Tag: ukulele

Ukulele Blues

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"Morning Ukulele" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/150 sec, ISO200
 “Morning Ukulele” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

I’ve been practicing ukulele quite a bit lately, but my fretting wrist hurts a lot. I think it’s a combination of two things. First, my wrist when I play ukulele is at an awkward angle and thus causing unnecessary strain on my muscles and other connective bits (tendons?). Secondly, the watchband that I switched to a couple of months ago may have been too tight and restricted movement. It’s odd, but because the watchband is so comfortable I don’t realize that I’ve been wearing it too tightly.

But I really need to work on holding the ukulele in the correct position, with wrist straight and bending my fingertips more. When I use this technique, there’s no pain, but once I go back to bending my wrist a lot, I can feel it hurting.

Anyways, I’ve been learning City of Stars from LA LA LAND, and also Sleepwalk by Santo and Johnny. They are both really fun! And I’ve been recording my practices on my phone, but the quality is pretty bad… both my playing and the video. But it’s a fun experience.

I hope you had a nice Sunday!

またね～

New Kala Soprano Ukulele

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"Two Sopranos" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/70 sec, ISO3200
 “Two Sopranos” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today I received a new ukulele as an early birthday present (the one on the right in the above photo). It’s another soprano ukulele by Kala, just like my pineapple ukulele. Why did I get the same size instrument? Well, I want to put a low-g ukulele string on the new one so I can play a couple of songs that require it in the arrangement. I have a concert-size ukulele that is strung with a low-g, but I really love the soprano size. And I am impressed by the quality and value of my Kala pineapple ukulele, so I decided to get the same brand.

Although the new KAA-15S Kala ukulele is the same size as my old one and uses the same type of Aquila strings, it sounds a lot different – deeper and more resonant. But we’ll see how it sounds after I change out the string when it arrives separately.

As far as looks go, I definitely prefer the pineapple shape, and the color is nicer to my eye. And the cream-colored binding on the edge is beautiful. The new Kala is a dark mahogany with no special binding, but it does have a fancy etched rosette (which I am not too fond of). It still looks nice, but not particularly special to me. Maybe it will grow on me in time. 🤔

"Standard and Pineapple" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/30 sec, ISO3200
 “Standard and Pineapple” Cedar Park, 2018

I’ve tried videoing a couple practice sessions and it is so hard to get a good take! When the camera is on, everything changes… 🤣 Anyways, I’ll post a couple to my YouTube channel when I am happy with them. But it seems like a good experience to try to play while the camera is on. It’s a strange kind of “no-pressure” pressure situation if that makes any sense.

Well, I hope you had a nice Friday!

またね～

Driving Soon

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"Driving Soon" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO640
 “Driving Soon” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today is the last day of summer vacation for the kiddos, and this year both of the boys will be in high school – one will be a senior and the other will be a freshman. It’s crazy how fast they grow up.

Bay will be getting his driver’s license soon and we’ve been practicing a bunch lately. Today’s photo is one that I took from the passenger seat and you can see Bay in the reflection of the gear selector. He’s a pretty good driver, so I’m not too worried about him on the road. He’ll be fine. (I keep reminding myself of that) 😀

In other news, I’ve been playing both my ukuleles every day, but I have to say that I love the newer Kala pineapple ukulele a lot more than my old Hilo. It’s just a lot more fun to play, and the soprano sound is very cool. But, I still play the concert ukulele because it has the low-G on it and there are a couple songs that I practice that require it.

Someday, I’d like to get another soprano ukulele (I prefer that size now) and put a low-G on it. But for now, I’ll stick with the Hilo concert ukulele.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね～

Pineapple Ukulele

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"Kala Pineapple" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/75 sec, ISO3200
 “Kala Pineapple” Cedar Park, 2018

I bought a new ukulele! It’s a Kala soprano pineapple KA-P and it is wonderful! It sounds great and the smaller fretboard fits my hands nicely.

I’ve been getting into playing my concert-sized ukulele and added a low-g to it so I can play a few songs that require that lower octave. But that meant I couldn’t practice songs that have the high-g arrangement. So, of course, I had to get a second ukulele, right? 😝

The soprano is the traditional size for a ukulele, and the pineapple shape is also a classic look. What I really love about the Kala is that it has cream-colored binding around the body which gives it a clean look and accentuates the pineapple shape. Pair that with the included white Aquila Nylgut strings, and you have a great-looking ukulele!

またね～

Ukulele Time

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"Ukulele Music" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/80 sec, ISO6400
 “Ukulele Music” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。Today’s photo is of my ukulele and some sheet music. I’ve been practicing “Remember Me” from Coco using the video below and it’s been a lot of fun! I realize that 6 strings is too complex for my brain, but 4 strings is just fine, so I love playing the ukulele.

It’s cool that Bay and Koa play music, but sometimes we have a conflict because when one of them is playing piano, I can’t hear my ukulele. 😄 I’m saying that light-heartedly since I can just wait a bit, but if they both need to practice their piano and percussion, there can be some time conflicts. I suppose it’s mostly because they wait until the last minute to practice… if they just got their practices taken care of earlier, everyone would have plenty of time.

Oh well… I am just happy they are musically inclined. It’s really cool to hear their music filling the house.

I hope you had a great day!

またね～