A place for ukulele in Irish traditional music?

[Denny]

That is nice...

Ya had me worried there, Brad. I was a bit afraid of a kind of Tip Toe Through the Sally Gardens kinda thing...

[Sunnybear]

Yes the are plenty of music snobs out there...the idea that many have that the instruments they subscribe to are traditional is often a load of cobblers....they may have become'traditional' in that they have been played for a longish time....but the authors of true IT were the poorest working classes...who couldnt afford some of the fancy gear about today...and many 'traditional ' instruments were not even invented when IT was played in these early communities......button accordions verse piano accordions...the debate simply never existed.....so think before you put down boundaries that simply never existed within true Irish communities....Get a grip of that.....Come up with what you consider true IT traditional instruments and see how that compares with instrument used today by even 'trasditional' groups..Les.

well, yes, but the boundaries for what the poor sods that you speak of already exist...we are not going back in time here...of course the most common and easiest to obtain instruments are what has been handed down through the tradition...fact is no one really played a ukelele for the music back then..didn't play guitar either, and didn't play accordian until the church decided to outlaw the music for individuals, and to hold group dances (ceileidh) instead..then the accordian came into fashion as a cheap way to fill a hall with music...

So the boundary does exist now, not necessarliy because the early trad musicians ( I doubt that they called themselves that) had a joint committee meeting and said what was and what wasn't suitable...it wasn't even an option. That's the whole idea of the meaning of the phrase "traditional"...it's history...the uke, guitar, mandolin, bouzouki did not exist in the tradition. Doesn't mean that they were or were not suited for it...they just did not exist within it.

If you can come up with a trad ukelele album, I'd love to see it...

[Les Cruttenden]

Actually, sunnybear, I tend to agree with you....its just that I am a miserable old codger...like to stir things up a bit...but no harm intended.......in truth I have lots to learn about IT...but I love it all the same.....and am at last gettng to grips with jigs and reels etc...I am, even at my age , more progressive than some might think....they played what they had and could afford but I do not think that means other..'suitable' accoustic instruments cannot be deployed today......Les.