Ukulele Boot Camp Series (virtual)

Bootcamp or Boot Camp is the weekly class that gives you the most playtime. Ukulele Bootcamp will UP your level of playing and fill in the gaps, if you’re self-taught or have not been playing regularly. In Zoom, you are playing while MUTED but you get the most rigorous workout, more than any other music class. Each bootcamp is different from the previous. You can repeat bootcamp as often as you like, the way you take an aerobics or weight training class at the gym. These chord switching exercises exemplify what’s meant by “chord choreography.” Take the ukulele crossword puzzle challenge.

Bootcamp Fall 2023 includes tab reading and fingerstyle ukulele so you can fingerpick the most common riffs used in introductions, interludes, intros and spice up your ukulele playing. Register for the course which runs for 8 Tuesdays at 6:30 PM EDT from 31st October 2023 (except 31st Oct starts at 7:30 PM).

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Songs in the Time of Corona: one-hour on Fridays

We share songs inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, from existing songs about staying at home to new songs about the lock down, from parodies to 20-second handwash song. These are FREE one-hour song sessions in ZOOM. Be sure to register in advance (by clicking on the link within the blogpost) to get the zoom meeting link.

From May 8th onwards, we meet on even-dated Fridays at 4 pm EDT for an hour of fun.

  • 9- June 12th, 2020 —- the next one after this date will be notified.
  • 8- May 22nd – COVID Blues – more parodies and original songs! Wear something BLUE, the bluer the better.
  • 7- May 8th: Make It Count! songs that involve counting, whether number of cases, number of days in the lock down, infection rate, time, etc. Wear something with a number on it.
  • 6- May 1st: Italia! Volare! That’s Amore! Rinascero’ rinascerai. Wear colors of Italian flag.
  • 5- April 24: Amy Kucharik – Alone Together; parodies
  • 4- April 17: Parodies, including Muting Me, Muting You
  • 3- April 10: Tributes (Bill Withers, John Prine, Kenny Rogers) and requests
  • 2- April 3, 2020: 20-second handwash songs
  • 1- March 27th, 2020: the inaugural session
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Ode to Joy for ukulele

We gathered for Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” sing along and play along on Sunday March 22nd, 2020, after a fingerstyle ukulele workshop the previous day. This song is significant for many reasons, not least the European Union anthem. It’s my goal to get everyone together AFTER the pandemic is over, to sing and play together in the official version of symphonies and choirs.

Watch “Following the Ninth” the amazing documentary of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

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Easy love songs for ukulele

For upcoming Valentine’s Day, which will fall on a Friday in 2020, I am introducing love songs that are easy to play on the ukulele. What constitutes easy?

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Friday I’m in love on Valentine’s Day

This year’s Valentine’s Day falls on Friday. In anticipation, I am introducing love songs that are easy to play on the ukulele for my students in and around Boston, Massachusetts. These songs are suitable for anyone beginning their musical journey of accompanying themselves on this four-string instrument. Let’s begin with The Cure’s 1992 hit “Friday I’m in Love.”

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Ukulele curriculum: useful blanks

For every hour I teach, I probably spend two hours developing the content (ukulele curriculum) and preparing the material (sourcing, printing, copying, etc). To save time, I’ll log what I’ve found useful and free for teaching music via the ukulele in this blog post.

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Where I have lived

On the first day of the new year, 1/1/2020, let me explain what all those locations at the top right corner of my website mean. Those are the places where I have lived for a significant amount of time. As a result, I’ve left out Ithaca, New York and Oxford, England.

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Raison d’etre

Some people are born with a calling. Others spend their entire life looking for it. Raison d’etre is the French word for “the reason for your existence.” Why are you here? What is my purpose for being?

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A picture is worth a thousand words

Since 2016, various friends and business contacts, all entrepreneurs by the way, urged me to get on Instagram. I resisted until recently.

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Pianists, guitarists, ukulele players: does size matter?

“What is it about guitarists?” I began. “Every guitarist can play the ukulele — BUT only if he wants to.”

There seems to be a psychological barrier. It take less than a minute to show guitarists the conversion formula to playing ukulele chords. Yet, they don’t embrace it. They prefer the guitar.

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