sbhikes’s five hundred and eight comments

I bought an E flute from Doug Tipple so I could play A tunes with G fingering. I've never actually had a chance to use it that way. I do like the flute though. It fits my hand a lot better than his D flutes. more…

As someone who's not that good on the flute, the G# is probably the easiest one to half-hole and like you said, many A tunes don't have a G# in them at all. And you can even just skip the note sometimes, too. more…

What I have noticed is that there are many paths to learn a tune, but the one that works best for me is to have the tune go from the earbones to the headbone to the fingerbones. I always try to play the tune at the session, get a note in here, a note in t... more…

The assumption is that I want to play the melody like a mandolin. I want to play the chord progressions like a bouzouki or guitar, not the melody like a mandolin. more…

I have been doing the chord strumming thing at my old time jam. But those kinds of chords do not sound right with Irish music. All I was wondering is if you can tune it some way that lets you play it like bouzouki or guitar players do, get that kind of so... more…

Thank you all for your input. I am sorry I didn't come by sooner to read all the responses but it got really busy at work and I had a lot of gigs after work this week, too. more…

If so, how would you tune the ukulele to play in a session? Are there any good examples out there of backing with a ukulele? I don't want to tune it in 5ths and play it like a mandolin. I already have a mandolin. I'm talking about backing up with a ukulel... more…

I certainly hope that getting the timing and the feeling is more important than the other stuff, because that's pretty much where I try to start, and it's likely that'll be where I will be for a decade. more…

That was nice. The whistle was great, too. I've actually never seen anybody play a dobro before. I guess I've heard one, but never seen one. more…

> If you try and play any tune with a mechanistic approach to ornamentation, swing or whatever you want to call it, you’ll end up with something that doesn’t really do it justice. It’s not about formulas, it’s about rhythm and melody. Get to the e... more…