Hello World! Today, I received my new concert ukulele, just over three months after I received my soprano ukulele! Both ukuleles are part of my science experiment, in which I’m testing my cognition skills despite my vision impairment, arthritis & callouses. ☺️
As a lifelong scientist that has been totally BLIND for over four years, I have recently decided to recover my skill of acoustics. I’m also a lifelong acoustician without any intention of becoming a musician. This blog post is about my new concert ukulele! ☺️
Due to my vision impairment, I can NOT SEE YouTube videos, so I must rely on audiobooks. For my renewed acoustics skill, I’m reading, or “listening” to the following audiobooks” Music Theory for Dummies, Ukulele for Dummies & How to Play Ukulele.
Long ago, long before I became BLIND, I had tinkered with Windows-based MixCraft to learn how to use Apple GarageBand on my now-defunct Apple iBook G4 laptop computer. During this time period, I had also invested in a Casio musical keyboard. Though I had perfect eyesight, I never intended on becoming a musician, yet I was able to generate some relaxing melodies, all of which I don’t recall publishing anywhere.
Anyhow, my new concert ukulele costed me 🇵🇭₱750 or 🇺🇸$14.65, plus a little more for delivery. I had Josh take the photo above before he tuned it for me. — To date, besides one string tuned to 440Hz, I still don’t know the frequencies (in Hertz) for me to use on my tone frequency generator or purchasing the four tuning forks. (Remember, I’m an acoustician! ☺️ )
Also to note, my new concert ukulele came with a cheap plastic bag (not pictured), and nothing else. My soprano ukulele was cheaper, yet included additional string & one guitar pick.
As of this writing, I still don’t know how to hold the ukulele properly, as if there was a required holding position. I do remember seeing guitars retrofitted for handicapped persons, such as missing limbs or fingers, so since I’m now BLIND with arthritis, I will just have to experiment how to hold each of my ukuleles for generating chords or tones. For those curious, I’ve no intention of performing in-front of anyone, however, I’ve discovered how to strum two different chords with some difficulty, influencing me to purchase the concert model. ☺️
Now that I have two ukuleles, and my 40th year of using computers is this coming summer, I might actually become some type of ukulele player by next year, 2023, but that is only a fantasy at this time.
For those curious about my preferred music genre… I’m currently into “New Age” genre, but my longer-term genre is 80s pop, with some interest in EDM, house & trance. If I wanted to play a specific melody on the ukulele, it would be the X Files theme from Mark Snow, but I’ve only heard a single string-chord before & after the six famous notes, often done on a non-string instrument.
Thanks for reading my latest blog post about my new concert ukulele! Have a Great Day!
🇵🇭🇺🇸👨🦯🦽 📱⌨️📻🎧 📚🪀🧮
Marcos Miranda's SCIENCE Blog 
Excellent news that your concert his has arrived! Get in touch directly with me and we can have a Zoom session.
You would aim for roughly having the uke with the flat back (the non-string side) against your body at a ten to four angle (as if it were a clock face in front of you) assuming you wish to play right-hand (ie making the chords with your left-hand & picking or strumming with the right, right forearm gently over the his to support it). Changing the position of where you strum / pick over the soundhole or end of fretboard alters the loudness and tone.This can be easily reversed on a uke to play left-handed if your preference. A strap may also help. I can also explain how to tune the uke to itself once you have one string in tune (to save needing to use four tuning forks).
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Thanks! My original order of “locally-made concert ukulele” was cancelled by Lazada (eCommerce site), yet interestingly, my new order of “concert ukulele with bag” arrived in less than 48 hours, which is very uncommon here.
My wife’s nephew, Josh, has a miniature guitar tuning gadget for tuning my ukuleles. ☺️
I’ve tuning forks for my ongoing acoustics project in determining therapeutics. ☺️
Josh told me how to hold my concert ukulele, but I’m not able to efficiently press down the strings on the fret board nor strum for good sound; it sounded like I’m breaking the strings, etc.
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Re-Entrant GCEA Concert Ukulele Tuning Frequencies:
G4 (High G) 392 Hz (string on the left-hand side – or uppermost string if playing uke right-handedly).
C4 261.63 (often rounded to 262) Hz (next one along – lowest in pitch / thickest string on a re-entrant uke). Also known as middle C on a piano (as it’s in the centre of the keyboard).
E4 329.63 (often rounded to 330) Hz (next string along).
A4 440 Hz (right-hand string / nearest the floor when playing right-handedly). Also known as Concert Pitch A – the note an orchestra tunes to at a concert.
(The number after the note name indicates the octave – working from 1 on the left of a piano keyboard & getting higher as you reach the right hand side -up to 7 on a full 88-key instrument. So Low G ukes have the note of G3 instead of G4.)
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Thanks for the info! ☺️
I’m using software-based audio frequency generator & aluminum tuning forks for separating individual tones for therapeutic purposes, in terms of acoustics, a specialized project, such as 440Hz vs 432Hz, etc.
I also use 2 software-based tuning forks, one for musical notation & the other for frequency to sound, similar to the software-based audio frequency generator I use.
As for the ukulele, I’m currently researching which generated tones causes stress-reduction, and how to produce them without any electronics. ☺️
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PS For example, there are several uke versions of the X Files theme out there. Single note version here – one uke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sheoJNBGThk ; two-uke version (could be achieved for you by multi-tracking yourself): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBkBccgtcTo; electronic version for uke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECUldjzr5Pg ; (I am happy to read you the on-screen tabs, so you can make a note of it in a useful format) . Jeanette
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Ah, there are ukulele versions of the X Files theme! ☺️
Good to know! Thanks! ☺️
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