What better place to ask this question. The den of wolves.
What better place to ask this question. The den of wolves.
Isabel Mandolins
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arche...50923841658006
Uke has a lot more going on socially. Lot's of local clubs and such. From that aspect, it could be.
Robert Fear
http://www.folkmusician.com
"Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
" - Pete Seeger
No................................................ ................................!
Phil
“Sharps/Flats” ≠ “Accidentals”
Of course it can be. They're less expensive for a decent one, easier to tune and fret strings, and allows a wider range of skill levels. There's a reason young childern often start out on uke before moving on to more sophisticated instruments. Or they can continue and achieve a good deal of expertice.
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams
I just built one for my fiancee. If you're the type of person who enjoys challenges and learning opportunities, then sure! It's got its own little vocabulary.
I think in some ways it's more enjoyable because of the different (lowered) expectations. If you've played mandolin for any amount of time, your benchmark is Monroe/Bush/Lawson/Skaggs/Thile.
When you pick up a uke, you'll spend the first week re-learning chord shapes. But even strumming open strings is more pleasant-sounding than a mandolin.
(Easier on the fingers, too.)
THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!
Jake S is not the only super-player:
Then even back in the old days, there was my teacher, Roy Smeck:
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
For bluegrass? No.
For jazz chord melody, vocal accompaniment, folk song strumming... - excellent. Or more idiomatic stuff like Formby-style banjo-uke - fun. But drat, there's that asymmetric tuning thing again ... this of course is one if its virtues, as with guitar, et al. - closer intervals yields denser harmonies..
Try charango next, for more fun.
I recently started teaching Ukelele. It is fun but far less satisfying than the mandolin. It’s the top four strings of a guitar from the fifth fret. So if you know guitar there’s not much new.
It is fun but give me a mando anyday. It’s good to teach.
JBovier ELS; Epiphone MM-50 VN; Epiphone MM-40L; Gretsch New Yorker G9310; Washburn M1SDLB;
Fender Nashville Deluxe Telecaster; Squier Modified Vintage Cabronita Telecaster; Gretsch 5420T; Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat: Washburn Banjo B9; Ibanez RB 5string; Ibanez RB 4 string bass
Pedalboard for ELS: Morley Cry baby Miniwah - Tuner - EHX Soul Food Overdrive - EHX Memory Toy analog Delay
Fender Blues Jr Tweed; Fender Greta;
Any instrument can be fun, if it's what attracts you. There are many rooms in the House of Music....
(Incidentally, I don't limit how I play my mandolin to recognized mandolin "styles." I strum without a pick in ukulele and charango styles, and don't think there are any rules against exploring a ukulele in the same way. Of course, one can construct mental barriers against such explorations if narrowing the possibilities is one's restrictive musical goal, for oneself or others.)
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Playing a funky oval-hole scroll-body mandolin, several mandolins retuned to CGDA, three CGDA-tuned Flatiron mandolas, two Flatiron mandolas tuned as octave mandolins,and a six-course 25.5" scale CGDAEB-tuned Ovation Mandophone.
Love mandola?
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I enjoy listening to Steve Knightley (Show of hands) playing Cuatro - which is close to Ukelele, yet different in tuning and style I think. Nearest I've come to Uke is tenor guitar, but for me mandolin is more enjoyable because I'm enjoying playing melody and learning the tunes in detail. Ukelele itself doesn't really interest me, though there are some nice looking natural wood instruments around.
"What's that funny guitar thing..?"
Frankly, the uke offers more vistas than a plectrum instrument - as its conception provides for fingerstyle techniques, which allow myriad opportunities for polyphony, contrapuntalism, rhythmic nuance, et al.
- - - Updated - - -
Chrngo, ronroco, the larger instr...a whole range of voices and choices, as with mndlns. The lower tension allows for all sorts of opportunities that mndln does not.
Jim, I am envious that you had Roy Smeck as a teacher. We had an older lady that taught piano, but I don't think any one that I knew even taught guitar without driving 60+ miles.
THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!
Wait... the mandolin is purely a plectrum instrument?
(Just to note, I still spend time working through tenor banjo books for fifths-tuning because chord-melody work with a pick is applicable to mando, but unless one's mando is strung tight (usually because the player has that as a target for one genre), fingers can work....)
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Playing a funky oval-hole scroll-body mandolin, several mandolins retuned to CGDA, three CGDA-tuned Flatiron mandolas, two Flatiron mandolas tuned as octave mandolins,and a six-course 25.5" scale CGDAEB-tuned Ovation Mandophone.
Love mandola?
Join the Mandola Social Group!
"There are two refuges from the miseries of life: music and cats." - Albert Schweitzer
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I deal with this issue by playing both 'ukulele and mandolin. Problem solved.
Generally, fingerstyle is more effective on (instruments with) lower tension strings, wider spacing, so forth. A higher-tension, shorter-scale (not to mention doubled) string is typically more challenging to softer attack and generally responds best to harder material, acute attack. Of course, one *may* play fingerstyle..
Why gut is such a desirable material in finger-plucked instruments, etc.
Did you ever notice than whenever you think, I'll learn to play such-and-such an instrument, strum a few tunes, and sing a few songs with my friends and family, someone then comes along and introduces you to the music of some virtuoso like James Hill (post 7) that most of us can't possibly emulate?
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
Yeah, those virtuosos just take the fun out of everything!
But it's true of so many things in life.
Just as you get within sight of that distant peak you always dreamed of, more distant peaks of hitherto undreamt-of coolness come into view. Onward and upward!
Luckily, "strum a few tunes, and sing a few songs with my friends and family" never loses its appeal.
Bren
Really...
https://youtu.be/Z26BvHOD_sg
https://youtu.be/uRqh_AChgZs
Pay up.
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams
Most people think the mandolins were playing are ukuleles anyway,so it really doesn't matter....
Wrt to ukes, it's an instrument designed to exploit with florid fingerstyle techniques and is quite expressive approached in this manner. https://youtu.be/Ok1lbX8MrME
Fingerstyle tends to open whole other realms to playing plucked stringed instruments.
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