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339 posts
Chords 03: F major
Tamás GállIn this part of our beginner series – followingC major and A minor – we learn F major. This is the first chord that requires more than one finger – two, to be exact. If C major and A minor already feel secure, it is time to put the middle and index fingers to work at the same time. It is not a diffi…
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Why use a capo?
Tamás GállThe main purpose of a capo is to change the ukulele's effective tuning in a single movement. Clip it onto the neck and every string immediately sounds higher. This is useful because if we have learned a particular chord progression or song accompaniment – perhaps one involving complicated finger mov…
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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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Caro Emerald – Tangled Up
Tamás GállThis woman makes such good music that I could not resist making another play-along chord video. Just as a reminder: click here to read my report from the Caro Emerald concert, while the previous play-along video, made for Back It Up, is available here. This time I would like to show you the accompan…
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Tanglewood TWT 16 E
Tamás GállI had heard and seen Tanglewood ukuleles several times, but until now I had never had the opportunity to try one. Finally, an example reached me, thanks in part to the help of an enthusiastic reader, Ádám. I was particularly curious about this instrument because its body is made from koa, just like…
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Chords 04: G major
Tamás GállThe fourth basic chord is G major. Add it to the C major, F majorandA minorwe have already learned, and we will be able to play quite a large number of songs – at least accompany them with chords. Compared with the first three chords, G major initially seems the most complicated, because the first t…
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Tiki Uku Baby
Tamás GállRecently my eye was caught by a very small ukulele. It was not quite as tiny as the recently reviewed Koki'o Mini, but it was still a little smaller than the sopranos next to it – certainly thinner, at least. If I had to classify it by size, I would describe it as a soprano-size travel ukulele, mean…
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Chords 05: C major, A minor, F major and G major
Tamás GállWe have already learned four chords. I hope you have managed to memorise how to fretC major,A minor, F majorand G major . These are excellent basic chords with which to begin learning because they appear in songs constantly. There are very few songs in which at least one of the four does not occur.…
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Proud Mary
Tamás GállSeven years ago I already wrote a post about this excellent song, and now the blog has apparently caught the Hollywood trend of rewriting and remaking its biggest hits. That is not really true, of course, because we try to publish articles and videos that remain useful over time, but Proud Mary dese…
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The Beatles – Let It Be, reloaded
Tamás GállI do not think there is a person on Earth who has never heard this song at least once. Perhaps the indigenous people who shot arrows at a helicopter have not, but anyone who has ever had anything to do with twentieth-century Western popular music certainly knows The Beatles' Let It Be. It was no acc…
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Így ukuleléztek ti
Tamás GállI am interrupting the usual sequence of instrument reviews and song-learning posts with a subject that may be interesting. In several earlier posts we discussed why it is worth learning to make musicand, of course,play the ukulele, and the beneficial effects of playing a musical instrument. If you h…
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Rock your baby with a ukulele!
Tamás GállThe choice of title is deliberate, because this blog post is connected with Ringató – with the trademark owner's permission ;). Parents of young children certainly know Ringató. It is probably not an exaggeration to call it one of the best-known and most popular early-childhood music and education p…
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