Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 75

Thread: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

  1. #1
    Registered User fscotte's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Zanesville, Ohio
    Posts
    2,490

    Default Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    What better place to ask this question. The den of wolves.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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

  3. #3
    formerly Philphool Phil Goodson's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Statesville, NC
    Posts
    3,256

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    No................................................ ................................!
    Phil

    “Sharps/Flats” “Accidentals”

  4. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Phil Goodson For This Useful Post:


  5. #4
    Registered User Roger Moss's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Charlottesville Va
    Posts
    1,052

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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

  6. #5
    Registered User Drew Streip's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Chattanooga, TN
    Posts
    442
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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.)

  7. #6
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    S.W. Wisconsin
    Posts
    7,507
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

  8. #7
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Westchester, NY
    Posts
    30,753

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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
    Facebook
    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

  9. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Jim Garber For This Useful Post:


  10. #8

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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.

  11. The following members say thank you to catmandu2 for this post:


  12. #9
    Oval holes are cool David Lewis's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    1,466

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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;

  13. #10

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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.)
    ----

    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!

  14. #11
    Registered User Tim N's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    169

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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..?"

  15. #12

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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 - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Tim N View Post
    I enjoy listening to Steve Knightley (Show of hands) playing Cuatro - which is close to Ukelele, yet different in tuning and style ..
    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.

  16. #13
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    S.W. Wisconsin
    Posts
    7,507

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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!

  17. #14

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    Quote Originally Posted by catmandu2 View Post
    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.
    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....)
    ----

    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!

  18. #15
    Registered User T.D.Nydn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Upstate N.Y.
    Posts
    1,331

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Moss View Post
    ....., and allows a wider range of skill levels.
    ....I don't think I'm buying this one.....

  19. #16
    MandolaViola bratsche's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    south florida
    Posts
    2,820

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    Quote Originally Posted by catmandu2 View Post
    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.
    And there's nothing that stops one from tuning it in fifths, either.

    bratsche
    "There are two refuges from the miseries of life: music and cats." - Albert Schweitzer

    GearGems - Gifts & apparel for musicians and more!
    MandolaViola's YouTube Channel

  20. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to bratsche For This Useful Post:


  21. #17
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    North CA
    Posts
    5,020

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    I deal with this issue by playing both 'ukulele and mandolin. Problem solved.

  22. The following members say thank you to DavidKOS for this post:


  23. #18

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    Quote Originally Posted by Explorer View Post
    Wait... the mandolin is purely a plectrum instrument?
    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.

  24. #19
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    1,733

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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.

  25. The following members say thank you to Ranald for this post:


  26. #20

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    Quote Originally Posted by bratsche View Post
    And there's nothing that stops one from tuning it in fifths, either.

    bratsche
    Ah that's no fun, obviates the *sound* - close intervals (the uke's appeal, imo - WHY it sounds so good as a chordophone, etc)

  27. #21
    Registered User Bren's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Aberdeen, Scotland
    Posts
    1,036

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ranald View Post
    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?
    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

  28. The following members say thank you to Bren for this post:

    Ranald 

  29. #22
    Registered User Roger Moss's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Charlottesville Va
    Posts
    1,052

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    Quote Originally Posted by T.D.Nydn View Post
    ....I don't think I'm buying this one.....
    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

  30. #23
    Registered User T.D.Nydn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Upstate N.Y.
    Posts
    1,331

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Moss View Post
    I guess so,,I just can't give in to it..

  31. #24
    Registered User T.D.Nydn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Upstate N.Y.
    Posts
    1,331

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    Most people think the mandolins were playing are ukuleles anyway,so it really doesn't matter....

  32. #25

    Default Re: Ukulele as enjoyable as mando?

    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.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •