Thursday, 18 August 2011

Look at the baby guitar!

I finally made it out to the Corktown Uke Jam again last night. Manitoba Hal gave a blues workshop and then knocked my socks off with with gems like this. I can now shuffle. Just not like this.


I've been shamefully neglecting my guitar for the ukulele. Due to its portability and the fact that it doesn't seem to matter if I don't sound awesome (and due to the fact that this happened the last time I took my guitar to school), I've been playing uke almost exclusively at "performances": Teacher Talent show, Coffee Haus, Lindystock. At Eric's cottage, I played his mother's ukulele and promptly became dissatisfied with my cheepo green Mahalo. It didn't sound mellow and lovely. I figured the time had finally come to upgrade.

I went searching online for uke reviews and came across Ukulele Hunt which has a lot of resources for uke players, and one of the things they recommend is changing the strings on your el cheapo. Thank heavens for the internet -- it's saved me a whole bunch of money... although two sets of strings + shipping was nearly as much as my uke originally cost. That's a cheap uke.

The new strings do sound better, and I'm neglecting my guitar even more. One day I want to grow up to be as good as these guys:

Diamond Head by U900. This is: a) adorable, b) really, really well done, both playing and animation-wise. Apparently U900 in Japanese sounds like "oo-ku-re-re."

While you're at it, check out their version of Walk, Don't Run. Bunny rocks out at 0:33!

Jake Shimabukuro is a god on the ukulele. That is all.

I saw the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain last fall when they played at Convocation Hall. They were so good. And funny. And good.


Finally, Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole: you've heard this version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow all over the place. Deservedly so.

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