Month: July 2010

Here is an interview with eight-year-old ukulele prodigy Aidan La Prete Powell –

Here is his complete performance of ‘Soul Sister’. Play along with him –

The last two weeks I’ve been going to Senior Centers and playing and singing for the senior adults that attended their meeting. This was the first that I had performed for others outside of my own family so it was somewhat of a new challenge for me. It was a breeze and I had a great time. The seniors seemed to really enjoy it, too.
It was amazing how quickly my skills increased during that time. Of course, I was practicing more but I guess the adrenaline of playing in front of strangers helped. : )

This morning I read of another great idea for sharing our love of Ukes. LearnToUke.co.uk posted ‘Ukulele INSET for Primary School Teachers’. The idea is to provide workshops for primary or elementary school teachers so that they can use the ukulele in the classroom to supplement their curriculum. What a great idea!
Read more about it – http://www.learntouke.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=12:fun-ukulele-inset-for-primary-school-teachers&layout=blog&Itemid=10&layout=default

A Cincinnati-based company has given five ukuleles to children in the hospital through the hospital’s music therapist. This is a great idea and one that many of us might want to consider having a part in at our local hospitals or for another child related ‘social’ program. Read all about it – Ukuleles ease stay in children’s hospital | cincinnati.com | Cincinnati.Com

To obtain the songbook. Follow the instructions on this MySpace.com page – http://www.myspace.com/ukegottobekidding

Look for the section ‘About Ukulele Wednesdays – free London jam…’ and then these words:
‘It’s an open house, we’d love you to join us, before you come, you’ll need the songbook. You’ll find it by emailing…’ The songbook is a very large file (almost 25 mg). When you get the link, ‘Right Click’ on it, then choose ‘Save Link As’ THEN click ‘Open’.

Ralph Shaw, the ‘King of Ukulele’, has a good Website (and Newsletter). I just looked at the .pdf songs and there is some great stuff there! One song that I like is ‘Busy Line’. I’d heard it several times on ‘UkeFarm Radio‘ and have really enjoyed it. YOU can listen to it too on Mr. Shaw’s ‘Music Listen‘ page. ‘Cheek to Cheek’ is another great song on the ‘Song PDF’ page that you can also listen to. The songs are from two of his albums, ‘King of the Ukulele’ (‘finest songs from the golden songwriting era of the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s’) and ‘Table for Two’ (‘classic favorites and sparkling original songs’). Check out this great stuff – Ralph Shaw, Vancouver – Songs Galore! pdfs for download

Was reminded by Jennifer Lowe on Facebook about two of James Hill’s songs that I enjoyed hearing him play at the Reno-Tahoe Uke Fest this past March. Jennifer saw both James and Anne Davison at the Cairns Uke Festival. Anne was not at Reno.

The first one is a cute sing-a-long, ‘agnostic gospel’ –

The second one is ‘One Note Samba’ –

Other videos by James and others at the Reno-Tahoe Uke Fest can be seen here – http://playuke.info/reno-tahoe-ukefest/2010-videos/

Enjoy!

First of all, Cairns is in Australia –http://wikitravel.org/en/Cairns

I haven’t heard the result yet but the ‘Ukulele enthusiasts will gather this afternoon (Saturday, July 3) at the Courthouse Hotel in an attempt to break the world record for most number of ukuleles played at the same time…The previous record, kept by London, attracted 851 players.’

Read more about it – Uke fever hits Cairns- Local Cairns News | cairns.com.au

The festival’s Website is listed with a hyphen but that didn’t work for me. Try this – http://cairnsukulelefestival.net/

You may also follow the festival on Twitter – http://twitter.com/cairnsukefest

I was looking for the words and chords to a song this morning and ran across John Pak’s Website. John has a collection of ukulele to drool over. On his Website you’ll find some nicely produced performance videos, some great song sheets and much more. Check out his Ukuleles and the rest of his Website – My Ukuleles

* note that the songs on his Website are ‘ interpretations for private study and practice’.