The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #84223   Message #3652260
Posted By: GUEST
19-Aug-14 - 10:00 PM
Thread Name: Are ukuleles a real instrument?
Subject: RE: Are ukuleles a real instrument?
Tho I find GUESTs attitude a little bit annoying, I nonetheless appreciate the attempt to actually discuss the musical aspects of a musical performance. That doesn't happen here very much, and it probably should.

That said, with some apologies to the performer, who probably expected a much warmer reaction to his effort, I'll weigh in.

I don't think the arrangement is very good at all. It's a patchwork of bits that don't flow together very well. It's not very coherent, and there are a lot of trite gimmicks tossed in, which actually distract you from the melody and the basic pulse of the song, rather than building on it and moving it forward.(and that repeated plucked rhythmic phrase grated on my nerves)

Little instrumental pieces like this should be a bit like a roller coaster ride-they draw you in, build up some momentum and climb slowly to the first peak and then give you a dramatic first slide, then get into the groove and move along for a bit with a series of ripples and smaller slides and a novel twist and turn here and there, keeping the the excitement up, but keeping things spread out
enough that you get the full effect of each event, then, when you're still in completely in the moment, they draw you up the last hill for the big final plunge, then you level off, and you're out.

Funnily enough, this is the second time a performance recently that a youtubed version of "Take the A Train" has come up for discussion. This link is to an OpEd piece in the Washington Post that is highly critical of a performance by Charles Mingus group, and features a solo
by Eric Dolphy.All that Jazz isn't all that great

Unlike the writer, I was blown away by the piece, but what do I know?
I'm just a ukulele player...