Friday, November 28, 2014
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Will Fly || Ukulele Lady (Tenor Guitar)
I consider the tenor guitar our bari cousin and will post them occassionally.
This is a great tune...
This is a great tune...
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Monday, November 24, 2014
Alison Kraus || A Hundred Miles or More
A bari sighting at 4:57. Alison's sweetness is found throughout...
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
Pomerado School || Teaching Baritone Ukulele to Grammar Students
Roger Ruthen would be glad to hear about this...
...“I thought, this year, let’s add to this,” said Ortiz. “Being a musician, who was a music major before switching to general education, I vowed that one day I would provide additional opportunities to learn music or the fine arts to my students.”
Ortiz plans to focus his music program around the baritone ukulele, which is a lesser-known version of the instrument that is tuned similarly to the bottom four strings of a guitar.
“If you learn the chords (for the baritone ukulele), you’ll have essentially learned the same chords for the guitar,” said Ortiz. “It gives the students a leg up.” Ortiz said the ukulele is also easier for young students to hold than a guitar.
In case you don't know Roger's work, look here. He has many tabs for the bari ukin' community.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Ko'olau Pono Ukuleles
Pono Classic Bari, some beautiful baris...
http://koolauukulele.com/pro-classic-series-rosewood/
http://koolauukulele.com/pono-abd/
http://koolauukulele.com/pro-classic-mahogany-series/
http://koolauukulele.com/pro-classic-series-rosewood/
http://koolauukulele.com/pono-abd/
http://koolauukulele.com/pro-classic-mahogany-series/
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Friday, November 14, 2014
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Neil Young || Was He a Bari Player?
Sunol Hike 11-7-14, 7.3 Miles, W tree
I see many people taking advantage of the "Season of the Uke" part of the Ukulele Underground site to develop their playing skills or to just plain share great songs. I recently saw a few tunes showing off some Neil Young tunes. I listened to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and enjoyed the Deja Vu album that my brother Doug Lindroos bought back in the 70's. But, I heard a different side of Neil than I noticed as a teen. Pabrizzer is always sharing songs that are delicious and build my music library.
I see many people taking advantage of the "Season of the Uke" part of the Ukulele Underground site to develop their playing skills or to just plain share great songs. I recently saw a few tunes showing off some Neil Young tunes. I listened to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and enjoyed the Deja Vu album that my brother Doug Lindroos bought back in the 70's. But, I heard a different side of Neil than I noticed as a teen. Pabrizzer is always sharing songs that are delicious and build my music library.
So I wanted to do some exploration. I bought a Heart of Gold DVD from a local Frye's store. It features a much older Neil with many new songs and a group of his talented friends. It is mainly acoustic and shows of his amazing talents as a song writer and seasoned musician. I learned that Neil owns and plays Hank Williams' old guitar. He likes to collect used guitars because they carry stories in them.
I wanted to learn more so I headed to YouTube for more info where I found something quite interesting from a lengthy interview on the Howard Stern Show. Early in the interview Neil states that his father gave him an Arthur Godfrey ukulele when he was 6. When AG and ukulele are mentioned in the same sentence it definitely leads me to jump to a conclusion -- that perhaps Neil started off with a baritone ukulele. Neil said that he mastered the uke.
So, I went a little further, and asked my good Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz friend, Sandor (Shawn-Door) Nagyszalanczy his opinion. Sandor is a collector and historian of the ukulele for the last 30 (or so) years. He responded to my inquiry...
The guitar, banjo and uke company "Vega" made a line of three baritone ukuleles, all of which were connected with Godfrey: the regular bari, a "deluxe" version, with fancier appointments, and the "Solo Lute" which had a longer scale, big square fret markers, and a brown sunburst finish. I've never seen or heard of them making smaller (tenor or soprano) ukes. Although Godfrey played mostly a custom cutaway baritone, at one time, Gibson did make him a special tenor uke with a built-in pickup. It was offered for sale on Ebay years ago.So, it may have been a bari-uke! I welcome Neil to clear up the question.
Jeff West
Humble Uker
Humble Baritonics
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Nicole Monchamp || Bluegrass Jam
My wife,Wendy, and I watched the Country Music Awards on US T.V. earlier this week and I wonder where the Bluegrass scene fits in within the music world. Is it more of an East Coast mountains phenomena or where do we get to hear good bluegrass music on the West Coast?
Occassionally, I get to hear some good stuff on the Cupertino KKUP radio station. They support a variety of music but my reception is spotty. Here's a bluegrass jam with a bari from February 2013.
Uke Buddy || Tuner, Chords, Chord Finder, Scales
Here's a cool baritone ukulele friendly site.
Bari-Uke Tuner (Click the DGBE at the top right of the headstock.)
Uke Buddy Scales
Uke Buddy Chord Finder
Bari-Uke Tuner (Click the DGBE at the top right of the headstock.)
Uke Buddy Scales
Uke Buddy Chord Finder
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Antebellum Instruments || Jan 2013 Post || Favilla
http://antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com/2013/01/c1955-favilla-baritone-ukulele.html
I have 2 Favillas and I love playing them. They have deep bodies and a rich tone. They have thick sturdy necks and can be found for 1/4 of the price of a vintage Martin baris now selling from $1,600 to $1,900 U.S.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Linda Louden || Wayfaring Stranger (Neil Young cover)
Linda tuned this one AFAD...
"The camera movement is called Ken Burns. It is in the iMovie program and very easy to use. The tuning came from experimenting with moving the low string down so that i could create a bass sound with out using a bass. I have had to slightly modify the chords used to make it work. The FAD was lowered to a vocal range good for me and the A dropped even further."
I asked Linda about the video technique and her tuning...
Monday, November 3, 2014
Sandy Weltman || Clouds
Below are 3 videos of Sandy Weltman playing jazz on the baritone ukulele. Good stuff.
BACH || Fugue in Cm || ClassicTab.Org
One of my favorite music stores in Berkeley closed about a year ago. It was called "The Fifth String." Gladly, there is a new music shop, a block away, just north of Ashby on Adeline and is called the Berkeley Musical Instrument Exchange. Its main deal is the classical guitar but there is a wide array of musical instruments. I was lucky enough to have two classical guitarist friends testing and playing classical duets on a few guitars. I just down nearby listening and watching. I noticed that one of the arrangements that they were playing was entirely bari uke compatible!
The classical guitar has a very wide fretboard and nylon strings like the bari. The distance between the strings is almost identical too. This got me interested in checking out some classical guitar tabs and I found ClassTab.
http://www.classtab.org/jsb0847b.txt
There are a lot of songs here. Is there anyone that has some time and/or knowledge of classical music that would be willing to hunt for bari compatible tabs at the ClassTab link?
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Pabrizzer || Oh Mother Earth
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neilyoung/ohmotherearth.html
I don't know if I've heard this one before. A fine song indeed. I listen to the local public radio in the San Francisco Bay Area and heard a radio program called Moyer's & Company. He interviewed Bernie Sanders an Independent Senator from Vermont, U.S.A. and had a synchronicistic tone to what this song sings about.
I have missed out on some Neil Young's music and lyrics. Thanks Pa. I will have to listen more carefully to the songs of Mr. Young.
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