Plinky Plonky Pete

It was a busy day yesterday as the ukulele group I play with recorded a song for a competition. It’s for the Ukulele Society of Great Britain’s competition to find Britain’s best ukulele band. About thirty bands have entered the competition and each band has to record and submit a video of a performance. A team of judges will view the performances and decide on a winner who will have the honour of being declared the best ukulele band in Great Britain.

Here’s a photo of All About Uke from Stafford & Stoke-on-Trent getting ready to perform their song. I’m seated on the extreme left of the photo playing the bass ukulele. It was a busy afternoon because as well as playing the bass, I also brought along my camera to video the song. A fellow ukulele player, Nick, brought his sound recording equipment which recorded the audio in a better quality than that on my camera. I’ve sent him my video file and he’ll add the audio track. Looking forward to viewing and hearing the final result and wondering how we’ll do in the competition when the winner will be announced in the autumn.

We’ve finished editing my music video and are almost ready to put it on YouTube. Although I wrote the storyboard, it was my son David who did most of the work in adding the video shots to the audio sound track of my song. He did an absolutely brilliant job and the final result is amazing.

As a taster of what to expect here’s a screenshot of the opening logo at the start of the video. We’ll put the video on YouTube probably in September and I’ll add a link in a later post.

Just finished filming the video to accompany the song I recently wrote and recorded. The song’s lyrics mention Birmingham so it meant a trip there to get a shot of the Library in Centenary Square. The next job will be editing the video and adding titles & end credits. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload it onto YouTube by the end of this month our early August.

At the weekend I joined the All About Uke group from Stafford at their gig as part of a local village fair. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and it was a “Sunny Afternoon” ( which happened to be one of the songs in our set list). The fair took place on a playing field with various stalls and attractions around the edge. We were asked to set up in the centre of the arena, so it was literally like performing in the middle of a field. There were about 35 ukulele players in our group and I was playing my bass ukulele. In the photo I’ve on the back row fourth from the left sitting on my music stool. As there was no electric power available I took my battery powered amp. The gig went well but playing outdoors does have a number of issues. The sound produced by the acoustic ukuleles can tend to get lost in the open air and not travel as far. However the most useful accessory when playing outdoors is to take a couple of clothes pegs to clip onto the sheet music to stop it blowing about in the breeze. It was a most enjoyable afternoon and after the performance there was time to visit the beer tent for some refreshment.

Yesterday I joined The Ukunauts and we played at the Stone Carnival. There was some rain early on and, as seen in the above photo, I took my umbrella. Fortunately we were playing in the Music Tent which not only kept us dry but also means I can say that I was playing within tent.

Apologies for not adding any new posts for a while but I’ve had other commitments recently. However, I’m now able to return to my music project.

As you may already know I’ve written a song and with the help of some friends I’ve recorded it. The next stage is to film a video to go along with the song. With the video being filmed outdoors, for continuity reasons, I’ve had to wait until early summer for the leaves to come out on the trees. So I’ve started doing the filming at various locations in the north Midlands. I wanted to have a shot of Paul (cajon), Jason (guitar) and myself (tenor ukulele) playing the instrumental verse. Here’s a photo of us playing alongside the road which features in the song.

There’s more filming to be done, dependant on the weather and fitting it in between my work commitments this might take another three/four weeks. Then it’s the task of editing the video to fit alongside the audio track. So it’ll probably be August before the video is finally able to be released on to YouTube,

The Ukulele Society of Great Britain (USGB) is launching a search to find the best local ukulele group in the UK. Local amateur ukulele bands are invited to submit a video of their best performance which will be judged by a panel of judges who are prominent in the UK ukulele community. Bands can register their intention to participate by the end of July 2019 and upload their video to YouTube by the end of September 2019.

As you may be aware, I’m a member of “All About Uke” which is based in Stafford and we’ve decided to enter the competition. There’s plenty of time to practice and make a video, however the first issue is to decide which song to perform. The USGB Guidelines mention that bands will be judged on their choice of song, their arrangement and the general sound that they produce, including intro and outros. It suggests that up-tempo songs will earn more points than slow songs and that the song needs to grab the attention of the judges. I think that the choice of song will be a critical decision, have you any suggestions?

Whilst I’ve had quite a few work commitments lately, I’ve been able to do some more work on recording my song. My friend, PB, who is a drummer visited me with his cajon to record the percussion track. It’s interesting to look at the wave form produced by the cajon which is so different from that produced by the ukuleles or the vocals. You might be able to spot the four bar intro before the cajon starts and the breaks during the choruses.

Recording the song is still a work in progress as another friend, JR, is visiting next weekend to add the lead track. Then I’ll be spending time twiddling with the faders to get the various levels right.

My sons suggested that I also record a video to go along with the song. However we’re delaying filming until the Spring when the leaves are on the trees, flowers are in bloom and it’ll look so much better. Eventually we might put the final result on YouTube so you’ll have to wait until then for the full story.

I’m currently recording the vocal track for a song I’ve just written. I’ve already recorded the rhythm track and the bass track and I’ve got some friends to help with recording the lead track and the precision track.

It’s a parody of a well-known song and it was also suggested that I film a video to go along with the song. However the video would probably look better if it were to be filmed in the Spring or early Summer when there are leaves on the trees. So – be prepared for more details in a couple of months’ time.