Hope you had a good Valentine’s Day yesterday. Valentine’s Day led me to think about how to draw those we love into our love of playing the ukulele. You know, warm fuzzy inclusiveness. Now your loved one may not want to play the ukulele. But he/she/they could play another instrument. Like the xylophone — an instrument that’s been around forever.
Yes, I am still enraptured by the xylophone and ukulele from the wilds of the previous post. While I haven’t made my own travel wood xylophone (stay tuned you’ll be the first to know), I’ve been looking for ideas. Check these out.
Toolbox Glockenspiel
Metallophone
SnubbyJ’s Rimba Tubes (Angry Birds). Here’s instructions to make your own pvc tubes with paddles
Make a Marmophone for your love
Petoskey Stone Lithophone
Ukulele Perspective 
I love homemade instruments and have a bunch of books about making them. I even made one of the big tube drums pitched to a funky-invented scale (which proved quite impractical), except mine was made out of heavy-duty cardboard tubes. Love the hardware xylophone. Thanks for sharing!
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Cool — do you have any videos or photos on your blog of your instruments? – UP
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The ukulele/xylophone pairing is a common one now. And yes, a quite nice one. But it’s time for the uke to team with some new instruments. Time for some new sounds. Time for some experimentation.
Perhaps the ukulele is getting a bit settled, a bit comfortable, a bit staid in its middle age.
Cozy. Needs to be shaken a bit. And stirred.
I’m fond of the sound (and look) of the hurdy-gurdy. Plenty of hurdy videos out, both in solo and group contexts. Jeff posted one on HU a while back with the group Faun. But nothing with the ukulele. Have no idea how the two would mix. But hurdy blends with guitar, harp, bouzouki, so why not?
And why not other instruments, as well? When same old, same old is the special of the day, it’s time for a new menu.
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Sounds good, Ron. I’m listening. What instruments have you tried with the ukulele? Or maybe we should come up with a contest?
But is the ukulele already having a mid-life crisis? So soon? It’s revolution is still so young?!!
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My friends bgouht me a Mahalo U30 uke as a joke since I shared the name of a virtuoso, and it got me hooked!But the intonation is shocking.. Sticking a chromatic tuner on it, the notes go up by a semitone and a half even on the first fret!I’ve ordered an Oscar Schmidt OU5 concert uke, looking for a better quality uke and more frets to experiment with. The main thing is to find something that you like, the one thats for you.Rule of thumb: price is the indicator of quality.
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Wife just got me a uke for christmas, guaitr has been broken for months.. so happy to have an instrument back.. love this song to death .. not too difficult but still a challenge on the down down up up down riff.. thanks alot though!
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