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Recent Posts
- Body Surfing for easy ukulele transposed January 20, 2025
- 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
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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: guitar
Waltzes by Carulli for ukulele
How many waltzes did Ferdinando Carulli write? I keep discovering new waltzes arranged for the ukulele by those who have played them on the guitar. I am the newest of the lot, for my fingers remember a waltz I played … Continue reading
3 Chord Thursday: multi-instrumentalists
On Thursday 17th February 2022, after Valentine’s Day and a month before St Patrick’s Day, we celebrate songs with many different instruments. Can you say “multi-instrumentalists” without stopping to take a breath? Here’s the opportunity to accompany yourself with something … Continue reading
Homage to Carcassi and Carulli
Music and memory are intricately connected. The last classical guitar solo piece I loved playing in my teenage years was one by Carcassi in 3/4 time in a minor key. The nylon string guitar my mother bought from a music … Continue reading
Mauro Giuliani Polonoise or Polonaise from Op. 65
Should it be “polonoise” as printed on the title page of the sheet music or “polonaise” as we know it?
Of guitar quartets and ensemble playing
In January 2018, I started a new ukulele group and joined the Boston Guitar Orchestra. For the latter, I begged the conductor to translate the notated sheet music for guitar part four into tablature so that I could read it. … Continue reading
Happy Fourth of July! Invitations to concerts
Happy Fourth of July! So many FREE concerts in the Boston area next week. My latest ukulele mail-out below includes a NOT FREE concert of a non-traditional string quartet from the Bay Area and my Boston Guitar Orchestra rehearsals and concerts.
Solstice at Eustis 2019
Just an idea. It rhymes. It catches on. How do we combine guitar and ukulele? One after another? Or together? At Derek Gripper’s African Music Workshop both instruments were welcomed in the same room. Everyone played together. It was one … Continue reading
The gift of a music education for yourself or Mother’s Day present
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 … Continue reading
Getting the word out: website, blog, mailing list, twitter, Facebook, and ?
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 … Continue reading
Most commonly used chords for ʻukulele
The common chord progression assignment I gave to my beginning music theory class caused an uproar. It was the secret formula that explained the Pareto Rule of Pop Music: 80% of pop music used only 20% of the chords. “You mean, … Continue reading