf if you can't hear the difference between these three steps and the resulting noise, pick the one that suits the music you want to play, and realise that you can use all three while playing the same tune to tell a story.
After you do it 1000 times every one will tell you how talented you are.

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Craig Chee told us to press the strings just enough to make the sound true, because you won't get more sound by pressing harder, only tire yourself. The difference in sounds that you will produce after you have fretted sufficiently to produce a clear sound are determined by your picking hand, the part of your finger you pick with, the strength of your picking, and other nuances of your picking fingers strokes. Your systematic approach needs to focus on the picking hand for sound nuances and positioning your fretting fingers on the correct position on the fret to get the best sound, as incorrect position is the biggest reason people feel they have to press harder. Correctly positioning the fingers on the fret will result in less pushing force.

There may only be 48 fretting points, but when fretting as part of a chord there are several fingers that can fret it, from different angles depending on what the other fingers are doing. Makes it a bit more complicated.

Fretting is really important, but in my opinion - buzzes excluded, your right hand usually has way more to do with the tone of what you play.

Most people just go for a "if it's not broke, don't fix it" approach to strumming or picking. It works most of the time, but unless you're lucky, you'll only be getting a mediocre tone.

I would encourage folks to break down their most basic attack motions and really look at what's happening. Slow down your motion until you can see exactly how you're striking the string. Then try different variations and compare the tone. If it's better, keep exploring. If not, try something else. There are tons of possibilities and everyone's body is different.

Brad Bordessa said:

Fretting is really important, but in my opinion - buzzes excluded, your right hand usually has way more to do with the tone of what you play.

Most people just go for a "if it's not broke, don't fix it" approach to strumming or picking. It works most of the time, but unless you're lucky, you'll only be getting a mediocre tone.

I would encourage folks to break down their most basic attack motions and really look at what's happening. Slow down your motion until you can see exactly how you're striking the string. Then try different variations and compare the tone. If it's better, keep exploring. If not, try something else. There are tons of possibilities and everyone's body is different.

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Do you address any of this in your new right-hand book? By the way, I am never far away from your left-hand book. I just moved 1200 miles, but I knew at all times where my chord shape book was located. One never knows when he or she will be at a truck stop and need a dom13b9 shape with a root that is unfamiliar.

When playing with others who are all playing 1st position chord shapes; try playing 2nd and 3rd chord shapes and it'll bring a whole different sound to the group. I always listen what's happening in the song. If there's a lead going on or someone singing, I play softer adding a few riffs and fill in's to compensate.

ripock said:

Do you address any of this in your new right-hand book? By the way, I am never far away from your left-hand book. I just moved 1200 miles, but I knew at all times where my chord shape book was located. One never knows when he or she will be at a truck stop and need a dom13b9 shape with a root that is unfamiliar.

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As much as possible because it's the most interesting and important aspect of digging into the details of playing, to me. But it's also incredibly subjective which makes it hard to really nail down in words. Short answer: yes. Certainly more than any other offering I know of.

That's great! "The truck stopper's chord book."

FWIW, I'm currently working on my next book, Left Hand Technique For ʻUkulele. I've already got an extensive amount of nerdy content that would be very relevant to this thread, esp. along the lines of Bill's posts.

EDIT: Speaking of, and addressing Bill1!!! You've got great stuff to share - I like reading your posts, but it would be MUCH easier to read if you double-spaced your paragraphs. Makes it less work to wade through lots of text like that. Just FYI.