Dad gets back to his musical roots...

The Easter holiday arrived, and with my birthday on the horizon M suggested a Ukulele as a potential birthday present. I must confess I was dubious to begin with - though I have also felt a yearning for some non-computer based interest in my life. So, I borrowed M's Uke to have a go.

All I can say is, I love it. In just a couple of days I had enough Chords to play Cohen's Hallelujah off by heart, along with the usual "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" (typical beginners stuff) from music. I never thought that I would ever play tunes on a stringed instrument with any degree of skill since I traded the violin for an oboe at the end of the 80's. Any attempt at the guitar left me crestfallen as I simply couldn't get my hands round the neck for some chords without leaning on all the other strings... the Uke has changed my mind about strings. In just a week of playing I have been able to add "Dream a Little Dream of Me" by the Mamas and the Papas to my off by heart list, and can play loads of others from chord sheets. Wow.

The best thing is, M and I can play duets. It's such fun.

Just watch out at Christmas, you'll know if we are carolling you, because every carol will have a Hawaiian Ukulele lilt to it :-D

M will therefore be giving me a Uke for my birthday.

And if you are interested yourself, we recommend the Kala soprano Uke as a great beginners instrument. Has decent tuning keys (the geared kind) and made from decent wood:

http://www.nevadamusic.co.uk/Guitars/Acoustic/Ukulele/sc1414/p6730.aspx

There are other ones (e.g. Ashton) which we tried but it wasn't good. Hence recommending the above - plus, it gets good recommendations from others on the internet.

And if you do get a Uke, don't forget my Uke Tuner software:

http://myfamilynewspaper.blogspot.com/2008/07/uke-tuner.html

Uke Tuner

Dad often gets fidgety - physically as you saw in previous time lapse vid - but also creatively. It get's quite frustrating always teaching other people how to be creative and how to build interactive media, but rarely getting a chance to do it yourself anymore.

When M got a Ukulele, but found that most of the online Ukulele tuning devices were not quite what was needed, Dad finally got inspiration (and because of holidays finally had the time) to produce something interactive - Uke Tuner

You can download Uke Tuner 0.92 (Beta) here free >

If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to leave comments or email me direct.

Dad says "The problem with the online tuning system M was using, was that it only gave audio samples of a Ukulele string being plucked. However it is much easier to tune an instrument to a continuous tone. In Uke Tuner I gave the option, plucked note, or continuous tone, so the user can choose their preferred method. Then of course I went overboard on graphics and interactivity."

Dad is pretty pleased with the result, and M likes it too - after all it was made with her feedback, and what we have here is not the first design option. Hopefully others will like it too.

For the more technically minded, graphics were produced in Fireworks then exported as PNG 32 to preserve alpha channels or SWF, for use in Flash. Audio was recorded from a Yamaha PSR-240 keyboard via a line-in cable from the keyboard's headphone socket. Sound was recorded and processed with Audacity then exported as WAV 32-bit for use in Flash. Interactivity was produced in Flash, with ActionScript 2. Flash Audio settings were set to export sound at 22Khz stereo and 128kbps. Playback speed is 30 fps to make it animate more smoothly. The application was compiled with MDM Flash Studio because it has a faster projector engine than the Flash Standalone Player, extends the ActionScript classes available in Flash with some additional functionality, and allows the creator to tweak the display options (such as turning off the blue bar at the top).

Enjoy.

The guitar that shrank in the wash!

M has been a closet Ukulele fan since she heard the late Iz playing a non-cheesy "Over the Rainbow" on the said instrument. The hankering to recreate his wonderful music was not sated by attempts on the guitar; only the "real thing" has the real sound.

I have to admit I didn't put up much of a fight, it seemed a good price for a first Uke from Nevada Music. The goods arrived today (only the 2nd day after ordering). Looks nice doesn't it?

If like me your only memory of Ukulele music is your own awful strumming as a child (you know, when the Uke felt as big as a real guitar to you) or archive footage of George Formby, you might like to take a gander at how it is really done.

And if you fancy learning yourself, there are some really helpful resources on the internet. Such as:

And also - Pineapple Pete's Uke School >

Just don't try to play it while window cleaning - that's my advice.