mandolin. ok. I admit to not being able to tell a mandolin from a ukelele but really that is something to be proud of isnt it?
I will say that I went to youtube and downloaded a few other tunes done by the Ukelele Orchestra of GB and found them very entertaining. Those guys put some fun into their music, I was impressed.
Earl Scruggs also had a group called Men With Banjos Who Know How to Use Them. They were some seriously talented banjo pickers but on the whole I thought too many Scruggs style pickers on stage at once was a bit overwhelming. I very much prefer clawhammer style. The thing with a banjo is that it is an instrument that you can mess with in the back yard with a beer just for the fun of it without getting in any way serious. It is hard to do that with most other instruments.
This guy walks into an antique store and notices a brass rat sitting on one of the top shelves. He asks the clerk, “How much for that brass rat?”. The clerk says “Well sir, it’s 25 bucks just for the rat, and 50 bucks if you want to hear the story that goes with it. Take my word, you’ll want to *hear* the story.” The guy says “No, I believe I’ll just take the rat for 25 bucks.”
So, this fella takes his brass rat and heads down the street. Right away he notices that a *real* rat is following him, so he makes a quick turn down the next street. He passes an alley, at which point about a half-dozen rats come out and start following him. This guy is getting pretty panicked at this point, so he starts heading out toward the outskirts of town. When he passes the town dump, *hundreds* of rats stream out and follow him. Our hero is beside himself at this point, so as he passes the river that winds around town, he tosses the brass rat right in the drink. Every last one of the real rats follows the brass rat into the river and drowns.
Relieved, our protagonist heads back to the antique store where he got the brass rat. “I knew it!”, says the clerk, “You’re back to hear the story about the rat, aren’t you?”. “No sir”, says the guy, “I just wanted to find out how much you’re asking for that brass accordion I see you’ve got up there.”
Wow, the uke!. I havent heard one played on its own since Arthur Godfrey played a uke tune every day on his tv show back in the 50’s . I have often wondered what motivates a person to choose a particular instrument. Probably guitar is among the most played instruments although I have never had even the slightest urge to play one. I have always suspected that if you drag your guitar out of the closet when live people are around that someone will expect you to sing a bit as well and that is totally out of the question for me. Piano is right up there as well although that usually entails actually owning a piano, and really they arent all that much use if you want an instrument to bring to the company picnic. If nothing else the ukelele has the scarcity factor happening. I know zero people who play it and that alone makes it a worthwhile endevour as you could become Sammy the uke dude and gain fame.
I started violin lessons at 5 but my violin teacher was a former gestapo torture specialist and I learned to hate the violin with a passion. I finally convinced my mother to let me switch instruments mostly because it was fairly clear that I would never learn to play the violin. The replacement she chose was the piano accordian and I learned to play it every bit as well as the violin and I developed the same sort of emotional attachment to it. After a year or so she let me give up music totally and take up football and hockey and all became well with the world.
In my old age though I will admit to having an urge to learn to play the 5 string banjo clawhammer style. Sadly while the world is awash with $50 guitars the same can not be said for banjos so I have suppressed the urge.
My biggest question with the uke would be how the heck do you learn to play one? There is a piano teacher on every block and the same is true of guitar teachers. Where would you find a ukelele teacher?
Here is a scruggs style banjo video that features Earl Scruggs himself and Steve Martin (yes the comedian but also a world class banjo player) and my question is: is that a uke in the band?
Seems clear that the keyboard guy needs to invest in more keyboards
Interesting performance. Curiously, all the players were quite fantastic, yet the whole just didn’t feel right to me. I know that Mr. Scruggs tried to integrate his traditional music with the pop music of his time, but the electric guitars just seemed way out of place to me on this piece. I did not see a uke in that band. The eight-string instrument in the band is a mandolin.
I agree that clawhammer banjo is a very interesting instrument. It suffers from having a very narrow range, but still…
I have been noticing that the ukelele has been making inroads in indie music, but I have never heard Radiohead played on it before. That was brilliant! Thanks!
27th Street 
mandolin. ok. I admit to not being able to tell a mandolin from a ukelele but really that is something to be proud of isnt it?
I will say that I went to youtube and downloaded a few other tunes done by the Ukelele Orchestra of GB and found them very entertaining. Those guys put some fun into their music, I was impressed.
Earl Scruggs also had a group called Men With Banjos Who Know How to Use Them. They were some seriously talented banjo pickers but on the whole I thought too many Scruggs style pickers on stage at once was a bit overwhelming. I very much prefer clawhammer style. The thing with a banjo is that it is an instrument that you can mess with in the back yard with a beer just for the fun of it without getting in any way serious. It is hard to do that with most other instruments.
What I like about banjo is gets almost the same level of abuse as accordion.
This guy walks into an antique store and notices a brass rat sitting on one of the top shelves. He asks the clerk, “How much for that brass rat?”. The clerk says “Well sir, it’s 25 bucks just for the rat, and 50 bucks if you want to hear the story that goes with it. Take my word, you’ll want to *hear* the story.” The guy says “No, I believe I’ll just take the rat for 25 bucks.”
So, this fella takes his brass rat and heads down the street. Right away he notices that a *real* rat is following him, so he makes a quick turn down the next street. He passes an alley, at which point about a half-dozen rats come out and start following him. This guy is getting pretty panicked at this point, so he starts heading out toward the outskirts of town. When he passes the town dump, *hundreds* of rats stream out and follow him. Our hero is beside himself at this point, so as he passes the river that winds around town, he tosses the brass rat right in the drink. Every last one of the real rats follows the brass rat into the river and drowns.
Relieved, our protagonist heads back to the antique store where he got the brass rat. “I knew it!”, says the clerk, “You’re back to hear the story about the rat, aren’t you?”. “No sir”, says the guy, “I just wanted to find out how much you’re asking for that brass accordion I see you’ve got up there.”
Wow, the uke!. I havent heard one played on its own since Arthur Godfrey played a uke tune every day on his tv show back in the 50’s . I have often wondered what motivates a person to choose a particular instrument. Probably guitar is among the most played instruments although I have never had even the slightest urge to play one. I have always suspected that if you drag your guitar out of the closet when live people are around that someone will expect you to sing a bit as well and that is totally out of the question for me. Piano is right up there as well although that usually entails actually owning a piano, and really they arent all that much use if you want an instrument to bring to the company picnic. If nothing else the ukelele has the scarcity factor happening. I know zero people who play it and that alone makes it a worthwhile endevour as you could become Sammy the uke dude and gain fame.
I started violin lessons at 5 but my violin teacher was a former gestapo torture specialist and I learned to hate the violin with a passion. I finally convinced my mother to let me switch instruments mostly because it was fairly clear that I would never learn to play the violin. The replacement she chose was the piano accordian and I learned to play it every bit as well as the violin and I developed the same sort of emotional attachment to it. After a year or so she let me give up music totally and take up football and hockey and all became well with the world.
In my old age though I will admit to having an urge to learn to play the 5 string banjo clawhammer style. Sadly while the world is awash with $50 guitars the same can not be said for banjos so I have suppressed the urge.
My biggest question with the uke would be how the heck do you learn to play one? There is a piano teacher on every block and the same is true of guitar teachers. Where would you find a ukelele teacher?
Here is a scruggs style banjo video that features Earl Scruggs himself and Steve Martin (yes the comedian but also a world class banjo player) and my question is: is that a uke in the band?
Seems clear that the keyboard guy needs to invest in more keyboards
Interesting performance. Curiously, all the players were quite fantastic, yet the whole just didn’t feel right to me. I know that Mr. Scruggs tried to integrate his traditional music with the pop music of his time, but the electric guitars just seemed way out of place to me on this piece. I did not see a uke in that band. The eight-string instrument in the band is a mandolin.
I agree that clawhammer banjo is a very interesting instrument. It suffers from having a very narrow range, but still…
By the way, Steve Martin has been touring with his band…I believe they played Toronto recently.
I have been noticing that the ukelele has been making inroads in indie music, but I have never heard Radiohead played on it before. That was brilliant! Thanks!
You know I posted that one for you!