Saturday, March 23, 2013

Mark Kalaina Nelson || Slack Key Baritone Ukulele

Last Thursday I got off work early to head down to Santa Cruz, California and attend another meeting of the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz. Had to get there early because +Mark Kailana Nelson was the featured performer and was giving a class at 4:00pm. Mark has written a few books for the ukulele that I have used and played my bari-uke to the tab.

This evening he was giving a primer in Slack Key Ukulele. Standard uke players were instructed to "Slacken" their first strings from A to G and I slackened my bari E to D. Then, I used a capo at the 5th fret in order to learn the the lesson in key along with other standard ukes, thanks to my always prepared friend MariJo.

I use Amazon as a reference to Mark's plethura of musical writings. I have had the Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele for several years now. I also have Mark's Juke'n The Uke: Blues, Ragtime & Hokum for 'Ukulele: Complete Tablature for the CD & More [Paperback].

If you have Mark travelling to your area and giving the Slack Key Ukulele Class be sure to attend. He has a very laid back style of teach and will very simply have playing some Slack Key music in short order. I have posted the video below before and he states that, "It also sounds great on a baritone ukulele."


You can get some flavor of the music from this video and Mark now has a book available for Slack Key Ukulele and you, the Big Uke player, can start playing his tab immediately. Mark also has a books and CD's  for Dulcimer players which I have taken up and enjoy on occasion.



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