Ukulele & Languages

What’s happening with Ukulele and Languages?

Some of you may be wondering why I am posting much less than I did before and may even conclude that I have fallen out of love with the ukulele. That’s certainly not the case. I play the uke as much as ever, if not more. I keep on learning and trying to improve. So what’s going on then ?

Last November I have started working on a project that means incredibly much to me, on many counts. The kind of project that swallows you up and which requires that you put all your energy and efforts in. A project that asks of you to face your own daemons. A type of project that cannot be finished overnight. All this means no more time for hunting for ukulele videos from around the world…

So at this time I’d like to thank my fellow ukulele bloggers for carrying on writing posts and keeping me up to date with the ukulele world. Special thanks to Al from Uke Hunt, to Lou, to Jeff from Humble Uker Ramblings. Many thanks to those of you still contacting me despite my silence, with a special mention to Valérie from Les Poupées Gonflées.

Music is a great help to keep going when things seem to go slower, when you feel drained and worthless. The ukulele and its cheerful sound is a reassuring presence. I have also taken up the guitar, not to replace the ukulele, but to add another means of expression, with a different feel. I converted my best friend Ganymede Gwilym to the ukulele back in 2010 _ he now plays way better than me _ and he in turn is now teaching me how to play the guitar.

Here is our guitars-only cover of the day,  The Pirate’s Gospel by Alela Diane.

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Classical and fingerstyle ukulele : International news, ebooks, tutorials

I’m taking a break from my blog slumber to give anyone wishing to improve his/her fingerstyle ukulele technique enough to work on until I release a new post.

There has been quite a lot happening on the classical ukulele front lately.First piece of news, Wilfried Welti from Switzerland has created his own website where you can purchase three ukulele ebooks of his arrangements for a very moderate price. If like me, you do learn by ear more than by studying music sheet, you should consider buying the series of recordings (MP3 format) Wilfried has made along with the ebooks.

All three ebooks are available on his site :

- Alte Musik mit der Ukulele (Early music on the ukulele, mostly Renaissance and Baroque)
- Keltische Musik mit der Ukulele (Celtic music on the ukulele)
- Klassische Musik mit der Ukulele (Classical music on the ukulele)

Wilfried has kindly sent me a sample of his work and I can say that it is very neatly laid out, with great attention to detail, in fact with much more information than I am able to read as far as music theory is concerned. His work is as neat as his playing and listening to this video will give you an idea just how neat that means.

The Frog Galliard by John Dowland, arranged and performed by Wilfried.

More videos are available on his YouTube channel.

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Ukulele and Guitar Improvisation

One of the things I find most difficult in my ukulele learning process is to keep time while playing. An excellent exercise is to play with others.

My friend Ganymede Gwilym and I often like to play a series of chords to practise keeping time when playing together. Today we had great fun doing a video of an improvisation on 4 chords of Clocks by Coldplay (initially D Am C Em, transposed to G Dm F Am). Trying to keep a steady ukulele fingerpicking while the guitar is changing rhythm is excellent practice.

Here is our rendition of passing time :

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