{"id":113,"date":"2005-10-01T09:06:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-01T16:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/?p=113"},"modified":"2012-01-27T09:57:51","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T17:57:51","slug":"metronome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/2005\/10\/01\/metronome\/","title":{"rendered":"Metronome"},"content":{"rendered":"
I don’t really know how to write about music. There’s a bunch of terminology that I can pretend to understand, but anyone who does know what all that stuff means is just going to see right through me. I can’t read music – though I am very slowly learning to – and I’m a mere novice when it comes to making music. Still, I enjoy music and I loves me some ukulele.<\/div>\n

Last night a medium size gathering of folks from SUPA<\/a> got together, first to dine and chat, and then, to see Jake Shimabukuro<\/a> play the uke. Jake is a pocket-sized Japanese\/Hawaiian guy, I’m guessing he’s what? 22? 25? And boy howdy, does he play the uke.<\/p>\n

He does these crazy things with his hands, pulling notes off the fretboard almost like it’s a piano, then strumming like he’s got hummingbird wings for hands. Fast is insufficient to describe it. It would be something of a circus trick, a little gimmick, and there’s some of that going on, but because he maintains flawless rhythym and melody at the same time that his strumming hand has transformed into a blur, it’s way more than just a sideshow. He gets more sound out of that little four-stringed instrument than, well, fergitaboutit, okay?<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nEvidence that Jake touched my strumming hand. With both hands. <\/span><\/p>\n

After the show we were invited to stick around backstage to meet Jake, who’s just as adorable up close as he is from the 12th row. His eyes got all big when we told him we were from a contingent of more than 60 ukulele players, he shook everyone’s hand and thanked them personally for coming in a very sweet and genuine sort of way, he laughed at our silly ukulele banter… what a charmer. (He looks like a total badass in the pics on his site, but that’s just the camera talking, don’t be fooled.)<\/p>\n

I’ve been wondering a couple of things. I’ve been wondering if that kind of manner isn’t something culturally Hawaiian. The Hawaiian musicians I’ve met – and I’ve met a few because it seems they always stick around after the show to sign autographs or to catch up with old friends, or they hang out in the lobby drinking overpriced cocktails with everyone else during intermission – have that self-effacing friendly manner. It is just so appealling. Aloha, baby. Get some.<\/p>\n

Also, on the music side, I’ve been wondering if you can actually learn to strum like that. Maybe if you’re 6 and you live in a family of musicians, you just kind of grow up doing it. But what if you’re starting late and you’re the only one in your house with the call to make music? Is timing something that you can learn or does it come from something else? I am inclined to think that you can learn some of it, but to transcend to the exceptional, there has to be something ticking inside you, some kind of internal metronome. Maybe if you have the beat, it’s because you are somehow, subconciously, more in connection with your heart. I don’t mean that in a woo woo new agey kind of way, I mean that somehow, you are more aware of the metronome inside your body, whether you know it in your head or not.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t really know how to write about music. There’s a bunch of terminology that I can pretend to understand, but anyone who does know what all that stuff means is just going to see right through me. I can’t read music – though I am very slowly learning to – and I’m a mere … <\/p>\n


…read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-ukulele","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5964,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/5964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}