Far from the maddening ukulele strum?

When I interviewed Martin Simpson earlier this year, he talked about the massive possibilities with the ukulele as an instrument and in the interview showed how the same ukulele could sound very different.

Scroll to 4 minutes into this clip below 

Personally I’m not a fan of strumming as a rule although I appreciate that it works for some songs and it can be fun with a group as it’s easier to coordinate people. I’m more interested in how to expand the range of what the instrument can do which is one of the reasons I like to explore different string combinations with different ukuleles. I may well be in a minority in my thinking of course and I previously blogged about how in most cases ukulele artists tend to be solo or duos as opposed to groups which can give the opportunity to greater sonic expansion and innovation. 

Martin Simpson favours using claw hammer with the ukulele which I confess to being quite hopeless at and in recent weeks I saw him do this live in spectacular fashion. There’s nothing wrong with strumming of course, it’s just that there are so many possibilities with the ukulele. At a festival after few hours my ears can only take so many sounds that sit in the same sonic register and its IMO far better to expand the sound by adding in other instruments. Again many with disagree and as I have regularly blogged many festivals will offer strum along sessions as the main part of a festival, which is fine, but not my personal preference. 

For beginners strumming is a great way to start learning the ukulele. Its also a wonderfully social activity in a group situation, but its only one dimension. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain brilliantly showed how with some smart arrangements the ukulele could transcend the strum into something quite magical and to my ears far more entertaining. Below is their great rendition of the theme from Shaft which I suspect would have both surprised and delighted Issac Hayes