Hi. Welcome to another episode of Webcam Sessions. Today we're going to be talking
a little bit about the affliction that affects most ukulele players once the
bug has bitten them, and that's UAS or Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome.
What this is if you don't know, is this need that some ukulele players have
(most ukulele players have) to get a bunch of ukuleles, because there's a lot of
different shapes, and sizes, and sounds, and it kind of makes sense you know. You
need your soprano, and then your concert, and then your tenor, your low G and high
G tenor, your pineapple soprano, your electric, your baritone, it just goes on
and seems forever, six string, eight string, you get it right. So I wanted to talk a
little bit about the importance of being able to play a variety of instruments,
not necessarily own them right, but rather be able to go from a soprano to a
tenor to a banjolele, to whatever else. I think when you're first starting
out especially, it's really important to be able to learn how to adapt quickly,
and by playing a variety of instrument types, going from a soprano to a tenor
for instance, just even if it's playing it at your local music store, can really
help with your ability to learn new chords and learn new things more quickly,
because what you're doing is you're developing skills based on skills that
you have right. If I can play a G chord really well on soprano I move to a tenor
my finger spacing is going to be a little bit different, and it's going to
be an extra challenge because I'm not used to it, and on the flipside if you're
going from a tenor to a soprano everything feels a bit tighter, but the
ability to adapt to that different length and to that different sound, will
really help you in the long run as a player. So in some ways I'm being an
enabler right now saying "hey if you want to buy a bunch ukuleles go
for it" because as you buy them you'll be able to learn different techniques on
them. and apply the same thing to multiple scale lengths and you'll be a
better player for it, so there's a lot of good with UAS in terms of the
ability to adapt. Again you don't have to buy ukuleles, just trying out maybe a
friend that has a different one than yours, or going to a music store and
playing them for a while, anything to try out different
lengths and sizes and all that. But the bigger thing I want to talk about
right now is my opinion, I'll probably get some flack for this, but my
opinion of multiple ukuleles versus one ukulele, and while I do think it's a
good idea when you're first starting to get a foundation of playing these
different instruments, I think that when you're trying to become very good at
playing the ukulele, it's a really good idea to invest in an instrument that is
better than you are. A lot of times people think that they're not good
enough for an instrument, that they have to get to a certain point with their
playing before they deserve it, and I want to say that I think that's
baloney. I think that's not the right mindset at
all. If you're serious about playing and you know again there's the whole money
part and this instrument can be expensive and so I'm not trying to tell
you to buy an instrument out of your price range or anything like that, but
when you're looking at buying an instrument, I think the best thing to do
is invest in the nicest instrument you can comfortably afford at that time, as
long as you're serious. So if you have a thousand dollars for a ukulele
but you feel like you're not good enough for a thousand dollar ukulele, the truth
is the nicer the instrument that you can invest in, the more room you have to grow
into it. You know it's just like a carpenter with tools, it's going to be a
lot harder to build a house if you're just trying to nail everything in with a
block of wood instead of a hammer, or trying to screw things
manually with a screwdriver instead of using an electric right. This might be
a somewhat weak analogy but it's what I got right now. So what I really
suggest is if you have the option of getting four to five you know $300 ukes
or you know $50 ukes or whatever, or the option of getting one ukulele
that's worth the amount of those five, I personally think it's more beneficial to
you as a player to get that one, because the problems that you might have with it
will be lesser, the tone will be better or should be better, and it will allow
you to grow into it as a musician. One of the number one things I deal with in my
private lessons is when I'm working someone who has an inexpensive ukulele
and they feel like they have to get to a certain point before they can invest in
a nicer one, and they don't realize that the ukulele that they're playing is one
of the things that's preventing them from becoming a better player. You know
it's kind of like if you're trying to learn how to race and cycling, well if
you're if you're riding a bike that the gears don't all work, the tires a little
flat and you're having problems with, you're going to be holding yourself back
within your training not because of your inability, but the bikes inability and
similar with with an instrument like this. Playing an instrument that's better
than you are, allows you to become better in every way, and it's like when you're
working in you know in any group setting, you want to surround yourself with greatness
you want to surround yourself ideally with people or things that are
better than you so that you can strive to become that level, and I think that
having a really nice instrument, or however nice of an instrument you can
afford, again you don't need to be buying a $1,200 ukulele to be doing this but
rather if you have the option between three $50 ukuleles and one $150 ukulele,
or three $200 ukuleles at one $600 ukulele, and just you know as it goes up
I'd recommend getting the nicer instrument to set yourself up better.
A lot of people like having multiple instruments for different moods right,
and I think that is very cool and a good idea, you know they might want their
soprano for this sound, and their tenor for this sound, so on and so forth but
what I'm talking about more right now is just your ability as an ukulele
player to grow and I think that playing one instrument is the best way to do
that, or rather having a nice instrument to grow into, so if you get three $1,000
ukuleles, more power to you, very lucky, but it's going to help you because
you'll have instruments that you can grow into. Now again I know everybody
can't be affording expensive ukuleles, I certainly can't if I weren't
doing this for a living, but I think that a lot of times people think that the
quantity will make up for the quality, and I personally think that the quality
is more important and so I've been cured of UAS.
I used to have a whole bunch of ukuleles when I first started playing. I had you know
sopranos, and tenors, and concerts, and a six-string, and electric, and all these
different things like that, and you know since getting much
nicer instruments, which I've been very fortunate to have been able to work with
different companies, as well as doing this for a living makes the write-offs
easier, but I really only play a couple ukuleles now, you know this one being one
of them, my Moore Bettah and my Mya-Moe ukuleles
tend to be my my most played, and I've got a lot that I don't play as much
anymore because I don't feel like I grow as much when I play them as I do these
and each time I pick up one of these ukuleles I feel like there's something I
can't do yet, there's something that the instrument can do that I can't, and I
love that feeling because it makes me strive to be as good as the instrument
playing. So I'm not sure how helpful this this little rant is, but I've seen a lot
of posts on Facebook or YouTube of things talking about it, and I just want to
give my opinion on the matter, and I wanted to, for all those people that are
looking for a new ukulele and thinking "I'm not good enough for this instrument"
I just want to say "YOU ARE" because if you are serious about playing, you can't
get an instrument too nice for yourself because however nice that
instrument is, that will allow you to strive to be that good, and I think
that's a really important thing, again the awkwardness with this is always
money because life is really expensive. I've got a year-old baby right now and
god diapers are not cheap, I was expecting them to be cheaper, but I'm
talking purely within whatever your budget is and whatever your ability is
and I think that you'll notice that your advancement as a player will go
much more quick, quickly, if it will be more quick if you try to get a nicer
instrument, so let me know in the comments down below what you think. Do
you have a ukulele collection? Do you disagree with me totally and think that
having five ukuleles is better than them one? What sort of things do
you think with this, and I'll see you next week for another episode of Webcam Sessions.
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