I saw in another thread there are uke players here, that’s good.
This weekend I was listening to NPR and there was a Carnegie Concert featuring Steve Merritts and the Magnetic Fields. Interesting music.
It wasn’t so much the group or the songs, it was the way the ukulele sounded with the vocalist. It made me think of Christy Moore and I bagan to wonder how ukulele would fit into Irish Traditional. I’ve already abandoned the idea of being a card carrying member of Comhaltus, so I’m a bit of a renegade to begin with. The two seisiuns I go to would think it cool.
Not knowing anything about stringed instruments, would it work and would it be easy to learn to play and adapt to IrTrad?
Well, first of all, I’d encourage you to play accompaniment, rather than melody, on the uke.
But, being the lunatic that I am, I think it works just fine. It’d probably be rather soft for a session, but for accompanying a solo whistle or flute I think it is magnificent. I’ve got a friend that plays uke, and he likes to play the chords to tunes I play. He’s not a very talented musician at this point, but someone with a little skill could really turn it into something nice.
It depends on who you are playing with.
If you are playing with someone who plays for the sake of the music they’d probably love some light accompaniment.
If you are playing with someone playing Irish Traditional Music because it’s traditional then their could be some raised eyebrows.
As someone who accompanies people who play noseflute with a guitar and kazoo I don’t see a problem.
I had always had the notion that the uke was a novelty instrument. Sort of cornball. I definitely changed my opinion when someone posted some ragtime uke tunes at another web site. There was also a link posted on one of the forums here of an amazing uke player. Actually the tone of the uke can be quite lovely. Those ragtime tunes are really sweet.
Here we have one of the dilemmas of this board. I personally don’t think a ukelele would be appropriate for ITM; however, you can play anything you want, any where, any time you feel like doing it. But if you are interested in traditional music, I would say no.
That said: one of the reasons some very knowledgeable people have left this board recently is that when questions like this are asked, and they respond with something like I just did (i.e., I don’t think it’s appropriate for ITM), they get attacked for being “snobs,” “the ITM police,” etc., etc. Thus, why should they reply? So I imagine in your very serious question about using a ukelele in ITM, you’re probably only going to get a slew of replies like “do whatever you want” instead of the real answers you’re seeking. Which is a shame.
The lute and the mandora are both traditional gut-strung instruments. The uke’s sound would be closest to them, although a classical guitar would, too (although so far I haven’t heard anyone make it work). The playing would determine if it fit or not. Lute/mandora-like: okay. Tiny Tim-like: not. I say that because I would want to have backup for my fluteplaying, say, follow a particular style and not just anything goes. I don’t see why that would be unfair.
By PLAYING something in the right way, you can make lots of things sound traditional. ITM sessions in my neck of the woods would show a stir of dread at the sight of a uke. Even if it were masterfully played and everyone admired that, the ukester would be thought of as an oddity. I suppose that’s because Alec Finn or Andy Irvine never went in that direction.
When you come right down to it, if all you are doing is playing some chords for backup many string instruments begin to sound roughly the same.
If basically all you did on the Uke was play your I, IV, and V chords while the melody instruments took over, I don’t think anyone would even notice that it sounds any more out of place than any other string instrument. However, if you started sliding your chords all over the fretboard to fill in some melody, than it would detracrt greatly from the tradititional aspect, even if the sound was pleasing to the less than traditional listener.
I generally think that unusual instrumentation is one of the coolest things you can do to folk music.
I wouldn’t shy from bringing it along for some backup, but talk to your fellow players before you show off what you can do with the back edge of your pocketknife.
I’m a uke player (basic, not advanced) and it’s nice to hear from other uke players.
The uke’s re-entrant tuning gives it a characteristic sound that COULD be distracting for very trad ITM. However, you could easily use a low-G string and then you’d sound very much like a guitar.
I’m of the mind that music is good when kept pure, and good when mixed (fusion), as is dance and other art forms, so I like the idea of a uke playing in a session–but, as someone said, chords.
It IS a nice instrument, once you get past the “isn’t it a toy” aspect.
Also, I like to remember that Irish music is folk music, and part of the idea of folk music is that they played what they had…that’s the FOLK part.
I’m planning on busking this holiday season and I am bringing my uke and whistle (I’ll sing some tunes, play some tunes). If I were two people, you can bet I’d be playing them together.
Since it sounds like from your post you do not, as of yet own a uke, you could buy a baritone ukulele which chord-wise soundspretty indistinguishable from the top four strings of a guitar.
On the other hand if you are playing it that way, why not carry it to it’s logical conclusion and just use a guitar . . .
Well, I myself DO have two ukes (soprano and tenor) and I just think there’s something about the smaller-size instruments that is really great. They are cute, portable and easier to play for those of us with small hands. I have a 3/4 (aka parlour) guitar and even that smaller version is harder to play than my ukes.
Many of us who also play the whistle find instrument portability important.
Also, I like the re-entrant tuning. Ukes sound happy because of that, and I like it. Whenever I am blue at all, I play my uke–you sort of CAN’T be depressed playing one!
I agree with susnfx. Don’t use “ITM” if that isn’t what you are talking about. Why don’t you call it something like “music influenced by Irish Trad”? Then there wouldn’t be these mix-ups.
Uke seems like a nice instrument to me, depending on how it’s being played. I get very tired of chords though. I don’t know what the uke can really do. It would be interesting to hear.
Cynth and everybody. Here’s a link to some fine uke playing. Try out Temptation Rag. Well…try them all. I think you’ll like them. Nothing to do with IRtrad though. These tunes gave me a different outlook on the uke.
When you get the main page, click music.
Hey-- I wonder if you couldn’t tune the 4 strings to GDAE. Then, you COULD play melody easily using mandolin fingerings.
Mike, if you’re intested in trying a Uke, stop into Cathedral Music in Troy. A while Klem had 3 ukes, two of which looked pretty nice. They were used and he was selling the 3 for (I think) something like $70. I seriously considered buying them and selling two on eBay to raise enough so I could keep the third for free. I can stop in there if you’re interested and if you do come up to look at them, maybe we could do lunch.
