[The_Bumble_Bard]

@suekulele, haha, I didn’t even notice any grey, I was more fixated on the epic swoop, looks really nice, but I feel like we always notice things like that about ourselves more than anyone else does. Slight side tangent, at one point I dyed my hair bright orange and the reference picture I gave the hairdresser was the girl from The Fifth Element movie. 😅😂 She talked me down to a more “respectful” shade of orange, just because with certain colors, they don’t fade out well. Very expensive, but at some point I’d like to do that again. But anyway, I meant with you holding the uke on your lap… That’s pretty much always how I hold my ukes, but now I’m thinking maybe it is better to hold it the way you normally do, with your forearm (as that’s the proper way it’s taught to be held). I always play a soprano or concert uke so that could be a factor. From what I understand, how you’re holding it in that video is kind of how players hold guitars when they’re playing classical guitar? I may be wrong about that. I guess the main drawback with NOT holding with your forearm is that the sound could be more muffled? Thanks for the reply!! 😊

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@bibilele, haha, oh that explains it. That’s actually a pretty cool, somewhat accidental effect, and also I love that wallpaper. 😊 At first I thought it might’ve been a mural. I have a couple of friends who painted one of their walls green to create green screen effects. It “sort of” worked (it was glitchy in places where the paint was imperfect). 😅 That’s why it didn’t seem impossible that that’s what you did. 😅😂

[The_Bumble_Bard]

Such amazing playing by everyone, just wanted to reply to a few on this page.

@marianne, so beautiful! That song sounds very lovely on your uke and you played it so perfectly. Really a joy to listen to. 😊

@suekulele, very beautifully played! Random note, I love your hair. 😁 I also noticed that the way you hold the uke is kind of like how I hold it and I noticed others hold it that way too. I know that’s not technically the “correct” way to hold it. I’m intrigued by that difference. Anyway, really beautifully played! Also agree with @leb397 that your joy at the end is fun to behold! That thrill you get when you’ve made it through a good take. 😅

@brettboy, such a fun song, really well played! Your spirited way of playing, and seemingly existing, is always fun to behold. 😊😅

@bibilele, such beautiful playing! Your playing is always very smooth, elegantly flowing when you play. Did you use a green screen for your video of some kind…? But also the lighting seems to be actually changing…? 😅

@janaq1, so beautiful, you played that so perfectly! You’re a very skillful player o’ the uke overall. 😊

@gi_gi_, thank you so much for your kind words! 😊💕 Coming from you, who is a great singer, I really appreciate that. I was so scared with the singing (more so that my neighbors would hear), but in that take my voice was less shaky than the first few. I hope to get a better video with the ukes’ “characters” showing more in the future. 😂 Anyway, thank you! I kind of wanted to cry your comment was so nice. 😅

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@Andrew, haha, thank you so much! So glad you found it funny. I rewrote the lyrics a couple of times until the overarching theme/story manifested itself, and actually that’s genuinely what helped me push through the struggle of singing and playing, and my nervousness. The ukes needed their story to be told. 😅😂

@dianna, ha, thank you so much!! Ha, I have wanted to make the Ukies come to life for some time, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity. 😅😂 Well, TBH, they’ve always been alive, I’m just sharing that with everyone here now, lol. Your entry was so magical, I really loved it! So much fun. I feel like everyone is also upping their video editing game, including yours. 😅

@leb397, I agree with everyone, that’s such a beautiful and touching tribute to your mom. Very beautifully played, perfect. I’m sorry for your loss. 💕

Everyone’s entries were so good this month, such challenging songs, but everyone did amazingly well with them! 😊

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@leb397, thank you so much for that, my friend! 😁💕 That seriously means a lot that you say that. I know my singing isn’t the best but I threw caution to the wind because I was pleased how the lyrics and everything turned out. I wanted to do a thumbnail video with both the ukes overlayed over the video of me playing, but I need to get different video editing software for that. 😂 Haha thank you so much about my haircut, my friend actually cut off about ten inches of hair! I’m so happy with it. Quite literally a burden lifted. 😅 Thank you again!! 😊💕

[The_Bumble_Bard]

Hello, uke friends!

So many amazing entries so far! I watched all of them and they’re all so good.

And then there’s this… 😂😂😂

I won’t lie to you; I am very pleased with the overall level of jankiness this has. Very pleased. 😂It is not what I envisioned exactly, due to SEVERAL struggles along the way, including re-writing the lyrics multiple times, learning them by ear in the car and then realizing they weren’t quite right with the music, then having to re-learn the song with the music. I originally was going to record the vocals separately, but again there were issues with syncing them together, so I had to relearn the song while playing – so flippin’ hard! This is the first time I’ve ever tried to do that, lol. I also was going to try to play the sopranissimo uke while the other uke “sang” but that uke is tuned in a different key (D tuning, I think). So, my plans with this changed many times.

Also, I did record the vocals in the car because I was scared my neighbors would hear, but then I realized I had no choice and re-recorded them tonight while playing.

I thought about not doing this and changing to something else multiple times, as well, because I wanted it to be perfect and it really couldn’t be, but then I thought – the reason I wanted to do this song this way is because I hoped it would be funny at least. To me it is, but I understand how this might frighten / disturb / disgust others. 😂 Still, I may try to redo this at some point to be closer to what I envisioned.

The “story” is that the alien ukes are “in love” [kind of a situationship] and are singing to each other. Not sure if that’s obvious. 😂

Here are the lyrics:

Ingrid (the sopranissimo [lady] uke):

Oh, Ukie Boy, the frets, the frets are calling
To play a tune upon thy mutant strings
Thy eyes are ears and you can see the melody
On our home world that’s how all creatures see

Ukebert (the soprano [boy] orange, many-eyed uke):

I’ll join you now via inter-dimensional splitting
My doppelgänger with a terrible Irish accent
I see this tune as clearly as I see your dreams
I watch you sleep, oh Ukie Girl, I watch you sleep

…

So that’s what happened…

@Andrew, I hope you find this funny and see that it’s all for the silliness of it all. But also sorry. Also, please omit me from the prize drawing. Thank you so much! 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK22vPonsZc

The “yes” at the end was because I was so excited I made it through in one take. 😂

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by The_Bumble_Bard.

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@willw18, very pretty!! 😊

@shmu88, very lovely playing! I think that tune sounds a lot like the Scottish tune “Loch Lomond.” Not exactly the same, but very similar. Lovely indeed! 😊

@lhamilton, very beautiful! I agree with @leb397 that your whistling is always on point! So very beautiful.

@leb397, haha, thank you! Hopefully I can pull together what I’m imagining. I have been practicing every day this month but I realized I might have mis-memorized part of it. Whoopsies, hopefully I can fix that. 😂😅😳 Looking forward to your performance of that one, it’s so pretty! 😊

[The_Bumble_Bard]

(Very delayed reaction) Yes, I think that’s right! I think the main thing is, whatever chord shape you choose to move up and down the neck, you just have to makes sure all the notes “go together,” as in, are part of whatever chord you’re playing. I’m not 100% sure, but I think the chords in the CAGED method are just five shapes you can play anywhere on the fretboard and they work as a complete and “correct” chord. Other shapes you have to pay more attention to the open strings and if they always “fit” with a given chord shape as you move it up and down the neck. I’ll have to go back to review information from my lessons with Matt and find you an example of that because I have talked about that specific topic a fair amount with him because I’m obsessed with learning about chord shapes specifically – because that’s the way I find easiest to learn the chords, is by shape. Yes, I also was so excited to learn that! That really changed the way I view playing uke overall, learning the CAGED method from here on RC101 and learning that extension of that method from Matt, how other chord shapes can be moved in the same way (again, paying attention to the open strings).

Are you creating more arrangements, or working on some songs from here or elsewhere?

Oh yeah, I should record an update of the Chopin arrangement and share it here! I also am always working on new arrangements, learning them from here but also creating my own because I love to do that. Oh my gosh, yeah, with the move, it was crazy how much stuff I had, even though it’s just me, lol. I’m finally getting to the point where I’m working on my “uke / craft room,” which I’m so excited that I have that. So I can finally start messing around and share some more “uke art” here and recording more, I hope. Hope everything is going well with you! 😀

[The_Bumble_Bard]

This will be so interesting! Can’t wait to hear some tales!

I think it’s definitely possible to be an absolute beginner at some things and much more experienced in others. That’s pretty much what happened with me with strumming versus finger picking, because I loved finger picking and avoided strumming because I was spooked by it. It can be a rather slow and painful process “starting over” with a new skill, but being patient and determined, and sometimes getting help from someone more experienced, can help you have a breakthrough. You never know what that “thing” will be that finally helps you push through whatever mental block you have. In my case, it was Matt’s one-on-one help and The Backstreet Boys, lol. I now practice strumming every day, which I never thought possible…

The challenges here on RC101 also have helped me so much to try new things (like songs and techniques I wouldn’t normally choose).

I have a really good analogy for the first struggle I described that involves “Strumgoblins,” but perhaps I’ll save that for an insufferably long YouTube comment. Thank you so much for these lessons! 🙂

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@brettboy, your playing of St. Anne’s Reel is so magical! So perfect. That one has high clawhammer potential, but obvs is beautiful as is. So cool that you have perfect attendance with the challenges for seven years! That’s crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever had perfect attendance in any context for much more than a month… 🤐😂

@deadbuggy, that was so beautiful! I agree with Gi_Gi that your and brettboy’s performance of that one makes it tempting to learn.

@gi_gi_ and @dianna, ha thank you! Hopefully I can pull off what I’m imagining. It’s already in the works but it could be a minor disaster. Either way it should be funny. We’ll see what happens. 😂😅

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@brettboy, that was so, so beautiful! Setting the bar high indeed. 😳😂

I have an idea for this challenge, but I’m not sure I can pull it off, so I also have a backup plan. That’s all I’ll say for now… 😂

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@leb397, thank you so much, my friend!! Once I smooth out some of the hiccups, I hope I can get the rubato-i-ness throughout that song. I actually have played the first part of it way more because it’s more like what I play when I’m just relaxing, or messing around, when I play uke. The beginning part of that song really affected how I try to create songs for uke because I loved the sound of it so much. I recommend learning that one; it’s fun. Haha, well, that’s a brilliant idea to leave googly eyes randomly around in public, but I don’t think I should try that with my track record – I already have trouble behaving in public, obviously. It’s a genetic trait. 😅😂 Hope you enjoyed your trip, glad to have you back!! 😊💕

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@johanna2509, congratulations!! That’s such a good choice. I have the same Flight electric uke as @lhamilton (I think) and agreed that they’re really good ukes. Looking forward to hearing you share it here when it arrives!! 😁😊

@Stephen, well, even if you don’t see the googly eyes in your dreams, they’re always there… watching. It’s kind of like a horror-movie, “Ring”-esque curse that once you see them, they always see you. But don’t worry; they’re kind of friendly. With the googly eyes muffling the sound of the uke, that actually came up during one of the live lessons with Matt and he said that eventually adding those on would start to muffle the sound. I had maybe twenty on at one point, but to me it seemed like it was starting to muffle it, very sadly. As funny as the goal of putting 450 eyes on the uke was, I now have a disturbed emotional attachment to that uke and the sound is more important (I guess). 😂 Thank you again for the feedback, I hope I can fine tune that one and capture the emotion even more!

@dianna, oh yeah, so true! I’d say most songs here take more than a month to really master, but to me that’s the beauty of them, that they’re so good that you can “grow into them,” like a really nice pair of shoes (like when you “break in” a pair of shoes). 😂 To be honest, I got the feel / pattern of clawhammer so engrained by just playing the pattern over and over again, even just fretting a C or F chord or whatever, and playing the clawhammer pattern. That’s mostly how I learned clawhammer. But that’s just because I loved playing the pattern by itself so much that I actually enjoyed doing that, maybe not everyone would. 😂 Obviously it’s probably more productive to learn songs to get different variations/adaptations on the pattern. Chris created some really great ones here, but it would be amazing if he did more, especially since a bunch of people here are into it now. I’ll have to try his version of Cripple Creek, too, it sounds really good. And thank you so much for liking how I played Andrew’s Classical Etude, that’s one of my favorite songs on RC101. Ha! Well, I know what kind of wall art I need to create for my new digs now. That’s amazing, I never noticed that painting. 😅😂 I do have a recording of that song on my YouTube already, one of the first songs I recorded ever, but I’ll try to get a better take of it! It’s so much fun. Sorry, I get carried away replying. I can’t resist this topic. 😂 Looking forward to hearing more clawhammer from you and the others who are learning it here, so exciting and fun that other people here are into it and so good at it! 😁

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@Stephen, thank you so much! I really appreciate the encouragement and that you thought I conveyed the emotion of the music. That’s one of the things I want to achieve the most when playing uke, is trying to express a depth of feeling. Oh, now, don’t worry about those googly eyes, Stephen, they’re just there to haunt your dreams! They don’t have eyelids, never have had. Actually, I had to stop adding them to that uke because it actually was starting to muffle the sound which was very disappointing because I still have more than 400 of those left… I need to find another target to add those to…

Sorry. This is why I shouldn’t have coffee in the evening… 🤐

I just wanted to comment on a few entries, even though all the entries are always very amazing:

@gi_gi_, that was so beautifully played, even without any singing! Very beautiful. But if you ever get a chance to record it with the singing, too, it’d be lovely if you share it here. 😊

@jbmills07, that was so lovely! You always play so perfectly and capture the feeling of songs so genuinely. I used to play that song on piano all the time, but it sounds really beautiful on uke. Also appreciate the cheesy smile at the end. 😅

@dianna, that was absolutely magical! I thought your singing was very lovely. I wish I could sing well. I can only sing like a goof. I also love that clawhammer song, it’s the only traditional clawhammer song I know in full actually, but not that version. So fun to hear you play it! 😊

Everyone did an amazing job this month, so crazy impressive to hear all the entries!! 😊

Also, sorry, forgot to say, please don’t include me in the prize draw. Thank you!

Edit: sorry I didn’t realize how much of a novel this is. I go “touch grass” now, like the kids say.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by The_Bumble_Bard.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by The_Bumble_Bard.

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@gi_gi_, thaaaank you! The chair is indeed brand new. I just moved this month and that chair was a gift from my parents. I put it together myself; I was pretty proud of that. 😂 I love orange or yellow anything, too. 😊

Really looking forward to hearing your entry, even if it’s just a snippet! 😊

@muzikmama, that is true about piano! In some ways it’s definitely easier than uke. I feel like you can do more nuanced “tricks” with the uke. I’ll have to ponder that more though because I also played piano for a long time. 😅 Haha that explains it. I don’t have tiktok. Love her drawing though, very lovely! 😊

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by The_Bumble_Bard.

[Author]

Posts