Tag Archives: ukulele

Tales of the Uke – Part 25

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Roger Miller’s King of the Road was the last recording I posted here. It has been a while! A lot has happened in life during the last 17 months. Some of it good and some of it not-so-good. But, I continue playing, and that gives me joy!

Last Christmas my partner and I went to see the movie, Song Sung Blue, which was about a husband-wife Neil Diamond tribute band. (Does this make them a Neil Diamonique act? Ha!) The film reminded me of my love of the real artist’s music. I dug into his songbook and resolved to work up the actual Song Sung Blue. The tune made it to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. It is a simple song with a chorus, a bit of verse, and no bridge, but it resonates with listeners! It’s hard to feel bad when singing it or playing along. Before I jump into how this came together as a musical collaboration, here are the lyrics:

Song sung blue
Everybody knows one
Song sung blue
Every garden grows one

Me and you are subject to the blues now and then
But when you take the blues and make a song
You sing them out again
Sing ’em out again

Song sung blue
Weeping like a willow
Song sung blue
Sleeping on my pillow

Funny thing, but you can sing it with a cry in your voice
And before you know it get to feeling good
You simply got no choice

Song Sung Blue has a swing feel and is written in C Major, which is very easy to play on ukulele. The simplicity, though, invites a complex arrangement, and that’s what really makes it interesting to me. I wanted to emulate the original recording the best I could with multiple instruments and fills in the measures where there are only rests for the melody. I enlisted my teacher Trevor, who was enthusiastic about the project. My tracks were completed in Oregon and his in Kansas. Yay, technology! I put together a rough mix of the audio and then sent it to him for final mixing and mastering. Recording and editing the video was a whole different step, which I handled on my end once he delivered me his video files.

There is a lot going on here! Ukulele melody, ukulele rhythm, ukulele fills, electric guitar fills, bass guitar, percussion, vocals (as effects), and cello. While not every addition was featured in the video, there is a large enough sampling to showcase the effort put into this. It was a lot of work, a lot of multitracking, and a lot of fun:

If you liked the video, please share it with friends! It was a joy to make. For the latter half of summer I’m working on more chord-melody ukulele material.

Tales of the Uke – Part 24

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I’m back to doing regular songs after a long hiatus! Divorce will do that to you. Last time out I worked with Trevor, my teacher, on a tribute to Gordon Lightfoot. That song hit a little too close to home on my marital relationship, and nearly three months to the day I posted the song on YouTube, she checked out. Yay. Onward. Time for something lighter.

Roger Miller wrote and recorded King of the Road in 1964, and it was released in early 1965. The song became a huge hit, telling a tongue-in-cheek story of a train hopper’s life from their perspective. It went to #1 on the U.S. Country chart, #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Easy Listening chart. It also garnered Miller five Grammy Awards. The song lives on in popular culture. I’ve heard it in video games and even from a colleague years ago who was singing the lyrics in the office.

Recording the song was complicated this time because I wanted more than a melody line. The original recording has finger snaps as percussion that really make the song. I added those on my piece, as well as soundboard taps for a little more “oomph.” I played with a metronome at 110 beats per minute, and Trevor created a click track for me that I dropped into Adobe Audition. He also created a reference strumming track after my first attempt went off the rails a bit. Percussion was recorded first on two different tracks. I then played the melody on the third track. After that I added the backing ukulele on the fourth track. Once each track was recorded (multiple takes of everything!) I mixed the tracks down, added EQ and reverb, and synced with the video which has me playing the melody line. It was a fun project and really enjoyable to play. My daughter was entertained hearing me practice and would spontaneously break into the lyrics. Her godmother, by the way, is from Bangor, Maine, which the song references.

Roger Miller has a wry quote attributed to him: “The human mind is a wonderful thing. It starts working before you’re even born and doesn’t stop again until you sit down to write a song.”

While it took him months to write King of the Road, he did all right:

Trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain’t got no cigarettes
Ah, but two hours of pushing broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room

I’m a man of means, by no means
King of the road

Third boxcar, midnight train
Destination: Bangor, Maine
Old worn-out suit and shoes
I don’t pay no union dues
I smoke old stogies I have found
Short, but not too big around

I’m a man of means, by no means
King of the road

I know every engineer on every train
All of the children and all of their names
And every handout in every town
And every lock that ain’t locked when no one’s around

I sing, trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain’t got no cigarettes
Ah, but two hours of pushing broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room

I’m a man of means, by no means
King of the road

Without further ado, let’s hit the road…

Good times! This is a bit of a break from another song I’ve been toiling at for almost a year by the Beach Boys. Dennis Wilson did some crazy stuff with this particular number so it’s taking an awfully long time to get it into shape; it’s going to need additional instruments to pull off well. There will likely be other projects before then, so stay tuned.

Tales of the Uke – Part 23

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From infatuation to the end of relationship. I mean, most pop songs are one or the other, aren’t they? Today, it’s a salute to a legendary Canadian singer-songwriter and his devastating tale about the end of his first marriage.

When Gordon Lightfoot died this spring, I wanted to learn this song as a tribute. If You Could Read My Mind came out in December of 1970, and I remember hearing it on my parents’ stereo as a kid. The song is haunting and poignant both sonically and lyrically. It was a big hit in Canada, reaching the top of the Canadian Singles Chart. This was also Lightfoot’s first hit in the United States, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, and at number one on their easy listening chart.

Producer and educator Rick Beato did a wonderful job breaking down this song a few years ago on his YouTube channel. He explored what made the song great from a musical production and lyrical standpoint.

If you’re not familiar with the lyrics, check them out:

If you could read my mind, Love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old-time movie
‘Bout a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost that you can’t see

If I could read your mind, Love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind the drugstore sells
When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
But heroes often fail
And you won’t read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take

I’d walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three-way script
Enter number two
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now, Love, let’s be real
I never thought I could act this way and I’ve got to say
That I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong but the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back

If you could read my mind, Love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old-time movie
‘Bout a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
But stories always end
And if you read between the lines
You’d know that I’m just trying to understand
The feelings that you lack
I never thought I could act this way and I’ve got to say
That I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong but the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back

The biggest problem I encountered…how to play the melody of a sad song on an instrument that sounds inherently happy while also capturing the feel of everything else going on in the background? That’s when I thought how cool it would be if Trevor, my teacher, joined me on rhythm guitar. Once I had the basic melody down from sheet music, I made up an arrangement for the verses so they’d be a little different each time. That involved adding chords or changing octaves in multiple spots. Trevor then made up his own arrangement to accompany me, adding the lower end that gave the song more gravitas.

We recorded where I work, doing ukulele and guitar on their own audio tracks. If you listen really closely, you can hear where Trevor went home and played cello on a third track, giving the final chorus an even fuller sound. He did the final music mixing, and I did the video editing from the three separate cameras we used to record. I think it turned out really well:

This was our fourth take, and we both knew it was a keeper immediately. As a student, I play a lot of solo uke, but every so often I get to play with Trevor. Playing with someone else is always a challenge; I really have to lock into my part rather than listen too closely to what he is doing other than my cues. But, this is a fun part of the education process.