The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #76

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    I've been playing my little soprano/standard size uke for around a dozen years. I find it functions best and really shines as strummed accompaniment for voice.


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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #77

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    Resistance is futile.

    Actually I have played some "proper" ukes ....ie made out of solid woods and with decent
    tuning machines and was surprised at the resonance and volume they can produce.

    I suppose it might be like losing my banjo virginity when an orchestra manager asked if I
    played banjo....I remembered the free-lancer's code of honour ...."never turn down a gig"
    .....so I replied with "if you like"....and I got a fun and remunerative weeks work [including paid
    rehearsals] I even got paid extra to double on acoustic guitar for the "voom_vit" sections.
    The gig was for playing the orchestral score live in the theatre for City Lights the Charlie Chaplin movie.
    The banjo was a very good early 20th C one I borrowed from a friend....it was a very loud instrument and rang
    amazingly. It was a 5 stringer blue grass job ....just took the skinny 5th string off and did the old studio players trick of tuning D G B E.

    [Sorry to offend serious banjoists]

    It is fun to rib guys about these things though.

  4. #78

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    I'm just started teaching at a local music academy. While guitar will be my main focus, they told me that ukulele is very hot right now - something to do with a young girl who won on America's Got Talent. So I got a pretty nice inexpensive Tenor Uke (Alvarez AU70T - my son works at Music & Arts, so I got it at the employee price) and mastered Hal Leonard Book 1. I'm still deciding whether I want to go with a low G. It would make playing lead lines much more satisfying, but I think a lot of the charm of the ukulele sound is due to the high G (reentrant) tuning. Uke is fun!

  5. #79

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    This guy had like a billion views on youtube. Not jazz obviously but sounded pretty cool.

    Ukulele weeps by Jake Shimabukuro - Bing video

  6. #80

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    Jake can play. He may not be hardcore mainstream jazz, but he can play.

  7. #81

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    Jake Shimabukuro is one of the few true virtuosos alive today on any stringed instrument. He just happens to play a ukulele.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  8. #82

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    Quote Originally Posted by mrcee
    Lyle Ritz is great. He was an upright bass player and a member of the Wrecking Crew. And a great uke player.
    I guess he liked 4 strings. I haven't played uke in a while but I've been heavily into it at times. I've got a
    Kala tenor. Solid spruce top with lacewood back and sides. I had a MiSi pu installed and it sounds excellent.
    I think the uke has great single note soloing potential.

    RIP Lyle Ritz. Jan. 10, 1930 - March 3, 2017

    Here is a 2007 interview.
    Lyle Ritz | Oral Histories | NAMM.org

  9. #83

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    Quote Originally Posted by Plectrum
    RIP Lyle Ritz. Jan. 10, 1930 - March 3, 2017

    Here is a 2007 interview.
    Lyle Ritz | Oral Histories | NAMM.org
    Oh !!! Sorry to read that, I didn't know him.

  10. #84

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    Sorry to hear it myself. We've all heard him 100s if not 1000s of times on music from the 60s. He was primarily an upright bass player and often was recorded by producers such as Phil Spector playing unison parts with a Danolectro tic tac player, Ray Pohlman, and Carol Kaye or Joe Osborne on Fender bass.

  11. #85

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
    ... The re-entrant tuning (the fourth string being higher than the third or second) really makes it a different instrument. That's why I don't use a low-octave G, as that would just make it a small four-string guitar. The high octave gives it a unique character.
    When I first got my tenor uke a couple of months ago, I bought a set of Low G tenor strings and even allocated a dedicated pick for it thinking that those things would make it more familiar. But I ended up giving them both away, because I quickly came to completely agree with Rob's assessment above!

  12. #86

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    Quote Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
    I've been playing my little soprano/standard size uke for around a dozen years. I find it functions best and really shines as strummed accompaniment for voice.

    That's actually Lyle Ritz playing both Ukulele parts!

  13. #87

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    I have been playing Ukulele for about 15 years (shortly after George Harrison passed), I like the "High G," myself and love playing the music from Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards who was the voice of Gimny Cricket and one of the Crows in Dumbo. I love the way he played "Fascinating Rhythm," FASCINATING! I currenty own a Concert Size "100th Anniversary" Kamaka as well as a Long Neck Ko'Aloha Concert.

  14. #88

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    Addendum: I tried a Low G on my Tenor Uke last night (I had purchased a spare single). Kept it on for about an hour before I took it off and put the High G back on!

  15. #89

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Karol
    Addendum: I tried a Low G on my Tenor Uke last night (I had purchased a spare single). Kept it on for about an hour before I took it off and put the High G back on!
    I only strum and sing, but I find that old-timey songs like "I Got Rhythm" or "Up a Lazy River" often sound better with re-entrant tuning, while more suave cocktail-type songs like "How Insensitive" sound better with a low G. The low G tuning is nice, because it gives you a deeper, richer sound, yet still doesn't interfere with a bass player. But ukes are cheap. Just buy two!

    Also, banjo ukes are a lot of fun if you get the chance to try one.

  16. #90

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    Quote Originally Posted by darby
    But ukes are cheap. Just buy two! .
    The correct answer.

    I teach some uke, so I keep my tenor in G re-entrant. I think I'd like a Bari some day, and tune it D re-entrant.

  17. #91

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    Quote Originally Posted by darby
    I only strum and sing, but I find that old-timey songs like "I Got Rhythm" or "Up a Lazy River" often sound better with re-entrant tuning, while more suave cocktail-type songs like "How Insensitive" sound better with a low G. The low G tuning is nice, because it gives you a deeper, richer sound, yet still doesn't interfere with a bass player. But ukes are cheap. Just buy two!

    Also, banjo ukes are a lot of fun if you get the chance to try one.
    George Formby... George Harrison was crazy about him!

  18. #92

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    I'm surprised these guys haven't made an appearance in this thread yet:





    My research group at the Uni have just bought me a Mahalo cut-away for my 60th birthday. I'd better get learning some funk chords !

  19. #93

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    I like Kimo Hussey strumming style... kind of mixture of traditional Hawaiian thing with some modern strummning... it reminded me much a baroque guitar strumming styles actually

    I learnt only one arrangement of his (the one below)...

    song starts from 01:08


  20. #94

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    Help! It's been 6 months since I got infected with the Ukulele bug ... and it's getting worse - I just can't put the damn thing down! I haven't ignored my guitars completely, but my guitar chops - particularly right hand picking technique - are taking a noticeable hit! On the other hand, I've been able to transfer some of my newly devised Uke strumming techniques to guitar with pleasant results. Oh well, it's all good I guess!

  21. #95

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Karol
    Help! It's been 6 months since I got infected with the Ukulele bug ... and it's getting worse - I just can't put the damn thing down! I haven't ignored my guitars completely, but my guitar chops - particularly right hand picking technique - are taking a noticeable hit! On the other hand, I've been able to transfer some of my newly devised Uke strumming techniques to guitar with pleasant results. Oh well, it's all good I guess!

    I have 5 ukulele students now...it's getting crazy...putting in a lot of time on the lil guy.

  22. #96
    Taught a class of senior adults some ukulele a couple of years ago, and in the process, got myself and my 3 teenagers (along with a few friends) completely HOOKED. I've definitely been cured of my guitar snobbery towards ukes. It's not simply for those who CAN'T play guitar or something.

    Re lessons which relate back to guitar:

    *cured this guitarist's over-focus on bass notes
    *taught me how much BEAT can be implied while almost NEVER playing ON it.

    Definitely a better guitar player for it.

  23. #97

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    Here's some jazz uke.

  24. #98

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    Quote Originally Posted by RonD
    Here's some jazz uke.
    Very nice, I love it, but it is with a low G, it sounds like a guitar.

  25. #99

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    I have been working out of the "ukelele Jazz" book by Kiyoshi Kobayashi....it has some really nice standards in it and the arrangements arent that difficult but they sound nice. I have a Kaloha Opio that I ordered from the Uke store in Hawaii...it is a sweet sounding instrument...plays great and sounds very nice. I am enjoying the uke experience a lot. (I do miss the bottom 2 strings of the guitar tho). I originally bought it mainly to use for recording backing tracks for when I play my 1956 Rickenbacker console steel guitar, but things went on from there !

  26. #100

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    My Cordoba tenor ukulele:

    Ukelele Jazz-uke-jpg
    Last edited by Woody Sound; 01-26-2020 at 04:43 PM.