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Recent Posts
- Daily Music Writing Project January 20, 2025
- Body Surfing for easy ukulele January 19, 2025
- 3 Chord Thursday 2025 Ukulele + January 15, 2025
- World Ukulele Day Workshops January 15, 2025
- Happy Birthday for high G ukulele January 13, 2025
- Happy Birthday for ukulele January 13, 2025
- Friday I’m in Love for ukulele January 10, 2025
- Can’t Help Falling in Love with ukulele January 8, 2025
- We Shall Overcome on ukulele January 8, 2025
- Puff the Magic Dragon Travis Picking Variations January 8, 2025
- Travis Picking exercises for ukulele January 8, 2025
- Oh Susanna for ukulele January 8, 2025
- Exercise for waltz accompaniment January 7, 2025
- Strum & Fingerpick Exercise in 3/4 Time January 7, 2025
- Accompaniment exercises in 3/4 time for low G ukulele January 7, 2025
- Accompaniment in 3/4 time for high G ukulele January 7, 2025
- Feed the Birds with ukulele January 6, 2025
- Auld Lang Syne in F for low G ukulele January 4, 2025
- On Top of Spaghetti in C for high G ukulele January 3, 2025
- Left Hand Techniques for ukulele January 3, 2025
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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. […]
Tag Archives: chord progression
Puff the Magic Dragon Travis Picking Variations
RIP Peter Yarrow (1938 – 2025) who wrote Puff the Magic Dragon. Practice the seven variations of travis picking on the chord progression from the song on ukulele. Continue reading
Workshop: the Hawaiian vamp
Also known as the Hawaiian turnaround, the famous Hawaiian vamp refers to a short chord sequence that can introduce and end a song, intercede between verses and choruses. The chords depend on the destination key.
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
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
Easy Beatles Jam Session
As I explore music for ukulele jam sessions, I keep discovering Beatles songs I’ve never heard of before. In London, I chuckled at the politically incorrect “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and the funny “Octopus’s Garden.” George Harrison’s “I’ll Follow the Sun” … Continue reading
Jukebox Piano Class: Stand By Me for Easy Piano
I should call my piano classes “Jukebox Piano Class” because I take requests. Nothing motivates a new musician more than being able to play something he or she likes. Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” is one of these requests. … Continue reading