Today's musical ventures....

Today's great musical acquisition - a kazoo. Or rather, his 'n hers kazoos - got LSH one as well. Now we can do kazoo duets. It'll go with the old washboard we came across in Brecon the other week.... I spotted it, he grabbed it and laid claim to it... handed over the £12 asking price and tucked it under his arm with smug self-satisfaction....."Keep your filthy hands off it - that's mine!" was the loving remark as we left the shop. We talk to each other like that - that's forty years of marriage for you.


Also today - I've restrung my Slingerland banjo-uke again. I'd got some fluorocarbon strings on it, and had tried to tune it up to D tuning, but I could tell the strings didn't like it - sure enough, the 1st string broke. So I've gone for nylon strings this time, after recommendations from Johnny Foodstamp and others in the George Formby Society. They arrived today, I've put them on and they have gone up to D tuning without a grumble - so I think I'll be happy with those. Full marks and many thanks to the obliging folk who run the GFS shop online.

Been playing the banjo-uke and kazoo together... now that's what I call fun!

My Slingerland - a tinker-toy indeed

The other day I declared my intention to bite the bullet and do some adjustments to my lovely 1920's Slingerland banjo-uke. It had been sitting on a shelf staring morosely at me, stringless and with the tension hooks all loosened off for at least a month - but I did it, I removed the resonator and then the calf-skin vellum to inspect it - and have now put it all back together. Phew - not too bad at all. It really is a beauty, if a humble one, compared to the later Dallas's and the Ludwigs!

The screws inside the head all needed tightening - but I have done it - I don't know whether they're too tight, but it's done - the vellum has gone back on, in exactly the same place, and I've tightened the 16 tension hooks back up, a little at a time, working evenly back and forth around the head. It wasn't too onerous after all - it has been a few days now and it all looks and sounds ok. I scoured the internet for advice, and there is good information and advice to be had from highly respected banjo-uke people; John Croft, "the ukulele man"and the late great Dennis Taylor's website.

One thing about a Slingerland is that they are well-built, sturdy little instruments, always recommended to new players wanting a well-made vintage instrument at an affordable price. Well, I hope mine stands up to the tightening-up treatment that I've given it! New Mya-Moe fluorocarbon strings on it now, sounding very nice; they are still settling in and needing frequent retuning. In a few weeks I plan to try out the very popular GFS nylon strings...

An eventful sort of week, in many ways...

To all those who follow me here or otherwise click on a webpage during a search and arrive somewhat bemused on one of my pages .... well, welcome and thanks! I'm on a journey of discovery and delight with my ukuleles and am happy for you to tag along with me here.

Hint - look at the label cloud at the bottom of the page - it shows you what I've posted on different subjects... click the label to see the related posts.

It has been a funny week... I got my computer sorted and upgraded, installed a webcam and posted my first Youtube video; I discovered the talent and history of Roy Smeck for the first time, thanks to a video a fantastic player posted on the Ukulele Underground Forum; I have been called "sassy" (for writing a blog) and "dynamic" (for organizing stuff)... people who know me better would probably choke over their cup of tea!

I have been given a surprise gift of a CD by Jake Shimabukuru by someone I've met only once... how lovely! I can't get over that - and I have just added "Taking a Chance on Love" to my "Summerhouse Practice List". What a great song - full of minor 6ths and minor 7ths... what delicious chords - had to go and play them down LSH's (Long-Suffering-Husband's) ear as he sat working at his own PC...

The summerhouse - yes, the sun is out, it's gorgeous, and I have sat for a while playing my uke down there, in the tranquility of the garden. Bliss. What a difference a little sunshine makes....

I've resolved to bite another bullet today; my lovely 90 year old vintage Slingerland banjo-uke has to be tackled. I was told at the GFS Convention that it needed some adjustments, but - in true style, I have been putting it off.

Today's the day.

Sharp intake of breath.

You all have a great day now. Or Evening. Whoever and wherever you are. And if you've got a uke - do play it today! :)

I gaze at my Slingerland banjo-uke with slight trepidation...

More problems with that friction tuner - and adjustments to the vellum and tension hooks?.....aaaaaagh!

At the GFS meeting on the weekend, I realised I'd still got problems with my little 1920's Slingerland Maybelle when I found that I needed to tune it in D for the "Thrash". The Thrash is where anybody with a banjolele or uke can get up, join the peformers at the front, and simply join in as best they can, playing the songs. It's enormous fun - but you have to be tuned in D. Why tune in D? I'll come to that later.

So - as she was tuned in C, I tried to tighten the strings up to a whole tone higher. The C string wouldn't hold it. I went on the hunt for a helpful soul with a screwdriver to tighten the screw on the friction tuner. Someone had a Swiss Army knife, and Peter Nixon kindly used it to tighten the screw - thank you, gentlemen; success, it holds. Then to the E string tuner, the one I had such a problem with when I first had the uke about three months ago. I fixed it that time, well enough to hold the E note.... I stripped the tuner down and made some little thin rubber washers, and that worked, well enough to tune the instrument in C - but it will not hold a higher note at all, the added tension is just too strong. And the screw will not tighten any more.

Dennis Mitchell, the Chairman of the GFS, is such a kind man. He was next to me in the tea queue at break, and had noticed my little Slingerland in the Thrash. I told him about the problem tuning it in D. "Come on, let me have a look at it..."

So he looked her over and gave me a complete appraisal... I need to find some tiny washers to lengthen the tuner, to give the offending screw more room, so that it will tighten a little more - should be simple enough. Apparently a model shop is the place to get the right washers.

It's the rest of it that's frightening me...
My Slingerland is a model 18, with sixteen tension hooks. A few of the bolts holding the tension hooks to the body of the uke are not flush to the wood, and need tightening up. But I need to take the strings off and loosen off the vellum before I tighten them up. When I put the vellum back, apparently I need to get the metal rim round the top pushed further down than it is at present. Dennis thought it shouldn't hold too many terrors for me......! Which was rather reassuring, but - looking at it, I think that's not going to be easy - for me, a complete banjo-uke novice. Beacause I just don't think it's going to "go"... but it needs to be tackled, so when I've psyched myself up, I shall make a start.... cross your fingers for me!
Now then, where's me tool-kit......

The GFS, June Convention 2012 - What a Serious Ukafrolic was That!

LSH (long-Suffering-Husband)and I returned yesterday from Blackpool. We've been up there for our first visit to a meeting of the GFS, the George Formby Society.

When we got to Blackpool on Friday, Blackpool had not got the red carpet out for us - gale force winds swept the country and the Blackpool Promenade, and the town was presented in her dowdiest clothes. Sadly, we saw there not a tree, a flower or a blade of grass to lift the spirits. On Saturday morning, to news that in Wales a thousand people near Aberystwyth had been evacuated from their homes and others awaited rescue from floods, we battled our way against the wind up the Prom to the Imperial Hotel, the traditional meeting place of the society.
From then on, it all changed. There early to get a good seat, we sat on the second row. Next to us sat a couple whose home for the last forty-five years has been in Australia. Back in Blighty for a visit to relatives, they had determined to take in a meeting of the GFS as John (Lee) is a uke and banjo-uke player.


John Lee entertains Australian style

He had brought his instruments with him all the way from Oz; they included an impressive cigar-box uke that he had made himself - I really regret not taking a photo of it.

The front row filled up, just in front of us. As the people there took their seats, they turned round and started to chat to all of us... how warm and friendly are ukulele people! We had read about how friendly the folk are at the GFS, and how it's just like one one big family, and it is absolutely true...

Four things that blew me away...

1. The friendliness and kindness of the people
2. The talent and skill of the performers
3. The vintage ukes and banjo-ukes I saw and even played a bit!
4. The Thrash! Where everyone pics up their ukes, comes to front and joins in! Just amazing!

I think the best way I can write about all this is to simply tell you the great things that impressed me and stuck in my mind.

The people...
The Richards family, whose warmth welcomed us from the start and made us feel as if we belonged.

Chris Richards with her Gibson Ukulele

The chairman, Dennis Mitchell, who, without being asked, took me on one side and took time in the break to look at my little Slingerland Maybelle, and tell me what to do with her to optimize her playing condition - I'll be coming back to that later. What a lovely man...

The President, Gerry Mawdsley, who took the tuition class on Sunday morning, full of tips for newbie players.... super stuff, all of it - including - the Formby split-stroke de-mystified! Something else I'll be coming back to!

Gerry also did compering. His one-liners are wonderful, what a sense of humour! The raffle - "Look, she's smiling - wait till you see what you've won!"

The backing trio of Matt Richards on keyboard, Tony Thornton on bass guitar and Dale Norman on drums, who played anything and everything, in any key, at a moment's notice for the performers...

Dickie Speake, who wrote "Riding on a Blackpool Tram", took over from Matt Richards on keyboard on Sunday evening and is the owner of the most engaging smile, which never seemed to leave his face! Here holding a very special vintage Abbott - or was it a Monarch? Now I know I should have written everything down.....

And one young woman standing next to me with her 1920's "Baby" Gibson banjo-uke in the first Thrash, who, when I muttered "God, my uke's gone right out of tune" turned and informed me that "They tune in D for the Thrash!" Ooops! We swapped names and there I found another friend, a kindred spirit...

I'll post again about the talent and the instruments. I like to do "bite-sized" posts and this one is getting to be quite a mouthful.

But if any of those lovely people find themselves reading this, I want to say "Thank you" for the best weekend LSH and I have had for a long time!

The Tanglewood Cove Creek - I Finally Succumb to its Wiles!

Back in March - the 21st March, actually - I wrote how I'd been wowed by a Tanglewood ukulele in one of the local music shops. It was the Tanglewood TU7 XM Lacewood concert.

Well... more than two months later... it is mine.

I hadn't gone in the shop to buy it - on the contrary, I went in to buy the little Ashton union flag soprano uke as a gift for a friend. But the action at the nut of the little union jack uke was a bit high, and Mike the guitar techy who served me obligingly offered to file the slots down a bit.

That's when it got me. The Tanglewood. I wasn't even playing it.... after all, I'd decided to save for a nice solid wood tenor, most likely an Ashbury solid rose cherry... anyway, I was playing around while I waited on a very pretty solid koa Luna tenor with a pickup - £350 - more than I would, spend anyway... when I heard a lovely sound that jerked my head right up - and it was the Tanglewood Cove Creek I'd been so impressed with before. Bright but liquid, bell-like... and it has the long neck, 14 frets up to the body.

Then came the coup-de-grace - the offer of the sort of deal that's hard to refuse.... but I didn't give in without a fight. "Will you throw a gig-bag in with that?" Done.

So that's how I came to return home with my lovely Tanglewood Cove Creek "exotic" wood long neck concert uke. For a laminate ukulele, it really is lovely.


As for LSH...well, he really doesn't understand. Non-players don't; simple as that. But I'm happy with my little collection of ukuleles; I've put a low G on my original Greg Bennett so I can experiment with jazzy chords, as recommended by Glen Rose, as well as start trying to tackle John Moen's tab of the Bach Prelude for Cello piece - one bar at a time. My little blue Mahalo soprano is handy to leave lying around just anywhere, and hand over to interested friends... and as for my lovely 1920's Slingerland Maybelle banjo-uke - well.... she's going with me to Blackpool this weekend... to play with the George Formby fans at the meeting of the GFS!

If someone had told me six months ago that I'd be doing that, I'd have said they were mad...for my generation, for whom the Beatles and the Stones were nothing short of gods, George Formby was the antithesis of Cool... but watch this space, I'm going for it!

Happy Birthday Huw - A Party with DIY Music - Simply Wonderful!

Have just returned with LSH (Long-Suffering Husband)from a great holiday in the Italian Lakes. Without my ukulele. Definitely suffered from finger-itch. But only a day left to prepare for ... playing for a sing-along at a party!

A close friend was celebrating a "landmark birthday". 70 years young. Now then, you have to understand - he and his family are - Welsh. Music and singing is in the blood. Every November the four of us, two couples, work on a bit of singing in four part harmony, ready to sing for a gathering at the regular Christmas party. We sing in English, for an English gathering. But as I said, these friends are Welsh, Welsh is their first language and any family gathering is seized upon as an opportunity for the family to sing, in harmony, in Welsh - and it always sounds wonderful.

So at lunchtime today there was the birthday celebration. Unknown to the "birthday boy" his wife had roped in family and friends to provide entertainment, largely musical, after the meal. Would I please play my ukulele and banjolele for a sing-song? Of course I would! Gnashing of finger-nails..... I LOVE to play - but the fingers do try to turn to thumbs under pressure. Yesterday - decide on the songs and prepare song sheets for the gathering.

Friends and family had gathered from far and near. North Wales, Bristol, London, Northumberland... and the first party piece was one of the grandsons, a ten year old, on his violin. And it was great! The William Tell theme... the room thundered with cheers and applause as he finished, and his little face shone.

There followed Welsh songs by the family - tunes familiar to many of us - Men of Harlech, All Through the Night - but the words not, of course. It was moving.

Then it was our turn, LSH and myself. Leaning on a Lamppost, a George Formby number, with my little Slingerland Maybelle making her first solo appearance in decades. (She's a well-preserved 20's banjolele). She seems so loud at home - but in a room full of people joining in the singing and a few murmuring children, I was struggling to hear her myself....but it went down well.

Then the English Sing-along, led my myself with banjolele and uke - Give Me Sunshine; great first song, lovely mood... Putting on the Style, successful. Then I took a risk. I knew it was a risk. Ghost Riders in the Sky. A cracking song, but the trouble is that no-one knows how long to hold on the long notes - and everyone does their own thing! A bit disastrous and not really to be recommended. I aborted it half-way through, but not before we'd enjoyed a Yippee-i-ay chorus! I thought it was time to quit but I'd given out song sheets and the cry went up for The Banana Boat Song.... Day-oh! That went down a storm. Well it was all great fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it - even my son, who had declared that no way would he sing, was caught joining in.

Another offering in Welsh - the Thomas family all singing something from "Under Milkwood" by Dylan Thomas - no relation. And Huw at the end, contributing a solo in his own lovely voice. Another close friend, by request, contributed a humorous monologue - in costume. Has to be seen to be believed. What a lovely party.

I can't help thinking that parties like this are a rarity in the modern age. It was a gem.

As the party began to wind up, one of the family, a young man of great musicality, admitted to me to being very curious about the ukulele - one minute to teach him the first three chords and he was playing. I just know he'll be the owner of a uke before next week is out!

Just a day in the life of a lady with a ukulele or two.

Here Come the Old Songs - with John Bianchi

I've said before how I love the old songs; they've survived down the years because they were crafted by song-writers who knew how to grab the listener with a melody, a chord progression and the right set of lyrics. The ukulele revival seems to have gone hand in hand with a resurgence of interest in the old songs. After all, the uke was hugely popular in the years between the two world wars.

Another Ukulele Hero of mine is John Bianchi of New York. He is another ace banjo-ukulele player, and he particularly loves the old songs of the 1920's. On this video he's playing his vintage Slingerland, singing an old Al Bowlly number called "My Canary has Circles Under his Eyes". It's a catchy number, full of fun, and really conjures up the atmosphere of the years between the wars. Al Bowlly was a hugely popular singer in those years - he had a wonderfully sweet voice. I heard of him through my mother; he was her favourite singer, she used to swoon over his voice. You'll know it as the one singing "Goodnight Sweetheart." I'd never heard "My Canary has Circles..." before, but John has a lovely voice too, to add to his talents, and does a great rendition. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!



John, thanks for the help you gave me on my Slingerland banjo-uke. You are a kind banjolele hero!

My third ukulele hero - Johnny - Johnny Foodstamp

"Get that wound string off there right now, Missy!"

It all started when I discovered that the lovely set of Aquila new nylgut strings that I'd put on my "new" vintage - no - antique - 1920's Slingerland banjolele were looking sick. Or at least, the wound C string was - and because of "issues" with the little baby that I was still trying to fix, I'd actually hardly played it. Notches all the way up it, tiny bits of wire sticking out and almost broken through in one place. Not for the first time, shock horror! I don't really know why, but the strings that Aquila supply especially for the banjo-uke have a wound third string - nylgut, with fine wire wound around it. But there was something definitely amiss, apparently with the frets. Slipping friction tuner - I'd fixed that. Action much too high at the nut - well, I was working on it. All with advice and instruction from heroes and friends on the wonderful Ukulele Underground Forum. But now the frets.

Well, they looked fine to me - but perhaps they were a little bit rough - and a bit tarnished. "Help! What to do?" goes out the plaintive call to the UU forum once again. And once again, I'm furnished with all the information I need. Well, I'm all geared up with wire wool, Brasso, masking tape for the fingerboard.... when the advice comes over, "Get that wound string off there right now, missy! Go with some fluorocarbon strings....they sound great on a banjo-uke!" Now this advice comes from one of my ukulele heroes, Johnny Foodstamp, who hails from Nashville, Tennessee, and plays a real badass banjo-ukulele Formby-style with added attitude, for audiences all over the state, and beyond. And he has one like mine... an antique Slingerland.

Next, he sends the advice "It sounds like they need more then a cleaning. My frets are sort of sharp on my old Slingy too. Any luthier should be able to fix that and usually uke repair is pretty cheap because they are so small."

So - I have managed to find a luthier in my area, a lovely man who has taken her in and agreed to do the necessary. By the end of next week, I should have her back, spruced up and ready for some serious strumming, tripling and split-stroking... well, some serious practice, anyway.

And as for the recommended fluorocarbon strings, they are on order and I'm going to try them out.

I wonder whether I'll ever be able to play like this - click here for Johnny Foodstamp playing some real mean banjo-ukulele on a Slingerland like mine.

My Slingerland

Ok, so here's my banjo-ukulele, a grand old lady from the 1920's, built to last in Chicago. She's a Slingerland, with a 7 inch pot and 16 tension hooks, made of bird's eye maple with a maple fretboard. The resonator is solid bird's eye maple, not ply - the beautiful figuring in the wood goes through to the back. She has an original Waverley tailpiece, and came with an original maple bridge - which I took off and put away. The tuners are original - and PRETTY!

Well....... Ain't She Sweet?

Oh the Guilt......

Two weeks ago, or thereabouts, I bought a banjolele. I'd never liked them, but suddenly I did; the more I saw and the more I heard, I realised I had to have one to make the range of ukulele music that I wanted to make - and then the research started.... what sort should I buy? It soon became clear that a new model would simply not do - for the sound I wanted, it just had to be vintage. So what sort? Oh, Lord - the models from banjo-uke heaven fetched prices to match - in fact, whatever I ended up having, I was going to have to raise some extra cash....... plans, plans, ....

A couple of months of scouring the internet followed. I saw a couple of "possibles" on a website - but on inquiry, they'd already gone. "Get a Slingerland, they're great for a beginners," was typical advice that followed these disappointments.

Then one day, a beauty appeared on ebay. The advice "Don't buy on ebay!" was ringing in my ears - fears of monstrosities with warped necks and all manner of other expensive or insoluble problems - but scrutiny of the photos seemed to show that this was almost immaculate - a vintage Slingerland in bird's eye maple, from the 20's or 30's. With some of the cash now in the bank from selling my favourite evening dress and a now unloved flute, I set myself a limit and bid. Oh, how I wanted that banjolele, I just knew it had my name on it......and - yes, I got it! And two weeks later, it arrived at my door from the States, after a long journey and a little stay in Customs.......

So why the guilt? I'm sitting upstairs at my computer, and I can hear my poor, neglected husband wandering in and out of the kitchen, getting himself a drink - because I am no company at all.......I'm not playing this new baby; it's not that...I'm trying to find out how to make it playable - because beautiful though it is, it's just not quite right.... little glitchy things that need real attention before it will play in tune. And the waves of guilt wash over me. Ah me. Spring is here, the sun comes out, the garden calls - and I turn a deaf ear.... I have painting to finish in the kitchen...... ironing - growing into a mountain - but I dare not put this to one side, because I know that if I do, it will sit abandoned until the autumn. Now you know why I call my husband LSH - Long-Suffering Husband. It was the same when I was researching my Family History - I say I am focused - he calls it something else. So now you know. Totally "Uked".

Til next time.... Go play your Ukulele! :D