Different countries,
Different cultures
one common language... the ukulele.
Why not learn French while reading about your favourite subject _ the ukulele ?
The PLUCK is an online ukulele magazine created by a team of French ukulele aficionados, dealing with a wide variety of ukulele aspects and very neatly laid out. At the moment, the PLUCK is all in French but the PLUCK team has already announced that they would work on an English translation.
Here is an overview of what you can find in the PLUCK n° 2:
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.
This week’s Ukulele World Touroffers a wide variety of videos and subjects which I hope will contribute to your having a nice weekend.
Whether you’re after mesmerizing voices, a slide ukulele performance, Italian pop music, if you feel inclined towards learning some mathematics or if political satire is something for you, you should enjoy this post.
My favourite video this week, young and talented Misty Miller performs Remember.
Misty Miller has just released her debut album and her track Remember is available for free download here.
Today I am in the mood for some folk music and this post’s highlight will be Todd Baio who has performed numerous American folk songs on the ukulele.
You’ve probably never wondered what Gallo, a regional ‘patois’ from Upper-Brittany could sound like, but you’ll find out anyway! Read on…
Before we move on to our World Tour, if you are a Firefox user and a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably been plagued by the videos in the posts opening on YouTube rather than here on Ukulele & Languages, making your post reading rather cumbersome. Thanks to Guillaume who told me about this issue, it is now fixed.
Todd Baio performs a traditional American folk song, John Hardy on a baritone ukulele.
The song tells the story of John Hardy who shot a man after loosing 50 cents in a game. John Hardy was convicted of murder and was hung. (Folksongs are so cheerful…)
Read the different lyrics of the song here.
On the menu of our Ukulele World Tour today is some French poetry set to Italian, some classical music from Japan, a traditional song from Serbia sung by a Portuguese ukulele player, a song by a lovely Mexican girl, a ukulele entertainer from the Czech Republic,, some ukulele improvising from Spain and finally, a cover of a French song.
Enjoy !
Georges Brassens discovered the works of French poet Antoine Pol, among which Emotions Poétiques (1918), and decided to set the poem Les Passantes to music in 1972. This in turn inspired Italian Fabrizio De André, who translated the song to Italian and included it in an album called Canzoni.
Read the French poem here.
Duccio, a ukulele player from Italy, covers the song in Italian : Le Passanti.
© Ukulele & Languages
