i dont really need to pick up a new hobby, but whatever - i just bought a ukulele! i love it so far, but my fingers are yelling at me and i'm a bit annoyed at how quickly it falls out of tune. hopefully my skin will toughen up soon and i'll figure out how the little instrument works!
here are some inspirational tunes played on the ukulele.
first, listen to the legenadary hawaiian musician Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole sing somehwere over the rainbow.
and one from pearl jam's front man, eddie vedder, who released an album of ukulele songs earlier this year. here is his tune called can't keep.
3 comments:
There's an old youtube of a guy playing "While my guitar gently weeps" on ukelele that's pretty impressive.
I always liked that version of Somewhere over the Rainbow...it will be playing in a constant loop in my mind now.
Enjoy your uke!!
Paul
Congrats on your uke--you'll never be bored again!
Yes, keeping 'em in tune can be a pain, and that's
because a lot of 'em have pegged tuning. If you decide you want to stick with it, you may want to get one that's got geared tuning. Joel Ekhaus up in Maine has a company called Ernest Instruments that makes great ukes with geared tuning. In fact, I believe he made Eddie Vedder's uke! (For an example of one of his ukes, click on my name and then go to "photos".)
Whatever you do, PLEASE, do NOT learn "Tiptoe Thru The Tulips"! I love Tiny Tim, but that song set the uke back a generation!
For inspiration beyond Bruddah Iz and Beatles covers, check out this guy....
http://www.youtube.com/user/uker23
I'll freely admit that I'm pimping for a friend here, but Pops Bayless is one of the best uke players going
these days, and one of the ONLY ones writing good,
original music for the uke. (Check out his classical
improvisation. That vid is a few years old and he's
really expanded that piece since then!) It's great to see someone actually moving the ball forward!
Lastly, here's some simple uke chording for a song that I'd imagine an astronomer would like to know....
http://www.alligatorboogaloo.com/uke/tabs/020622.html
Enjoy!
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