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The Ukulele Entertainer: Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers
The Ukulele Entertainer: Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers
The Ukulele Entertainer: Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers
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The Ukulele Entertainer: Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers

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Be the Best “Ukulele Entertainer” You Can Be!
Could your playing, singing or onstage banter use a little fine-tuning? All string instrument performers will benefit from this practical, informative book. Going far beyond other ukulele publications, this helpful guide shows the aspiring ukulele star of any age how to:
• Put strings on a ukulele, correctly
• Play three styles of triplet strum
• Know where to look when you sing
• Tackle nerves and stage fright
• Start and run a ukulele club
• Remember lyrics and sing on pitch
• Create a killer set list, and much, much more
Learn from a seasoned pro how to relax and improvise, introduce more dynamics into your playing, even—just for fun—how to make ukulele wine! You’ll get some lessons in musical history and be royally entertained by the “King of the Ukulele” himself.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherBookBaby
Release dateDec 12, 2011
ISBN9781623092016
The Ukulele Entertainer: Powerful Pointers for Players and Performers

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    The Ukulele Entertainer - Ralph Shaw

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    PREFACE

    Welcome to The Ukulele Entertainer, a book to help ukulele players and other musicians with their playing and performance skills. This book brings together several of my interests and desires:

     To play ukulele. I have almost never lived in a house that didn’t have a ukulele in it, and rediscovering the ukulele as an adult has been a great joy.

     To entertain. I get a thrill out of performing and entertaining.

     To sing. I have loved to sing since I was a small child.

    I also like to teach these skills. More recently, I rekindled a love of writing that, except for my songwriting, had been more or less dormant for many years. When the idea of creating an e-newsletter came, I realized an opportunity to communicate my ideas about ukulele playing and musical performance.

    With this book I aim to share thoughts and ideas to help all levels of ukulele player to play better. And, since most musicians also want to perform in one capacity or another, the book also includes tips on improving your chances of success when you get out in front of an audience. Much of the information will be useful for other musicians and entertainers who are not ukulele players.

    Putting these pieces into book form is partly a response to requests from readers who wanted to see them published. It also fulfills my own long-held desire to create a book that might be as influential in the lives of future performers as other books have been for me.

    The pieces have been placed in sections. Since this is a book primarily for ukulele players, the most obvious category would be advice on how to play the ukulele. But, surprisingly perhaps, I don’t dwell on the playing of the instrument as much as you might expect. A host of materials are available that teach all manner of ukulele-playing skills and, quite frankly, reading isn’t the ideal way to learn a musical instrument. Instead, the information in these pages will add to and complement the ukulele-playing techniques already available in my Complete Ukulele Course DVD series.

    Besides, achieving excellence as an entertainer or musical performer requires knowledge and sets of skills far beyond musical techniques. How often has the ukulele player come up against stage fright or wondered where in the audience to look while singing? Therefore, numerous pages are dedicated to the teaching of performance ability.

    Most ukulele players are singers too. Singing looks so easy when done well. But only those who have persistently devoted themselves to the improvement of vocal technique understand how the playing of a stringed instrument is less than half the battle. Becoming a better singer is a big part of the ukulele player’s education, so you’ll find chapters to help with singing on pitch and the delivery of lyrics.

    When I write I think in the same terms as giving a performance. For this reason, you’ll notice elements of humour, storytelling and whimsy woven throughout. Hopefully these flashes of pattern and colour will help the reader to absorb and remember the lessons.

    You’ll also find the occasional chapter that won’t help you improve either your playing or performance abilities. However, you will learn how to make an undrinkable wine from an old ukulele, partake in the joys of making music through the eyes and ears of a fifteen-year-old girl, and discover Sithee, the Yorkshire equivalent of the Hawaiian word Aloha. You may choose to think of these pieces as moments of inspirational literature. If you don’t, and instead you view them as items of pointless frivolity, then I ask, If we can’t be allowed some time and space for reckless self-abandon, then why are we playing the ukulele in the first place?

    ONE

    Tips for Beginners

    START BY MAKING SOME MISTAKES

    Where we begin by trying something new.

    Have you ever had difficulty starting something new? Such as writing a letter, composing an email or drafting the first chapter of a book? That’s where I was at with this chapter. I trusted that as I got going the writing would become easier. What to say? This was to be the first issue of my e-newsletter, so I wanted to get off to an auspicious start. I wanted it to be good. But, then again, perhaps I didn’t need to make such a big deal out of it.

    I was reminded of something my friend and ukulele-playing colleague Andy Andrews told me one day. I was at his home and commenting on his prolific output of oil paintings. They were displayed on the living-room wall and mostly showed natural scenes from the area where he lives in California. He told me that when he took up painting again in middle age, his teacher told him to do a painting every day for a hundred days. I was surprised and I asked Andy, Why so many?

    The reason, he told me, was to get him to paint as many paintings as possible as quickly as possible. Often when we begin a new project, we want everything to go just right. Our adult ego can get very attached to whether or not our first, baby steps are successful or not. Babies, of course, do not have this problem. They just keep getting up and falling down until they eventually learn to stand and walk. To prevent Andy from fussing and fretting and trying to make his first efforts perfect, his teacher instructed him to just get those first paintings out of the way, so his baby steps would lose their aura of importance.

    This is a good lesson for all of us. When I teach my performance workshops to students who have a desire to get onstage, I usually tell them about Andy and his hundred paintings. I tell them to get out there and do as many performances as they can and to make mistakes. I’m told that Picasso said that to be a great artist, you have to make at least twenty thousand mistakes. Sounds like a lot. So get out there and make as many mistakes as you can and make them as fast as possible.

    HOW JOHN KEATS WOULD CHOOSE A UKULELE

    Where we discover how poetry can help us with that all-important ukulele purchase.

    Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

    Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

    —JOHN KEATS, Ode on a Grecian Urn

    The variety of ukuleles has increased exponentially in recent years, which is wonderful news for ukulele players everywhere. Large music companies and private luthiers are all busy making playable ukuleles in every price range. While as players we appreciate this choice, the variety can also be daunting to the musical beginner.

    What makes a good ukulele or, for that matter, a bad one? As an initial pointer, the cost of a ukulele is not necessarily an accurate guide to instrument quality. However, price is a good place to start. Decide on the maximum you are able to spend; that way you eliminate the more expensive models.

    What qualities should you look for in a ukulele? As with many of life’s important questions, the answer can be found in the classics. In 1819 when the poet John Keats penned his Ode on a Grecian Urn, he may just as well have been writing about a ukulele. In fact, I am certain that if ukuleles had been around in his day, one would have been the subject of his poem instead of a dusty old jug.

    In many ways the urn and the ukulele are quite similar. For starters, both begin with the letter u. Both are functional yet beautiful, both make a noise when you hit them, and each has a hole in the top into which Retsina and other liquids may be poured. However, the latter use is not recommended for most ukuleles.

    Ultimately the main qualities you need to look for in either object can be put under two main headings: Truth and Beauty. In his Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats suggests that these qualities amount to the same thing. This is a very philosophical idea and I’m not quite sure I understand what he means. If they are the same thing, then why do we have two separate words? So for now we’ll keep them separate.

    FINDING TRUTH IN YOUR UKULELE

    Find out if the ukulele is true by checking it for solid construction and good intonation. By solid construction, I mean the ukulele should be solid enough to still be in tune after being played for a few minutes or more. If strings keep going out of tune, the most usual culprits are poor-quality tuning pegs. They either don’t hold the string firm or they move with the slightest touch. Sometimes they can be tightened with a small screwdriver and then they work fine; but sometimes not, so check that. (Note that with a new ukulele, there may be some loss of tuning due to the stretching of the new strings. It can take one to three days for new strings to fully settle.)

    Although small and light, a good ukulele should also be durable. Check for the quality of workmanship. You need not be an expert luthier to cast a critical eye over the instrument. If you saw a poorly made coffee table, with gaps in the joins and rough, unfinished edges, you’d probably notice those weaknesses. Look for similar faults in the ukulele.

    If you have ever held a wooden model airplane in your hands, you may have noticed its qualities of both strength and incredible lightness. A good ukulele should have a similar feel.

    To truly absorb the meaning of intonation, you should get someone to show you, ideally using examples of well and poorly built ukuleles. But the gist of it is this: When a ukulele has been accurately put together, the frets, nut and bridge should all be mathematically placed in their correct locations. If they are not positioned correctly, you’ll find that the action of placing a finger on an in-tune string will have the effect of making it sound out of tune.

    Poor intonation is when the strings that have fingers on them are out of tune with those being played open. This can be expensive to fix, so if you suspect a ukulele has poor intonation, don’t buy it unless you just want it for decorative purposes.

    FINDING BEAUTY IN YOUR UKULELE

    To make beautiful music, our instrument must have a beautiful sound. It also doesn’t hurt if it looks nice.

    Ukuleles have a reputation for being plinky. In scientific terms, ukuleles sound plinky because they produce only a narrow range of frequencies. (When you adjust the bass and treble on your sound system, you are adjusting the low and high frequencies.) In a poorly made uke, the strings vibrate but the vibration is not supported by the body of the uke, so the sound fades very quickly. A better ukulele will vibrate longer and more richly, thereby creating resonance.

    To understand resonance, think of a mighty organ note being played in an old European cathedral. Every bit of sound bounces off every wall to every other wall. When the organ stops playing, the sound continues for several seconds more as the sound waves, settled in their harmonious rhythms, dance back and forth. That is resonance and your ukulele is your cathedral.

    Try out some different ukuleles and decide what sound you like before you buy one. Beauty is in the ear of the listener, and what sounds good to one person may not always sound good to another. Generally, the more resonant your instrument is, the more satisfying it will be for you to play.

    Now that I think about it, you won’t get a beautiful sound from a ukulele that isn’t true. A ukulele must be truly made if sweet tones are to issue from it. So I find myself agreeing with John Keats and all the philosophers and poets who came to the conclusion Beauty is truth, truth beauty.

    HOW TO TUNE A HAMMOCK, OR WHICH UKULELE TUNING TO CHOOSE

    Where we unravel the puzzle of GCEA versus ADF#B.

    After spending a few pleasant hours lounging in tree-dappled shade, I was going to write about a very neglected subject: How to play ukulele while in a hammock. Here are just some of the awkward and irksome questions involved in hammock playing: What kind of ukulele is best while singing in a sling? Are banjo ukuleles too heavy? Is the baritone ukulele too large? Where do I put my tuner?

    Also, some hammocks suspend from a single point and have a tendency to spin around, making it almost impossible to reach one’s beverage—if, indeed, one hasn’t already kicked it over. Furthermore, hammocks that suspend from two points tend to squash your arms to the sides of your body. This can lead to debilitating friction burns on the elbows.

    Obviously the scope and magnitude of these issues would be better dealt with in a full-colour textbook complete with index and annotated illustrations. So instead I will discuss here the question that causes more anxiety for beginner players than any other: Which tuning should I use for my soprano ukulele?

    Sounds simple, yes? Actually, no. Here is why. Most instruments have one standard tuning that has long been agreed on. Examples: Guitars are tuned EADGBE; mandolins (and violins) are tuned GDAE.

    Somewhat bizarrely, the soprano ukulele actually has two standard tunings. The Hawaiians and most of the world use GCEA tuning, often known as C tuning. Strumming the open strings produces a C6 chord, and it is easy to make a C chord by playing the first string at the third fret. The other, less popular D tuning has each string tuned one full tone higher: ADF#B.

    D tuning was favoured in the vaudeville era (the 1920s and ’30s). The tighter strings packed more punch and power and were easier to hear in unamplified theatres. This tuning was also adopted as the default tuning by the George Formby Society in the U.K. Interestingly, the ukulele legend George Formby didn’t even know which tuning he was using. His ukes had bits of paper with them to remind him which were his high and low ukes. Canadian schools use ADF#B for teaching ukulele to kids. The schools also use a low fourth string, making it implicit that ukulele is taught more for melody playing or as a stepping stone to the guitar. (To learn more about the fourth string, see later chapter The My String, page 83.)

    Why does the ukulele have two tunings? On that I’m not really sure. The ancient ukulele instruction book I had when first learning gave chord charts for both tunings but offered assistance in deciding which one to pick. I chose C tuning because I already played harmonica and the recorder, both of which also happened to be in C. Also, because the C scale has no sharps or flats, I felt it would be easier to work in. Otherwise my choice was arbitrary.

    I use GCEA for all my soprano, concert and tenor-size ukes. I do this because, like an old dog, I find it difficult to learn the trick of thinking in a new tuning. I know where all my chords are and I know their names. To start learning new chord names for familiar chord fingerings would be like trying to learn a new language later in life. Possible but somewhat formidable.

    Which is the better tuning? The vaudevillians definitely had the right idea. The extra tension on the instrument by having the strings slightly tighter in D tuning seems to work better for most soprano ukuleles that I have tried.

    So why doesn’t everyone use D tuning? The answer remains a mystery. Does anyone still remember the two formats of videotapes—VHS and Betamax? Betamax was considered by most knowledgeable people to be the superior system, yet VHS was the one that most people used. Similarly, Mac computers are generally thought to be the better machines for most tasks; yet, at the time of writing, PCs outsell Macs by about 40 to 1.

    Generally speaking, whatever tuning you use doesn’t matter as long as you know your chords. For example, a G chord is always a G. The fingerings are different for C- and D-tuned ukes, but if your music says to play a G chord and you are playing a G chord, then it will sound right. This may seem patently obvious, but you’d be surprised how confused people can get.

    For D players, ukulele group playalongs can be challenging if the songs are mostly in the keys of C and F. These are simple keys to play in on a C uke but more demanding on a D uke.

    Importantly, it must be remembered that most available learning materials, including my own DVDs, use the more universal C tuning. So I would recommend GCEA for most players who are starting out. There is nothing to stop you from switching to D tuning later on or even trying slack key ukulele, where you get to invent your own tunings. And I can personally verify that the various tunings all sound grand when a ukulele is played in a hammock.

    MAKE YOUR UKULELE INTO A PIANOFORTE

    Where we learn about the importance of dynamics to our playing.

    One of the easiest but most neglected ways to make your playing interesting is through the use of dynamics. In music the word dynamics simply means the variation in the volume of a musical sound.

    Pianoforte is the original name of the instrument we now call a piano. The word piano means soft and forte means loud. Before the pianoforte came along, keyboard instruments such as harpsichords played at only one volume. The new technology enabled the player to make their music louder and softer by pressing the keys with more or less force. The enormous increase in expressive range was considered of such importance that they named the instrument after it. Think about that.

    Even if you are a complete beginner with only two chords under your belt, you can already start making your ukulele playing much more expressive by varying the volume. Changing the volume of your music is easy to do, very effective and not used nearly enough by many players. Listen to some of your favourite music (it doesn’t have to have a ukulele in it) and pay special attention to how the volume and energy rises and falls.

    In my mind’s eye the swells and drop-offs in volume are like a series of hills and valleys. For many pieces of music the ups and downs are small to medium, but they rise to a crescendo somewhere near the end. Play a song that you know well and keep your mind on where volume changes can help with the expression of that song.

    When I first started playing, I had an inexpensive Japanese-made wooden ukulele. I would try to get the most volume I could out of that little wooden box, the reason being that the only ukulele player I knew of in those days was George Formby, the British star of the ’30s and ’40s. He played a banjo ukulele, and to me his playing sounded thrillingly loud and

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