Final 2019 Resonate from Ukulele Central

Taking an extended break

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This beautiful uke has been decorated by Maori man Sam Mangakahia who grew up in Brisbane, Australia, currently resides in Hawaii and customises ukes with hand-carving and inlays. Check out some more via Etsy).

Bye for a while

Hope you received the uke/strings/amp/songbook or peace and quiet you wanted for Christmas!

Apologies for missing November Resonate and for this one being so late. A combination of unforseen work commitments and study has narrowed my available time options to nil and so Resonate is going to take an unspecified break. I may instead post the occasional ukulele or u-bass arrangement and instructional video, but will see how things pan out in 2020.

I am grateful for your readership, contributions and commitment to music and its place in all our lives – positive constants in a time of local and global uncertainty.

Guiness Book of World Records? No, it’s RecordSetter

For those of you thinking of setting a record, it’s a lot easier than it used to be. RecordSetter, run by a team which collaborates between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, has a clear set of parameters and an approval process, all of which appear to be free of charge, allowing you to specify, attempt and then claim ownership of ‘world’ records.

In early December a successful attempt was made by the uke group pictured above, in Aldershot, Hampshire (UK), who used the event to raise funds for a hospice which cared for one of the participants’ wives. The auspicious record, if you’d like to read about it, was for “Most ukulele players wearing Santa hats for 10 consecutive songs.”

Finding a New Driveway

This story really cuts to what uke-grouping is all about – cooperation and sense of community, with a side-serving of music-catalysed neurochemistry that facilitates happy bonding!

Southern California’s South Bay Strummers have a 15-year tradition of driveway Christmas Carolling, which began in the driveway of the house belonging to their 91-year-old member Jack. When Jack became sick, his neighbours stepped in and provided the group with a new driveway, helping to continue the tradition even after Jack had died.

It doesn’t matter that the South Bay Strummers aren’t the greatest group that ever played or if Christmas in the driveway is the only time they ever perform publicly. Human musical cooperation on a local scale is a basis for us to collaborate in more complex scenarios and is a great place to practice getting it right!

Breakaway

It’s wonderful when big uke groups lead to more, smaller breakaway groups and events which showcase them, like the Offshoots concert held in early November in Newcastle, organised by teacher extraordinaire Di Murray.

This is the story of such a group, four women in Illinois who call themselves the Shenanigans and who broke away from their local Hummers and Strummers to develop their own brand of performance self-expression.

Original Cyn & Co (Cynthia at right on uke, me to the left on u-bass, red chair freeloading) at the Offshoots concert.

Uke and U-bass for Portugal. The Man's Feel it Still

This five-piece ‘psych-pop’ band based in Portland, Oregon originally hailed from Alaska.
Lead singer John Gourley had this to say about the name of the band in a USA Today article:

"A country is an individual in the world that represents a group of people, so I decided we would name our band after a country and Portugal happened to be the one that popped up," Gourley continues. "In hindsight, we should've named it something to do with Alaska. But you become so burnt out on beluga whales and huskies, you don't appreciate it the same way."

Feel It Still is from their eighth album and was their first hit in the mainstream charts. The earworm opening line of the chorus happens to be a musical play on the chorus from the Marvelette’s hit Please Mister Postman. Easy to pick once you compare the two, but this chorus begins in the relative minor chord of the key, rather than its relative major chord.

The live version is in Bm, recorded version in C#m (like this songsheet) and easier songsheets are found in Am. Whatever the case, it can be played using Am, C, Dm and F or those shapes with your index finger or a capo as the barre!
Gourley sings it in falsetto so pick your key depending on the singer’s range and transpose on the run!

Here’s the u-bass guide which has music and tabs for the chord progressions.

SNIPPET
Music and Health
I was sent this link by the author and while it relates to areas of music and health that Resonate has covered in more detail, it is a decent, referenced summary.

Enjoy Ukebox, five Liverpool (UK) lads in suits, performing an old favourite in a humorous style at this year’s Sunshine Coast Festival (Queensland, Australia).

Best wishes for a fresh musical foray into 2020 and as the Rocky Mountain Ukulele Orchestra says, “Your cat shouldn’t be your number one fan.”
Danielle

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