Ukulele Logos

 In the summer I had a go at adding a photo of one of my ukuleles to a photo of Eric Morecambe's statue. It became the logo for the Morecambe Ukulele Club and was the motif on the front of the 2014 'tour' shirt. The back of the shirt, as is usual, had our tour dates.

The logo, on the right shows Eric holding the ukulele. In reality his fingers are outstretched and I had to remove the ends of the fingers to make it look like he was holding it. The easiest part of the image to add is probably the text as all I had to do was choose a font and get the size of font to fit the length of the image.

Today I had a go at a logo for Ukulele Jukebox - see https://www.facebook.com/ukulelejukebox

Strangely, or maybe not if you know about these things, it was easier to make Eric into a silhouette and add a ukulele than it was to draw straight lines and circles to make a jukebox. I haven't had a lesson in using a computer but maybe I need a lesson or two.



And if you want to see where Morecambe Ukulele Club go on tour, here is the back of the shirt. The trouble with a tour shirt is it can't get printed until we know where we are going. We have had dates that aren't on the tour shirt e.g. last weekend we played Morecambe Library.

I believe we have been invited back to Morecambe Library next year and we should be alright in 2015 for the Paris Olympia, the Albert Hall and New York's Carnegie Hall.

Aloha

The importance of dynamics

A couple of days ago I posted my first two videos on an Ohana TKG 70 guitalele. The first is Aguado's study in Am which is fairly simple and I played it slowly but I played it as it is written. Then, in take two, with a shift in accent, I recorded it with an emphasis on the melody. It became a different tune which just goes to show the importance of dynamics.

A few weeks ago I won the guitalele from Omega Music. Yes, won. How lucky is that, so thanks to Omega Music I now have a welcome addition to my ukuleles. This one plays like a guitar at the fifth fret and is the size of a tenor ukulele. Four of the six strings are exactly like a tenor (G,C,E and A) with an additional fifth and sixth strings (A and D) which makes it relative tuning exactly like a guitar - hence the name.

I now need to learn a whole new set of chord names. However it is easy to play classical pieces on the guitalele as long as you don't want them to be in their original key. This isn't a problem because most classical music is for solo guitar. Those extra two strings make me think I am playing guitar but all the notes have changed. I can play all my classical guitar music but the sound that is produced is five semitones higher.

I like ukuleles, in fact I prefer them to the classical guitar because they are easy to carry, easier to play, much cheaper than guitars, and mostly I prefer ukuleles because they are a social instrument. There are groups of like-minded ukulele players everywhere. In fact I am off later today to play in Sainsbury's in Lancaster. I don't think you'll find many guitar groups playing for charity this Christmas in your local supermarket.

Aloha

The Best Size for a Ukulele

I have just been asked for advice on buying a ukulele and specifically which size is best. This person already plays guitar and they had already heard about the different tuning of the baritone which may be helpful to her. Here is a copy of the advice...

I have a guitalele which is the size of a tenor ukulele but has six strings tuned like a guitar at the fifth fret. When I play a G chord on the guitalele I am actually playing a C chord and this makes me feel like a beginner as I have to think in a totally different way from when I am playing the guitar. Even if you decide on a baritone, I would treat your ukulele Christmas present like a new instrument and forget that you play guitar. You will have new chord shapes to learn but at least they are all the same regardless of the size of ukulele (apart from baritone). I have Brunswick soprano, concert and tenor ukuleles which aren't very expensive but I bought them to help me decide which size is best for me. I am still deciding.

Sopranos are good for stretching for higher notes but there is more space to move around in first position with the tenor. All of them have chords in the same shape and all I have to do is remember how far to stretch for the notes that aren't in first position... I also have an eight-string tenor which is my first choice playing solo.

I like my soprano as I can carry it in a small bag and it's probably best to start with a soprano and they tend to be cheaper too. It's probably best not to spend too much on your first ukulele. Octopus are cheap and good. Slightly better and slightly more expensive are Mahalo Dolphin ukuleles. For a little more money you get a huge choice including Brunswick. Don't forget looks. If you like the look of a ukulele then you are more likely to play it too. I hope that helps.

So Many Ukulele Opportunities

We are very lucky in Morecambe to have so many opportunities for playing the ukulele. On Thursday a couple who were staying in Lancaster for a couple of nights sent a message on Facebook to ask about joining us at our regular Saturday morning session at the Morecambe Ukulele Club. From that message they managed to get to Arnside on Thursday evening, Lancaster on Friday and Morecambe on Saturday. I did mention that the Snug Ukulele  group from Carnforth were playing at the beer festival at Carnforth Station on Saturday (yesterday) evening but they were making their way north to Carlisle and to Omega Music.

Here is the evidence for one of those events, the Beer Festival at Carnforth. Thanks to Glenn Bennett - https://picasaweb.google.com/103639…/SnugBeerFestival221114…"

Aloha

P.S. Take a look at the Lancashire Ukulele website.

Lancashire Ukulele

I have a website which went live a few hours ago and here is the link for 'Lancashire Ukulele'.

There are plenty of photos and videos as well as an advert for lessons in classical guitar and ukulele.

Aloha

GNUF and my most inspirational ukulele player 'award'

This time last week I was in Huddersfield at the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival (GNUF) - and what a festival! There were ample opportunities to play the ukulele, there were workshops galore and there were the top ukulele players from around the world. The photo on the right shows one of the groups, the Mother Ukers.

GNUF is the type of festival where everyone seems to know everyone else. This may be because a large proportion of the audience attended last year or it may be because of social media throughout the year. It may be because ukulele players are free to go and play with other ukulele groups - and there are plenty around, or it may be something to do with the tours organised by GNUF. It may also be something to do with the mini-festivals that are arranged by many clubs. I have written about Lancaster's Malarkey but I also got chance to play at Chester back in July and there are plenty of others including the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain. However mostly the ukulele ambience is mostly due to the friendly nature of ukulele players and performers.

There were many performers in a great variety of styles and the Mother Ukers were among my favourites. They played on the Saturday and the following day I spoke to the three of them. I told them that I had enjoyed their music and my 'award' for most inspirational ukulele player goes to their bass player, Barnaby Wild (his photo is on the left and the right just in case you don't recognise a ukulele bass). I was asked if that's because he sweats a lot - and if you look closely you can see that his shirt is wet through. The answer is partly yes because of the energy that he puts into his performance. I don't use flash which means that the performers have to be fairly still when I take the photo otherwise the image is blurred. You can see the effect of movement on the left with the movement of Barnaby's right arm. I did manage, after a few more attempts, to get two or three photos of him without blurring. There's one of them on the right.

The other two told me I shouldn't have mentioned my award to Barnaby because they won't hear the last of it. Fortunately they told me, he doesn't understand the word inspirational and they will tell him it means something different.  I did see a few more performers after this conversation including the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain who were excellent,  but my inspirational 'award' still goes to Barnaby.

Aloha

Perfect Fourths and Fifths and Intel

Some notes, and for that matter chords, go together better than others. Take the note C and then play an F and then play C to G. The F is the fourth note of the C scale and C to F is called a perfect fourth because these notes go so well together. You don't get a perfect second because these notes don't fit together as nicely. However C goes well with G and this is called the perfect fifth.

It doesn't matter if we are talking about individual notes or with full chords, C, F and G go really well together. There are many songs that just use those three chords because they fit together so well. It doesn't have to start with a C chord. If you start with a D then the fourth is a G and the fifth an A, and there are many songs in those three chords too.

If you take the notes and go from C to F then back to C then G this is exactly the melody of the Intel theme commonly heard on adverts. You can't get much simpler than a perfect fourth and a perfect fifth. OK the Intel advert has the notes C, C, F, C and G (or whichever key they are in) but someone has made a lot of money out of that. Maybe that's why they are called perfect intervals.

Aloha