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339 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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Why Is It Worth Learning to Play the Ukulele?
Tamás GállThis is a very interesting question, and the answer is not limited to the ukulele. In my view, musical instruments are among the most wonderful creations of humankind. They complement and accompany the singing voice, and playing them — producing sound in a controlled way — can connect people of any…
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Buying a Ukulele
Tamás GállUkuleles can be bought from as little as HUF 2,000–3,000, while top models can cost several hundred thousand forints and may even exceed one million forints. First of all, I would strongly advise everyone against the ukuleles that cost only a few thousand forints, unless what you want is a dust coll…
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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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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 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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Let's Get in Tune! — How to Tune a Ukulele
Tamás GállThis post is about the practical details of tuning a ukulele. Because many people asked me to explain tuning in greater detail — and because tuning really can be difficult for beginners — I decided to devote the first tutorial video to tuning. UPDATE (10 May 2019): The video above was made more than…
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Let It Be
Tamás GállLet us begin learning chords with Let It Be! What is a chord? The shortest answer is: at least three notes sounding at the same time. A ukulele has four strings, so it can produce at most four notes simultaneously. (A piano, by contrast, can produce ten or even twelve if we use all our fingers and o…
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From Balatonlelle to Szigetvár (Route 67)
Tamás GállWith Republic's song 67-es út (“Route 67”), which made the podium in our previous poll, we will learn three new chords and revise G major, which we already memorised for Let It Be. The three new chords are D major, A major and B minor. Important: if a chord has no additional marking — just a letter…
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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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Valami Amerika
Tamás GállLearning this song requires a little more practice and patience, especially for the introduction. Because the tempo is fairly fast, you also need to pay attention to rapid chord changes in the verses and choruses. None of that should discourage anyone, though: the result more than repays the sweaty…
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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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