UKULELE AND BANJO -
THE REVIVAL!
Following the recently
highly popular 'Pop Idol' series- in which a number of the
auditioning contestants used a ukulele for their accompaniment
whilst practicing, there has been a considerable surge in interest
in the Ukulele and Banjo type instruments.
Both the Ukulele and the
Banjo are far easier to learn to play than is their more 'glamorous'
cousin - the Guitar. They have only four strings (instead of the SIX
on guitar) - Ok, some banjos have five strings - but only FOUR need
to be fingered.
By first learning
the uke/banjo, a student is far better equipped to 'move on' to the
guitar later.
The ukulele was brought
to this country from Portugal, (where it originated) and from the
South Sea Islands by explorers -Captain Cook etc! -(before he met
his demise in Hawaii, which is now the World 'HQ' for ukulele
playing). A great many households had one in the nineteenth and
early 20th centuries - when families had to provide their own
entertainment in the pre radio/TV age. The instrument preceded the
guitar by some 200 years as the preferred accompaniment for solo
vocalists.
The most famous exponent
in living memory is, of course, the late George Formby. For SIX
consecutive years, George was top cinema box office - phenomenal
successful - a record which has never been broken, he out performed
Errol Flynn, James Cagney,Gary Cooper and Bing Crosby -in the same
period.
One of retrosellers long
established advertisers is Cliff Williams, in Bristol. Cliff, with
his wife Emily run the longest established video services
business-they can be found on site under 'cine to video' in our main
retrosellers directory.
In the 1960s, Cliff was
a lead guitarist in a rock group (one of thousands at the time) and
he also plays ukulele and Banjo. Last Summer, he produced his
"easy to learn ukulele on video/DVD with accompanying
booklet". Being in the business, he can easily film himself
giving the 'lesson' -AND generate the video/DVD copies in house.
Cliff marketed the
tutorial on Ebay - with incredible success - initially the tutorial
was just for the Ukulele, but he has just completed (January 2004) a
completely NEW on which shows how to play the Ukulele AND the
Banjo-both using the same fingering 'shapes' to produce the chords
of C, F and G7 - which are known as 'the three chord trick' which
enable accompaniment to thousands of popular songs.
The no-nonsense tutorial
shows how to TUNE the strings of the instruments - failure to
properly tune-up is the main reason why many potential players 'give
up' in frustration - without being properly tuned, the instrument
just sounds like a cacophony of noise! On the video, you can HEAR
how each string should sound and HEAR how the chords should play.
Once these simple steps
are learned, cliff shows how to play along to EIGHT very well known
old songs "When The saints Go Marching In", "You Are
My Sunshine"," Green Green Grass Of Home" - and five others.
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If interested, you can order
direct from Cliff for just £10. For that, you get the Video
(choose VHS or DVD) and the 10 page booklet. Pay by credit
card over the phone.
Telephone 01454 772857 (If
you get the ansafone, leave a message)
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