First of all, I love that song. And that was just really really cool.

That is incredible!

I'm not familiar with Jake Shimabokuro. Time for a little research!

Long under-appreciated here in the U.S.

Just an amazing, amazing guitarist!



Bake

Always amazing!

My mind is already fully blown beyond any doubt or chance of reassembly, but that wafted through the dissolved mobile of dangling concepts like magnificently-tinted clouds at dawn.

Two instruments that fill your soul with musical goodness.

Such is the power of music.

You might like to check out my local community radio every Wednesday morning. Local DJ have featured "The Beatles on Ukulele for more than a year and each week comes up with an equally mind blower.
Thanks!

As the composer and guitar/ukelele player extraordinaire he would love this!

... forge ahead despite being buried alive under the unworthies that steal the limelight.

... wait. I'm not posting that.

This is the version I heard a couple of years back. It is the same Uke Player and same song, sans guitarist. I think it is equally mind blowing.

"Brilliant. Just Brilliant."

It's incredible and did indeed blow my mind! I only recently found the duet with Tommy Emmanuel, and it blew my mind all over again.



Bake

........fall in love with Bohemian Rhapsody all over again. Thanks for that.

I just bought my ukulele, and my family thought I was nuts! I'm going to make them watch that video!


Btw, is it just me, or are ukuleles becoming more popular?

We're in the middle of the second or third wave of ukulele popularity in the world right now. I've been playing for 8 or 9 years, I guess, and it was a strange thing to do at that time - I didn't know anyone else who played. Now I see loads of students at my university with ukuleles. It's sort of a mixed bag, because it's meant that prices on vintage instruments have gone up a lot, but also that the market is flooded with some really cheap crap.

To be honest, I think the sort of stuff in the video posted above is absolute garbage. It's like bad muzak. Someone can play a beatles song on a ukulele? No shit. They can play them on soprano sax as well, as has been demonstrated on any number of thousands of terrible smooth jazz/muzak recordings. I'd take Stephin Merritt's playing over that garbage any day - nothing fancy, just good solid uke playing as the basis for brilliant songs.

The ukulele has a bright, happy unique sound. It's fun to hear it in these type of nontraditional ukulele songs.

The nice thing about ukes is that they're small, easy to carry around and easier to learn than a guitar.

My first instrument was double bass. I think there is some psychological reason that then made me take up ukulele. I love that it's a carry-on on flights with no questions asked, incredibly light, etc. I don't know if it's easier to learn than guitar or not - I'm self-taught on both, but learned uke first.

I don't want to disparage people liking the stuff that's in the video, I guess - to each his own - but I'm not very interested in arrangements of the work of others when there's so much great, original music being made these days.

Two less strings and a shorter fretboard.
I took guitar lessons for years and never came close to mastering it.

Well, I studied bass for 10+ years before giving it up while a major at a university. I don't think it was the number of strings that held me back though - I think it was the career prospects/enjoyment ratio.

If it's the number of strings and fingerboard length that matter, a shitty guitarist must be better than Itzahk Perlman.

...

pro-tip: anyone who tells you they've mastered an instrument hasn't.

Thanks to virtuosos like Jake! My mother had a bariton uke when I was a kid (she still has it, by the way), and that was my introduction to stringed instruments. I remember sitting down and working out Roy Orbison's "Oh Pretty Woman" riff on it.



Bake

Singer/song-writer .. brilliant, whimsical and hilarious lyrics

Live at OWS

Thank you for sharing that!



Bake

every time I hear this.

Here's Roy Smeck, "Wizard of Strings" from the 1020's

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For all my friends. Love it.

Aaron Keim