Choosing your first ukulele
14 posts
The tuner
Tamás GállIn the next video I show you four tuners. In the age of smartphones, many people may consider buying a tuner unnecessary, and that is partly true: a ukulele can be tuned perfectly well with a phone app. Even so, a dedicated tuner has its advantages, so perhaps it is not a bad idea to keep one of the…
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With a strap or without?
Tamás GállOne of the eternal questions among ukulele players is whether you may, can, should, ought to — and so on — attach a strap to a ukulele. There may be no single correct answer, and that is perfectly fine: everyone can decide how they prefer to hold their instrument. The earliest ukuleles had no strap…
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Soprano, Concert or Tenor?
Tamás GállA minor religious war is slowly developing on both Hungarian and international forums over whether a beginner should choose a soprano or a concert ukulele as their first instrument. Or perhaps a tenor. I decided to make a blog post and video about the subject, explaining and showing in detail where…
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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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Buying a Ukulele for a Young Child
Tamás GállI receive a great many emails from parents asking what kind of ukulele they should choose for their child. I have already written a post about buying a ukulele “for adults” but in view of the many messages I receive, I will now try to summarise what I think is worth considering when choosing a ukule…
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The Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument
Tamás GállI found an excellent video about the effect playing a musical instrument has on the human brain. In short: it is good. In more detail: it is quite amazing. According to the narrator, when a musician starts playing an instrument, a real fireworks display unfolds in the brain, even though from the out…
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Why Learn Music and Play an Instrument?
Tamás GállIn earlier posts (for example, "Why Is It Good to Learn the Ukulele?", "On Listening to Music") I have written a lot about how it is never too late to start learning music or to pick up any musical instrument. When I hear someone say, "I'm too old for that" or "I never got top marks in music at scho…
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On Listening to Music
Tamás GállHave you ever laughed because of music? Have you ever smiled at the way someone plays, or at what they play? On any instrument - piano, drums, anything. I do not mean funny videos that are amusing because people are fallible. I mean that feeling when laughter tickles your stomach because someone is…
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The Case for a Case
Tamás GállOnce we have settled the case question, we can say we have never had it so good. (With apologies to Illés.) I receive emails not only asking what kind of ukulele to buy (and where), but also quite often asking what sort of case is worth getting. My answer is unequivocal: a hard case. If we store and…
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Getting to Know the Ukulele II
Tamás GállHolding the ukulele When we search YouTube for videos of professional ukulele players, naturally we pay most attention to the music itself and watch the musician's fingers on both hands. What may not even occur to us — because it is not especially spectacular — is that simply holding the instrument…
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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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Getting to Know the Ukulele I
Tamás GállParts of the ukulele and tuning The picture below shows the parts of a ukulele. Because of its close relationship with the guitar, their names are exactly the same as the corresponding parts of a guitar (and a given part may have more than one accepted name): This is not of enormous practical import…
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