Three Chord Thursday 1920’s

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Anne Ku

A hundred years ago, the roaring twenties witnessed the birth of the Charleston and the Lindy Hop (which became the Jitterbug in the fifties). It was a time of economic boom, accompanied by the exciting music of jazz, blues, swing, dance band, and ragtime. We are pleased to have Chuck Goldstone, a specialist in the music of 1920’s on the ukulele, join our Three Chord Thursday session on January 21st, 2021 at 3 pm ET.

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Three Chord Thursday 2021: Wishin’ and Hopin’

Posted on January 5, 2021 by Anne Ku

Welcome to the first song session of the new year on 14th January 2021 at 3 pm Eastern Time! Three Chord Thursday themes for 2021 begins with your wishes, hopes, dreams, goals, plans, wants, and desires. Wear something NEW!

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2020: the year of NOT (events)

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Anne Ku

This time last year (December 2019), I was house sitting two homes and three cats in Somerville and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Each day, I cycled to nearby YMCAs for exercise and dined at Japanese and Korean restaurants near Porter Square T-station. I was practising the ukulele, guitar, and piano. I went to bed listening to a meditation series from the Daily OM.

I had no idea that 2020 would be spectacularly different from 2019.

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Three Chord Thursday Themes for 2021

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Anne Ku

The schedule of themes for 2021 will be released soon for Three Chord Thursday. The first session in 2021 will be Thursday 14th January 2021 at 3 pm EST on the theme of WISHES, DREAMS, DESIRES, GOALS.

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Three Chord Thursday Your Favorite Songs

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Anne Ku

For the last and final song session in 2020, we invite you to submit a request for your favorite three chord song. This song could also be a song you signed up to play but didn’t get a chance because that themed session was full. We will have a ukulele jeopardy game in the second half of this one-hour session on Thursday 24th December 2020.

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Music theory for ukulele

Posted on November 19, 2020 by Anne Ku

When you learn to play an instrument, you learn how and what to play. If you ask why, then you’d want to take Introduction to Music Theory.

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Hum & Strum: sing in tune & in sync

Posted on November 19, 2020 by Anne Ku

The ukulele is an easy to learn instrument that can accompany singing and bring joy. It’s a skill to play and sing at the same time or sing in tune and in sync while playing the ukulele. Seasoned ukulele players have confessed that while they can finger and switch between chords quickly and strum like a pro, they find certain tasks daunting or even impossible to do by themselves.

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Upcoming ukulele classes: technique vs theme-based

Posted on November 3, 2020 by Anne Ku

Describing a class by its skill level, such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced, doesn’t say enough about the content. By naming my courses after technique, e.g. strum, pick, pluck, bootcamp, and fingerstyle, I convey the how of playing the ukulele but not the why. Recently I began naming my classes after themes, such as holiday songs, Chinese songs, and SEUPMK (songs every ukulele player must know). This gives the what but still not the why. To answer any why question, one needs music theory.

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Three Chord Thursday: songs with non-English lyrics

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Anne Ku

We also celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday by ending our session with one of his most famous works. Flashback: this was how we started — at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, a workshop followed by a performance in Zoom.

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Three Chord Thursday: Christmas and holiday songs

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Anne Ku

While you can sing oldies and pop songs any time of the year, Christmas and other holidays songs seem appropriately festive in December. On 10th December 2020 we explore the numerous three chord songs in this category. The final line-up (short list of songs ordered by ascending number of chords) is shown at the bottom of this webpage.

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