Ukulele blog – tips, songs, reviews and interviews – page 19

Songs and arrangements 28 Feb 2017

I'm Into Something Good

Tamás Gáll

It has been a very long time since I made a “play-the-chords-along-with-me” video, but I have now recorded several songs. The first one I would like to show you is the old Herman's Hermits hit, accompanied by ukulele – or, more precisely, banjolele. This is excellent practice for beginners who are w…

Songs and arrangements 19 Aug 2012

I Feel Fine — for Three Ukuleles

Tamás Gáll

The cucumber season is slowly ending, and ukulele season is here again! (Sorry...) I hope you are not tired of the Beatles yet; I never seem able to tire of their songs. I made a special arrangement of I Feel Fine, which was released in 1964. From 12 December 1964 it spent five weeks at the top of t…

Stories and interviews 19 Oct 2022

I became a Kala ukulele ambassador

Tamás Gáll

Dear Ukulele Players! I would like to share some happy news with you. You probably know that Kala is a ukulele brand: I have presented quite a few Kala ukuleles here on the blog (the first one in 2012), and Kala ukuleles were also available in the webshop at the time. Well, the Kala company—recogniz…

Songs and arrangements 08 Nov 2020

Hull a Pelyhes Fehér Hó

Tamás Gáll

I often say and write that a particular song is worth learning because many people know it, which makes it useful "ammunition" in company — if someone says, "Come on, play something!", you can confidently perform it. Hull a Pelyhes is like that too, although it has the disadvantage of being seasonal…

Learn to play ukulele 24 Jan 2011

Let's Get in Tune! — How to Tune a Ukulele

Tamás Gáll

This 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…

Learn to play ukulele 18 May 2020

How to Restring a Ukulele

Tamás Gáll

This restringing video arrived very late compared with the launch of the blog — you only had to wait about nine and a half years for it. One reason is that, slightly embarrassingly, I do not have a huge amount of experience restringing ukuleles. The other is that I am one of those people who do not…

Songs and arrangements 02 Jun 2013

How to Put a Lion to Sleep

Tamás Gáll

Armed with a ukulele, we can bravely head out onto the savannah - provided we first learn The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Nothing beats an afternoon nap This charming and simple song - according to Wikipedia - was originally written in Zulu in the 1920s, but it only spread around the world a few decades la…

Stories and interviews 14 Dec 2022

How I reacted to the chords...

Tamás Gáll

With the end of the year approaching, inspiration struck and I made a video intended to be funny. I hope many of you know the Obama parody in which a comedian playing the former US president greets the people he passes after a speech with varying degrees of enthusiasm. I translated that idea into en…

Songs and arrangements 27 Jul 2021

Hol jártál, báránykám? — melody tutorial

Tamás Gáll

I would like to teach you the melody of this lovely Hungarian children's song. In “Hol jártál, báránykám?” the focus is not on chord accompaniment, so naturally that is not what I concentrate on in the video below. The song uses a pentatonic scale, meaning five different pitches (the C an octave hig…

Songs and arrangements 23 Oct 2012

Heavy Metal Jones

Tamás Gáll

I know I recently made a post about the Indiana Jones soundtrack, but while testing the electro-acoustic ukulele and strumming whatever came into my head, I suddenly started playing the Indy theme. It sounded surprisingly heavy, so I thought I would share it with you: This recording is what is known…

Songs and arrangements 02 Sep 2021

Házasodik a tücsök — accompaniment tutorial

Tamás Gáll

Recently we learned the melody of the song beginning “Hol jártál, báránykám?”. This time I would like to show you the accompaniment to “Házasodik a tücsök”. It is a lovely folk song from western Hungary, and I am sure very many people — probably everyone — know it. We need three chords for this song…

Songs and arrangements 18 Aug 2012

Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

Tamás Gáll

In another video we are going to work through Creedence Clearwater Revival's Have You Ever Seen The Rain. The band's name may not mean much to everyone, but I am certain almost everybody has heard some of their songs. The group was at its peak in the late 1960s and the 1970s. One musician stands out…