Uncle Raggy

Uncle Raggy / A character to be sure, has closed his Youtube account. I am going to keep this up for a while. / I saw some unfortunate re-uses of his videos that may have been the reason for his leaving. / I hope he returns soon.

Here's a photo of Uncle Raggy with his new Amahi Bari. I have asked if I could share his videos on Humble Baritonics in order to provide a lighthearted exploration of the baritone ukulele from a different tuning and musical perspective. I hope that sharing his insights will add to the breadth of information in the BU Library that we are trying to build on these pages.

Mr. Ragsdale is a lifelong musician who was born in Florida. He has shared a bit of his personal history as a musician and a minister for 40 years. His music has been recorded in 28 LP's and 13 singles. He also appeared on the Johnny Carson show twice. He now resides in Mississippi near the great river where he charmingly shares his love of music

Uncle Raggy provides a totally unique perspective to learning the ukulele. He doesn't take learning music overly serious except in a creative and exploratory manner. In this VIDEO #1 he shows how one can creatively develop their unique sound by playing with the instrument. Raggy sez, 

"Just work it out. It's your instrument. You own it -- it doesn't own you. Nobody that plays an instrument is under any obligation to the historical music reality. Just because everyone has played it that way for generations... just remember that they found the structure and the tones they wanted -- those things that lead to the most pleasing sounds (for them)... The spirit within you will find the best sounds that suit you!"

VIDEO #1 How to Develop Your Own Style in D Tuning (DF#AD) on a Baritone Ukulele, Old Geezer Method.

3/11/17 Continuing with Uncle Raggy's expository of the Open D tuning (DF#AD) where he explores the Dueling Banjo's melody. He plays guitar in standard EADGBE tuning so he chooses to stay away from chord names to keep from confusion. He works with sounds and loves to play in open tunings, 

VIDEO #2 Dueling Banjo Exploration



Open D, Dirty Little Secret. He calls this the Old Geezer Open D tuning, DF#AD. Raggy says that this tuning is the easiest that he's ever worked with. He actually shares a few chord shapes for reference, Major, Minor and Major 7th. He talks about the Old Geezer method of using major chords and noodling.

VIDEO #3 Old Geezer Tuning Vital Information for Open D (Dirty Little Secrets)



For further study into the Old Geezer Method or DF#AD Open-D tuning here's a complete playlist of 9 videos for your viewing pleasure, You may want to hunt down the 1-6m-4-5 video or check out Norwegian Wood, Silver Bells, Silent Night or White Christmas.

PLAYLIST



http://ukulelehelper.com/# can be of assistance to help you find chords. You will have to manually change the string names but you will be able to test Raggy's A and Am chords. Sometime you will need to check out a few variations.

I would like to thank Raggy for allowing us to share his insights on Humble Baritonics. For more of his ukulele and guitar videos, his YouTube page is https://www.youtube.com/user/raggyragsdale.