The 'G' Word Will Not be Used Here...

I was ooogling my google thing and found this thread about how musicians doing a jam or recording session would feel about someone pulling out a Baritone Ukulele. There were several threads but this one seemed the most inspired and playful...

Re: Baritone Ukulele in your session?

Bonjour! Some of you know that I regularly play the BARITONE UKULELE at sessions. It has caused some consternation at times due to it not being a full on established ‘trad instrument’ but the popular image of the UKE is troublesome. I think a lot of prejudice against the ukulele is based on the misunderstanding of which instrument one means. The first instrument to come to most people’s mind on the mention of ‘uke’ is the small treble or concert size instruments. This was the one played by Tiny Tim. They can be cheap and toy-like and because they can be purchased in different colours and sizes (e.g. Pink Flying Vee/ Sponge Bob/ Pineapple shaped et cetera) and are suitable for kids to learn on, ukes tend to lack a serious image. This is unfortunate as even the most modest treble uke played well can have a poignant sound and be quite beautiful. Unfortunately most session go-ers wouldn’t know a treble form a tenor from a baritone. Last night a guy asked me if I was playing a tenor guitar (which has no such image problems!).

Anyway... The baritone is well suited for trad Irish backing; more so than the six string devil (SSD) in my opinion. It has gut or nylon strings which give it a gentler though more responsive touch than the steel strung ‘other instrument’. (Uke players never use or say the ‘g’ word by the way.)

The tone can be quite harp like and one can reflect the playing of the harp at times. With a little finger picking and judicious bass selection you can (strangely!) also emulate a piano-like backing- the timbre can be similar. You can of course scrub away and copy the syncopated ‘Bo Diddley riddums’ and so forth that are so popular with the SSD botherers. A gently thumb strummed staccato chord on the offbeat can also mimic a box basses. It only has four strings (D G B E- same as the top four on the SSD) the bottom string being a D. This of course is handy in a majority of trad Irish tunes. The four string set up leads to instinctive modal chord selection. It is also QUIETER, even when spanked. I believe this makes it rather more polite in most session situations, especially the smaller group of people one.

And another thing: they are small and light to cart around! (Unlike the large piece of wood that is the six string twangle beast!

http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/24692/comments