Weirdest way to play

[Ziret]

I used my uke for pain relief after a recent surgery, too. It helped a lot. And I play lying in bed most nights. I just got a uke with a side port and when lying down, it shoots the sound right to my ears. Try it!

 

[ukecaitlin]

I suspect you just intended that as a joke (however true as well), but it's actually a good question, and I'm responding in that spirit.
...
One thing that's wrong with it is that, when most people do it, they tilt the uke a bit, and that puts more strain on the wrist and makes certain chord formations more difficult. It's decidedly less ergonomic. ///

Yes turning it into a contortionists, peddle guitar is hard on both the wrists, and the ears.

 

[ukecaitlin]

I used my uke for pain relief after a recent surgery, too. It helped a lot. And I play lying in bed most nights. I just got a uke with a side port and when lying down, it shoots the sound right to my ears. Try it!

Hope your partner find it music to their ears! Or do you play as quietly as I had too in a four bed ward?

 

[wqking]

I tried when I have to stay in bed the whole day due to pain on my back. I tried to play Ukulele and lay it on my breast, I also tried to play Xun (a Chinese winding instrument). Both are quite uncomfortable because the gravity direction is "wrong". Hat off to the astronauts.

I tried to show my son that I can play with just my feet. Would that be classified as "too weird" for this thread?

And from your another thread about testing whether the top is too thick, seems you are never afraid of destroying your Ukulele.

 

[Neil_O]

Watching an ipad or notebook while playing means that you are probably only playing with 20% of your capability. Learn one song without looking at songbook and you will feel like you are playing for the first time

How do you arrive at 20%?

 

[rustydusty]

How do you arrive at 20%?

Most of the people in our 8 piece band play from an iPad without issues. Just our drummer and I don't use them as I play strictly by ear... some of the best musicians I know can't play without the music in front of them.

 

[ksiegel]

Most of the people in our 8 piece band play from an iPad without issues. Just our drummer and I don't use them as I play strictly by ear... some of the best musicians I know can't play without the music in front of them.

I was watching a Billy Joel concert on video one evening, and noticed that he has monitors scrolling the lyrics. I've watched Steve Martin and the Stone Canyon Rangers perform, and they have iPads. for lyrics. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain uses charts. And, honestly, I haven't seen a symphony orchestra or Broadway pit band play without the music in front of them. I generally have the words (and some of the uke groups I play with get a little ticked at me because I don't have chord names all the time on my handouts!) and occasionally chord names, but I can't read notation or tab, so I'm happy to have something in front of me when I play. I still make eye contact with the audience, and still mess up the words, but like Linus, I have my security blanket.

-Kurt​

 

[mwilson]

How do you arrive at 20%?

I will amend that to say I was thinking of using a tablet/sheet while singing AND playing because that's what I see most in local jams. And I picked 20% for conversation 'cuz I really think folks that sing and play while reading a sheet leave a lot of emotion connection with listener potential out of the performance. I'm capable of singing while playing but I'm 5X better doing it if I know the lyrics and how to play the song from memory. Reading (for me and I'll assume for most) takes too much brain time to allow for something as complex as making music AND singing to be as good as it can be. If you are ok with ukulele karaoke fine - I get it and I've enjoyed doing this when a jam group needs that to function. But whenever I'm recording, performing solo, or grooving out with better players, setting the material to memory is required. For me it's a next level necessity. YMMV

 

[VegasGeorge]

I suppose everyone is a little different when it comes to the way they can or can't seamlessly integrate information from an iPad or sheet music into their playing. For me, reading a lead sheet while playing is a simply natural process. I do have a number of tunes that I've played and sung so often that I don't need the written material. But my performance quality and enjoyment is just the same. It's not as if reading the sheet music diverts my musical resources, it doesn't. Now, I can imagine that happening to someone who is unfamiliar with reading music, or who, for example, is dyslexic. Then, the sheet music would constitute a distraction and might very well interfere with the performance.

 

[clear]

And from your another thread about testing whether the top is too thick, seems you are never afraid of destroying your Ukulele.

I don't think they hurt the ukes at all. Playing using feet isn't the same as stepping on it; and pressing the top isn't the same as crushing it.

 

[Voran]

I dare someone to play the ukulele with their nose

 

[Down Up Dick]

Well, I've been working on a nose pick…

My wife says it’s nasty when I do that so I try to keep it from her and others.

 

[plunker]

Actually, when I sit up in a chair and play, the people who hear me think it weird.