If you've read this blog for a while, you would know that I play mostly tenor and concert ukuleles and rarely touch my sopranos. Well, a few months ago I saw a video by Neal Paisley playing an original tune called Gossip. I was blown away by his skills on the soprano in that video and thought it would be cool to be able to play that song. Of course, I do not have the skills to learn it by ear and didn't have enough motivation to try and learn it by watching the video, so it remained a fantasy in the back of my mind.
Several weeks ago, I found out that Woodshed from Uke Hunt had tabbed out this arrangement on his website. I had to check it out. After trying it for a little while I found it difficult but seemed to be doable eventually. I thought it would be cool to learn this and play it using my Kiwaya KTS-7, because I actually bought the KTS-7 from Neal. Since starting on the tabs, I had not spent too much time learning it so I hadn't made too much progress. Then a couple of days ago I received my DaSilva Santo reproduction soprano. It was a like a shot of motivation to learn the song on the soprano sized ukulele and I've since made a little more progress on it. The Santo repro has also rekindled some interest in soprano ukes and caused me to take out the KTS-7 several times lately. I'm beginning to appreciate it more. I've always thought it was a very good instrument, but really have not spent much time playing it. I had contemplated selling the Kiwaya since I hardly played it, but I think I'll hang on to it now. I still love the style 3 appointments and it really is a great sounding and playing instrument. I guess it's better late than never to come to appreciate a fine instrument. I don't think I'll ever become a "soprano person" (sorry Howlin' Hobbit :p), because I just feel more comfortable with tenors and concerts, but I'm pretty sure sopranos will always have a place in my collection and I've always considered them the "true ukulele".
Anyway, here's the video of Neal Paisley playing Gossip. Hopefully I can get it down soon and post a ghetto playing version of it soon:
hey, i am moving from nyc to the twin cities in june and was wondering if anybody else out there had a ukulele thing...apparently so!
ReplyDeleteso maybe my hopes of having a ukulele band out there aren't dashed after all.
Check out the Twin Cities ukulele orchastra: http://twincitiesukuleleorchestra.nexo.com/
ReplyDeleteI couldn't commit to their regular meetings but if you can it seems like a cool thing.
There's also StrumMN: http://strummn.blogspot.com/
1500 peole around Twin Cities bought tickets to Jake Shimabukuro's show on 3/10 so there are a few ukulele fans around here.
Wow!
ReplyDeleteI am actually hunting for my 2nd uke - gifted my first 2nd uke to a friend of mine that wanted to start playing. I was itching to get a concert size thinking that the soprano size just for simple/basic/chord-y stuff but, after watching that, I stand corrected!
Thanks for posting the video. It gave me a new jolt of inspiration and a new sense of appreciation for the underestimated soprano :)