No Ukulele Blues - oh, and Hi!

Wrote this song today. Thought it would serve well as an introduction of sorts.

No Ukulele Blues

It all started late last week,
Got the urge to play the blues.
I said this all started late last week,
When I got the urge to play some blues.

Now, I can’t play guitar,
I just don’t have the skills to play.
Six strings are two too many,
Think I’ll try the ukulele!

Amazon, Amazon
Why do you make me wait?
Been waitin’ since last Friday
I’ve got no ukulele today.

You know this uke it came from China,
Layered with wood of the Agathis tree.
Yeah, I never heard of an Agathis either,
But, that don’t bother me.

Now UPS says it’s in Kentucky,
Left Portland Oregon ‘bout 2a.
They say I’ll have it by tomorrow,
Be at my door by the end of the day.

I say Amazon, Amazon
Why do you always make me wait?
Been waitin’ since last Friday
No ukulele today.

</song>

So, yeah. Ordered a Makala MK-T and some stuff Friday. One of my sets of strings (D'Addario) showed up today, along with my Snark tuner... but no ukulele... hence the song.

I have near zero musical experience or talent. Tried to teach myself electric guitar about 10 years ago, but found it a bit daunting and cumbersome, so didn't get far. I figured a simpler instrument and one that is small enough to comfortably play on the couch or anywhere and just be able to "toss around" might suit me better. We shall see. If nothing else, I'm certain that I'll get $69 worth of entertainment out of the Makala!

Hopefully, I can turn some of the coordination that allows me to do things like type 70 words-per-minute, juggle, chew gum while walking, and rev-match-double-clutch-heel-toe-downshift-while-turning-in-for-a-late-apex-at-turn-12 into something sort of like "playing" a ukulele.

Welcome to UU. Your uke will probably come sometime....I would think.

Thanks!

UPS shifted the delivery date to Monday, but tracking shows it in Orlando already... so it could be here tomorrow.

I've been jonesin' all week! Should have just found one in the store last weekend and paid a little more for it. Oh, well.

Welcome! Glad you joined us. Lots of ukulele blues enthusiasts here.

Welcome to Ukulele Underground! Enjoyed your poem

Quick update. The Makala showed up the day after I posted the above, and I've been plunking around on it for a little over a week now. Having a ball with it!

After a day or so, I swapped the strings to the Aquila's. They are definitely softer, a little easier to play, and louder than the cheap strings that came with the uke. I have a set of D'addario strings that I'll try at some point. I've a feeling (based on what I've read) that they're going to require more tension and be a little harder to play, and I'm not sure i'll like that. Might have a different opinion after I form some good callouses, I guess.

Learning (a minimal amount of) music theory, chords, training my fingers to find the chords and transition between them, playing with strums, just generally trying to casually get to know the instrument. Learning to "cheat" a few chords here and there (mostly dropping the A string on certain chords like Bb) and focusing more on just doing what *I* can do and making it sound good.

Played with alternate tunings, half and whole tone low sounds good on the Tenor, but it IS a note off and it sounds odd playing some things that way. Ultimately, I went back to standard tuning just because it consistently sounds right... for now. I also played with an alternate tuning for slide playing (I forget what it was). That was cool, but I've decided to put slide on hold and learn "the basics" first. (mainly because my wife chided me with "if I was learning this, you'd tell me to focus on the basics first instead of buying more stuff and trying to get fancy with it"... my advice is sound!)

So far, the only song I'm anywhere near "knowing" is Smoke on the Water, which is a surprisingly fun set of chords to play pretty much any way I choose to play it. I generally practice very quietly with gently thumb-strumming (because my wife is home and often either watching TV or sleeping while I'm practicing), but it's the only song I've really played LOUD.

I'm also toying around with Dock of the Bay, and some generic blues riffs and chord progressions. It will be a while before I get too far with that, but I'm having fun.

9 years and two ukuleles later...

I really don't feel like I've progressed much! I haven't been "serious" about it. Every now and then I play more. And every now and then I'll let several months go by without playing. I'm currently in a significant playing period. So much so, that I bought my third uke!

I guess I have progressed. I have muscle memory for a pretty wide variety of chords, as long as they don't require me to do anything too acrobatic. I can play "in the boxes" of major and minor pentatonic, and blues scales, which is fun. But, alternating between picking and strumming eludes me, as does being able to sing while I play. But, I have fun.

My second Uke was an electric/acoustic Oscar Schmidt tenor that I bought because I wanted to try electric. Very nice uke, but the tone never resonated with me (pun intended). It's a more traditional punchy Hawaiian sounding uke. It's fine, just not me. So, it's been hanging out in the closet.

My original Makala has served me well, and I plan to keep it around. I experimented with scalloping frets on it, so it's not pretty. But, it still plays well. Amazingly, the Aquila strings on it are ALWAYS in tune. It just stays in tune. Pretty cool.

This time around, I've learned that I find the first few frets of the tenor to be a little wide, and I really like playing the middle of the scale on them. So, I thought I'd try a concert uke. Bought a cheap Eastrock concert, and I like it a lot! It's currently wearing LowG Fremont Black strings.

I may not have posted here in my 9 years, but this forum is definitely one of my go-to resources for information. Thanks for being here!

Thanks for the update Loren. I hope you stay with it. Keep up the experimentation, and listen to your wife.

Welcome back. I hope you don't wait nine more years to post again!

Nickie said:

Welcome back. I hope you don't wait nine more years to post again!

Click to expand...

I'll try. No promises.

Every time I think I want to ask a question, I dig a little more and find that it's already been discussed at great length. And then I go back to either shopping for something, or practicing.

But, I do have an interesting topic that I think I'll start a new topic for.

LorenFL said:

I'll try. No promises.

Every time I think I want to ask a question, I dig a little more and find that it's already been discussed at great length. And then I go back to either shopping for something, or practicing.

But, I do have an interesting topic that I think I'll start a new topic for.

Click to expand...

Cool! I can't wait to see it. Also, if you make a video of you doing a song, we love those!

In 9 years of playing (and I use that term loosely), I've only recorded myself once! It was fairly recently.

If I succeeded in changing the permissions on this, you should be able to see it:


Here's what I put on Facebook with it when I posted it there on my birthday, September 2:

Apparently, there's a connection between my birthday and ukuleles. I ordered my first uke from Amazon on September 2, 2011. This time around, I ordered one a couple days ago and it arrived on my birthday. Perfect timing!

After 9 years of intermittent practice, I'm still not any good. I can't sing and play at the same time. I can't transition from strumming chords to plucking strings. I still have no rythm and little coordination. But, I enjoy playing, and every now and then I learn a little more.
And I suddenly realized that I've never recorded anything to share with the world. So, here you go. Don't worry, I'm not going to make a habit of it.

This isn't a song. Just a progression of chords I came up with this week after finding the G minor 7 chord and really liking how it sounded. The chords might not be "proper" together, but they are easy to play together.

You'll probably have to turn the volume way up. I generally play very softly because Cathy is usually in bed when I'm playing.

LorenFL said:

In 9 years of playing (and I use that term loosely), I've only recorded myself once! It was fairly recently.

If I succeeded in changing the permissions on this, you should be able to see it:


Here's what I put on Facebook with it when I posted it there on my birthday, September 2:

Apparently, there's a connection between my birthday and ukuleles. I ordered my first uke from Amazon on September 2, 2011. This time around, I ordered one a couple days ago and it arrived on my birthday. Perfect timing!

After 9 years of intermittent practice, I'm still not any good. I can't sing and play at the same time. I can't transition from strumming chords to plucking strings. I still have no rythm and little coordination. But, I enjoy playing, and every now and then I learn a little more.
And I suddenly realized that I've never recorded anything to share with the world. So, here you go. Don't worry, I'm not going to make a habit of it.

This isn't a song. Just a progression of chords I came up with this week after finding the G minor 7 chord and really liking how it sounded. The chords might not be "proper" together, but they are easy to play together.

You'll probably have to turn the volume way up. I generally play very softly because Cathy is usually in bed when I'm playing.

Click to expand...

That's interesting. Your link to your Facebook video didn't show up in your original post. But when clicked "Reply With Quote" to tell you, it appeared in the above Quote. Weird.

Now it's gone again. But I can see it in the edit message.

Yeah, it's weird for sure.

The forum accepted the Facebook video link. I've set permissions on it to public.

But, even when *I* click on it, it behaves strangely. Pops up an error, repeatedly. But, if I click the play button on the video underneath the displayed error dialogue, it plays.

Gotta love technology. If I wasn't lazy, I'd post it to YouTube!