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Recent Posts
- Read Rotate Repeat December 18, 2024
- Instrumental Halloween tunes for ukulele October 29, 2024
- Ukulele Fall 2024 Course October 11, 2024
- Ukulele Exercises Series (books) September 26, 2024
- Nutmeg Ukulele Festival 2024 August 27, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Rest of the Year Pass August 27, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Hunter’s Full Moon August 21, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Holiday Songs August 21, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Sad but beautiful songs August 21, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Disney August 12, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday television August 12, 2024
- Borrow ukulele from a library August 7, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday NAMES July 29, 2024
- Fun with Uke 2024 July 23, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Dance! June 25, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Hooked on Classics June 25, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Relaxation June 25, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Colorado Songs of John Denver June 25, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Parody Parade June 25, 2024
- 3 Chord Thursday Across America June 25, 2024
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Recent Posts: Concert Blog
REVIEW: Discovering Fingerstyle Ukulele Songbook by Colin Tribe
Colin Tribe’s new book offers new possibilities for ukulele players who aspire to fingerpick their way through thirty of the most popular songs of all time. These chord melody arrangements show a variety of ways the high G ukulele can be used for instrumental solo or duet (such as chord accompaniment and melodic fingerpicking) . […]
REVIEW: Piano Animals (duet) by Heleen Verleur
This 31-page book of four hand piano music is sheer FUN with a capital F. The composer Heleen Verleur knows just what pianists love playing: music that is easy to read, sounds hard to play, but is so much fun that you don’t want to stop until it ends.
REVIEW: Ukulele Picking Tunes Classical Gems by Paul Mansell
This 40-page book is the latest contribution to the ukulele repertoire by the UK-based ukulele and guitar composer Paul Mansell. Guitarists who play the ukulele are few and far between, for many adult learners pick up the ukulele without knowing the guitar. Yet it takes a guitarist who understands the possibilities of the re-entrant tuned […]
REVIEW: Modern Pieces for Ukulele by Paul Mansell
Review of first three pieces from the new book Modern Pieces for Ukulele by Paul Mansell
Group piano class in Zoom
Introducing my group piano class online: Group Piano Class in Zoom. The first series of seven weekly one-hour class started in June 2021. The second (continuation of the first) started in October 2021 at alternating weeks, until end of December (seven sessions). The third series of 16 consecutive weeks started at the beginning of 2022. […]
Monthly Archives: September 2023
Fall 2023 Classes in Zoom
Hot off the press! In response to student feedback, I’m offering two Music Theory courses: One for anyone who has not taken any music theory previously. And another 2.0 for those who have. I’m co-teaching a new course SONGWRITING with … Continue reading
Brown Eyed Girl double stops in Margaritaville
Catchy instrumental introductions hook you in, especially if they return as an instrumental interlude later in the song. Without these intros and interludes, the song seems incomplete. Such is the case of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and Jimmy Buffett’s … Continue reading
Puff, the Magic Dragon
An instrumental introduction sets the tempo, establishes the rhythm, and anticipates the starting note of the melody for a song. Here’s my attempt to capture Peter, Paul and Mary’s version of “Puff, the Magic Dragon” in a key I can … Continue reading
Canon for a Wedding
Why did Pachelbel write the Canon in D? He was an organist not a violinist. Yet he wrote the Canon and the Gigue for three violins, later accompanied by basso continuo (e.g. harpsichord, lute, or cello). One speculation is that … Continue reading
Pachelbel Medley (workshops in Zoom)
For Pachelbel’s Birthday Party, I made a medley of songs that follow the eight-bar chord progression in Pachelbel’s Canon. In selecting the songs, I noticed that most of the 24 songs I had listed did NOT follow the progression in … Continue reading