Got my new tenor ukulele and it’s an absolutely gorgeous instrument, although I’m sure that’s related to the cost1. After a few weeks of trying out the Aquila’s they came with, I put on some Worth brown strings with the low-G.
Study in A Minor is a great piece to learn because it’s relatively simple (so I don’t get discouraged too easily), but there are three tricky parts to focus on improving. They’re also each difficult in their own way, gradually working the dexterity or flexibility in a certain finger or two.
I wanted to film this as a record of the way the ukulele sounds now; it’s a solid lacewood spruce body, so the tone will develop over time as the wood matures. Also, so I can have a quick reference of what it sounds like with longer nails on the picking hand (which were promptly cut after, because they were driving me nuts). It’s relatively clear sound, whereas without nails it’s sort of “wet”.
I first learned this on a soprano ukulele, and I had to retrain my fingers to stretch on the tenor. It was a BIG difference, and I didn’t think my fingers would stretch far enough at first.
It feels amazing to practice something for weeks, and to finally have it click one day. Then you never want to stop playing cause you’re afraid you may lose it the next day.
- Jesse says I paid “real instrument” price for it. [↑]
is there some kind of thing you could put on the ends of your fingers to mimic long nails without actually having to have long nails?
There MUST be!
There you go…
http://www.alaskapik.com/
I’m a super genius.
I’ve seen individual finger picks before (usually for banjo players), but they’re way too long and they never go under the nail like that. Cool!
I’m just wondering if they’re safe for ukulele strings, because you don’t normally use a plectrum for ukulele. Or if you do, they’re usually made of felt cause the strings can easily be scratched, warped, or broken.
I’ll have to take your word for it.…
The strings can easily be scratched? We used to jab the string with a pick to create a dry note, or to hard stop a note. You must have some pretty expensive vintage strings… always the connesieur like your parents :)
They’re not easily scratched (although that does happen just from fingernails), I think it’s more of being damaged and stretched becasue they’re not steel-strings, they’re usually made of nyglut (synthetic glut) or fluorocarbon.
After reading your description of the various types of sound, I remembered being fascinated by the construction of instruments in one of my favorite movies, “The Red Violin”.
I loved that movie! It definitely helps one appreciate the construction and beauty of an instrument.