# Mike Macleod in paper



## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

One of the local papers has a free weekly thing and somebody showed it to me because it was about ukuleles-I don;'t play or own a ukulele, but I like other stringed instrumnts as well...

Any way--I see the picture, and ti looked familiar--so I read it--and it was GC's own Mike MacLeod talking about ukes.

Here's a link to the article-
Ukuleles

And here's a blog post about it from the same paper:
Ukes & Mike mentioned on blog

Mike needs to pop in here more often and let us know this stuff...


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## Beach Bob (Sep 12, 2009)

I'd read the article when it was printed. Interesting to see the resurgence of ukes and mandolins these days. I was at a friends house the other day and they had a uke laying about; I couldn't resist picking it up and playing around with it. Those fret boards are way too tiny for my big mitts..


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I like tuning them to open G and playing some blues.


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## Mike MacLeod (Nov 27, 2006)

Howdy, boys.

I tend to fly under the radar. I have perhaps $1/2M worth of instruments lying about so I tend not to advertise much. The article, however, gave me the opportunity to push my passion for the ukulele. It is a very cool little instrument. If you travel around YouTube hunting uke tunes, you will be stunned at the musicality of the little critter. 
To play a uke, you simply imagine that you capoed your guitar at the 5th fret and removed the two bass strings. You now have a ukulele. This makes it easy to play all the cool jazz and swing tunes. You can choose to play in "re-entrant" tuning (High G, my dog has fleas) Or you can play with a low G and all ascending strings like a guitar.
It was the instrument of the jazz age. If you go back to all the sheet music from the 20s through to the 40s you will hardly see a guitar chord. They will all be uke chords. 
CF Martin acknowledged in the early 50s that if it hadn't been for the ukulele, Martin would have gone under during the depression. They turned out over 1/2 million ukes while the serial #s for everything else were still in the 5 digits. !!!!! Vintage Martin ukes are still cheap in comparison to the larger brethren. The Holy Grail uke is the (1922-1940) K5 (ornamented like a D-45), and it tops out at around $15K. A bargain if you compare it to a pre-war D-45!! 

I am now selling several ukes a month and some of them in the $thousands. It is the new cool instrument. 

Climb aboard folks, but bus is leaving without you.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

It's hard not to be happy with a uke in your hands. 

I picked up a nice soprano Kala last year, to replace my ailing no name uke. My university age daughter has taken up the uke too...I think influenced by Jake Shimabukuro and some girl on YouTube.

Peace, Mooh.


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## ronmac (Sep 22, 2006)

Did a show with James Hill a couple of years ago. Un-Freakin' believable. He had a Uke with 5 sensor pickups in it, and the bass/percussive sounds he pulled out of that little sucker was amazing. Who knew I was supposed to bring subs to a ukulele gig? 

A good friend of mine custom ordered ($4k) a Uke for his 80th birthday. The difference between it and a $29 off the rack instrument is not unlike the same dollar value examples in the guitar world. SWEET!


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Well, why don't we post some videos then...
[video=youtube;puSkP3uym5k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k[/video]


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## ThePass (Aug 10, 2007)

That guy is awesome. At around 3:30 in he's freaking right out. What happens if he busts a string??


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## simescan (May 15, 2007)

Wow, that's some wicked uke-pickin', right there....


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## Mike MacLeod (Nov 27, 2006)

Here's Canada's Ukulele virtuoso. This was taken a few years back. You should hear him now. He's amazing. He'll be in calgary on Nov. 18th <www.fishcreekconcerts.com> His workshops sold out in a week or so. I'll be having him back for more workshops. If you are in the Calgary area, e-mail me for a place on my Uke-list. 

I'm not entirely pleased with any of the uke offering found in any of the major music stores. Most of them are rubbish and won't intonate, play in tune, or even sound like a uke. 'course you know that I'm a horrible instrument snob. 

[video=youtube;3hQwHvr71R0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hQwHvr71R0[/video]


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Pretty cool--I think I'll have to check him out if you bring him back.


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

Yes indeed he definitely is our own homegrown virtuoso. I had the immense pleasure of catching him at Canmore Folk Festival this summer. His playing, sense of humour and rapport with the crowd made him a standout
act for me. His workshop and jam with Luke Doucet was the stuff of legends, for both of them.


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