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339 posts
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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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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Nemzeti dal
Tamás GállFor 15 March, Hungary's national day commemorating the 1848 Revolution, we are going to learn the chords to Nemzeti dal (“National Song”). Petőfi wrote the poem on 13 March 1848, two days before the revolution began, originally for a public meeting planned by the young people of Pest for 19 March. N…
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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