Want to build your own uke?

Have you ever thought about making your own uke, with the special features you want?  Don't have much experience or equipment?  The Grizzly kit is a great starter project.

Well there are several uke kits on the market that does not require a lot of experience or special wood working tools.  The Grizzly kit is the cheapest, and could be the easiest to complete.

On a lark I got a kit and I just finished building one.  The kit comes with all the woodworking compete (except for sanding) so the job is essentially to sand the pieces, do some simple assembly following the excellent instructions, do any pore filling you want (I did not pore fill) and apply a finish.  I used TruOil for a finish, probably the easiest to use (and to repair later) and has no environmental concerns, nor are breathing masks needed.  It provides a great finish.

The body is a laminate with a mahogany venier surface that is very pretty.

Now is this the greatest uke you have every played -- no -- it is pretty quiet, but the intonation is right on, all the parts are provided and well pre-assembled (the body), it does look nice, and it is yours..  Is it a better entry level value than the popular Dolphin model?  Your call, but if you like to play around in the garage, go for the Grizzly.

Amazon has a good price and fast service.

Ralph

Here is a different version of Frankie and Johnny

A friend in the Dallas area has a very nice version of Frankie and Johnny, based on a Brothers Four rendition of the song.

I have a song sheet for this if you want to perform this song.

Ralph

A timely song

This is a nice timely song give than our granddaughter is now free of cancer.*

Ralph

*  this particular cancer is traced to the hormones and additives added to animal  feedstock.  Limit your fast foods!

Here is a lovely number

Here is a video of Ken Middleton at the recent Nova Scotia uke festival doing the lovely 1932 song, Try A Little Tenderness.  Ken is a rep. for Ohana and travels to a lot of festivals around the world, including Dallas a couple years ago.  With him is another festival regular, Gerald Ross, this time with a guitar.

A nice job with a great tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iyn5Lbn6jQw

Something for this weekend

Here is something for this weekend.

Here is the link to the song in Cordie.  A simple song in the key of C (but finishing with a chord of G)

http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/www.guitaretab.com/b/beach-boys/120788.html

A nice version

Ken Middleton has hundreds of YouTube videos on the internet, both as a reviewer of instruments as well as a performer.  He is a representative for Ohana and as such, he travels to many uke festivals around the world, the most recent one in Nova Scotia.  Here is a nice simple version of Amazing Grace showing that one does not need to be a hyper-speed fingerpicker to do a great job with the uke.

(Sorry, but the link could not show for some reason.)

Ralph

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BwyDsAiFzcY#!

November schedule

Shortly, I will be updating the club schedule on our blog schedule our next meetings for our standard 2nd and 4th Tuesdays at the Western Country Diner.

I don't see any problem with the 8th of November, and I personally don't have any problems with the 22nd of November, but if the 22nd is pretty close to Thanksgiving so we might want to think about this date a bit later in the month.

I've added three names to our email list -- Eric Clark, Shawn Gann and Marcus Messimore-- so when you club old timers see them next month, let's give them a big welcome.

Please be thinking about selecting some songs to do on the 8th. This is your group and we want to do numbers you like. How about selecting 3 songs either from our song book or new ones you will share with the group at the next meeting that your like, or would like to learn or on which you would like to improve your technique?

And while we will not, a a group, be giving any performances this holiday season, want to do some Christmas season songs? I really like "Christmas Cookies" (in the secular group) and "Mary Did You Know"(in the religious group). You probably have some favorites too. So if you want to share some of these bring along some song sheets to share or let me know and I will try to find one.

I now have a lot of the songs in our club book in a Walkman and can play them at our meeting, so if we want to hear how the "professionals" play the song, we can do so. They key that they use may not match our song sheet, but at least the tempo will be good and you can refresh your memory for the melody.

Hope you can make it on the 8th.

Lastly, if anyone is interested in a weekend informal gathering at the Troubador's Emporium (a shop in the back of the Persimmon Hollow) let me know and I will see if there is an open time slot.

Ralph