Ukulele & Languages

Different countries,
Different cultures
one common language... the ukulele.

Archive for May, 2010

30 2010

Italian ukulele news and videos

A piece of news from Italy is the birth of a new ukulele blog in Italian, Youkulele. The blog features interviews, news, uke reviews and also has a forum.

If you are learning Italian, why not practise your language skills by reading about your favourite subject in Italian ?

And here is another great way to learn Italian and the music of its language : listen to ukulele songs in Italian.

Here is a selection to get you started :

Fabyo Koryu , a skillful Italian ukulele player, sings Per Nessuno, a nice and lively spring song.

If you find Fabio Koryu‘s Italian too fast, try this cover of Rimmel by Francesco De Gregori. It is a slow song so you should have no problems making out the lyrics.

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28 2010

Pacific curls, The Nukes, Aotearoa (New-Zealand)

Today our ukulele trip  takes us to New-Zealand _ or Aotearoa in Māori _ and the Pacific islands where we’ll discover two ukulele bands.

The first band, Pacific curls, consists of 3 girls, one Māori, one Rotuman (from the island of Rotuma, a Fijian dependency) and a Scots.

Listen to this Māori song, Ka Pa Te Karanga, performed by the Pacific Curls. In this song, the band is successfully blending a traditional Māori flute (porutu) with ukulele and cajon. Check this page for beautiful pictures of Taonga Puoro, the Māori traditional instruments.

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25 2010

Ukulele, languages and mountains

Last weekend I got the opportunity to take my ukulele to new heights. Now, what are you thinking, I haven’t become a ukulele virtuoso overnight, I just took my Fluke to the Alps.

Gorgeous weather, stunning views over the mountains, what more could I ask for? The mountains were a really inspiring place to play my uke and I have sore fingertips from having played so much.

My Fluke at the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice), Chamonix Mont-Blanc.

Last time I had been to the Mer de Glace, I was about 10 years old

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21 2010

Chorlton Arts Radio’s first ukulele show

Last Wednesday evening marked Bossarocker‘s first ukulele show for the Chorlton Arts Radio.

She did an excellent job gathering songs from various ukulele players in different styles of music, finding appropriate transitions between the tracks and not least of all, she even managed to get a spoken interview from Al from Uke Hunt. Despite what he is saying, I didn’t find his interview awkward at all.

Speaking of great transitions, she did ask me a few questions too and I was pleased to be introduced right after the song of the Eyjafjallajökull by Eliza Geirsdottir Newman, an Icelandic singer and ukulele player. Pronouncing the name of the volcano has become a favourite game with my children at home, generating plenty of laughs.

If you’d like a list of the tracks that were played during the show, check out Bossa‘s blog here.

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18 2010

The Bernadottes, Sweden and… ukulele

I am writing this post on the 17th of May which means that my Norwegian readers might find it rather strange _ if not slightly offending _ that I post about Sweden today.

Syttende mai (17. mai) is Norway‘s national day, a day when streets  fill up with children brandishing Norwegian flags all around Norway in memory of the 17th of May 1814, date at which the Constitution of Norway was signed and Norway declared an independent nation.

However, …

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