Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/25/austin-ukelele-society-plays-b.html
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*hipster cult slogs through ironic pop song
it’s a perfectly fine instrument, but the misplaced enthusiasm with which it has been made ubiquitous is really obnoxious. just because anyone can learn to poorly play the ukulele doesn’t mean everyone should.
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The kiddo picked one up at a music camp and taught herself in a week enough to write an original song. She then used her birthday money to get her own. All that violin made it easy for her, I guess.
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I picked up a uke around 2 years ago, partly to get myself back into making music after getting burned out from working 130 hour weeks in a recording studio, and partly to get my kids into music.
I fell in love. It was cheap enough that i am not afraid to bring it to the beach or camping, small enough that it is easy to fit in the car when the car is packed with other crap. Not super loud. a little easier on the ears (i.e. not annoying to other people) than some other small instruments such as a harmonica. Is an instrument that can be played solo or as accompaniment to your own singing or someone else singing, in something like a camp fire setting.
As far as this video goes, i like the vibe. play what you can…do your best. Some people seem to be nailing every chord. some people aren’t hitting any…just sort of strumming dead notes. but that’s cool.
One thing i noticed is that they keep the chord shapes the same (i.e. put your fingers in the same places that you would on the top 4 strings of a guitar) as the original but this puts the song in a different key. Which is fine, but wouldn’t work if you were playing along to the original. Now, playing this song on the Uke, in the original key, would be a great challenge, as that intro and interlude parts is very conducive to being played with the original chord shapes but would be a bit of a challenge to work out on the uke in the original key (D).
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Bryan Adams on ukulele is the soundtrack in my own personal Guantanamo. Also, just Bryan Adams.
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Cynicism is the easiest way to be right most of the time,
if one would rather be right than interesting or, in fact, interested.
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I know, wrong instrument, but this is sorta how I feel.
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the same might be said about playing ukulele!
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Interesting choice of song, considering it’s the 50th anniversary of the titular summer.
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Austin Ukelele Society plays Bryan Adams
Ryan Adams shows up, yells at everyone.
“The Canadian government has already apologised for Bryan Adams several times…”
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This makes me so irrationally angry. The ukulele possesses practically the OPPOSITE cultural significance of youthful rebellion that the guitar represents, and your fingers most definitely never bleed playing 4 tiny nylon strings.
If you’d bought a ukulele from the five’n’dime in 1969, Bryan Adams and the guys from school most likely would have bullied you.
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Yeah… joy for it’s own sake really sucks.
All the more reason to appropriate it.
Nine-year-olds can be so cruel…
It’s not great, so why does it make me so happy?
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