#banjo uke

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

[YouTube Thumbnail image description: an older White gentleman is holding a banjo uke (a ukulele with a banjo-style head) up to the camera. Around the head is his performance name of "Lew Dite" in large black letters, and in holographic foil letters, "Just Uke the Bastards." Description ends]

Five-Foot Two (Lyrics)

Five-foot two, eyes of blue. Oh, what those five feet could do! Has anybody seen my gal?

Turned-up nose, turned down hose. Flapper, yeah, she's one of those. Has anybody seen my gal?

If you run into a five-foot two All covered in fur, Diamond rings, And all those things, You can bet your life it isn't her.

Could she dance? Could she woo? Could she coochie-coochie-coo! Has anybody seen my ga-al? Anybody seen my gal?!

[peteglazemusic]

For my banjolele playing friends, here’s a little workshop on playing Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue,” on banjolele/ukulele/banjo-uke.

https://youtu.be/oWDdNTvyFzM

[tabooiart]

"Pick a card, any card!" "Ace of hearts!" "A token of our esteem and affection."

[kazoosandfannypacks]

"Green" Kermit the frog fanart for @monthly-challenge day 2!

[tabooi]

The cast of The Wizard of Oz on This Morning <3

[pastelstarmie]

Hey Tumblr! Do you like rowdy queer trashy folk punk with political messages and too many instruments? You should check out the band I play banjo in called cheap dirty horse! We just released our first single called Hate Song, and have more coming soon as well as spoofy streaming in the near future (only on bandcamp right now, sorry!!!!)!

Please check out our bandcamp and find us on insta to learn about our shows if you like it!

Future releases include: washing machine and protect trans kids!

[werebutch]

We own way too many instruments for people who don’t play anything .

[catofspades]

banjitars my beloved♡ mandolin guitars love of my life♡ fucked up hybrid instruments my dearest♡ pulling up to the venue like what the fuck is that♡ this thing would get me shot in Tennessee♡

[straw-for-brains]

Eamonn during his debut as Zeke and Cowardly Lion!!!

Ben Thompson as Toto Louis Gaunt as Hunk/Scarecrow Eamonn Cox as Zeke/Cowardly Lion (u/s) Ashley Banjo as Hickory/Tin Man Georgina Onuorah as Dorothy Gale

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 23 December 1954

Go on, then. Let's finish the year in style. I have to say, the songs here look pretty fun. And none look explicitly Christmassy - I guess David Whitfield's all we're getting this year. Can't say I mind that.

Let's Get Together No. 1 - The Big Ben Banjo Band (peaked at No. 6)

So many things jumped out at me here, almost immediately. First, it sounds like a Winifred Atwell album. Clearly an attempt to wrangle some of the same popularity, since we've hit the festive party season. Second, it also has that intriguind "No. 1" on it, which is curious. Was this released along with a No. 2? Why not just come up with a new title? Third, "The Big Ben Banjo Band"?!

Given all this, I'm braced for something bizarre and silly, and to be fair, this record does deliver, but it takes its time about it. The whole track is a bit of a journey, actually, and a long journey: 6 whole minutes of what I can only assume is a Winifred Atwell-style medley, in which the pace frequently speeds up and slows down without warning, hitting you in the face with a fast bit out of nowhere.

There are banjos throughout, but they're not really the focus at the start - it's all about the brass band - and to be honest, this sounds like something from the 1920s. There's a slow section with an accordion and what sounds like a mandolin and a trumpet. Nice enough, but nothing stunning.

You're just about getting comfortable when there's a change and we get some bargain-basement Winifred Atwell for a bit. Seriously, it's her piano style, but slow, which makes it a heck of a lot less charming and less impressive. But this is all luring you into a false sense of security, because at the 2:40 mark -

BANG! Sudden fast banjos our of literally nowhere! It's the most thrilling, schizo part of this track, and it switches us back into a jazzy mode that's good fun for, oh, about a minute, before we're back to slow. It's fun while it lasts, though.

What I'm noticing here is mostly that it's clearly trying to cash in on Winifred Atwell's success - the band itself was put together by Norrie Paramor, who seems to have been a producer who worked with literally everybody notable at this point in the UK, and it seems to have been put together specifically to make this hit. The worst thing is, it's not actually very good at it - while Winifred's changes between songs are seamless, and while none of her songs outstay their welcome, the same very much cannot be said here. It's harmless, but it's just... not quite as good.

The Finger of Suspicion - Dickie Valentine and the Stargazers (1)

Dickie Valentine is such a cool stage name. Unlike Ronnie Hilton, Richard Bryce made a good choice, here, changing it. He manages to capture a very American sort of cool, you'd never guess he was a stagehand from Marylebone.

To his credit - or his writers' - this is also a cool name for a song - it all sounds very film noir. I'm imagining some sort of crime of passion, a detective investigating, accusations flying. Dramatic stuff!

Of course, once we get into it, the "crimes" are pretty tame stuff, but the metaphor's still nice. We hear from Dickie, for example, that "Someone broke into my heart and stole a beat or two" and that "Someone took away my sleep and never left a clue". It's about being in love, you see - which is cute. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny - isn't the point that you know who you have a crush on? So you really shouldn't have to be investigating it, Dickie.

There's one rather sinister moment that I don't think it meant to sound quite as ominous as it does, where Dickie describes how, once she's caught and sentenced, "I'll take and lock her charms forever in my arms." Which... I don't know, it's just a little creepy. But that's modern sensibilities speaking, I'm sure. And it's such a smooth, fly-by line that I can't really fault it.

We then get a really lovely brass interlude, followed later on by - even better - a bit of electric guitar work! I really like the sound of 1950s electric guitar, it's super cool, so this made me smile. The sound of the whole song is great, actually, in a sleepy, warm kind of way. Lots of brass, plus those smooth, sweeping backing singers, and Dickie's voice, which manages charm without accidentally veering into smarm.

The only thing I can nitpick about are a few awkward lines that were clearly put in there for the rhyme and not because they really work as lines. What else can we do with lines like "Then who is bound to be the guilty, who?" It's clunky, but in context, it works just fine.

Heartbeat - Ruby Murray (3)

Well, Ruby's back, with what I have to say is quite a zippy tune. It's not the most memorable thing we've heard here, but there are some lovely touches, from the slight bluesy edge to her voice, to the light little violin echoes we get after her lines. She has a voice for country music, but it doesn't go heavy on the country here, and the result's pleasant enough.

The main idea in the lyrics is that Ruby's excited by her love approaching, and her heartbeat is rising, and so we get lyrics like "Hear it, hear it / Hear my heartbeat / Pounding, pounding / Like a drum". A cardiologist's nightmare, but quite a sweet metaphor.

It sounds quite sweet, but there's also quite a simmeringly hot undercurrent here - how else do we interpret Ruby telling her love to "Take me, touch me / Make me thrill"? Or, for that matter, lines bemoaning "what will happen to me / If something doesn't happen soon". Nobody is explicitly turned on, or anything, but there's definitely a hint of seduction, behind Ruby's innocent tone.

There's also a very sexy descending chromatic chord pattern that's almost James Bond - it's the coolest part of what is otherwise, despite the lyrics, quite a tame song. Honestly, I just think you should get descending chromatic motion in more songs generally, it's such a good sound!

And that's that. Three songs that your average person in 2024 probably hasn't ever heard. I can't say you're missing out hugely, but none of them were terrible. There was one obvious front-runner, too, which makes my favourite nice and easy. And with that, we're into 1955!

Favourite song of the bunch: The Finger of Suspicion

[peteglazemusic]

I also do a series on playing the banjolele (banjo-uke) clawhammer style.

Here is one on playing the old Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood song, “These Boots Are Made For Walking.”

[miketendo-64]

[Feature] Having A Gu-huh!-reat Time At EGX 2023

EGX was in full swing again this year as thousands of gamers and eventgoers attended the UK’s largest event this weekend. It was hosted at the ExCeL building in London during October 12th-15th, 2023, and there were plenty of incredible games available to play, as well as interesting panels and talks, merchandise, networking opportunities, and more. Having attended EGX several times over the last…

[toughpaperround]

Jokes, Banjo, and Heart-healin'

https://keithalessi.com/

If you get the chance, do go listen to Keith

[wordingg]

Proud Parents

Dead Boy Ween Day 5, prompt: family

Summary: Crystal is insistent that she doesn't need the dead boys to attend her graduation ceremony. But, Charles and Edwin would never let Crystal go alone.

AN: I got like halfway through this one and realized that schools in the UK probably don't have graduation ceremonies the same way American schools. They might not even have graduation ceremonies at all. BUT I HAVEN'T MISSED A DAY YET AND IM NOT GONNA START NOW SO YOU'RE JUST GONNA HAVE TO SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF. okay thanks.

“You guys can’t come to my graduation, okay?” Crystal said firmly.

It was a little hard to take her seriously when she was standing in a veritable ocean of clothes and shaking what looked like a very fancy sunhat at them, but her expression was very serious.

“My parents are going to be there and I don’t want any weird ghost shit going on, okay?” Crystal added. She threw them an exasperated look when both boys just stared at her with folded arms.

“They said they’re going to be there?” Charles asked with a raised eyebrow.

“They gave a very firm maybe, which is practically a yes for them,” Crystal snapped back.

Charles frowned at that, but Edwin spoke over whatever he was planning to say.

“Of course, if you don’t want us to attend your graduation ceremony, we will respect your wishes,” Edwin said benevolently.

“Thank you, Edwin,” Crystal said, with a pointed look at Charles.

“You’re quite welcome, Crystal,” Edwin said with a polite nod.

Crystal disappeared back into her walk in closet to continue to dig for something good enough to wear under her graduation gown. Charles turned to Edwin with a confused frown.

“There’s no way her parents are going to show up for graduation, is there?” he asked sincerely.

“Not a chance,” Edwin said, still watching the closet door. “I checked their calendar and they’ve already booked two interviews and something called an ‘experimental banjo sesh’ for the same time as the ceremony.”

“God, what arseholes,” Charles muttered. “Crystal deserves better.”

“Of course she does,” Edwin said with an arched brow. “That is why we will be better for her.”

Charles’ mouth stretched into a manic grin and Edwin’s own mouth twitched at the edges with infectious glee.

---

The day of her graduation, Crystal was sweating with nerves. She had opted to finish her degree online when her attempts to make up with many of the people in her class that she had wronged had gone badly, to say the least. It was the first time in months that she was in the same room with them. It was a big gymnasium, but it was hard not to notice all the venomous looks pointed her way from almost every corner.

Crystal wiped her palms on the fabric of her gown, but the artificial fabric did nothing to wick the moisture away from her skin. She wanted to touch her cap to make sure it was sitting straight, but was worried about knocking her elaborate hairstyle down. She had gotten up early to arrange her curls into an elegant bun at the nape of her neck. It had been a bigger challenge than she expected and as a result her hair was mostly held together by two dozen bobby pins and sheer determination.

Crystal’s parents had already been gone by the time she was ready to leave for the ceremony, but she tried not to let that get her down. She had just talked to them the night before and they had confirmed their definite maybe for her graduation. She just had to have faith. They probably were picking up flowers or a cake or something. They knew Crystal was very self sufficient and could call her own cab to take her to the school.

Finally it was time to line up and walk out onto the field. Luckily, Crystal ended up in line between two boys that she didn’t recognize and who didn’t seem all that interested in her. They walked out of the gymnasium and into the bright spring day outside. Crystal was briefly blinded, but as soon as her eyes cleared she looked out into the crowd for her parents.

The field outside the gym was absolutely packed with people. There were rows and rows of folding chairs set up for the students graduating. The line steadily filled the rows in, directed by teachers in suits and skirts. Around the folding chairs were metal bleachers packed with adults and other kids alike, everyone snapping photos and waving and shouting things as the students filing into the chairs occasionally picked someone out of the crowd and waved back.

She didn’t see her parents as she walked out, but it was a madhouse. Probably they were there and she just didn’t see them. That was fine. Crystal turned around during a speech started to try and look again and got hissed at by one of the teachers, so she turned back around and pretended to pay attention.

The speeches washed over her like so much noise. She couldn’t have recalled anything that was said even if her life depended on it. Her mind was on the crowd at her back and her parents, the anxiety of not knowing crawling up her throat and threatening to choke her.

Then, finally, they started calling names and it was time to walk across the stage and claim her diploma. The school had considered ‘Von Hoverkraft’ to be her last name, so she had to wait until almost every other kid had gone before she could stand up and walk across the small pop up stage to shake the hand of a sweaty middle aged man she didn’t recognize and take her diploma.

As she did so, a camera flashed from the crowd, loud and bright and briefly blinding her. Crystal felt tears pricking her eyes and it wasn’t just from the bright flash. Someone was taking her picture and she couldn’t help but hope it was her dad, memorializing her finally finishing high school, finally becoming an adult.

Her smile turning sincere for the first time that day, Crystal walked to the other side of the stage and back to her seat feeling breathless. They were here somewhere in the crowd. They had come. They had shown up for her.

A few more kids went up to get their diploma and there was one last short speech. Everyone was itching for the ceremony to be over, so the speech didn’t last for very long. Soon, the ceremony was over and the two crowds (students and families) rushed toward each other, students merging into the bleachers while parents and siblings ran into the lines of folding chairs.

Crystal stood up, but then she froze. She was short in her sensible flats and couldn’t see over the heads of the crowd to find her parents. She started to move toward the bleachers, but it was a wild press of people and she felt a surge of panic that she wouldn’t be able to find them in time, that the crowds would deter them and her parents would leave without her seeing them.

Halfway to the bleachers, Crystal felt a man’s hand on her upper arm, pulling her to a stop. Crystal whipped around, not sure if she should be ecstatic or vicious, and looked into a familiar face. Familiar, but not the one she was hoping for.

An older man, maybe in his fifties, with red hair almost completely turned white and distinguished rimless glasses was smiling down at her. It was Charles in his living person disguise.

“Crystal, this way!” he said over the low roar of the crowd, guiding her away from the bleachers and through them toward the parking lot.

Briefly, Crystal felt irritated. She had told them not to come. But, she couldn’t hold onto her frustration for very long. She was scared and upset and hopeful by equal measures and Charles’ presence was a comforting. She eventually shook his hand off her arm so that she could instead grab his hand in hers and he smiled down at her again.

Charles led her out of the crowd and around to the back of the metal bleachers, where Crystal saw a woman in big acrylic frames wearing a little maroon beret over blonde hair peppered with white. Edwin.

“I told you guys I didn’t want you here,” Crystal muttered. “I have to get back. My parents might leave if they can’t find me.”

Charles and Edwin exchanged a speaking look and Crystal’s stomach dropped.

“We weren’t going to come,” Charles started to say. Crystal realized suddenly that he was wearing a big old fashioned camera around his neck by a strap. She swallowed around a lump in her throat.

“But, we also weren’t about to leave you here alone if they didn’t come,” Edwin said quickly.

Crystal felt her eyes filling with tears and firmly told herself not to blink. If she blinked, they would fall and if they started to fall, they might never stop.

She looked at Edwin. Edwin would tell her the truth, even if it hurt. She could trust him to do that for her.

“I’m sorry, Crystal,” he said quietly. “I followed them all morning. We only came once we were sure they were not going to make it to your graduation ceremony.”

It didn’t matter that Crystal hadn’t blinked, the tears began to fall anyway. She dashed them away viciously but they just kept falling.

“God, you must think I’m so naive,” she laughed. “You must have wanted so bad to tell me how stupid I was being. So, go ahead. Say it,” she glared at Edwin, but he only stared evenly back. “Say I was stupid for believing in them! You would be right!” she cried.

“Crystal Palace, you are the farthest thing from stupid,” Edwin said, like it was the most factual thing in the world.

“You’re a good daughter,” Charles said gently, “and you love your parents. That’s not a fault, Crystal. It’s admirable that you keep trying.”

The tears were coming faster now and Crystal gave up on trying to preserve her mascara and eyeliner and instead rubbed at her eyes, probably smearing black makeup everywhere.

“Eds! The flowers!” Charles whispered while Crystal tried desperately to get her tears under control.

She heard rustling and then when she opened her eyes it was to a huge bouquet of lilies, big pink ones with little brown spots exploding out from yellow centers, filled in all around with delicate baby’s breath.

“You got me flowers?” Crystal wobbled, fresh tears threatening to fall.

“And a balloon, but I sort of forgot those things float and it got away from me,” Charles said with a hangdog expression.

Edwin sighed at the mention of the balloon, but shook it off quickly. He stepped in to run his thumbs delicately under Crystal’s eyes, clearing away the smudged makeup along with a few stray tears.

“And, we will be taking you to that awful raw fish buffet that you like,” Edwin said as he cleaned up her makeup here and there.

“It’s called sushi, I know you know that. And, I don’t think they’ll let you come in if you aren’t going to eat anything,” Crystal sniffed.

“I dare say you will eat enough raw fish for the rest of us,” Edwin said, dry as the Sahara desert.

“And, we’ll tell everyone within hearing distance how proud we are of our amazing daughter who just graduated from high school!” Charles added with a grin.

“Yes, she’s quite amazing,” Edwin said, stepping back and judging Crystal’s makeup good enough so long as she didn’t start crying again. ��Neither of us ever finished high school. She’s the first in our family to do so.”

“We’re proud parents, we are,” Charles said, elbowing Edwin with a grin that earned him an eye roll and a reluctant smile.

“You guys…” Crystal trailed off, sniffing. She clutched the flowers closer to her chest, the paper crinkling against her graduation gown. Golden pollen smeared against the cheap polyester and stuck to it, but she couldn’t possibly bring herself to care at the moment.

“Please, Crystal, no more tears. I just fixed your mascara,” Edwin complained, stepping in again to fan at her face with his hands like maybe he could dry the tears before they fell.

Crystal hiccuped around a sound that might have been a sob or a laugh, even she wasn’t sure. She threw her arms around both of their necks, drawing Charles and Edwin into a group hug. The bracketed her sides and the flowers crinkled against their backs. She felt their arms settle around her waist, their heads tilted against her own.

“Thanks, you guys,” she said thickly.

“Of course, Crystal,” Edwin whispered back.

“Anytime,” Charles agreed.

[copperbadge]

Hey Sam, I've been rereading my way through the Shivadh books and I was wondering which G7 is Buck's tattoo? As someone who knows about 5 chords on guitar on a good day I tried to look up a basic G7 and got a whole bunch of different answers from the internet

There are in fact at least nine ways to play G7 on the guitar! The one I always picture Buck having as his tattoo is this one, which I believe is most common:

But honestly if there's another one you like better I am not in the least picky :D I can't play an E on the ukulele without cheating so I have mad props for people who play normal chords in weird ways.

And it's also just...a little bit of an injoke, not just the joke of Buck, who we have just canonically learned is happy to bottom, having a "fingering" tattoo right above his ass. The G7 chord is my favorite chord to play on the ukulele; I like the sound of it, and it pops up in some of my favorite songs, but I also like that it's an inversion of the G Major chord fingering-wise:

The symmetry is just very satisfying to me.

But Buck doesn't play the ukulele -- he absolutely could with very little practice, he's very good on stringed instruments and a uke is much easier to learn than guitar or banjo. And even if I just wanted to say "Well, he plays guitar, he probably plays ukulele" I couldn't really get away with it, because Caleb's ukulele is such an integral part of his story -- it's what he writes his songs on, it's his stim, and it's what he first played Young Prince on for an audience. That needs to be, at least within that story, completely his.

And Buck does love guitars, so I just said guitar chord but secretly meant ukulele. :D

So take heart! You can play G7 on the guitar any way you wish, and if you want to play it on the ukulele you will playing the secret canonical chord. (Sadly probably not the one David played to please the Lord.)

[thislovintime]

"The individual Monkees don’t necessarily agree about everything, but three of ’em are stuck glue-tight together on one subject — Peter Tork! Micky, Mike and Davy all rate him the outstanding musician of the outfit. They say he’s hardly ever without a guitar or banjo in his hands. If he is then it’s because he’s playing his Vox organ in his dressing room. And they all speak up as one about his acting ability. Davy says: 'Mostly, on the television shows, we three are just playing ourselves. But Peter really has to play a part. You see, he’s really very intelligent and he’s also the quietest one of us four. So when he plays that way-out character in the TV series… well, it’s just not him at all! Those double-takes and the way he looks kinda baffled… that’s not our off-stage Peter!'" - Jackie Richmond, Monkees Monthly, June 1967 “[Peter’s] really a genius, a prolific musician — he plays about seven instruments.” - Micky Dolenz, Record Mirror, February 11, 1967 “Peter is the best rock guitarist around today. He plays about ten instruments in all — just about everything with strings. Mike and I also play guitars, although we are not in Peter’s class.” - Davy Jones, Melody Maker, January 14, 1967 “Peter Tork has to be one of the best guitarists around — he can cut anybody on guitar. He plays about 10 instruments — banjo, uke, the lot.” - Davy Jones, The Ottawa Journal, January 20, 1967

Requested on Facebook: non-1967 quotes (by Michael)

“There are two common and, to me, repugnant notions about the Monkees. Number one, that I was the only one who had any talent, which is patently absurd. It’s as unfair and as unkind as it is stupid. The other one is that I was the only musician. I wasn’t the only musician and I wasn’t much of a musician. Peter was a much more skillful player than I was by some orders of magnitude. He wasn’t a singer nor was he a writer. What I was able to do was write tunes — I could sort of pull those out of a ht. But they weren’t very good, were they? I mean, they were the tunes that were on the show from time to time, so that’s what made them seem better than they were.” - Michael Nesmith, Monkees Tale (1985)

“Everyone was accomplished—the notion I was the only musician is one of those rumors that got started and won’t stop—but it was not true. Peter was a more accomplished player than I by an order of magnitude, Micky and Davy played and sang and danced and understood music.” - Michael Nesmith, Rolling Stone, March 8, 2012