Stories and interviews
128 posts
Lanikai UkeSB
Tamás GállAt first I did not know what to make of this name when I saw it on the Lanikai website. Since "uke" is the common English abbreviation and nickname for ukulele, I assumed it must be some soprano, baritone or perhaps sub-bass :) device. Looking at the UkeSB logo makes the guessing a little easier: uk…
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Ukulele Wars
Tamás GállPublic service announcement: we would like to reassure everyone about the lack of seriousness in the previous post involving a violin and a ukulele. It becomes much easier to understand if you take a careful look at the date. We are staying a ukulele blog! :) A long time ago, on a ukulele far, far a…
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Size Doesn't Matter!
Tamás GállI think I may have to reconsider the idea that a soprano ukulele is not necessarily suitable for a man's hands. I found this unbelievably good video: With some chords the number of left-hand fingertips per square centimetre reaches its absolute maximum. It takes incredible dexterity to make your han…
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Happy Birthday!
Tamás GállToday the Hungaria Ukulele Blog celebrates its second birthday. When I started the blog I had no idea I would inspire so many readers to learn music and take up the ukulele. I would like to thank you for all the kind enquiries and reports you have sent about buying and learning the ukulele. I hope y…
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Ukulele from Quarantine
Tamás GállMillions of articles, books, films and other works have dealt with the story of the first Moon landing, but there is one interesting detail that I think many people do not know. A friend of mine, Marci, drew my attention to it - thanks again! When the astronauts returned to Earth, they spent twenty-…
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The Guest from Portland
Tamás GállIn August, a ukulele player from Portland, Michael Kolibaba, visited Hungary. We arranged to meet and spent a delightful afternoon playing ukulele. We understood one another very well because, besides English, music was the common language we both spoke. Mike told me that the ukulele is extremely po…
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Something
Tamás GállAt his concerts over the past decade, Paul McCartney has always performed Something with just a ukulele - or at least he begins it that way. It is his tribute to the memory of the song's writer and his fellow musician George Harrison. Something appeared on the album Abbey Road and is generally regar…
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Film Music
Tamás GállI have not disappeared. If I had my way I would be making ukulele videos continuously, but I have been busy with a few urgent and important things, primarily this website:www.torvenyfigyelo.hu- this is where the shameless advertisement goes , so unfortunately I have not managed to make any new tutor…
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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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…
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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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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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