The gift of a music education for yourself or Mother’s Day present

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Anne Ku

I am forever grateful to my parents for the gift of a music education. I remember my mother tirelessly driving a great distance to my piano teacher’s home off-base on Okinawa. In the hot and humid afternoon, she took a nap in the car while I sat for my one-hour lesson with my piano teacher. In addition to piano, Mrs Betsy Hermann taught me music theory by writing music notation by hand. At age 14, armed with the vocabulary of music, I started composing and arranging music.

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Getting the word out: website, blog, mailing list, twitter, Facebook, and ?

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Anne Ku

When you become aware that you are at the centre of those that want to know what’s going on and those who want others to know about their events, what do you do?

There is a certain responsibility that comes with knowing what’s going on. Joe Burros started a website for guitarists in New England last June after years of sending out email blasts of upcoming concerts and workshops to his mailing list. When I first learned of this service he provides to classical guitarists and aficionados, I was deeply grateful. I had no idea there were so many interesting events for classical guitarists and their supporters. Until then, I learned of such events through word of mouth.

Is there an equivalent for ukulele enthusiasts?

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Nine ukulele strum patterns for four beat songs

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Anne Ku

One of the most often asked questions by my ukulele students is “how do you know which strum pattern to use?”

There are many possibilities which I show in my video. Deciding which is the most appropriate depends on the mood, tempo, genre, and other factors.

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20th anniversary analyticalQ

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Anne Ku

Was I tempting fate by launching my first website on the Ides of March twenty years ago today? Just two years prior, I composed “Ides of March” after experiencing driving through a flood in Houston. It was so horrific that I had to rush back to my loft apartment to write the lyrics and the music in one go.

What propelled me to launch my first website? What has happened since?

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Songs from Ireland: Ride On

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Anne Ku

Tonight we will be playing and singing songs from Ireland at the local library and going to a nearby pub afterwards — in Historic Lower Mills, a unique part of Boston, Massachusetts. One of these Irish songs is “Ride On” — a three-chord song I learned in the Hanwell Ukulele Group (HUG) in London. In teaching this song to my group here in Boston, I suddenly realised that I needed to listen to the original to get the feel of it.

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My girl band, the Lo Lo’s

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Anne Ku

Once upon a time, five teenage girls formed a band to compete in a talent show at their high school on Okinawa. Their band performed “Our Lips Are Sealed.”

They wore shiny purple blouses and sleek black slacks. They put on dark sunglasses the way movie stars tried to appear incognito. They chewed black Japanese bubble gum until it popped from their purple-stained lips.

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Charlie on the MTA for ukulele

Posted on February 27, 2019 by Anne Ku

Newcomers to Boston will soon learn that nearly every Bostonian knows the song “Charlie on the MTA.” There will be an aha moment when they realise that the card they use to enter the metro system is the Charlie Card. Some may surmise that Charlie is short for Charles, as in the Charles River.

Is it so?

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Do Wah Diddy for ukulele – video tutorial

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Anne Ku

At the request of my ukulele students, I recorded my first video tutorial. The song “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” is ideal for beginners as it gets them to practise frequent switching between the easy chords of C and F. It rarely requires the more challenging G7 chord.

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Business models: my grandfather the entrepreneur

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Anne Ku

Over the years, I subconsciously collected stories of successful business models with a view to writing and publishing an e-book to share with like-minded individuals. Here’s the story of my late grandfather who built a successful English school in Taiwan.

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Ukulele: ticket to ride

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Anne Ku

Little did I know that buying my first ukulele and learning to play it would change the direction of my life.

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