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Bau
Lokahi
USA
226 Posts |
 Posted - 09/14/2010 : 03:00:18 AM
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I've seen a lot of resources for Ukulele , but they are mostly standard tuning chord based contemporary music.
Can anyone suggest some good resources that deal specificaly with Ki ho'alu on uke?
I've just been sort of improvising what I learned on guitar and adapting it to my uke with a GCEG tuning on my saprano.
Is it better to play slack key on a baritone because of the lower tuning?
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mike2jb
Lokahi
USA
213 Posts |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 09/14/2010 : 09:11:32 AM
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Just so's y'all know, I'm about halfway through with my next ukulele book. It was going to be a straight sequel to "Fingerstyle Solos," but I found I was having so much fun playing slack key style uke that I decided to feature that.
I'm hoping to have it ready by the solstice.
In the meantime, I do have some slack key style ukulele tab on my website, and a couple freebies at Ukulele Hunt.
www.mark-o.com
www.ukulelehunt.com
Happy uke-in'!
Mark |
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mike2jb
Lokahi
USA
213 Posts |
Posted - 09/14/2010 : 10:05:54 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Mark
I'm hoping to have it ready by the solstice.
Oh, good. Will it have any solstice carols in it? ; ) |
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Haolenuke
Lokahi
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 09/14/2010 : 11:14:05 PM
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Hello Alice,
There are two books currently out dealing with slack key ukulele. One is "Ukulele Slack Key: Hawaiian Slack Key Styling" by David Heaukulani. The other is "How to Play Slack Key Ukulele" by Heeday Kimura. I checked on David Heaukulani's webpage, http://ukulele-uncle.com/Home_Page.html, but it doesn't look like he is still selling his book there. Uncle Dave does have a rather nice Slack Key Ukulele CD out that you can find from his webpage. His book can be purchased from Amazon.com, or AbeBooks.com. Uncle Dave's book has a lot of good information, but it can be difficult to follow in some spots. Uncle Dave does provide a lot of helpful instructional videos on YouTube. Heeday Kimura's book can be found at Elderly Instruments (elderly.com). His book does come with a CD, but it uses nonstandard tabs. While both of these books have music with slack key styling they do not incorporate any bass patterns into the music presented. Some, like Uncle Ray Kane, have claimed that music without a bass pattern can't be slack key music.
I have a few of Mark Nelson's guitar and ukulele books and they are very well written. He uses readily recognizable tab notation. The music that he presents ranges from easy to play, to material that makes you wish you had Peter Moon's chops. I would expect that the book that Mark will be introducing will be very helpful. Do check out his webpage for his slack key ukulele pieces.
Both David Heaukulani's book and Heeyday Kimura's book recommend using either a baritone ukulele or a tenor ukulele with low G tuning. The main reason for this suggestion is to get more bass. Another reason to use either a tenor or even better a baritone uke is that it is easier to get 7th fret and 5th fret harmonic notes to ring, rather than thunk, on instruments with longer scale lengths.
I have been teaching myself ukulele arrangements based on Ozzie Kotani's Slack Key Guitar pieces in his "Guitar Playing Hawaiian Style" book. I like Uncle Ozzie's music even when I'm playing it. The arrangements sound pretty good on an old Favilla baritone uke with Worth strings.
Michael
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 09/15/2010 : 07:39:37 AM
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In the standard high G tuning, you really don't have much bass on an ukulele. The C string could be considered a bass string, but everything else is treble. Even a baritone ukulele has only one bass string. The low D is only 1 tone below the C string on the other uke's. This leaves the slack key uke player with very limited options for bass, few of which seems to fit Ray Kane's definition. I haven't attempted to play slack uke, but my suggestion is use what resources you find, and do what the uke allows you to do. If you have more than one uke, you might want to experiment with heavier 3rd & 4th strings on one. 2 bass strings and 2 trebles will limit you in other ways, but limitations can be funny things. They aren't always as limited as they appear on the surface. Most Mountain Dulcimer players see these limits and learn to work around them. Mark can probably expound on that better than I can. Sometimes the limits open possibilities you don't think of on less "limited" instruments. Each slack key tuning is a set of limits any way you look at them.
Paul |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
Edited by - rendesvous1840 on 09/15/2010 07:40:46 AM |
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les_maverick
Lokahi
USA
238 Posts |
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Bau
Lokahi
USA
226 Posts |
Posted - 09/16/2010 : 1:21:06 PM
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mahalo everyone for all the great info!
I have been working on my own version of the mele 'Sase' on my uke, its fun to play on there. I didn't think to try to adapt the notes realy ,I just kind of let my instinct and ear and fingers show me how it should be played on it. Its not so hard realy , I just used the 3rd and 4th strings as the pedal tones . But I'm sure some songs are more adapted to doing this on the uke than others. |
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Bau
Lokahi
USA
226 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2010 : 6:51:45 PM
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here is my lil version of 'Sase' on my puke'uke 
http://www.thunderlandstudios.com/audio/saseuke.mp3
not too good, Lyme has robbed my hands of a lot of fine motor skills and strength for barring and such, but its a sample as to how I managed to play this slack key song. my lil puke'uke don't sound tooo bad. more of the bad sound comes from my playing than my instrument.
critques welcome |
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Haolenuke
Lokahi
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2010 : 04:49:34 AM
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Aloha,
Your 'Sase' sounds very nice. I wish I had your skill in listening to and reinterpreting the songs that you hear. I have a draft ukulele arrangement of 'Sase' that I made based upon Uncle Leonard Kwan's version. It sound decent on the MIDI player, but it will be a while before I can try playing through it and dealing with all the unfrettable moments.
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Bau
Lokahi
USA
226 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2010 : 07:23:49 AM
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mahalo nui loa! I would love to hear your version, midi or otherwise.
What I do is spearate the melody from the base often when i learn the songs, and then give string 1&2 the melody mainly and 3&4 the bass parts, of course they do tend to over lap and its transposed too. i don't know that this is the correct way to do things or if there is a 'correct' way? I certainly need much more study. |
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Haolenuke
Lokahi
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2010 : 9:31:28 PM
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Aloha Alice,
My ukulele arrangement based upon Leonard Kwan's version of Sase is really just for my amusement, and it is just an untested draft. Noelani Mahoe holds the copyright for the intellectual property in Leonard Kwan's "Slack Key Instruction Book" which contains tabs for his version of Sase. I have yet to ask her permission to attempt ukulele arrangements of Leonard Kwan's work, let alone disseminate them. Unfortunately, the "Slack Key Instruction Book," which is discussed in a Taropatch thread in the book section, is out of print. Have you ever listened to Leonard Kwan's version of Sase? It is on "The Legendary Leonard Kwan" CD, and that CD contains some of the finest slack key instrumentals ever played.
I am not a musician and I have asked on this forum earlier how to go about arranging slack key guitar pieces for ukulele. The replies I received typically split into two groups. Some said to drop the bass line and just play the melody line, others suggested that the music needed to be played on a guitar to sound right.
I rather stubbornly ended up with a method that often, though not always, yields arrangements that sound tolerable to me. I basically try to leave the melody line alone and raise the bass line by an octave. When this yields unfrettable measures, I usually simplify the bass line, or incorporate pull offs along the bass line to free up the fretting fingers for the melody line. Sometimes raising the bass line an octave causes the the bass line and the melody line to overlap so badly that I abandon the ukulele arrangement. My approach is far more mechanical than musical, utilizing the Guitar Pro annotation software and MIDI player to work out an arrangement.
You seem to have the gift of being able to hear a guitar piece and reinterpret it for ukulele by ear. Lucky you.
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Slack key uke?
