Ukulele Albums I’d Like to Own
- ‘Try To Remember’
- ‘In The Moment’
- ‘Have Uke Will Travel
Ukuleles and The Flea Ukulele are listed among popular trends and products
Bloomburg Businessweek says, ‘the hottest Hawaiian mini-guitars are made by Massachusetts-based The Magic Fluke’…The Flea and larger cousin the Fluke have molded plastic bodies…’.
I love this quote by actor William H. Macy – ‘I don’t think Hitler would have ever invaded Poland had he learned to play a Flea’.
Look at 218* on the Popularity Slide Show – http://www.businessweek.com/popularity-2011/
Read also the commentary – http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/flea-08112011.html
* Look above the 218 to see what it refers to.
What are the most used Ukulele Chords?
To an extent that is that is personal but there are some common trends among us I’m sure. UkuleleHunt.com offered a hint of what these chords are http://ukulelehunt.com/2011/09/07/most-common-ukulele-chords/ The chart indicates ‘the most used chords on the site’. What are YOUR most used chords?
Is it a ‘yoo-ka-lailee’ or a ‘oo-koo-leh-lay AND do you say ‘A Ukulele’ or ‘An Ukulele’?
Quick and Dirty Tips discusses the pronunciation of our favorite instrument and other grammatical concerns related to it…
‘While most American mainlanders say ‘yoo-ka-lailee,’ any Hawaii resident will tell you that the correct pronunciation of this Hawaiian word is ‘OO-koo-leh-lay,’ and this is, in fact, how it is pronounced throughout our great state. No self-respecting Hawaii resident would say ‘yoo-ka-lailee.’
http://blog.quickanddirtytips.com/2011/09/07/a-ukulele-or-an-ukulele/
40 Year Old Ukulele Ensemble Featured at 2010 Winter Games
The Province .com posted a fine article, ‘Ukulele-playing takes Langley schoolkids from Hawaii to Olympics: Music tradition goes back 40 years’, about the Langley Ukulele Ensemble who travels from Canada to Hawaii year-after-year to entertain and is now entertaining back in Canada during the 2010 Winter Games (Olympics).
The article emphasizes some of the reasons that Ukuleles are the perfect choice for students and schools:
‘Why the ukulele?
“First of all, playing it doesn’t require the mouth so this frees up the easiest musical instrument we all have, which is the voice,” Luongo says.
In other words, students can sing and play simultaneously.
The program started 40 years ago, when the ukulele — not the more popular recorder — was selected as Langley School District’s instrument of choice to introduce young students to music.”
Secondly, ukulele-playing utilizes every main component of music education at the student’s fingertips — melody, harmony, ear training, scales, theory and rhythm,” he adds.
The ukulele is also relatively inexpensive and easy to carry.’
Read the article to find out more about them and their Olympics appearances.
Read about the history of the Ensemble on their Website.
Here is a video of the ensemble playing the Beatles’ song, ‘I Feel Fine’…
The Popularity of the Ukulele and Ukes in Schools
The Huffington Post AND TheBrooklynInk.com posted a ‘collaborative’ story entitled, ‘Brooklynites Crazy For Ukuleles’. In the article the writer gives various reasons for the growing popularity of the ukulele and explains why it is the perfect instrument for these times of ‘recession.
The article mentions that Kala is promoting with this in mind and is seeking to reach out to a broader audience. An excerpt of the article:
‘We’re trying to get the ukulele taught in schools, we’re doing a big push,” he said. “Schools have had budget cuts and they’re looking to cut costs, the ukulele is a perfect instrument for that.’
Agreed!
Check out these great articles!
Creator of ‘Heroes’ TV series uses a Ukulele to write newest book
The writer of ‘Knight Rider’ and ‘Heroes’ television series has written a new book entitled, ‘Shift’. In an interview he was asked if he had any ‘unusual writing habits’. His answer:
‘I keep a guitar and ukulele nearby and often pace around playing them while I think. There’s something about turning on a different part of your brain that stimulates ideas. With this book I was learning to play the ukulele so I was playing songs like Yes Sir, That’s My Baby and Ain’t She Sweet.’
NEW GoogleLabs Feature Offers Glimpse into Ukulele’s History through Books
A Google Ngram Viewer search for ‘Ukulele’ shows the growth of books with the word ‘Ukulele’ in them started steadily up around 1910 and dipping in the 1960s – 1980s and another upward trend beginning around 1990. A look at the ‘Search in Google Books:’ links below the graph offer other interesting glimpses into books related to Ukuleles in different periods of time:
- 1800-1924 Surprise! the Ukulele was a popular topic in ‘Popular Mechanics’! I never knew!
- 1925-1930
- 1931-1955
- 1956-2001
- 2002-2008
Why 1800-2008? Because there was little to no activity when I did 1700-1800 and the Website will not accept 2009 or 2010.
Learning to play the ukulele and other instruments the Mel Bay way
Although I haven’t used a Mel Bay book to learn the ukulele I’ve used several to learn the guitar and other instruments. Unlike some I am not a natural musician so I’ve leaned heavily on books such as the Mel Bay books to help me develop better musical skills.
AmericanProfile.com provided fascinating background on the ‘man’ Mel Bay who founded a musical instrument method book empire. Read the article, ‘Learning to play the Mel Bay way‘, to learn more about him, his family and the business today.
Here are some of the Mel Bay ukulele titles that I found on Amazon.com*:
The Ukulele is the Perfect Instrument for Senior Adults!
Although I am not very skilled, I have played the guitar for years. Being in my early 50’s I was attracted to the ukulele because it is much easier to learn than the guitar. How? It has only 4 strings and a shorter fretboard so there are much fewer notes to master. Many people use the ‘High G’ tuning and only play a solo line on the bottom 3 strings SO this makes it half as many strings as the guitar. One reason that I am interested in learning and even mastering the ukulele is that I hope to stimulate the brain and to fend off ‘brain decay’.