Playing and enjoying the ukulele together!
“Raymond Penfield was the father of a London Caberet artist, Holly Penfield and often sang often as part of her act when she was in London or Rome. He passed away at the age of 98. He lived in a small California community and sang locally as often as he could. He also had tried out for America’s Got Talent, and was known for his continuing effort to write and create songs with his son-in-law and daughter’ https://youtu.be/O2GTHFeN4LM
This semester I started a ukulele club at the high school that I work at. We have a variety of skill levels so we project YouTube ukulele playalongs. Ukulaliens has become a favorite source of them. I was pleased to see the creation of ‘Ukulele Wales’ which offers a variety of resources including tutorials for their Ukulaliens songs. Nice!
Here is the introductory video for Ukulele Wales…
Ukulele strings can last a long time, but changing them will make a huge difference in sound SO why put it off. It really isn’t that hard, but if you are slow like me it might take a little while. Do it while you watch TV, rest or something.
There are different ways that strings attach to the bridge – a knot, a ball or inserted and looped as above. If your strings are like the above, be sure to start with the G, then the C, E and finally the A so that you can tuck the ends of the strings under/behind the next string and so that the ends will face the bottom of the uke body – you are much less likely to catch the downward pointing strings than if pointed up or were cut (similar to the photo).
I love my Carbon Tenor Outdoor Ukulele and have loved having a wound low G string on it. The instrument and the strings combination have been wonderful and SO ENJOYABLE. I am, however, beginning to have problems. I noticed wear on the frets under the G string. After investigation I discovered in the Outdoor Ukulele warranty this statement:
“Our composite polycarbonate ukuleles are not designed to be used with wound strings; if used, they are not covered by warranty. Strings with fillers, such as copper powder may also wear the frets over time. “
For the whole Outdoor Ukulele warranty, click here.
When I discovered the wear and found the warranty information, I bought a unwound low G. I am having intonation problems with it. It becomes much worse if I try to capo at any fret. It may be that particular unwound string so I am going to try another unwound low G string.
If the second one doesn’t work, I will try a high G string. I don’t want a high G, but if it will save the instrument that is what I will do.
ALL THIS TO SAY, DON’T PUT A WOUND LOW G ON AN OUTDOOR UKULELE.
#OutdoorUkulele
UPDATE: I put on a UNWOUND Low G and tried it but didn’t like it all. It was too loose or floppy and I couldn’t correct the intonation. I went back to a WOUND Low G. If it damages it, I’ll buy another one. So far, so good though.
If you play a string instrument and want to learn the notes on each strings, the notes on music staff, etc. the FretTrainer APP is good.
There are 6 instruments available to practice on: Guitar, Bass, 5-String Bass, Mandolin, Ukulele, Banjo.
https://www.theguitarjournal.com/fret-trainer-app-now-on-i…/
It is free, but has ads.
The riffs are shared on TakeLessons.com by Reina M.
Here are the names of the riffs that are shown…
Visit the Website for the tab of each riff.
‘Brian’s huge chordlist collection‘ is a great resource for looking up alternative chords.
It is especially useful if you already know the basic chords. It may be a little confusing if you don’t know what the basic chords are – for example, the basic chord for ‘C’ is in the bottom 2 rows…the top left one, of course.
If you don’t know the basic ones, you may want to just look for the most simplified chord (fewest fingers and closest to the nut or the head of the ukulele.
It should be a big (okay, a ‘HUGE’) help to those that are looking for more chords!
Katie DeNure of One School Music posted an awesome YouTube video about her favorite apps for the ukulele for 2019. A list of the individual apps is listed in the ‘more’ section below the video.
