Ukulele & Languages

March Ukulele World Tour : Fingerstyle Uke

The focus of this World Tour will be mainly on instrumental fingerstyle ukulele from around the world but I’ve also featured a couple of  other videos with singing.

1. Poland

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Truss rods on Pono ukuleles

I never knew my Pono baritone ukulele had a truss rod until a couple of weeks ago. I suddendly noticed, much to my horror, that my Pono had started to buzz badly when I played certain strings.  I knew the strings were not to blame as I had changed them shortly before the buzz first occurred.

I couldn’t understand what caused the sudden change in the sound. I hadn’t dropped my ukulele and it had received no shock, nor did I leave it in the sun or in the cold.

I showed it to my friend Guillaume and he spotted that the truss rod was slightly coming out. We could take it out even more when we pulled it gently. I quickly searched on the internet and found this explanation from Ko’olau Guitar and Ukulele  Company on how to set the truss rod. This guitar page (in French) was helpful to understand the principles of a truss rod too.

Here is my Pono with its truss rod sticking out. Thanks to Guillaume for the picture.

Not wanting to risk doing any damage to my uke, I emailed Ko’olau Guitar and Ukulele Company for advice. I got a very fast answer from John and applying all he said restored my ukulele’s natural buzz-free warm and mellow tone. Thanks John !

Here is the explanation I got, in case you ever have the same problem :

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Thomas Fersen, French language and ukulele

If you’ve been trying to learn French lately and have used the following method, well… you might have found it dead easy too.

I am however not convinced that you have managed to impress any French speakers.

All right, don’t look so miserable, I do sympathize. Let me try and suggest an alternative method for improving your French vocabulary. An alternative method involving our favourite instrument, the ukulele.

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Blues Ukulele Original : I Ain’t Got The Blues

My friend Ganymede Gwilym and I have been experimenting playing the blues on the ukulele. After trying many different things, we’ve created a quick and easy song with improvised lyrics called I Ain’t Got The Blues !

We played the song on a concert Kala KA-CEM and Concert Fluke.

If you’d like to learn some ukulele blues techniques, we strongly recommend Al‘s ebook How To Play Blues Ukulele in which we learnt many things we use in the video.

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Siri Nilsen, ukulele and Norwegian

Norwegian singer and ukulele player Siri Nilsen has just released a new album, Alle Snakker Sant (Everybody is telling the truth). Those of you looking to learn or pratise Norwegian will definitely appreciate her lovely voice and very clear lyrics together with her ukulele fingerpicking.

[Update of the 16.11.2011 : Lillebjørn Nilsen, who is a renowned Norwegian singer and songwriter and also Siri's father sent me the link to a performance of  'Alle Snakker Sant' Siri and himself gave a few days ago during a TV show. It is the first time I see Lillebjørn perform on the uke, the guitar being his instrument of choice. The complicity between father and daughter is obvious in the video which you can view here (after a short ad).]

Here is a live version of the title song of the album, Alle Snakker Sant (Hvor skal du gå?)

And here is the studio version of the same song:

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