Slingshot

what 🍪 Piece for solo baritone ukulele
when 🍪 2021
where 🍪 Mt Lofty, South Australia
Slingshot is a composition for solo baritone ukulele. The piece is structured around a three-over-four polyrhythm, and it is situated somewhere within a progressive/minimalist/folk genre Venn diagram.

Over 2020 and 2021 I found myself, like many others, displaced. Akin to music, one change is often paired with another. So there I found myself, living in another state, clocking up a good number of hours on the baritone ukulele. It is a very limited instrument that resists extended technique. But, to paraphrase myself, limitations are the sugar-free energy drink of creativity.

After experimenting with a few different string gauges and tunings, I settled on the stock strings tuned in 4ths from a low B (B, E, A, D). This resembles the lowest four strings of a five-string bass, in a middle-of-the-piano kind of range. It continues feed my seeming proclivity for plucked strings, struck mallets, and arpeggios. Being such a comfortable instrument, it lends itself well to absent-minded improvisation.