Back in 2005 I brought a Roy Smeck ukulele to school. Kids were intrigued and wanted to try to play it themselves. The sound was pretty cool with just a few simple chords. Within a few weeks kids had bought their own Mahalo ukes and started to really enjoy playing.
Since that first ukulele group the Cal-Mum Uke club has had about forty students join-up every year. It has been a joy to teach in a school that is filled with the plinkety-plunk of the uke music.
I imagine if I Google "Simple Life" I would find that there are a lot of songs by this title. Yes, but I guess that the song I wrote is so simple I couldn't really title it anything else.
This is my first attempt at a song with a video. I wrote and recorded the song in one sitting during my half-hour lunch break. I wouldn't call it polished by any stretch. But it was nice enough for me to go back and listen to, so I combined it with some surf video - not that it's a perfect match for the song, but it does share some elements.
I equate surfing to a simple enjoyment of life. I always thought, while growing up in Upstate New York, that I would be a surfer, living in some warm climate near the beach. Funny how the feeling never really goes away.
Three chords and a surfboard - Simple Life.
"Carol Ann's ethereal sound was particularly special; a truly beautiful vocalist.", wrote The Stephen's Green Preservation Society back in August. I have to admit that I'm a pushover for music set to old vintage film. In her song I'll Be Seeing You, her voice floats along as images of days-gone-by remind you of things... It seems a perfect mix of film, ukulele and Carol Anne's lovely voice that draw us in with feelings of longing and nostalgia.
Carol Anne noted on her MySpace page that the chords for the song are simple: G6 A9 Am7 G6. Sometimes the simpleness of music is freeing. We can overlay our own crafted inner melodies and thoughts to experience the music in a kind of multi-emotional landscape. Like her picture below, we alow ourselves to fill in the blanks and quiet places with our selves.
If you are familiar with the artist Danielle of Danielle Ate the Sandwich YouTube fame, then you know she has a tendency to start her videos with some self deprecating humor. It seems to be an attempt by her to let her audience see the juxtaposition of two feelings; a little genuine humor and then a heart melting song. Bribes is a good example of her method. For me, I like the style - she has carved out her own niche.
She still sells her CD in a handmade felt pouch at http://danielleatethesandwich.net/page-store.html
This song is a beautiful ukulele song that has gotten a lot of play. Here is a little background from her MySpace page that makes the song all that much more ethereal:
Zee Avi is from the unlikely birthplace of Borneo, an ancient island east of Malaysia which remains an untouched, natural paradise, an apt description of her songs. “I get my melodic feel from the simplicity of classic jazz, people singing what they felt with straightforward lyrics and not too many harmonies,” Zee says. “Just a lot of honesty. My stuff is pretty dark,” Zee admits. “Most of my songs are about the reality side of romance, outlets to vent my emotions.”
The enchanted wonders the ukulele holds for children is no little thing. The memories of my youth remind me that magic was everywhere. If I had been lucky enough to have had a(n) ukulele I would have thought the gods had crafted it out of some special tree just for me.
Today I know the gods at Martin made mine - just for me - eighty years
ago. Magic...
Just starting to put together some ideas related to ukulele and its instruction along with the lifestyle that goes with the uke. It seems to attract a complementary lifestyle, one of thoughtful reflection, the idea that as long as you strum and sing along you are happy.
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