[APPLAUSE]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: Thank you.

Thank you.

This next song that I'd like to perform for you is-- you

know, one of the cool things about playing the ukulele is

that you have a very limited range.

And you have just basically four strings to work with.

And I kind of talked about this the last time I was here.

I said that you only have four strings.

And sometimes, it can appear to be very limiting.

Because you think, oh, on the ukulele, I

only have four strings.

But on the guitar, a guitar has six strings and you can

get a much fuller sound and a bigger sound.

And you always want more and more and more and more.

So I wrote this song recently.

Because I've been trying to compose more.

And I always try to come up with a concept or an idea,

whenever I'm writing a new piece.

So this idea, though, came about by accident.

See, I was changing my ukulele strings one day.

And I put the first string on.

[PLUCKS STRING]

And then I put the second string on.

[PLUCKS STRING]

And then, I was going to put the third string on, but I

couldn't find that string.

So I was like, where did I put my third string?

So I grabbed the fourth string.

I put the fourth string on.

[PLUCKS STRING]

And instead of rushing off to look for another third string,

I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool to write a song

with just three strings?

So this is a song called "Missing Three."

And it's a piece that just uses three strings.

That's it.

And I thought it was kind of cool.

Because on the ukulele, you always want more.

You always think you need more strings.

You need a greater range.

So this is a song called "Missing Three" that kind of

proves that you don't always need more.

Sometimes less truly is more.

And if you know what you're going for, if you know what

you want to say or what you're trying to communicate, then

sometimes you can just do it with three

strings, rather than four.

So here's a song called "Missing Three."

[MUSIC - JAKE SHIMABUKURO, "MISSING THREE"]

[APPLAUSE]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: Thank you very much.

Thank you.

A song entitled "Missing Three."

A couple other things happened to me since the

last time I was here.

Shortly after I was here at Google, I got married.

So that was pretty cool.

And seven weeks ago, my wife and I had our first baby.

I know, I'm a dad.

That's kind of a scary thought, right?

But it's the most amazing thing.

Because I'm kind of at that age where a lot of my friends

have children.

And a lot of them, they're on their second child already.

But I remember when they first had their baby, they would

always send me photos.

Or they on their phones, they'd show me pictures.

And then I'm just like, oh yeah, cute.

But on the inside I'm like, I don't want to see this.

Why are you showing me this?

But it's amazing.

It's so different when it's your own child.

When it's your own child, you're just like, oh my god.

Every little thing that they do, it's the cutest, most

adorable thing.

And it's so funny because now, I'll

send pictures to everyone.

But it's really the most amazing thing.

And so this next song, I wrote it actually--

maybe when my wife was about six months pregnant.

I wrote this song for the baby.

And it's a song I call "Gentlemandolin." And like I

was explaining before, that when I write a piece, I always

like to have some concept, something that is different

from anything else that I've done before in the past.

And the way this song came about was, I love the sound of

the mandolin.

The mandolin is actually tuned like a violin.

So it has a wide range.

It has over a three-octave range, whereas the ukulele

only has a two-octave range.

So you can get these beautiful, lush chords on the

mandolin that are very difficult

to get on the ukulele.

So I came across this chord voicing that to me, in my

mind, kind of mimics the voicing of a mandolin player.

And it sounds like this.

It's a really far stretch like this, but you get

this kind of sound.

[STRUMMING CHORDS]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: It doesn't sound like a ukulele.

It sounds more like a mandolin.

So I wrote this song.

And I used that idea for this tune for my son.

And I call it "Gentlemandolin." And the

title came about because I was thinking that I hope one day

when my son grows up, he'll grow up to be a fine

gentleman--

dolin.

[LAUGHTER]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: Here we go.

All right, it's cheesy.

I know.

All right.

Here we go.

[MUSIC - JAKE SHIMABUKURO, "GENTLEMANDOLIN"]

[APPLAUSE]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: Thank you very much.

Man.

I get my inspiration from a lot of things.

I'm sure it's the same for all of you.

All of you here, you're all artists.

And you're always trying to think of the next thing and

what's going to be that next big idea.

And it's funny because sometimes I get a lot of my

inspiration from the most unusual things.

I just did a short interview out here for that video.

I think it's called "My Favorite

Things." What's it's called?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: "My Favorite Things." So one of the things

that I talked about was one of my favorite performances ever

was a performance of Bill Cosby.

Bill Cosby, a long time ago, he did this HBO special, this

stand-up comedy special, called "Bill Cosby, Himself."

And it was the most--

I think till this day, of all the comedians out there, this

performance is still like the bible of stand-up comedy.

And if you haven't seen it, you really

should check it out.

You guys have it in your archive.

So you should definitely check it out.

But if you can get the actual DVD of the entire performance,

it is truly amazing.

It's almost two hours long.

And Bill Cosby sits in a chair.

Not even a high chair, a regular--

like a chair that you're sitting in.

And he's just sitting in that chair, holding a microphone,

and telling these stories.

And everyone is just at the edge of their seats, just

dying, laughing, so entertained.

And I realized-- because see, for me, that was very

significant.

Because when I first started out playing the ukulele, I was

always playing with a singer.

There was always a singer.

And then I would be in the back playing--

[PLAYING CHORDS]

[LAUGHTER]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: I would be the backing guy.

So I'd be in the back, just kind of playing.

And then when they're done singing, then I'd take a

little solo.

[PLAYING MELODY]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: And then back to--

[STRUMMING CHORDS]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: --and then they're singing again.

So that was kind of my job.

And the reason for that is because I

am a terrible singer.

I can't sing to save my life.

So after a while, when I stopped working with singers,

I thought--

I had this little band in high school.

And when we broke up, I thought, oh, no, that's the

end for me.

Because what am I going to do?

I can't sing.

I'm just going to play my ukulele?

I remember being so intimidated by standing up in

front of an audience just with my ukulele and playing.

In fact, some of my early performances, I would go on

stage and just be like, (MUMBLING) uh, oh, this song

is called "Sunshine of Your Love."

[MUSIC - "SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE"]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: And I would start playing.

But I was so afraid.

Because I just thought, oh, the ukulele by itself, it just

sounds so empty.

And it doesn't have that full sound that I'm used to hearing

when I go and listen to a concert.

I want that big, big sound, right?

But I couldn't get that with this instrument.

But when I saw "Bill Cosby, Himself," when I saw him-- and

I saw a man just come up on stage in front of thousands of

people, sit in a chair with a microphone.

And he could just connect with every single

person in the room.

And I was watching this on television.

And I still felt like I was there.

I felt like every story he was telling, he was looking right

at me and telling this.

Like I was sitting down in his living room and he was just

sharing this amazing story with me.

And I was so inspired by that.

Because then I realized, you know what?

The instrument that we hold is just an illusion.

Guitar players-- like if you watch Jimi Hendrix, yeah, he's

playing the guitar.

But the guitar is just an illusion.

His artistry, his music, he's communicating--

it's his whole--

before you even hear his guitar,

you're hearing his spirit.

He's communicating this thing.

Like one of the things that I believe is all the music that

you play and you hear happens.

It's created and happens before it even gets to your

instrument.

Before I play that chord, I need to create

it inside of me.

I need to feel it and just create it first.

And then, then I can play that chord.

Or before I bend that note--

[PLAYING MUSIC, GUITAR-SOLO STYLE]

JAKE SHIMABUKURO: --I need to create it inside of me, before

it even gets to the instrument.

So I used to watch him.

And I used to watch him all the time.

I watched that performance over and over.

And he's just so natural.

And the title of that tour was "Bill Cosby, Himself." And I

realized that that's all you got to be.

It doesn't matter if you're talking to one

person or 1,000 people.

The more you're comfortable with who you are, if you can

just get up in front of-- and not be afraid

to make fun of yourself.

And not to have expectations of the audience, I

think, is a big key.

And that's the cool thing about being a ukulele player,

is that audiences have such low expectations of me anyway.

So if I don't have any expectations of my audience, I

can simply get up on stage and just do my thing.

And I don't have to worry about anything.

If someone laughs, if they stay, then that's all a bonus.

So I was telling that story because I was trying to relate

that to a song.

Yeah, yeah, so.

What song was I going to play now?

I don't remember.

But anyway, that's kind of where a lot of my