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!

Three Mermaids - original instrumental by Ganga Karmokar

For me, visually, there are two kinds of beautiful ukulele. One kind is where the beauty all comes from the wood and the way it has been worked and crafted, and the other is where the luthier has used artistry to decorate the instrument with beautiful inlays of patterns or other images. In this second category, Chuck Moore's ukuleles are a joy to behold. Chuck Moore operates as Moore Bettah Ukuleles of Big Island, Hawaii, and if you want so spend some time drooling over "uke porn" get over to his site and take a look. A good, long look. In the ukulele world, the artistry of Chuck Moore is legendary.

On his For Sale page, you'll find The Three Mermaids tenor ukulele. Here are just two of the pictures of it.

This is what Chuck writes about it.

"This all koa ukulele was challenging yet immensely satisfying to build. Living so close to nature in this beautiful Hawaiian environment was naturally very influential in my choice of whimsical designs depicting two mermaids frolicking in the sea and one dreamingly relaxing in a banana moon. I use AAA Big Island curly koa for the body and ebony elsewhere including the fretboard and headstock veneer. Paua abalone is used unashamedly throughout, adorning the entire front and back of the instrument. The seahorse on the end graft was an afterthought that occurred to me only after I sprayed the first couple of coats of lacquer. The mermaids are made up of composite stone and 10,000 year old fossil mammoth ivory. After the ukulele was finish sanded, I scrimshawed the details in the bodies, remembering the art form I was involved in years ago. Other inlay materials include gold mother of pearl, abalone shell and fossil walrus ivory."

It's not really any surprise that this particular ukulele proved inspirational for one player, Ganga Karmokar. I was knocked out by her instrumental - watch her video to hear what she had to say about it. For me, her music conjured up the mermaid and the sea, just the way it was meant to - and put me in mind of the music of the French composer, Claude Debussy. Writing in the early 20th century, his work was inspired by the painters of the impressionist movement, and his music, full of light and air, was full of a similar imagery. Think of "Clair de Lune" (Moonlight) for example. In fact, the first piece in his first collection of "Images" was "Reflets dans L'Eau" (reflections in the water.) In my college days I lapped this stuff up.

Ganga's composition not only conjures up the sea, but has an eerie, mystical feeling to it that brings those mermaids to life. Please watch, listen and enjoy!



And if you liked that, just wait awhile, and I will post her other version of this, the version that is a song with words. It changes the mood again, and Ganga's voice is that of a siren, luring with her ethereal and bell-like voice the sailors of old to their fate on the rocks....

NEWS 6th November - Ganga is thrilled to have taken delivery today of a new (to her) Moore Bettah tenor uke - and has done a new video of The Three Mermaids....

"Every Now And Again" it's Eugene Ukulele

Please enjoy this lovely original song, written and performed here by "Eugene Ukukele" (eugeneukulele on the UU Forum)...

Some people have just got it - and he's just got it, no doubt....

Butterflies by Zoë Bestel - The Star Folk Club, Glasgow

"Be yourself and live your dreams!" This excellent advice is the mantra of a young up-and-coming singer/songwriter called Zoë Bestel, from the north of England. I watched this video of her live performance of her song "Butterflies" in Glasgow, and knew I just had to share it with you. It's hard to believe that Zoë is still only fourteen! With her beautiful voice and her gift for songwriting, she should go far - read more about her and see more videos on her own blog here.

She's impressive..... isn't she!

Good luck Zoë!

What am I going to do with a tenor banjo? I could always string it like a uke - like Valery Sauvage!

The Entertainer by Scott Joplin - on tenor banjo.



The very talented ukulele and banjolele player Valery Sauvage, known as "ukeval", from France has replaced the metal strings on this vintage tenor banjo with nylon; extra-long Aquila new nylgut strings - and strung and tuned it like a baritone ukulele! So there's a third way of stringing a tenor banjo! It sounds pretty good, too - and definitely something I'll experiment with.

It was Valery's videos that first acquainted me with the music and playing of Roy Smeck. More about "Wizard of the Strings" Roy Smeck another time - but check out ukeval's channel for more great music... he's a fine musician!

"The Shearin's No' For You" - traditional Scottish folksong, Eugene Ukulele

I have loved traditional Scottish ballads and lullabies ever since my folk club days back in the late 60's. I rarely hear them now, and this one I have never heard before....but every now and then you hear a song that affects you so deeply that it actually catches your breath. This rendition of "The Shearin's No' For You" by "Eugene Ukulele" is so hauntingly beautiful that I watched and listened to it twice straight off, and woke up this morning with it on the brain. Just a gorgeous song - but it's Eugene's singing and playing that makes it so very moving. The baritone ukulele is a perfect choice - and it comes straight from the heart - you can tell.

Wow. Just Wow. This is why he is one of my Ukulele Heroes.......