Obscure Question To Anyone: Name for playing above available frets?

Home Page Forums Rock Class 101 Ukulele Lessons Obscure Question To Anyone: Name for playing above available frets?

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  • #20074
    becky7777
    Participant

    I have a soprano ukulele with a short length of blank wood at the end of the fretboard.

    I have been figuring out some songs one-finger-wonder style and found a couple of them have a stray note on the A string above the 12th fret. I found out I can play these notes so they sound ok off the wood if i’m pressing really hard in the right spot. One is right at the end, the other is harder to get right because it’s closer to the 12th fret in the blank area. If I goof the note ends up muted (plink sound) or wrong (flat/sharp) depending. If I nail it, it rings just like any note, it just doesn’t sustain as well as notes on frets.

    Does playing above the last fret on the neck have a name? Or is this just me cheating to squeeze a couple notes I need out of my fretboard? I’ve tried internet searching but haven’t been able to find information on doing this anywhere.

    I’m assuming everyone must have experienced this, on a soprano at least, because with 12 frets everyone just ends up needing a note that’s close to 12th but just a couple frets beyond?

    #20080
    edward
    Participant

    I think it’s called “time to buy a concert uke.” HAHA

    #20083
    kanae926
    Participant

    I don’t know…

    Becky, if you’re talking about what I think you are, I’ve seen notes can be played beyond the frets, but that’s pretty high level to be able to get it right.

    Check out Jake Shimabukuro video below around the 0:40 mark.

    #20084
    becky7777
    Participant

    Edward LOL! I know… Maybe December or spring sometime. I have one of my friends keeping an eye out too but he hates a couple brands one of our music stores carry and refuses to tell me if he sees one of those brands at Goodwill or one of the many resale shops he frequents lol.

    Kanae- That’s exactly what I need to do to get those couple notes BUT I can’t do anything past the wood.. That string thing is insane! If I didn’t just see that I wouldn’t believe it. Believe me, when I post my “give a first grader a recorder and play mary had a little lamb” version of that Neil Gow tune, it isn’t anything impressive or like THAT lol! Neil Gow and surprisingly that “chicken/turkey in the straw?” song both need just one note above 12. In what Andrew would probably break it down into melody B lol!

    Anyway- Thank you for finding an example at least. Can’t really be like “Hey Jake my man, whatcha doing there? What’s it called other then crazy?” 😉

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by becky7777. Reason: An 'e showed up to the party uninvited
    #20157
    becky7777
    Participant

    Well I was looking on amazon and found a Kimise concert ukulele that comes set up supposedly with a special bridge, smooth frets, possibly free strings for life (gotta be a shipping and handling catch there!), low action and a few accessories for $39.99 as a black friday deal of the day? week?… It had good reviews so I used the $25 dollar gift certificate I had been saving and just went for it. Merry Christmas to me lol. I think the concert size will still allow me to hold the uke semi comfortably..

    I still want to know what this is called, but soon i’ll hopefully have some more frets I won’t need to worry about smashing the string down in the right spot. I will also maybe gather up the courage to put that Aquilla Soprano Low G set on my current uke. I’m so afraid i’m going to put them on wrong…

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