Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
@becky7777 – no harm in trying. If it doesn’t work then too bad.
I get all of my strings online. Even international postage is usually negligible. From memory, Uke Republic has a really good selection.
I hope I’m not stepping on Andrew’s toes by fielding this one, but the answer is in theory, yes you can re-use it, but in practice, probably not. I’ll outline the reasons below.
1. Once a string has been used it’s more prone to breakage when restringing (or so I’ve been told. It has never actually happened to me, and I’ve re-used strings a few times). In any case, if it breaks, it breaks. No harm in trying.
2. This is the real crux of the matter. It depends a little bit on the style of bridge you have, but if you don’t have much extra string poking out of your tuner, then it will be hard to get the string to fit because it shrinks when you take it off. This is particularly true of tie-bar bridges because you need to untie and retie that end when you change your strings, whereas with other designs, you can leave the knot in that end. People that change their strings often will usually allow their strings to poke out of the tuners and curl around several times rather than trimming the ends for neatness. However, most shops will trim the ends after they come out of the tuners, and I actually do the same because I hate brushing the ends of the strings with my left hand when I play. What do your bridge and headstock look like?
Anyway, I hope that helps.
As for the song difficulty, if you go to this page (https://rockclass101.com/ukulele-songs/) it groups the songs by difficulty and Moon is in the “level 3” group.
Hey @lisadmh – now that a few of us have uploaded videos for the challenge, you can start comparing strings in the videos. I’m using a Fremont Soloist, and it looks like Sarah (deadbuggy) is using an Aquila Red. It’s going to be difficult to get a good feel for it though because I recorded mine on my phone and it looks like Sarah has a pickup. I might see if I can do a recording on my Tenor at some point as well because that has an unwound Fluorocarbon low G.
@deadbuggy – WOW!!!!!
Memorising is not too bad but I still tend to get a bit lost around bar 27 or 28. I’ll work on it. You probably noticed me glancing over to the tabs in the most recent video to remind myself where I was up to.
Here is theme 2.
I hope you don’t mind me uploading each theme as I go, Andrew. They’re not my entries, I’ll record the whole thing at the end of the month, but this piece is so long that I need the short-term motivation to get each theme up to recording standard, otherwise I’ll never get there. The Walking Dead was around 30 seconds, but each theme for Moon has been over a minute so far! I don’t expect comments on them or anything.
Thanks Stephen,
That fret buzz was doing my head in but I was getting so frustrated by my inability to get a perfect recording that I just uploaded it anyway. I just tried the fan strum you suggested, and I think you’re right. It really adds to it.
@lisadmh – Moon is a real stretch if only because of the length, but I figure that as long as we have something to show for it at the end of the month then it will be worth it because it’s such a beautiful song/arrangement.
Here is my starting point for this month. I’m just recording warts and all for now, so I stuffed up a bit in theme 1 and kept going before it all fell apart in theme 2. I’ll post again when I’m comfortable with theme 2 and working on theme 3. I’ll worry about adding the vocals later. I’ll probably follow nggnmm’s lead and get my wife to help out.
Hotmilktea – you are an awesome singer.
Hi nggnm,
I don’t know then, but that string certainly doesn’t sound right. It sounds way too low to my ears. I was playing along with you, and mine sounds very different (my video is still uploading, but you can have a listen when it’s done). I’m at about the same point you are, and I’m really going to push myself to get this done this month. I’ll try to upload videos of my progress as I master each theme.
Hi Lisa,
In addition to what Andrew said, while all low G strings will sound a bit boomy and you can adjust your technique to account for that. Some are boomier than others. From memory, the wound Aquila is on the boomy end of the spectrum. The string that I’ve found kills the boominess best is the Aquila Red single unwound low G string (https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Aquila-RED-Tenor-Ukulele-String-4th-Unwound-Low-G-Tuning-72U-Single-String-/131698908341) (Uke Republic also has them). While it is the most effective for killing boominess, it is NOT what I currently have on my uke, nor is it my favourite low G. So far, I haven’t found a better one than the Freemont Soloist.
