Ukulele At Its Best

"Step 2: Ukuleles in Paradise 2" is an album that deserves recognition for ukulele accomplishment. Herb Ohta, Jr. and Daniel Ho create a musical soundscape that I can listen to over and over. The palette of sounds on this album is completely beautiful. There's nothing fancy on this album, and I love it. But, the simplicity is deceiving. The level of composition, arranging, timing and musicianship is as good as it gets. These guys remind me of classical guitarists on ukuleles.

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Slack Key, Ukulele, and a Shaker: Album 2

I've begun work on my second album, which is due out in early 2007. The new album features ukulele, guitar, bass (and a shaker. . .) so far. Hopefully, I'll be adding some trumpet and a steel guitar with the help of some friends. The expanded instrumentation is very exciting, especially since the first album was exclusively guitar.

The recording process has been challenging at times. I'm recording in my New York apartment, which comes complete with car horns, slamming doors, people talking in the hallways, refrigerator noise and every other possible city sound. But, I'm reminded that it's the music that counts, and the creative process has been very fun thus far.

I've recorded a few slack key songs, some ukulele music, and some guitar-centered pieces. I hope this project adds some joy to people's lives.

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Slack Key Guitar Gear

The search is over. For 12 years I've been looking for a stompbox that keeps the natural tone of the acoustic guitar, offers great EQ (equalization), delay and reverb. There is such a stompbox, and it's the Yamaha MagicStomp Acoustic. Mark Nelson, a fine Hawaiian slack key guitar player, first introduced me to the MagicStomp. Then, Herb Ohta, Jr. and Daniel Ho, top flight ukulele players, both attested to its greatness. I had to try one.

Pros:
-The mic modeling is excellent, and improves the pickup (often piezo) sound of an acoustic guitar
-The parametric EQ is great, and provides very deep and clear bass
-The delays and reverbs are transparent

Cons:
-The MagicStomp is very difficult to program, which probably explains its lack of popularity. You can edit patches on a software program, but the software only works on PC's or older Macs.

Conclusion:
If you're willing to spend a significant amount of time learning how to use the MagicStomp, it's the best stompbox for acoustic guitar on the market. Street price for a MagicStomp Acoustic is about $150.

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String Squeak

String squeak occurs when a guitar player slides his or her left hand along a string, or changes left hand positions without fully lifting the left hand off of the string before shifting. String squeak is a sound that has been captured endlessly on guitar albums since the birth of recording. I had to redo a track completely on my last album because the squeaks were too prevalent.
Oddly enough, many guitar players actually find string squeak to be pleasing, or at least tolerable. But a classical guitar friend with dozens of albums under his belt made a good point to me the other night: the average listener hates string squeak.
In today's world of digital recording, where computers capture every nuance and aspect of your guitar playing, string squeak is a big issue. Classical guitarists devote significant amounts of time to developing a left-hand technique that avoids string squeak. They also spend significant amounts of time trying to remove string squeak from their recordings.
A few years ago, I was visiting my grandmother. I thought she would enjoy hearing some music, so I played her a few guitar tunes. After listening politely, she remarked, "Pretty good, but what is that sqeaking sound? Can you get rid of it?" Well, you may not be able to completely remove squeak, but you can greatly reduce it. Here are a few tips I've gathered over the years to reduce that nasty little squeak.
1. Use a coated string. Coated or lightly polished strings simply do not squeak as much as normal strings.
2. When recording, dip your left hand in some water. This technique softens callouses, and reduces squeak.
3. There is no substitute for good technique. Be conscious of lifting the left hand off of the string before shifting positions.

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Registering Copyrights

When you put pen to paper and write an original song, you have created and acquired a copyright. Registering that copyright, however, has several added benefits:

1) Registration creates a public record of your claim of copyright.
2) Registration is required before suing someone for copyright infringement in court.
3) If you register the song within five years of publication, that registration will serve as evidence of the validity of your copyright and the facts on your registration certificate.
4) Registration allows the copyright owner to sign up with U.S. Customs for protection against importation of pirated copies of your music.
5) Perhaps most importantly, if you register within three months of publication or prior to infringement of your song(s), statutory damages and attorneys' fees will be available in a court action. If you have a claim of copyright infringement, one of the first questions your lawyer will ask is when you registered your copyright. The answer can have substantial monetary implications.

There are two separate copyrights that generally apply to songwriters, the musical work and the sound recording. A musical work is the song itself, regardless of who performs it. A sound recording results from an actual recording of a song (e.g. cd, mp3). So, in many instances, two copyrights come into play, the musical work and the specific recording of the song (sound recording).

It is important to distinguish between the musical work and the sound recording when registering a copyright. If you record someone else's song, you should register the sound recording, but not the musical work, which belongs to someone else. And you should be sure to pay mechanical royalties (but that discussion is for another day).

How to Register a Copyright:

Registering a copyright in a musical work and/or a sound recording with the U.S. Copyright Office is as simple as filling out a form and paying a relatively small filing fee.
If you are registering just a musical work (the song itself), use form PA.
If you are registering just a sound recording (e.g. you recorded someone else's song), use form SR.
If you are registering both a musical work and a sound recording together (e.g. you recorded an original song to be released on cd), use form SR.

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Guitar Picks

For the past twelve years, I used Dunlop Tortex picks (1.14 mm, the thickest they make). These picks are cheap and durable. The tortex material produces a mellow, thick tone that isn't too bright. Heavy picks are essential to getting a big, fat clear tone.
Then I discovered Tortis. These picks emulate the chemical composition of real tortoise shell, and they sound amazing. Real tortoise shell picks have long been tool of choice for flatpicking bluegrass guitar and mandolin players, but the material is rare and new tortoise is illegal. Tortis picks on the other hand, have the same qualities of tortoise, but without the hassle. They're made by a true picksmith, Dave Skowron, and come in all kinds of shapes and colors. If you're used to $.25 picks, the $20 price tag will shock you, but they're worth every penny. After viewing the endorsements by all kinds of hot flatpickers, I decided to try one, and now I can't use anything else. The improvement in the clarity of the guitar, depth of the bass and speed of the attack is instantly apparent.

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Slack Key Virtuoso

If you haven't heard him yet, please check out Jeff Peterson, an incredible slack key guitar player in Hawaii. Jeff's guitar facility ranges from jazz to classical, but his slack key sensibility is simply astounding. And on top of that, he's a really nice guy. Jeff just released a new album called "The Artistry of Jeff Peterson." Check him out at www.jeffpetersonguitar.com

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Sound Exchange

To all you slack key (ki ho`alu), independent, fingerstyle, Hawaiian, singer-songwriter folks:
ASCAP and BMI have traditionally collected public performance royalties on behalf of publishing companies and songwriters. With the emergence of a relatively new copyright revenue stream from digital music service providers (e.g. Sirius and XM), an additional performing rights organization called SoundExchange was born. However, unlike ASCAP and BMI, SoundExchange still remains relatively unnoticed.

Here's the short story, if you are a featured performer or sound recording owner of a recording that has been bouncing around the airwaves, there may be royalty money waiting for you at SoundExchange. Here's a link to the list of artists who are owed royalties:

http://63.236.111.137/jsp/unpaidArtistList.jsp

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