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Some of my earliest childhood
memories are of my Grandad playing the
ukulele to me.
He taught me vaudeville songs and strummed the chords
while I sang. Music captured my imagination. Shortly
before Grandad passed away he gave me a
uke of my own. It wasnt much more than a toy (well
I was only
six) but it set me on a journey that continues to this
day. If only he could have known that I would on day
travel the
world earning my living as a ukulele player!
When I started playing in
the 1980s, the ukulele was not popular in Britain. Back
then you had to travel many miles
to meet other enthusiasts - thats if you were lucky
enough to find them! But I combined the musicianship that
I
learned from my studies on the violin and piano with the
tips I gleaned from other uke players, and managed to
develop a decent ukulele technique.
It
surprised me that very few players
tried to use the ukulele for anything more than a
rhythmic accompaniment for
the voice. To me that seemed a waste of a wonderful sound,
so I learned to write and perform ukulele solos that
would be a little more challenging! It was an exciting
moment for me when, in 2000, I gained a music degree from
Oxford as the first musician ever to perform my final
recital on the uke. In my whole time at the university, I
didn't
meet one single uke player there.
Today things are very different:
the ukulele scene is thriving! Every major town has a
gathering of uke players.
Gradually people have learned to love the ukulele again,
as they did back in the jazz era. Yet the huge majority
of
players still treat the instrument as a bit of fun; theyre
happy just to learn a few chords and strum basic rhythms.
Dont get me wrong - I love the fun
aspect of the uke, in fact most of the material that I
perform is light-hearted if not
comical. But lets remember that the ukulele,
although small and simple, also has the potential to be
an instrument
of the most beautiful music. My hope in writing and
recording this little suite of classical-style pieces is
that I might
help encourage people to recognise it as such, and invite
you to appreciate the ukuleles possibilities in the
context
of another musical realm.
----------------- Andy
Eastwood, 2015
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