Stories and interviews
128 posts
The First Hungarian Ukulele Blog
Tamás GállMy aim in creating this Hungaria ukulele blog is to introduce this wonderful little instrument to as many people as possible and inspire them to start playing. In future I will try to write about as many interesting topics as possible — chords, songs, brands, ukulele equipment and my own experiences…
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Learning an Instrument, Buying an Instrument
Tamás GállKnowing the ÁS-ÉS writings for more than ten years, recommending to everyone! Personally considering them timeless classics, often perfect sociological studies, rereading them repeatedly, always discovering something new. Anyone not knowing them, compulsory reading! A few years ago the writings movi…
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Build Me Up Buttercup
Tamás GállI will soon be back with another tutorial video of my own, but in the meantime I would like to share one of my favourite YouTube videos. It features a charming and inventive arrangement of Build Me Up Buttercup. The song was made world-famous by The Foundations in 1968; since then it has been covere…
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Ukulele Blues
Tamás GállI have not disappeared; I simply have an enormous number of other things to do, so I have very little free time left for the ukulele and the blog. I found a fantastic video and decided I simply had to share it with you. The video features an insanely good improvisation on what looks like a tenor uku…
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Banjolele
Tamás GállAmong plucked string instruments, the banjo has always been one of my favourites. Its distinctive shape and sound make it almost impossible to confuse with anything else. It works beautifully as a solo instrument, but bluegrass, country and Dixieland bands are almost unimaginable without a banjo. It…
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Music and Humour
Tamás GállWe are right in the middle of moving house (if I close my eyes, all I see are bags, boxes, a fridge, cupboards, chairs and other things waiting to be lifted and moved), so unfortunately I have barely been able to take out my ukulele in recent weeks and no new tutorial video could be made. For now I…
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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…
Read moreUkulele Blog in the Goldenblog Top 10!
Tamás GállI will admit that I never expected the blog to do this well in its very first year! We finished somewhere in the middle of the public vote (thank you for your votes!), but I received an enormous honour because the Goldenblog jury liked Ukulele Blog so much that they selected it for the top 10 in the…
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You Played Ukulele, M'Lord?
Tamás GállWho has not heard of theYou Rang, M'Lord? television series, which is both wonderfully charming and very funny. (If by chance you have never seen it, catch up — you will not regret it!) There is a reason I am writing a few lines about it here: in episode 11, one of the scenes shared by Mr Twelvetree…
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*(l)ele
Tamás GállI watch with admiration these inventive and highly skilled people who make instruments for themselves out of all sorts of objects. From shoeboxes and bedpans to tennis rackets, they stretch four strings across almost anything and there you have it: an instrument. Some of them sound surprisingly good…
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Farewell to Bill Tapia
Tamás GállBill Tapia, one of the world's oldest active musicians and a man famous for his ukulele playing, has died at the age of 103. (He played other instruments as well.) He was born on 1 January 1908, so he was only a few weeks short of his 104th birthday. He received his first ukulele at the age of seven…
Read moreOne Year...
Tamás GállDear Readers and Dear Ukulele Fans! The blog turned one year old today. Thank you all for the comments, likes, emails and encouragement. Together we have achieved far more than I ever expected. I was delighted that in its very first year the blog made it into the top 10 of the expert category in the…
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