Uke's a great way to age, Ubass corner, dancing, songs that stick in your head and a bit of Beethoven...

Reporting from bonnie Scotland, Ubass Corner, dancing, songs that stick in your head, a bit of Beethoven.

View this email in your browser

Hello and welcome to 2018.
This year will see a rebuild of the site and the addition of video courses including ubass and strumming. As well as Resonate, email subscribers will receive regular postings of useful (or just plain entertaining) information, and answers to questions that ukulele and ubass players often ask me. I'm looking forward to it!!

Lording it up in Scotland
In recent weeks, ubass player and group leader Douglas Scott (no relation) of the Shooglelele Ukulele Band in Scotland contacted Ukulele Central with a few ubass questions. He subsequently sent through a video of his group performing at what looked like a corporate event, with a man in a suit playing along on the coconut shells!

The man in the suit happened to be Lord Foulkes, Chairman of the comprehensive ageing support organisation, Age Scotland, and the event was their annual conference. One of the management team had heard about Shooglelele, went along to a session, and later invited the group to play at the conference.

As Douglas reports:

The theme of the meeting was “learning later in life”. I was interviewed in front of the audience to tell the story of how I started the group, then we played a short set.

Basically the group started when my wife asked for a ukulele for Christmas in 2014 – I started to teach her, a few neighbours expressed an interest, then a few friends joined in and we now have 14 players in the group.

We were deemed to be a suitable example of how age should not restrict older people from learning a new skill later in life, especially those who had never played a musical instrument before. Apart from myself, none of the group, who are all retired, had ever played a ukulele before or indeed any musical instrument.

Going from playing to their usual audiences of 20 – 30 in care homes to 400 at the conference was a big step for the group, but Douglas convinced Lord Foulkes to join in with the coconuts and the result was a standing ovation! I do believe they're playing The Deadwood Stage (whip-crack-away) from Calamity Jane. Watch it here.

When performing, Shooglelele does not ask for a fee but any donations received are given to an Edinburgh University trust for research into diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

I was curious as to how Douglas himself began playing ukulele and it turns out that a few famous musicians were the catalyst. In November 2002, he watched the moving and heartfelt tribute organised by Eric Clapton on the first anniversary of George Harrison’s death. During the tribute, Paul McCartney told the story of about how going around to George’s house after dinner sometimes meant the ukes would come out, then played George’s song ‘Somewhere’, on ukulele. For the finale, Joe Brown performed the beautiful old tune now well-known to many ukers, 'I’ll See You in My Dreams.'

After mopping up his tears, next day Douglas did the rounds of Glasgow’s music shops to find a uke – with no success. One shop didn’t even know what a ukulele was! He ordered one online, taught himself to play with the help of Ukulele Underground and now contributes to the wider community via Shooglelele and U3A teaching.

This is another inspiring example of how a small, humble instrument, combined with people’s courage, action and commitment gives so much – personally, locally and globally.

(Btw shoogle is Scottish vernacular for ‘shake’.)

Thanks to the reader who sent through a link to this beautiful short film. ‘Reunited’ is about a man who was living in a care home and suffering severe dementia and depression, when his carer discovered, by chance, that he had been a professional jazz musician. When a keyboard was brought to him, and eventually a reunion organised with his old bandmates, life completely changed for 93 year old Ed Hardy.

Clear and present
Want a ukulele that you can play “in the Arctic Ocean, use to “paddle down the Amazon” or take “hiking in the Appalachians”? Outdoor Ukulele has a range of polycarbonate wonders built for the job. Each one is made to order and prices aren’t cheap but they’re nowhere near ridiculous. I’m guessing you could probably sit on of these or back over it in an SUV and it would be unperturbed. The other great thing about them is that if you lose a pick in the soundhole, you can see where it is whilst trying to get the damn thing out.

UBASS CORNER

Buzzing?
While the causes for ukes buzzing can be varied, with ubass, it’s often those fat slack strings vibrating just enough to hit a fret. Apart from taking it to a shop to have the nut and bridge setup checked or trying different strings, the time-honoured method I often use is to place little folded up pieces of paper under the offending strings at the nut. Because the black Road Toad Pahoehoe strings are so stretchy, you have to keep an eye on the bits of paper to make sure they don’t reposition themselves and fall out, but it works.

Metal vs polyurethane strings
The original Kala ubass is notable for the deep, beautiful sound that the aforementioned Road Toad polyurethane strings make. Countless models and multiple manufacturers later, the roundwound metal strings used on bass guitars are also now in common usage for ubasses. They sound more like bass guitar and are somewhat harsher on your fingers (hello callouses), but are a little more forgiving in other ways. The hideous croaking sound from fretting too close to a fret wire is more of a muted buzz and warm weather/stage nerves doesn’t cause your fingers to stick to the strings, making weird amplified noises when you lift them off. Another option (which I use on bass guitar) is a set of short-scale flatwound strings – they’re great for smooth slides and not as harsh on those fingertips.

Dancing up a new tune
In November 2017, a world-renowned Japanese dancer was wired with electrodes and as he danced, his movements were converted into musical phrases, automatically played on a Yamaha Disklavier keyboard – an extraordinary meeting of the performing arts and Artificial Intelligence technology. Although the technology used is high level, it’s really only early days for this kind of interaction. A related area now being explored is composing music by harnessing brain activity, designed to be used by people whose physical limitations make it difficult or impossible to write or perform music. Read more about it in this article which also contains the video of the dancer making music.

Bound for Botany Bay
Speaking of dance, recent research has found that in the early days of Australia’s convict settlement, music, and in particular dance, played a huge part in the lives and wellbeing of convicts. This was the case both in Australia and on the ships when they were being transported. Knowing what we do already (and are still discovering) about music and communities, and considering that these people came from places with strong traditions of folk music and dance, it’s really no surprise even if it has been buried under commentary about the bleakness of convict life. Of course the indigenous communities whose lives were severely impacted by this settlement also had their own music and dance culture established over thousands of years.
Planning is underway for an exhibition and series of workshops in Brisbane to showcase the research. Read about it here.

SNIPPETS

How and why does a ridiculous jingle for soft drink or insect spray stick in your head for decades?
It’s got something to do with long term memory, but apparently even more vital to remembering is the emotional component, which makes music and trust very intertwined in our psyche. Read about it here in: Why a Well-crafted Melody has the Power to Colonise your Mind

This is a great story about the establishment and success of Kanilea Ukuleles – which started out as a husband-and-wife homemade ukulele business but is now, in its 20^th year, a multi-million dollar enterprise. Have you planted your koa seeds yet?

Apparently Friday February 2 was ‘World Play Your Ukulele Day’. Hello? I thought every day was play your ukulele day. This writer discovered his own play your ukulele day after having surgery and not being allowed to lift his guitar because it was heavier than a tea kettle.

Lithgow, on the Western edge of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales has a local library that lends ukuleles. Of course when there are ukes around, groups abound and not only does Lithgow library have its own group, but they’ve spurred on nearby Portland Library to do the same. Music, people, connectedness, belonging, accessibility, fun – ingredients for a good life!

Songsheet(s)
Beethoven wrote some rippers for the ukulele, including Minuet in G.
This arrangement of melody and harmony (minus the Trio section) is for two or more ukuleles, and I may get around to writing the bass part soon. The only tricky notes are those four semiquavers, so feel free to slow them down or play the first one and sing the others if your fingers aren’t cooperating.

NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) is a not-for-profit American industry association which organises a huge annual event for music merchants to display their wares. NAMM 2018 was on January 26 – 29 and as well as featuring a cornucopia of new instruments, provided a platform for some excellent musicians. Those playing this year included The Left Coast Ukulele Trio who are sublime and Jennifer Leitham is a superbly good left-handed ubass player…yay!. This is seven minutes of quality uke jazz.

Enjoy!
Danielle

Forward