The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #135920 Message #3101018
Posted By: SteveMansfield
23-Feb-11 - 06:54 AM
Thread Name: Should We Take Ukuleles Seriously?
Subject: RE: Should We Take Ukeleles Seriously?
In the past, they've been used mainly for backing comedy songs, but nowadays you can observe huddles of menopausal men in intense discussions about the merits of their instruments as if they were discussing attractive women or their Taylor or Martin guitars.
You've answered your own question right there.
A certain mindset seems to have a desperate need to create a hierarchy of instruments, whereby certain instruments are 'lesser instruments' or 'less worthy of being taken seriously'. It happens right across the spectrum, with Martin or Taylor guitar-owners looking down their noses at people who play Yamahas, and people sneering at ukeleles and recorders and harmonicas and other instruments they regard as 'entry level' (another way of saying 'not as complicated, and therefore valuable, as the instrument I play').
No doubt there's a certain class of guitarist who looks down their noses at people who play Martin guitars, or maybe Martin guitars made after a certain date, or who put certain brands of strings on their Martin guitars. Some Uillean pipers look down on flautists and whistle-players, some flautists look down on low whistle players, some anglo concertina players look down on English concertina players, and just about everyone looks down on bodhran owners.
What gets lost in all this sad little snobbery is the actual music.
Every instrument has its virtuosos and its duffers, and bands like The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain and Penguin Cafe demonstrate what can be done with a uke in the right hands. It'll be interesting to see what happens to attitudes to ukeleles and balalaikas now they're being used as first instruments in school music teaching, because the sound of 7-year-olds blowing as hard as they can down a cheaply-made recorder has certainly dealt that instrument a severe blow in terms of reputation.
So yes, the uke is a serious instrument - but it's cheaper to purchase and more portable than a church organ, so you tend to find more people playing them inexpertly.