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I think you’ll agree that these are some great looking trunks!
Ukulele Blooms Swim Trunks If you like fine clothes check them out. Love them!

Mind you, I would never pay $58.00 for a pair of trunks when I could buy another Makala or other inexpensive uke for that much. I will, however, be looking for them at our local GoodWill store. Guess I’d better be patient – it will take a while for these to show up there AND I’ll need to wash them SEVERAL times.

If you know of a similar cheap version of these great trunks please let me know. : )

Ralph Shaw posted a delightful story about his brief brush with fame with the movie, the ‘A-Team’. Would have loved to been there! : )

The Ukulele Entertainer: UE #41 I Touched Liam Neeson's Wig

Another good Basic Major Chords Video…

Hawaii Music Supply presents Aaron in a great teaching video on “Right Hand Strumming for Beginners.”

ezFolk.com offers a great strumming tutorial for absolute beginners! The tutorial features very clear examples AND ‘midi files’ in three speeds: very slow, slow and normal. The Website tells the player to use the tutorial this way:

‘Try the different patterns with different songs and see how they sound. You can decide which patterns work best for you, and it’s up to you to decide which fit in the best with certain songs. After a while you’ll be strumming away, not really thinking about playing a particular pattern but just letting your fingers play what feels right at the time.’

Check out ezFolk.com’s great strumming tutorial! http://www.ezfolk.com

I’ve played guitar for many years but still the biggest problem I have is keeping an even rhythm. A metronome is the perfect practice tool. It helps you keep the rhythm steady but it also allows you to start practicing a song at a slower pace and gradually increase the tempo. MetronomeOnline.com provides a wonderful metronome. To quote the site:

MetronomeOnline provides ‘an online metronome ideal for quick and easy use while practicing music, this music tool helps with your rhythm as well as tempo selections and it is always available for free to all students of music at metronomeonline.com‘

I ordered the flash cards on this Website and they have really helped me in learning to play by ear.

Uke in a Flash

Only $6.00 (including postage) and you get laminated cards with all of the keys (one key each side).

Most all songs in the world can be played using only the chords across the top (Primary Major Chords and Primary Minor Chords).

I look at a song and note what chords are there and verify that they are the same as the top of the card. I then try to play the song (familiar tunes) looking only at the card. It is getting much easier to play by ear.

Check out all of the great resources at PlayUke.net

Interested in learning to play Ukulele by tabs? Tri-Tabs is a great place to start. It has some tabs for different skill levels. The beginner tabs are very nice but easy! There are pages regarding:
* A ‘Tutorial’
* Beginners
* Classical
* Kids
* Latin
* Modern-ish
* Sacred & Xmas
* Standards
* Traditional

TRI-TABS » Beginner Tabs and More!

Thanks to UkuleleHunt.com for sharing about the tabs.

Today Ralph Shaw’s newsletter offered some great guidelines for offering ‘good family entertainment’. Here are a few of the key points:

-Use good material.
-A great song will have different levels of meaning for different people.
-Participation songs are a great idea.

Read more about each of these points and learn the others…

The Ukulele Entertainer: UE#40 Birds of a Feather – UnPlucked!

Jim D’Ville asked Jim Beloff three questions two of which were of particular interest to me:

-…Do you have any suggestions on learning tunes from songbooks and then committing them to memory?

-Do you have any suggestions on how to move from chord to chord more easily?

There were excellent answers to both. Check out the interview…

Play Ukulele By Ear: Best of 3 Questions: Jim Beloff