All blog posts
339 posts
3 Non Blondes — What's Up Cover
Tamás GállAlthough the excellent 4 Non Blondes song is built on only three chords, its melody, arrangement and superb construction created something truly unforgettable. Sometimes I wonder where compositions this good have gone; fewer gems like this seem to appear nowadays — or at least they pass me by. It is…
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A bundám szőrös... (Swiss children's song)
Tamás GállI would like to teach you a sweet and simple Swiss children's song on the ukulele, with Hungarian lyrics written by István Csukás. Strictly speaking, he did not write lyrics for the entire original song, only for the section heard in the recording and which also appears in the Ringató series, in the…
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A Chinese ukulele test
Tamás GállThis year I again travelled to China for work, this time to Xi'an (on Hungarian maps you will often see the city written as Hszian, but the correct transcription from Chinese characters is Xi'an). This beautiful ancient city is counted among the great capitals of antiquity alongside Rome, Athens and…
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A Flemish folk song (lullaby)
Tamás GállI would like to teach you a very sweet lullaby, the Flemish folk song beginning "Szép gyermekem..." (“My beautiful child...”). Before we get to the song itself, I warmly recommend the Ringató – Lila könyv (“Purple Book”), where you can find the sheet music and lyrics of this and many other valuable…
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A Guest in the House: Piano
Tamás GállThis weekend I exchanged four strings for eighty-eight keys. At the beginning of the video you can see and hear a little warm-up over “free” chords, meaning that I did not follow the blues progression exactly. This is followed by a short boogie improvisation: Unfortunately, the same cannot be said a…
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A Hard Day's Night
Tamás GállThis song is very popular among guitarists because it consists of relatively simple chords and sounds great. We ukulele players should not be left out of the fun. The chords we need are Cadd2 (a special form of C major that also contains a D note), G, F, B minor, E minor and D. It is worth noting th…
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A Little Inspiration — the Unmissable Video
Tamás GállTo break up the density of all the information here, I would like to share one of my favourite ukulele videos with you (I have many favourites, so from time to time there will be one of these more relaxed posts). We could even call this video “What Can a Ukulele Do?” — or, more precisely, what can a…
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A part alatt
Tamás GállToday the Hungaria Ukulele Blog is 13 years old. On several previous anniversaries I wrote a retrospective about the past year, and for the tenth anniversary I even devoted a very long post to it , but this time I will spare everyone . Instead, I would like to show you a ukulele accompaniment for a…
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A Question of Fingernails
Tamás GállIf there can be a thorny question, perhaps there can be a nail-related one too :). And no, this is not about nail salons :D. Over the past few years I have received several emails about “fingernail policy”, so I thought the topic deserved a short post. Interestingly, questions have come from both di…
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A Shared Ukulele Performance — Let's Play Together!
Tamás GállEncouraged by the success of our shared Christmas ukulele project at the end of last year, I am inviting all of you to another big group strum — unfortunately once again only in virtual form. Just like the "Ó, Gyönyörű Szép" project, I am asking you to send me videos of yourselves playing. I will co…
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A ukulele for Christmas
Tamás GállFor me at least, choosing gifts for the people we love is difficult. We want the present to be useful, interesting, new and genuinely pleasing to the recipient. There are probably very few gifts that satisfy every one of those requirements, so most of the time we compromise somewhere. I am sure many…
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A visit to the Kamaka workshop
Tamás GállAfter a long time, here comes another guest post—and not just any guest post. A few months ago, in the Hungaria Ukulele Club Facebook group I saw a post by Gyuri, a fellow guitarist and ukulele player who was lucky enough to visit the workshop of Kamaka, one of the world's finest ukulele makers. I w…
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