Streets of London - played by Ken Middleton

Lots of Ukafrolics to tell you about - which involves me sitting down and writing some.... so while I get myself organised for that, here's a lovely song from Ken Middleton, Ralph McTell's Streets of London, played by Ken on his Mike Pereira tenor at the Ukulele Festival of Scotland 2016, held in Dumfries back in May. It's rather gorgeous. He writes "I have tried to merge Streets of London with the chord sequence to Pachelbel's Canon...." Mmmmmm - lovely.....

Watch it on Youtube here....

A lovely collaboration - "Father and Son," by Ken Middleton and Alex Holmes

It's a little while since I've featured one of Ken's videos on here. With videos I tend to leap in and promptly share ones that grab me - they have to grab me, and this did. Such a poignant song, written Cat Stevens back in the 70's - the age-old mis-match of the generations between a parent's vision of happiness and stability for their child and the child's own vision of the world. Beautifully played and duetted at a distance here with Alex Holmes as "son". I love this. Hope you do, too. Thanks for dropping in...

Watch it on Youtube here

Next time - on our last holiday abroad I had some interesting ukafrolics! I'll tell you all about it. Also coming up - a milestone in my ukulele journey! Just have to share this one!

UFGB Cheltenham 2015... second post with a few pics!

Workshops. How can you attend a festival where the best players in the world are giving lessons, and not partake? That's my view, anyway. I usually take two workshops, but this year my attitude has been simply to take as many as I could afford.

So, UFGB in Cheltenham this last weekend...

Any workshop offered by James Hill is a must - he is ukulele "god" as far as I'm concerned, and such a great teacher to boot. Teaching objectives carefully broken down into a step by step progression toward achievement. It was like a dance.... he guided us effortlessly through filling in the melody gaps between given chords to working out the melody line in another song for ourselves. He guided us along, then armed with the know-how and the confidence, we made it on our own. Satisfaction guaranteed! What a great feeling!

And he signed my Little White Uke...

As did Herb Ohta Jnr! Who, if he didn't actually remember us meeting at the Kamaka factory in Honolulu last month, at least graciously pretended he did! Another lovely man... the prize to be taken away from Herb's workshop, straight after James's, was a catalogue of the finger-picking patterns taught to him by his father, Herb Ohta... it was a joy. Those magic numbers on the page, (thank goodness I did have a pen...) telling you which strings to pick with which fingers and in which order - and hearing how they sound, worked into the music. The thing now is to practice them, get them under the fingers and into the brain. Definitely worth making the effort... for as Herb told us - if you can bring yourself some magic into your music, it's a wonderful thing... if you can bring some magic into your music for others to hear, that's the best of all!

We left those workshops, Caroline and I, feeling like cats who had got the cream. Having got the cream, we headed for the beer. And the concerts.

It was impossible to see absolutely every artist. You have to have refreshment... but we saw most. The line-up was pretty impressive. In the afternoon we saw Ben Rouse, Zoe Bestel and Herb Ohta Jnr before taking a break in search of something hearty. They all showcased their own individual style, and were stupendous. Then the evening concert was everything we'd hoped it would be. The first act was at 6.00 and we missed it. You have to eat. We found seats but changed them eventually as the people in front of us were quite a nuisance with their big ipads stuck up to video, and phones glaring lights up under your nose. What a relief it was to find seats where the folk around us were content to sit quietly and watch the show! Much more civilised... there, my little rant off my chest...

We saw Tobias Elof from Denmark playing wonderful Scandinavian folk instrumentals; "Shine", a trio from Barcelona playing swing music from the 30's, Ukulele Bartt, hugely entertaining; Ryo Natayama, a brilliant young player from Japan; The Hot Potato Syncopators, who put on the most polished and comedic set that had people in stitches; and of course the massively accomplished James Hill with his wife Anne Janelle on cello. Surely a line-up that takes some beating.

I have to have a special mention for Shine. Here in the UK you can't count on a standing ovation. It takes a really special performance to get everyone off their behinds. I tell you, when these fellas finished, people leaped to their feet in their appreciation. They were just so darned GOOD! Flying fingers, oodles of style, massive enthusiasm for their music - which was of the best that the swing era produced. The folk rushed out to buy copies of their CD... I know, I was one... those CD's fairly flew off the table!

That just left the Big Busk and the afternoon back at the Norwood Arms for socialising and the open mic. So here are a few pics! I'm always too busy enjoying myself to trouble with too many photos... then afterwards I regret not taking more!

Dead Man's Uke - (the coolest duo around!) and Yours Truly

Benjamyn Rees


Caroline and myself stealing a pic with Bartt!


My favourite pic of the lot! Stealing a pic of Bartt stealing a pic..


Cootching up close for a pic with Dave Morgan of DJ Morgan Ukuleles - The Uke on the table!


with my great pal Caroline Stewart...


Michael Adcock with Ken Middleton


and Michael on stage at the Norwood Arms!

With the Sound of Purple! Ken Middleton improvisation - My Bonnie

TURNING A FOLK SONG INTO A JIG

I love what Ken Middleton does. He's a great player. Improvisation and what he calls "noodling" are his specialities, I think, and every now and then he comes up with something that just grabs me. This is one such, turning the old folk song "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" into a jig by altering the timing. The hammer-ons and pull-offs are magic.

I noticed Ken's use of triplets here, but didn't notice immediately that he's using the thumb-led triple. I'm used to the fore-finger led triple, but the thumb-led triple isn't tricky, it's just different!

Ken says....

"I wanted to try the well-known Scottish folk tune "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" as a jig. The song is normally played in triple time (3/4), but, after the slow intro, I am playing it in compound duple time (6/8). A jig should have a clear 2 beat feel, with each beat subdivided into 3. Pretty much any tune with a good melodic line can be played as a jig, but folk songs work really well.

The strum I am using is basically a triplet strum: thumb down, pointer up, pointer down. But I don't always play the full triplet. And, I do use other finger and the tune is sometimes played as the triplet, sometimes with just thumb and sometimes with hammer-ons and pull-offs.

I chose to play it in G and often use the 4th string as a melody note."

I do hope you enjoyed that! I've watched it about four times already... one to try and play along with?

Oh - and did you clock that beautiful purple-coloured uke? Custom built for Ken by Rob Collins of Hebden Bridge here in England. It's a deep-bodied uke, 6mm deeper in the body than the normal tenor, for a fuller sound. And the purple colour comes from the wood itself, it's not painted. Purple Heart wood. There you go. For the sound that Ken wanted.

To find out all about this beautiful Purple Heart uke, see Ken's full youtube review... check it out here!

Thanks for dropping in - do call again!

Mandy Make Up Your Mind! Dr Bekken on baritone uke, high D

I've posted this video by Dr Bekken for two reasons - one, because it's good. Two, because I have just discovered the pleasure of a baritone uke with quality fluorocarbon strings and re-entrant tuning, that is, with high D.

About a year ago I picked up a used Makala baritone uke. It was strung DGBE with low D, the D and G strings being wound. It really didn't do much to impress me, and I didn't bother with it much. Then a respected player recommended that I restring it with a set of Living Water Strings, high D tuning. Now, I do love Living Water strings, nearly all my ukes have them now... so I did it - and the difference is nothing short of amazing! I can't put the thing down! Finger-picked, that uke sounds just great. Living Waters are high quality 100% fluorocarbon, and are sold by Ken Middleton - another highly respected player! So now I'm after inspiration for things to play on it, and I put out a plea on the Ukulele Underground Forum. Dr Bekken responded with this video! I love it! And I hope you enjoyed it too!

Dr Bekken has his own pages, Humble Baritonics... if you have a bari, check him out! In fact, check him out anyway, he plays soprano uke incredibly well, also. We'll have some of that later!

By the way - a baritone uke is strung like a guitar with the two lowest strings missing. So the chords are akin to guitar chords. You use the same chord shapes to play as GCEA tuned ukes - but they have different names. Yeah. More to learn!

Thanks for dropping in!

Strum along with Ken Middleton in the Smoky Mountains!

I caught up with Ken Middleton again at the weekend, at the November convention of the George Formby Society in Blackpool. What a great weekend that was! (More about that very soon, I promise...) Once again Ken wowed the Sunday afternoon audience with his playing; first the Tennessee Waltz, then George Elmes joined him on stage to play the old bluegrass tune "Snowdrop". That's built around a repeated chord progression, so it's fun to join in for a strum.

Improvisation is what Ken is doing in this video, recorded during his recent travels to festivals in the USA. And it's something of a speciality of Ken's. I think it's time we heard Ken play in a festival in the UK.....

To improvise, (also called extemporisation), means "to play or sing (music) extemporaneously, especially by inventing variations on a melody or creating new melodies in accordance with a set progression of chords". The point is, it's "as you go along", with no previous planning. Clever stuff, eh? I've always been scared stiff of it..... deep water, as far as I'm concerned. But Ken is pretty good, don't you think?

The set progression of chords in this improvisation is G Dm F C. Playing this progression, I feel that it has a really haunting quality. That's strange, because it's in the key of C major, and major keys are bright keys, whereas minor keys have a sad or melancholy sense around them.... certainly the Dm chord adds that feeling in this progression. It's so effective here because of the beautiful autumnal Smoky mountain setting. Autumn seems to embody a sense of melancholy, with the retreating sun and the retreating green from the leaves, but the beauty is there in the reds and golds.... and the melancholy and the beauty are all here in this improvisation.

So if you've got your uke to hand (haven't you always?) strum along with it, it's fun! That's how I started my day today. I subscribe to Ken's youtube channel (good idea) so this lovely piece dropped into my email inbox this morning. And as Ken has kindly told us the chord progression he's using, I picked up my Tanglewood uke from its place right next to my computer and joined in along with Ken's friend Pete.

Lovely.

Good morning World.....

Oh - and actually, is this piece modal? Comments please!

Ken Middleton plays banjo uke in Tennessee, The Tennessee Waltz! Beautiful.......

Finding time to blog just seems to get harder and harder at the moment, it's not for want of trying - even finding time to play is hopeless just now - but I had to share this with you. My friend Ken Middleton (I know I can call him my friend!) is not known for his love of the banjolele, to say the very least, but he now has a lovely custom-made Beansprout banjo uke by Mya-Moe, and his rendition of The Tennesee Waltz, played here in Memphis with the insects singing a backing track behind him, is a winner. It has set my day up just fine, just fine.....

Thanks Ken!

Looking for a uke-fest to go to? How about this one - Ukulele Hooley in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin....

The Emerald Isle is calling to me... Yes, if you can get to Dun Laoghaire, just a few miles south of Dublin, this uke festival, Ukulele Hooley looks like another corker, not to be missed... 24th and 25th August... except that I have to miss it! I wish I could go! I've just looked at the line-up of artists... Peter Moss and George Elmes I have featured on here before - just go to the tag cloud at the bottom. Ukulele Uff and Lonesome Dave are also fantastic - saw them in Cheltenham. Janet Klein and Ian Whitcomb (read about him and his book here) are familiar names to me, and I know that Ken Middleton will be there also with Ohana Ukuleles. Lots of other promising-looking acts too, (sigh....)

Ah me.

Can't go.

Shucks....

Johnny Foodstamp does Formby Nashville style at the George Formby Society Convention, Blackpool June 2013

Well - the GFS has surely never seen "Formby" done quite like this! Johnny Foodstamp and his lovely young wife made the trip over from Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday especially to attend the George Formby Society Convention. They flew in at 8.30 am and brought the Nashville sunshine with them. They saw Blackpool under blue skies with a blue sea, with people enjoying the beach, just as Blackpool should be.

In spite of the overnight flight and the jet-lag, Johnny was up for making the most of every minute with the Formby fans and star players, and he did.... the fun went on for those with strong enough constitutions well into the early hours! Johnny was made as welcome as the lovely weather he'd brought with him. The above performance of the George Formby numbers "She's Got Two of Everything" and "Under The Blasted Oak" was on the Saturday afternoon concert. Suited and booted for the occasion, you would never have known that he'd been travelling all night without a wink of sleep! Thanks to Pauline Aitken for the video! On Sunday, Johnny gave us "The Dumber They Come, the Better I Like 'Em", a deliciously un-PC Eddie Kantor number from the 1920's. John Bianchi did a lovely Youtube of this song last year... (see blogpost here 7th June 2012) and I'm sure Johnny Foodstamp's version from Sunday will be video'd and up for viewing soon.

And as for the June convention in general ... I can only say that it was one of the very best. I could never have hoped to see so many of my named ukulele heroes on one stage all in one day... just listen to who was there!

Johnny Foodstamp all the way from Nashville as I've said; Matthew J Richards, Mike Warren, Alan Yates, George Elmes was over from Ireland and gave us Limehouse Blues and lovely renditions of some of his short original pieces for soprano uke, Andy Eastwood managed to make the convention on both days even though he's very busy on the professional stage, and even.... wait for it... Ken Middleton. Yes, that's right, Ken Middleton, who came along to see what all the fuss is really about. He gave us a beautiful performance on stage of "I'll Fly Away" and "Try a Little Tenderness", jammed outside in the sunshine with George Elmes, and left with an inkling of what the GFS is all about, even if we didn't exactly manage to make a Formby fan of him! So glad you made it, Ken, and it was lovely to meet you in person at last!

Unfortunately, Ken had to leave before the 9.00 pm Sunday concert, and missed some highlights which I know he would have enjoyed... particularly Andy Eastwood playing Chopin on his soprano wooden uke. Absolutely breathtaking. Add Alan Yates on solo electric guitar with "Apache"; "I'll See You in My Dreams" beautifully performed and sung by Caroline Robson ... once more at the GFS I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Add in all the lovely performances by the wonderfully skilled split-strokers young and old, and the all-inclusive and well-named "thrash"... you know, there are just a few who just "don't get it"... but I get it... and I just love it.

More later. Thanks for dropping by... I have to go and massage my face. I've got face-ache because I still haven't stopped smiling....

A bluegrass duet on ukulele from the city walls of Lucca, Italy.... SNOWDROP from Ken Middleton

I love bluegrass played on ukulele... so I had to share this. Ken often plays bluegrass clawhammer style, but this time decided to play finger-style. Any style is fine by me... Ken has such a laid-back, relaxed and relaxing style of playing - I always feel soothed and smoothed down after listening to him play! Nice to hear Lorenzo, (Ukulollo) too.. love that tee-shirt - I want one... Ukulele Underground?

Ken writes... "Lorenzo (Ukulollo) and I sitting high on the old walls of Lucca, Italy.
We are playing an old bluegrass banjo tune called "Snowdrop". It was apparently first recorded by Kirk and Sam McGee in the 1930's."

On Shakespeare's birthday, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever...." my dream uke would be -

My dream ukulele would be a thing of beauty, a joy forever, gorgeous to the eye and gorgeous to the ear ...

It would be made in Britain from the finest woods available...

It would be designed and built with love and care, and an eye to perfection by a master craftsman...

It would be a Pete Howlett ukulele.



Pete has also won the love and respect of his luthier peers worldwide with his series of YouTube videos "Ukulele Building School" and "Ukulele Building Course". See his YouTube channel....

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever...." Happy birthday, Will... you were so right.

The triplet strum - Ken Middleton begins a series of tutorial videos

Ken Middleton has been one of my favourite players since I picked up the uke in earnest about eighteen months ago. This is a very hurried post as it's Easter Sunday - things to do, places to go, people to see... but as Ken has just begun a series of tutorial videos on the triplet strum, I have to share, immediately, because this is exciting. And Ken will be doing a workshop on this very subject at the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain in Cheltenham in June.... and whoopee, I am on that!

In the meantime, observe a master...

Happy Easter, folks - and thanks for dropping in!

Points for exciting? 10 out of 10, I'd say!

So what's so exciting? I hear you ask, all agog...... well I'll tell you. In the UK we have a great ukulele festival coming up in June - the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain, held in Cheltenham, June 21st-23rd..... and I am going! Woohoo!

Heading the line-up.... James Hill! And on banjo-uke, Andy Eastwood! See the website for more information.

My tickets are reserved, oh yes indeed....... but not only that, oh no.... the workshops came on sale the other day - and include two workshops by James Hill, two by Ken Middleton, (featured several times on this blog - see the tag cloud at the bottom of the page, to find posts featuring Ken....) one by Andy Eastwood (see Andy in Dublin here and one by Phil Doleman. And I have managed to get my places booked! James Hill's workshops are already sold out. They were obviously going to go very quickly...

You must have seen James Hill's interpretation of "Billie Jean".....

This festival is going to be an absolute blast. If you haven't secured your tickets, get on to it, do! And I'll see you there!...

Improved Aquila Red Series strings, low G

The Aquila Red Series of strings, for example a low G for ukulele, has raised a lot of interest but as followers of Ukulele Underground Forum will know, some players have experienced problems with them, e.g. strings snapping.

Aquila responded to the feedback very quickly and worked on improving the Red Series, and there have already been favourable responses from folk on the Forum.

I haven't tried the new improved strings yet, but Andrew Kitakis of Hawaii Music Supply has just written a detailed review of the new improved strings and you can read it in full on his blog here.

Andrew also talks about fluorocarbon low Gs, and here's a reminder that Living Water Strings, a brand of excellent quality fluorocarbon strings sold by Ken Middleton, now include sets of strings with low G.

I think I want a Kiwaya KTS-4 Soprano Ukulele - here's a review by Ken Middleton

The soprano sized Uke has grown on me greatly - I like the sound, and I like the fact that if I see a chord fingering that goes from fret three to fret ten, I can reach it! I was horrified to find such a chord in the tab for Music Box Waltz, by Roy Smeck. It's reachable on a concert uke, but barely - I've got long fingers - I don't know whether people reach stretches like this on a tenor... but that's another story.

Anyway, I really fancy one of these, the Kiwaya KTS4, or even the KTS5 with more frets, although that one is considerably more pricey. The laminate version, the KS1, has great reviews, but I would love a solid wood instrument, one with a thin enough top to give it the volume and sound that I want. In my dreams, I reckon.

But, I'm hoping, this weekend, to get to a shop that sells these ukes and try them out - the Japanese Kiwaya KS1, the KS4 as above, and a Bruko, a German-made uke which also has gained a great following. I'm expecting the sound to be very different, from what folk have said - it'll be interesting! And there are many more factors to take into account when playing a ukulele; the necks can vary in thickness, some being thinner than usual, and some being thicker; so can the width at the nut (where the strings go through slots at the top before they attach to the tuning pegs). These things can make a lot of difference to personal comfort and preference, and it's one good reason to try to get hands on and play before buying, rather that buying unseen online. The other reason of course is the sound.

I can't finish without a word for Ken Middleton's review. This one is from 2008 and is as thorough and well-considered as ever.

Whoops - I've actually just this minute found a review from Ken where he compares the Bruko 6 to the Kiwaya! It's here....

Thanks, Ken for the music, for the reviews, for the tabs, for the strings.... you are the man.

I planned to do something completely different this morning - this is my trouble, you see..... lah-di-dah.......

A GENTLE WAVE - Ukulele Improvisation by Ken Middleton

Just the thing for a peaceful Sunday - tranquility, a calm sea and beautiful sounds from a ukulele. I've already listened to this three times - the usual, when I have really enjoyed a piece of music.

Ken Middleton is a dab-hand at improvisation. I wish I could do it - I know that I could, if I knew my way round the uke fret-board - and there's only one answer to that - work at it.

You have to know your way round the ukulele the way that you know your way round your own house - blindfold. To know where everything is. On the ukulele, that means every note, every chord, every progression, every movement by step up and down an scale, every leap to the note you want... and it means work, concentration and application, and exercising your memory. If you rely completely on chord charts and tabs, you never learn to master the instrument, because you don't know it intimately enough - it's like knowing something only second-hand, somehow.

You also need to know something about structure - structure of a musical piece. If you play, you know that most pieces are played in one key - and the most common key for the uke is the key of C - because that's the easiest key to play in for the ukulele. But a piece of music also has a musical form or shape - and a very common and basic one is AABA.

"Whaaat?" Don't panic. Think of a song - better still, look here, at how music works. I don't believe in reinventing the wheel - this chap explains it very well..... AABA song structure is actually very, very familiar to all of us!

For more detail look at 32 bar form.

AABA is just for starters, but it's a very good start, and enough to keep you going and thinking for a while.

So, knowing a bit about structure in music helps when you want to improvise. Is it essential? Well, it certainly gives you a framework, which you can build on.

Trying to remember how to play pieces without the papers in front of you is a great starter - keep the music nearby to go to when you're stuck, but remember, memorising the musical pathways is a great learning pathway to knowing your instrument. And anyway, it's so much nicer to be able to pick up your uke and just play it, instead of always having to have the music up in front of you.

So - if you want to be able to improvise, know your instrument. I resolve to get to know mine. And start looking at how pieces of music are structured. It's really interesting!

Living Water Strings - now Low G strings too! From Ken Middleton

If you like good fluorocarbon strings on your ukulele, and you use a low G string, you'll be pleased to hear Living Water Strings are now available from Ken Middleton with a low G option in concert and tenor sizes.

I am trying out the concert size and am thrilled with how it sounds and blends with the full set. Like the other Living Water Strings, there is a very pleasing crystalline ring to these strings - I will be writing in greater detail shortly - watch this space!

I'LL FLY AWAY - Ken Middleton and friend....

I'll Fly Away - traditional spiritual



Ken and Lorenzo in the garden of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy, last weekend;
there for the huge ukulele festival in Caldogno.

Simply gorgeous. As Eugeneukulele commented - "guess it helps when you have two superb musicians, a gorgeous setting and one of the best spirituals ever written. Yes."

My sentiments entirely.....

Ken playing clawhammer, if I'm not much mistaken....

Living Water Strings by Ken Middleton - Review

Just over a week ago, before rushing off to spend a few days mooching around Devon with a very nice bunch of WI ladies, I put a set of the new British made fluorocarbon Living Water strings by Ken Middleton on my Tanglewood Cove Creek concert uke before I packed it to take for a sing-along at the end of the trip. We had such a busy schedule each day, rushing off to see the sights and going out in the evenings for meals (fabulous!) that until the last evening I had only a minute or two each day to play my ukulele. Just enough time to tune it up and strum a few chords and pick a few notes.

I now feel ready to give you my review.

First of all, remember - I'm relatively inexperienced, uke-wise... so please read what I say with that in mind. I can't give you any personal comparisons with other brands of fluorocarbon strings, because I've never used them; this is my first experience of fluorocarbons. (I do have a set of American ones ready to put on my banjo-uke, but that wouldn't count, anyway; a banjo-uke sounds so different.)

I have allowed just over a week for the strings to settle in, as they are flexible and stretchy. I did not tug at them in an attempt to stretch them and make them settle more quickly; I felt that was the safest approach so as not to risk spoiling them.

So this is my review, now that the new strings have pretty well settled in, and I have relaxed and played, and listened.....

First impression on receiving the strings was of the packaging, which is very attractive. Strings for each size of ukulele are packaged in a different metallic shade; e.g. concert size are in silver. Each string is in its own sellophane packet, clearly labelled by name and by position.

The strings are made of 100% clear fluorocarbon; they're colourless. They are, like all fluorocarbon strings, I believe, thinner than Aquila New Nylgut, which are the highly acclaimed brand leader in ukulele strings, and the strings I have bought and used up to now.

Here are the diameter measurements so you can see the difference.

Living Water fluorocarbons in the concert size are in diameter

1 = 0.52mm
2 = 0.66mm
3 = 0.74mm
4 = 0.57mm

Aquila New Nylgut concert strings are

1 = 0.62 mm
2 = 0.80 mm
3 = 0.95 mm
4 = 0.67 mm

Being thinner, the Living Water strings feel quite different under the fingers for fretting. The biggest difference is in the thicker middle strings, especially the C string. I like the feel of them very much. Although I love Aquilas and do swear by them, Aquilas feel thick and hard in comparison when I turn to my other ukes, which are still strung with them.

The sound of these Living Water strings is beautifully bright and crystal-clear. The more I play them, the more I love them, especially in finger-picking. The sound reminds me of the clear resonant sound when you flick the edge of a crystal glass. When I first put them on my uke and played it, I was immediately aware that I needed to get used to fretting them in a more precise way; I was getting some buzzing and the strings were showing up my lack of expertise. But it hasn't taken me long to adapt, and the sound is heavenly. Apt, I think, because Ken states on the front of the packets "Made in Heaven!"

This difference in diameter does make a difference to the sound. Generally speaking, thicker strings are louder, and I have noticed a difference in volume when strumming a song accompaniment. Aquilas are the loudest strings on the market, I think I can safely say! But this is only a small part of the story. For more information on strings generally see Ian Chadwick here.

I love the sound and feel of Ken's Living Water strings; the name is a stroke of genius... try them, and think about it!

In my last post on strings, last week, I mentioned that Aquila have now released a new line; their "Red Series" of unwound low G strings. Ken Middleton will also be releasing his own low Gs very, very soon.... so I await both kinds with anticipation!

The thing about Ken's strings is that he himself is a wonderful ukulele player, and he has researched and sourced his type of fluorocarbon string to get the sound and feel that he wants.

That itself says an awful lot about these strings! My advice - get some - they're going like hot cakes!

From his website; also now from ebay!

Coming Up - Strings and things - Living Water and Aquila Red Series low G...

This is a post in rather a bigger hurry and less detail than I would like, because I'll soon be off to a fund-raising garden party in aid of the Toby Henderson Trust, Newcastle, thence on girlie few days to sunny Devon with the ladies of the WI - ukes in the bag for a sing-song, no worries!

But my head is also full of strings at the moment; uke strings, of course.

So please forgive the lack of detail and links this time.



Ken Middleton has now produced and is selling from his website his own new brand of fluorocarbon strings, "Living Water", made in England. Yesterday I replaced the Aquilas on my Tanglewood with my set and am starting to evaluate them. Too early for a full report, but first impressions are.....nice! good look, good feel, good sound, good value! Sorry but until I've finished Ukafrolicking around the West Country, that's all you're gonna get from me on this one at the moment.

Uke Hunt is one of my fave uke blogs, and Woodshed reports today that Aquila have now produced "Red Series Unwound Low G" strings. I have to get me some of those. I have already discovered that with a low G it's not easy to get a good sound, at least not on a concert uke. The first time I tried it, that low G was off again so fast - it was a guitar G string....

My current effort, on my Greg Bennett UK 50 is a thinner string, a d'addario C string. But as soon as it's fretted, it goes sharp. Not good. So I can't wait to get my hands on a string that has been developed for the purpose and I'll be ordering one or two when I get back.