Isekai Ukulele

Tag: Mele Ukulele

  • Beach Stream!

    Wow the ocean was pretty loud. The beach I went to was much smaller than I expected, and the waves were coming up almost to my feet, so maybe that’s why. But better than crazy wind I suppose. It was a little scary because I had no way to monitor my sound or tell how the stream was doing, so just kind of had to pray and jam.

    This beach is like 5 mins away from my home, but with moving gear, setting up, then cleaning up sand and stuff afterwards, it was about a half hour of upright time both ways. I was a total zombie the whole rest of they day, and even still off kilter the day after. Kind of rough. I might only be able to do this if I get outside help.

    I’m playing my Tenor Mele Ukulele today because it already has some battle scars. The Baritone is too nice to take out by the sand and sea, but I would totally use that for like, restaurant gigs if they ever come. I think I gotta practice with the Tenor a bit more regularly. It’s also a great ukulele.

    Also could only choose one platform to stream on, so I streamed on twitch and I’m reuploading the set here. Sorry, doesn’t look like chat was saved on the video. Couldn’t figure out how to set up my rig so I could see chat and capture me and the beach either. Idk, learning experiences. If anyone has ideas please share!

  • The Exiled Heavy Ukulele Knows How to Game the System (4)

    Had my first voice lesson in almost a month, and it was quite a workout! I talk a bit about it in the video, and start with a lot of the new songs I’ve been working on. About halfway through I decide to switch to the Tenor uke because I’m not ready to take the baritone to the beach yet, and I’m thinking about trying to go tomorrow. If the body is up for it, I may try.

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • Works in Progress
      • Gold Soundz – Pavement
      • Machinehead – Bush
      • Operator – Jim Coche
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • The Real Slim Shady – Eminem
      • Vindicated – Dashboard Confessional
      • If you could only see – Tonic

  • The Exiled Heavy Ukulele Knows How to Game the System (3)

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Gold Soundz – Pavement
      • Machinehead – Bush
      • Red Morning Light – Kings of Leon
    • Works in Progress
      • Cats in the Cradle – Harry Chapin
      • Operator – Jim Croche
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • Understand – BoyWithUke
      • Ride – Twenty One Pilots
    • Song of the Day: Gold Soundz – Pavement
      • I really like this song, and it was fun to finally figure it out. I’ve been listening to a lot of Pavement recently, and there’s a couple more by them I want to pick up, but this was my number one choice. And I think it came out pretty nice. Actually Machinehead felt pretty good too, maybe that’ll be tomorrow’s song!

  • The Exiled Heavy Ukulele Knows How to Game the System (2)

    I had a conversation with a new viewer about some classic songs, and decided to try pick them up. I’ve had multiple requests for Operator, so I took some time before the stream to figure out a version. The instrumental bits are definitely all fake, but I think its a passable version. That and Cats in the Cradle are fun songs, now they’re stuck in my head. Got me thinking about some other father/son songs that I started the day off with.

    Then, it’s October so i figured I’d work on some of the “goth” set. It’s sort of like Christmas time, but for dark and gloomy stuff. I like a lot of that 80s vibe a lot so its nice that its “appropriate” now.

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Operator – Jim Croche
      • Cats in the Cradle – Harry Chapin
      • Tear you Apart – She Wants Revenge
    • Works in Progress
      • Tha Crossroads – Bone Thugs N Harmony
      • Broken Wings – Mister Mister
      • Father and Son – Cat Stevens
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • Under the Milky Way Tonight – The Church
      • The Killing Moon – Echo and the Bunnymen
      • The Sweetest Perfection – Depeche Mode
    • Song of the Day: Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying – Belle and Sebastian
      • I had a request from a comment to talk about the strumming pattern I used in this song, and actually had to stop for a while and think about my approach to it. It’s kind of funny, trying to describe how it works is whole different mental process than just picking out what seems to sound right for the song. Well, hope it helps, but also it was nice to have a reason to come back to this song.

  • From Old Country Bupmkin to Master Ukuleleman (4)

    My streams are titled off of anime that I’ve watched recently, and though this one, From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman was pretty average, it had an interestingly unique theme that I appreciated: It was the story of an “old” man who inherited his father’s dojo and continuously grappled with feelings of inferiority due to age and ability – while actually being the best swordsman in the land.

    So it’s nominally a story of self discovery and growth, though that was kind of overshadowed by his antics building a harem and refusing to find a wife while periodically saving the country from certain doom. It was good, if not-isekai fantasy slop is what you’re into. Wouldn’t really recommend it to the uninitiated though.

    Anyway, I do appreciate the idea that the wall is all in your head. I feel like I’m experiencing a similar thing in thinking that my abilities are lacking and will always be second rate due to my disability. But that doesn’t matter. If I like to sing and people like to hear me sing, isn’t that enough? Maybe one day I too will achieve the title of master Ukuleleman!

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Tha Crossroards – Bone thugs N Harmony
      • Hash Pipe – Weezer
      • Don’t Get Around Much Anymore – Ella Fitzgerald
    • Works in Progress
      • Utu bang bang – Ka’ikena Scanlan
      • Ironic – Alanis Morisette
      • If You Could Only See – Tonic
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • We didn’t start the fire – Billy Joel
      • Lifetime Lover – J Boog
      • It Had to Be You – Frank Sinatra
    • Song of the Day: Under da Sea – The Little Mermaid
      • Got this song in random request roulette and gave it a go. It’s a surprisingly fun song, and I think it came out pretty well. What more do I want out of a song of the day??

  • From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Ukuleleman (3)

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Red Morning Light – Kings of Leon
      • Take it or Leave it – Sublime with Rome
      • Judith – A Perfect Circle
    • Works in Progress
      • God is Really Real – AJR
      • Utu Bang Bang – Ka’ikena Scanlan
      • Wild Wood – Paul Weller
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • On the Sunny Side of the Street – Duke Ellington
      • August – Taylor Swift
      • Slow Hands – Interpol

  • From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Ukuleleman (2)

    I can’t believe its already the last day of September! I’ll keep it short since I have to write my monthly review still, but at least I have the energy for a song review for today.

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Purple Rain – Prince
      • Breathe – Pink Floyd
      • In a Big Country – Big Country
    • Works in Progress
      • AJR – A Dog Song
      • AJR – God is Really Real
      • Wild Wood – Paul Weller
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • Sowing the Seeds of Love – Tears for Fears
      • Rhythm of the Ocean – Hawaiian Style Band
      • Rooster – Alice in Chains
    • Song of the Day: If You Could Only See – Tonic
      • A viewer mentioned this song, and it was another one of those like, I almost knew it even though I hadn’t heard it in years and only ever heard it on the radio. Ah the radio, from that era where they played mostly decent music most of the time. Anyway, the song was super easy to pick up, so even though I’ve really only played it a few times it already feels pretty natural. Funny how that works.

  • From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Ukuleleman (1)

    Well, it’s been quite a time recently. I lost most of last week due to travel, and haven’t been keeping up on blog updates because that really drained my energy. It also drained my motivation a bit, to be back on Oahu and be reminded of all the things I used to do when I was healthy. I manage to do ok in my little room and routines, but its actually very difficult to do anything resembling normal people activities. Being forced to go outside and see the world working, and be reminded of the times when I was a part of it was not the most pleasant thing for me. Its much easier for me to not think about it when it’s not in my face. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

    Then, Hurricane Nolo came. Luckily damage wasn’t too great, but my area lost electricity and internet again. For the entire weekend. So, I didn’t have my usual stream of games and anime to keep me distracted from thinking thoughts about myself and my situation. Even now I don’t want to write about it too much because it’ll just bring me down. But I do want to continue making these post stream reviews to keep an honest record of this journey. It’s way to easy for me to decide its not worth it and do nothing instead, so I need to try make it an automatic habit. Just like when it comes to practicing, a little bit is better than nothing at all. So here we are.

  • Those who hunt ukulele (5)

    Another headache day, I hoped it would go away if I noodled for long enough, but it didn’t, and I had to take the migraine medication. Here’s hoping it doesn’t turn into a full on episode tonight. Gonna take a pill and call it, sorry no stream summary today.

  • Those Who Hunt ‘Ukulele (4)

    Did I miss (3)? It’s been kind of a tough week for me. I wasn’t feeling well enough for my normal voice lesson today either, and I probably won’t be able to do next week’s one either because of medical stuff. I started today off with a bunch of noodling, and actually had a new guy come and hang out and chat for most of the day, which was pretty cool. Also ended the day with the realization that I could play a bunch of songs from the musical Grease, and I had just never tried it before. Who’d have thought.

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Greased Lightning – Grease
      • Sandy – Grease
      • 867-5309 / Jenny – Tommy Tutone
    • Works in Progress
      • Superfast Jellyfish – Gorillaz
      • Broken Wings – Mr. Mister
      • Wake me up when September Ends – Green Day
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • You can Get it if you really want – Jimmy Cliff
      • Welcome Home – Coheed and Cambria
      • Long Gone Day – Mad Season
    • Song of the Day: Bi-Polar – Assemblage 23
      • You can get it if you really want is my proper theme song, but when I’m feeling down, this track by A23 is my anti-theme song. I do feel this way often, but don’t usually want it to be part of my public persona. If I’m out in front of people, I want to be focused on the good vibes, right? Well, not always. Sometimes gotta let them know how I really feel.