Songs and arrangements
83 posts
Egy boszorka van...
Tamás GállIn this blog post and video I would like to show you and teach you a ukulele accompaniment for the Slovak folk song beginning “Egy boszorka van...” (“There is a witch...”). I find it hard to imagine that anyone in Hungary does not know it . I loved it as a child, and now I very much enjoy singing it…
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Egyszer egy királyfi — and a giveaway!
Tamás GállIn the video below I would like to teach you a ukulele arrangement of a sung fairy tale. The story itself continues for many, many “verses”, or sections. Memorizing the text is almost an impossible mission for me , but the chord accompaniment is much simpler, and the bright, chiming sound of the uku…
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Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Tamás GállWhen someone asks what instrument I am carrying and I tell them that it is a ukulele, they immediately smile and say, “Ah, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, right?” The history of the song goes back to 1939, when the world first heard this lovely piece as a song in the classic film The Wizard of Oz under…
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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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Áll egy ifjú nyírfa a réten...
Tamás GállIn this blog post and the accompanying video I would like to show you a ukulele accompaniment for the Russian folk song beginning “Áll egy ifjú nyírfa a réten...” (“There Stands a Young Birch Tree in the Meadow...”). Before going any further, a brief aside: of course I too hope that the war raging i…
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Something Stupid
Tamás GállWhen most of us see the title, perhaps the Robbie Williams–Nicole Kidman version comes to mind. Yet we need to go back to 1967 to talk about the Sinatra version—and even that was not the original. Something Stupid originated with the duo Carson and Gaile, but the pairs mentioned above made it truly…
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James Bond chords
Tamás GállIt would be an exaggeration to call myself a fan, but I do watch the James Bond films: the latest adventures of agent 007 provide excellent entertainment. There is also always a great deal of attention around the theme song, which is usually performed by a current international star—although, in my…
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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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Don't Be Cruel
Tamás Gáll...in other words, “Ne légy kegyetlen!” in Hungarian. This is a great rock-and-roll song by Elvis, recorded in a New York studio in 1956 together with another excellent song, Hound Dog. The latter immediately shot to the top of the charts, but after a while Don't Be Cruel overtook Hound Dog. In fact…
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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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Fyodor M. Dostoevsky and the Devil
Tamás GállFor a long time I have had the thought that it would be worth arranging something by Tamás Cseh — and making a video about it — because his guitar-and-vocal format, even though many songs later add further instruments and sometimes a whole band, seems naturally suited to ukulele and voice as well. I…
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Schubert — Die Forelle (The Trout), Op. 32
Tamás GállThis wonderful Schubert piece is one of the best-known classical compositions and one that many people may remember from school. This year marks exactly 205 years since Schubert wrote down the song that later provided the basis for the Trout Quintet two years afterwards. It has an exceptionally beau…
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