This guy should record a CD of his own.

[ND66]

Audio is crappy, but still, check this out:

http://www.break.com/index/worlds_best_ukulele_player.html

.

[cjolley]

Amazing.
Why on earth didn't they give the guys name?

But then again, don't forget this!

[Jessterw]

That's <expletive> amazing.

I've noticed a resurgence in ukulele playing the past few years, which is cool, because it truly is a beautiful instrument as strings go.

[ND66]

But then again, don't forget this!

Nice find!

[Dr Mordrid]

Both =

Dr. Mordrid

[Kooldino]

Wow, the first guy is damn good.

The orchestra? Bad singing, and it took how many of them to play a simple song that a n00b can pick up in a day? Nothing impressive by any means.

[cjolley]

The orchestra? Bad singing, and it took how many of them to play a simple song that a n00b can pick up in a day? Nothing impressive by any means.

Did all that bios fighting disable your sense of humor?
They were stylin'

[Jessterw]

I imagine that the singing was not intended to be anything more than what it was. As far as how many of them it took to play the song, I'm not sure that has any bearing on the talent of any one individual in the group. It's a pretty simple concept that having more than one helps add to the overall sound in that they can emulate the various parts of the music that would have otherwise come from different instruments.

Yes, the song selection wasn't anything impressive, but again, I don't think it was intended to be anything more than what it was. Fun.

[Gurm]

The Ukelele player is good, to be sure, but really not all that spectacular in the world of guitar. What's impressive is that he's playing the Uke like it was a guitar... many folk guitarists sound really good on a Ukelele.

[Gurm]

I did not, in that last post, mean to imply that the guy isn't very very good. He is. He's just no Django... heh.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2649271?htv=12

Yes, that's right - you're not seeing things - the man only had two fingers.

Also, check out some AMAZING playing by the Rosenberg Trio:

http://www.djangobooks.com/archives/2006/03/29/the_rosenberg_trio_with_christian_escoude_live_in_vienne_2000.html#000597

[Mehen]

I have two friends that could easily play that first one. I can strum as fast as that guy too, but can't finger pick as quick, especially on a smaller instrument like a Ukulele (I need small asian hands to do that ). Not the greatest at finger picking, I've just played electric 99.9% of the time for the last 3 or 4 years, used to play more acoustic and classical before that.

[Elie]

Now all we need is an electric Ukulele

The first guy was impressive, the britsh group were ok, entertaining to say the least.
But the Rosenberg Trio take the cake

Cheers,
Elie

[Fat Tone]

I saw the Ukele Orchestra of GB during the live broadcast. It was more impressive then, despite the bad singing. IIRC it was a New Years Eve Hootenanny show. The host is Jools Holland. If you want some impressive music, check out anything done by him with his Big Band

Oh, and never forget George Formby, leaning on his lampost...

[GNEP]

Yeah! George Formby was always a favorite of mine when I was little Now there's an entertainer...

[Brian Ellis]

... or when he was cleaning windows. Actually, Formby was not good on the ukelele, he was a simple chord strummer.

The guy in the video was good. When I watched it, my thoughts were the same as Gurm's about his playing it like a guitar. Even when he was strumming, he was able to keep a melody on the bass string: that takes some doing. I agree that he may not yet be a match for Django or Segovia, but it may come.

It would not surprise me if the guy is Vietnamese. A lot of them have the combination of fine fingers and remarkable finger agility. I once had a Vietnamese work colleague who was the most remarkable musician that I've ever come across, both in playing 7 instruments including the classical guitar - he studied under Segovia - and in general knowledge of music of many types. He had perfect pitch, and not just for the 12 note scale but also for the 52-note scale used for some Indian styles of music. He was head oboeist for the ORTF in Paris while he paid for his studies for his Master's degree in French at the Sorbonne, after 5 years at the Conservatoire from which he graduated Cum Laude. He then studied for an electronics engineering degree at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He was able to recognise a piece of music several months after hearing it for the first and only time and could transcribe a solo instrument piece after a single hearing. The reason he took up engineering? He loved music so much that he felt like a prostitute when he had to make a living from it.