Ukulele Craze goes on.......

Ukulele: It's a Craze that won't go away......

How can you resist a small instrument that is colourful, and easily played by any one from 5 to 95?

The ukulele craze has continued non-stop for over ten years now and looks to stay. Although not considered  serious by some members of the music world, it remains a popular "go to" instrument for children and adults alike looking to do music.

My introduction to the instrument was when my wife purchased one for me and I began to try it out.
As my other instrument was the guitar, it looked pretty easy. I was able to transfer skills from that to the uke.

Here's the basics if you want to "go uke" like thousands of others:

Purchase a soprano ukulele.
Learn the parts of your ukulele.
Get a tuner, either a clip on type or an online application/website.
Tune and tune again stretching the strings each time with a good pull.

Tuning is GCEA for soprano.    An octave higher.

Hold ukulele with neck in left hand with right hand to strum.

The ukulele is a strummed instrument that plays chords primarily. A chord is a musical group of notes that make harmony. We will concentrate on the shapes on the neck.

Important terms to learn:  nut, frets, string numbers which are 4 3 2 1 from top. Left hand fingers
T Thumb 1 index 2 middle 3 ring 4 pinky finger.

The first chord Cmajor, played with 3rd finger on left hand and strummed downward with right hand.
This is it! Music is now coming from your ukulele!

There are loads of online sites to help you out (and maybe confuse you too), so get going.

My favourite Guitar maker is Larrivee. They have started making Ukuleles again. Check it out!

Good website:
www.ukuleletricks.com






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The Snark SN-2 Tuner Review

Snark Tuner SN-2 All Instrument Tuner             www.snarktuners.com

My first clip on tuner dates back a few years ago, to what seems now like the gigantic Intellitouch clip on tuner. Many more tuners have been developed since then, some very cheap and not so accurate, some a bit overpriced I think. The Snark tuners are an excellent development in this market and well worth the price.
I am a guitarist who plays mainly acoustic instruments in a solo or band setting. Tuning is generally more an instrument and string issue not a tuner one, as most guitar players will tell you. (Just consider the new Gibson Les Paul tuning system.) Even so, the easy to use, accurate tuner is now essential kit for all players.  As advertised, the Snark SN 2 is a chromatic tuner for all instruments, but is well suited to the guitar players needs and will no doubt become the "go to tuner " due to price,  quality and availability.
All the basic functions of the tuner are well made and easy to use: the on off button, clip on clip, colour read out- for sharp, flat and in tune. The swivel is great if you place the tuner in front or behind the head of your instrument.
My main interest in this tuner is its chromatic tuning capability as I use alternate tunings for many of my compositions. This has proved very useful and I can achieve these tuning easily with the SN 2. Tunings like CGDGCD and my usual DADGAD  are tuned in without much delay. The full colour display is attractive and easy to read.
The inclusion of a Tap Tempo Metronome is a nice touch and could be useful in setting a song's  tempo. The best use would be a when learning a piece of music and having a metronome to set the correct tempo. Another plus when recommending this tuner to students.
Most players don't change pitch from 440, but this can be useful if playing with other instruments which are slightly off the standard.  Players such as Martin Taylor use slightly higher pitchers for some strings so their notes "jump out" more. Might be something to explore and the pitch adjustment feature would make this simple. the Flat Tuning feature helps if you use a capo, the instruction sheet on this and all aspects or the tuner are clear and useful.

This tuner gets a big thumbs up from me and I hope it stays around a long time.

What about durability? Well I accidentally hit the tuner while on my instrument and it flew off into three pieces. It went back together with no breaks. Whew!

www.snarktuners.com

Have a...! or What will be different in 2015?

Our daughter created this piece of art last summer and it still impresses me that she could take some simple materials and a hairdryer and come up with this. Can you guess how it is done? Maybe so, maybe not, but that is not the real point.

2014 saw it's share of joys and sorrows, it's tragedies, deaths, miracles and successes. 2015 will, well lets face it, be the same. Why? That's life! Navigating through it is the challenge because we all know what is waiting for us. 
The centre of our daughter's picture is empty space that leaves the recognisable shape we all know. This shape can represent what we call love. I want to refer to it as having a heart. This seems to be what I need to make it through 2015 without becoming a stressed out blob Dad. What does it mean to you? I will spend the next few days working it out myself.

At the risk of being sentimental and reverting to truisms, I will avoid any quick easy answers for this blog. The only way I can fill the empty space with real heart is by spending time soaking it up from the source it comes from. Time in the presence of the Someone who has given us the Christmas story but who we often ignore. Or we leave this Jesus as a baby in a kid's story we can easily dismiss as harmless. But the reality is far from comfortable and cosy. An even brief contact with His heart can change everything. 

Did you figure out how our daughter did the above piece of art?  If you did then try doing it yourself, it is fun. If not, well that wasn't the real point, was it?

MilleniumDad  (Ron Atkinson) Art work by my daughter