Lest You Wonder How the Humble got into Humble Uker

I must first acknowledge Pete the percussionist whom I forgot on the YouTube comments when downloading this video.

This is a good time to explain why Humble Uker Ramblings was started. I had my father's 1950-ish Harmony ukulele in my hands about 5 years ago. It had sat in the kid's toy box for about 20 years. Kids are moving on and I started to doodle with the uke. My neighbor tells me about the Northern California Ukulele Festival which happens each year in the adjacent city of Hayward and is less than 5 miles from my home.

Going to that ukulele festival coincided with the end of years of watching and coaching 4 kids through baseball, softball, track and soccer. There was suddenly time for my own hobby. As you can tell by my performance above I am a humble musician but I have an extraordinary amount of fun and comraderie due to this little four-stringer. My voice is best suited for solos in the shower but I keep trying.

This blog is my "notebook", a history of learning and adventures, it tries to be open to a variety of genres, and it is not completely ukulele related. I have researched other instruments, tried a balalaika, a dulcimer, a recorder, and built a diddley bow. I have also been enamored with the baritone ukulele and have created a brother blog called Humble Baritonics.

The band above was started in Rhan Wilson's UkeU Class in Santa Cruz. We went by the name the Uklectics and got a chance to learn from Rhan, to learn from each other, and to get a bit of the garage band experience. At times we sounded really good but I think there's too much emphasis on performing by many people. There is so much gained by getting together with friends, proposing songs, singing loudly and moving past inhibitions. We were so lucky to have Jay Holiday (guitar), Judy Plicka (Bass & Uke), and Pete (Percussion) because they had many years of band experience and expanded us beyond just a group of unison strummers. The ukers were: Robbie Barbour, Sheila, Chuck, Bob, and myself (El Jeffe').

There is a website called The Top 50 Ukulele Sites. It has over 150 sites on it and I have been pleased that Humble Uker has been in the top 30 for several months now. It sits one place behind Ukulele Porn and two places behind Mike DaSilva's Ukemaker site. My Humble Baritonics blog has really surprised me and is just outside the real top 50 at 52.

Another fun thing about doing a blog is getting to know a little bit about people from around the world. If you read this I hope you can stop for a moment and leave a hello from wherever you are.

Thanks, HU / Jeff / or El Jeffe'

(Oh yeah, that's me on the left missing my cue -- but we practiced working thru mistakes!)

UKLECTICS || GARDEN SONG || Judy's Cut

Fun Film Magazine October 1931

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Judy "Sweet Pickin's" Plicka, has mad skills on the ukulele, slide ukulele and bass. You can hear her experience and technique shine throughout the fledgling Uklectics songs. Judy does something else, she listens; and records everything we do on her little digital recorder. She also very graciously hands out CD's for each band member to listen to and work with during the week.

Chuck and Jay both did video recordings to varying success. We performed 7 songs but Chuck's battery was uncooperative and only lasted 4-7/8 songs. In the videos I heard "lispths" that I never heard in practice or on stage that day. Judy suggested to me that perhaps the video player battery power was just enough to affect the vocals that way and we don't perceive the lisps so much in the instrumentals. Jay got all of the songs but the video was a bit grainier.

I haven't ever added a MP3 to this blog yet because blogger doesn't make it a one-button-action. I have to store the MP3's on the internet and then address them by their URL. But I want to have a record of this musical starting point.

This will also include the last two beautiful songs Garota de Ipanema / The Girl from Ipanema. Vocally, I am where I am, and it is a vast improvement due to Rhan Wilson's UKE U class - But, this is where I'm at right now. A-a-h shucks!

Then Robbie and Jay sing one of our favorites, Tell Everybody I know, by Keb Mo. HU

(Jeff to load music ASAP)

UKLECTICS GARDEN SONG CONCERT 8-15-09

Hey it's finally time to start posting videos from our performance at Coleen and Jim Goff's Garden Song Ukulele Band Day -- August 15, 2009. For those first reading about the Uklectics here's how we came about. Rhan Wilson put out hand-out, at a Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz meeting, for a 10 week class to improve musical ability and learn how to work and communicate with others. We met at Rhan's house in Santa Cruz - it's old and has a real music parlour - full of so many instruments. Within the first two meetings we felt like old friends and really supported, enjoyed and challenged each other.

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So these videos were taken by Chuck and are a culmination of our Tuesday Night meetings for 10 weeks at Rhan's house and about 7 extra weeks of getting together in garages at Chucks, Pete's and Butchy-Bob's house. I am really proud of how well we performed at this show. I enjoy hangin' out with every person in this band - we all add something creative. Something that was really special was that we all shared in the spotlight. This was a test of how much we had learned.

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The stage is set up from left to right, Jeff (a.k.a. El Jeffe' or HU), Sheila, Judy (in her blue hat), Robbie, Jay, Chuck, Bob, and Pete (behind Bob). Jeff, Sheila, Robbie, Chuck and Bob strummed ukuleles throughout. I am putting these songs in the order that we performed them...

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1) Kansas City Blues (Robbie vocals, Judy bass, Jay lead guitar, band back-up vocals)

2) Stray Cat Strut (Jeff with Robbie&Sheila vocals, Jay guitar instrumentals)

3) Folsom Prison Blues (Sheila with Robbie vocals, Judy electric ukulele instrumentals)

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4) Are You Lonesome Tonight (Jay vocals, guitar / Chuck talking)

5) Hanalei Moon (Butchy-Bob and Chuck Vocals, Judy ukulele instrumentals)

6) Garota de Ipanema (Jeff) and The Girl from Ipanema (Sheila & Jeff) and Judy on the ukulele instrumental (No Video Available)

7) Tell Everybody I Know (Robbie & Jay vocals) (No Video Available)

Links to Chuck's YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/Impersol2001#play/uploads

UKLECTICS PERFORMANCE GARDEN SONG

The Uklectics performed Saturday at Jim and Colleen’s Garden Song down at the edges of the Elkhorn Slough between Santa Cruz and Monterey along the California shoreline. I don’t think there could have been a better venue for our first performance. Jim has built a deck stage underneath the edge of an old grove of majestic oak trees. Their house is on a large piece of property that has many bark lined paths through lush garden areas up and down the soft rolling inclines and declines around their home. Their garden specialties were world class Dahlia species – what a treat to see – some Dahlias were a foot in diameter.
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With the oaks and the rolling hills the sounds from the stage filled their valley as each act performed. We were so lucky to be the first performers and got to do a sound check with Jim and Colleen radioing back and forth to get the sound set properly. This gave us the chance to sing some lengthy parts of our songs and to get comfortable with the sound equipment and for me, those a-a-a-h-s!, that I’ve been stressing about.
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I think Jay, originally suggested the UKLECTICS, and it felt natural from the beginning and far superior to The Tuesday Night Band, that I was using because we hadn’t solidified anything. As we started off as student’s of Chancelour Rhan’s UKE U, and put in our song ideas we did have quite an eclectic collection of genres and songs: Blues, Country, Rockabilly, Elvis, Hapa Haole Hawaiian, Bossa Nova, and more Blues. And an old movie song didn’t make the final cut; If I Only Had a Brain. We also experimented with Freebird during our garage band get togethers.
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Our Selection / Singers / Soloists:
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Kansas City Blues / Robbie / Judy bass intro & instrumentals / Jay guitar
Stray Cat Strut / Jeff with Robbie & Sheila / Jay instrumentals
Folsom Prison Blues / Sheila with Robbie / Judy instrumentals
Are you Lonesome Tonight / Jay & Chuck’s poetry too.
Hanalei Moon / Bob & Chuck / Judy instrumentals
Garota de Ipanema & Girl from Ipanema / Jeff & Sheila / Judy instr.
Tell Ev’rybody I know / Robbie & Jay / Jay instrumentals
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HONORABLE MENTION – Please stand up Pete and take a bow for playing percussion all along and making a switch from a standard kit to African Drums with small kit just two weeks before our performance – you sounded great!
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Judy, told me that I worried to much, I think she’s right. But the worrying made me set goals for practicing and remembering songs. (Like practice song A 4 times and song B 2 times. All of the way through.) The Uklectics performed quite admirably. I think we were all proud of our efforts and the performance. We played thru any glitches, and as Robbie pointed out, one of our errors in practice led us to a simple plan, a just-in-case plan… It happened and we all calmly moved right on during the performance.
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I have got thank all of the Santa Cruzers so much for welcoming me into this group. It is the time spent working, sharing, collaborating that makes this a really cherished happening in my life. There’s a lot of work. There’s being open to not playing it safe. Singing loud, being creative, and exploring our faults/strengths to create the best music we can this day. Each step should bring us further as musicians and good people.
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I should also thank Jim and Colleen for creating such a great opportunity to get together and celebrate music and comraderie. They were gracious and patient hosts. Colleen sang several of her original songs while playing the ukulele. She's a Mandolin player normally and had only been practicing the ukulele for 2 weeks. She and Jim gave quite a performance of their own.

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P.S. I hope to have some pictures and maybe a video up of our performance soon.