D tuning on a soprano ukulele

I've been experimenting today with D tuning... (not detuning)  on my soprano ukulele.  It is actually a whole step up from the more common C tuning.  I don't think I'd ever use the tuning on tenor, but it sounds very sweet and bright on the soprano.  It used to be a lot more common... perhaps that was during the last uke boom in the early 20th Century.  But if I keep playing with other ukers, I'm going to have to either relearn chords or drop back to C.  Time will tell. 

On a different note, Paraclete has finally scraped together packets for distribution to restaurants, clubs, coffee shops, etc.  Yeah, I know it took a long time.  We've been preoccupied with the complications of life.  So what's in that packet?  A nice 8x8 glossy photo montage of Jimi and me with a glimpse of our arsenal in the backdrop; a cd sampling of music from a home recorded practice session, a list of songs that we play, and a short bio. 

I hope we will be performing somewhere soon.

Pocket Bell

Branching out

Currently, Jimi and I are recording samples to go in a packet that we can distribute to clubs, restaurants, cafes, and whatnot.  The goal is to get some gigs going again.  We started out at the Bellingham Farmer's Market during the summer of 2009... no wait, actually our first public performance was the Fall of 2008, when we did a few tunes with Johnny Waco and the Cainthardlyplayboys at the Green Frog.

Brings back some memories.... let me think.. it was "Put Another Log on the Fire", "Act Naturally", and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."  Crowd seemed to enjoy it enough.  I had only been playing fiddle for two months or so at that point.  I was classically trained on the violin since age 6, but I stopped playing in 1994.  Jimi convinced me to start playing again.  Needless to say, I sound a LOT better now than I did in 2008!

My newest project is learning to play ukulele.  I bought Jimi a custom Hawaiian-made tenor uke for Christmas.  Somehow, during the many months when I was researching ukes and trying to find just the right one, I got completely hooked.  But I'll save that story for later. 

Welcome to the world of Paraclete.  Maybe I can even get Jimi to post once in awhile....