Stories and interviews
128 posts
Paul McCartney Live in Vienna - Concert Report
Tamás GállVienna, 27 June 2013. A historic day - for us, at least, without question. We travelled to Vienna a day early, full of excitement, anticipation and, of course, countless questions. That same day we went out to see the venue, Ernst Happel Stadium. Stone footballs - for giants Our tickets, which we ha…
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Pink Martini
Tamás GállThis unusually named band is twenty years old this year, and I am sorry that I discovered them only recently. (In an earlier ukulele test post — KALA KA-S — I strum along to one of their best-known songs.) The group was founded in 1994 by a rather over-animated pianist, and they have been performing…
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Private lessons – booking system
Tamás GállFirst of all, I wish everyone a happy new year full of ukulele playing! I hope you all enjoyed the past few days and are beginning to recover from the exertions of New Year's Eve . Please allow me to begin the new year by announcing a small development. I started putting together a special registrat…
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Report from David Chen's workshop
Tamás GállOrganising this historic workshop was exciting because it was the first workshop in Hungary led by an internationally recognised ukulele teacher. I hardly know where to begin this report because I am still very much under the influence of the event. First, I would like to repeat briefly the words of…
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Report from the 10th ukulele course
Tamás GállYesterday we held the 10th ukulele course in the heart of Budapest, at the Aranytíz Cultural Centre in District V. That day at the end of March when I arranged the dates of yesterday's Course I and the Course II taking place next Sunday with the venue now seems quite distant. And yet those few weeks…
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Report from the 11th ukulele course
Tamás GállAs a continuation of last week's anniversary ukulele course , I held Course II today. During the morning we worked on rhythmic techniques and learned several new chords; in the afternoon we moved on to further chords, including barre shapes. We covered a dense and substantial amount of material. It…
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Report from the 2019 Summer Ukulele Meetup
Tamás GállI'm smiling. I'm full of energy — I got so much from all of you at Monday's meetup! Thank you for coming in such great numbers, and from what I could see, you had a good time. The meetup had barely ended when I started receiving messages saying how much you enjoyed the event and asking when the next…
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Report from the autumn ukulele meetup
Tamás GállI have had an extremely busy three weeks packed with ukulele events. After two course weekends — one Course I and one Course II — the ukulele meetup followed on 11 September 2021. When I started organising the courses and meetup in the summer, I hoped we would just manage to fit them in before the f…
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Report from the First Ukulele Course of the 2020s
Tamás GállI do not think people who teach courses usually write experience reports about their own classes, but somehow it has become a habit of mine. A course is a big experience for me too (and I hope for the participants as well ). I meet lots of new people whom it is a pleasure to teach and with whom it i…
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Report from the Summer Ukulele Meetup
Tamás GállIt always feels good to write down my experiences after a ukulele meetup. Or rather, our experiences, because on the afternoon of August 11, 2020, around 25 ukulele players gathered together and we had a fantastic time making music! Thank you for the feedback I received afterwards in person, on Face…
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Report from the Ukulele Course
Tamás GállI really thought I was not going to write about this, but I simply cannot resist — it was too good ! The day before yesterday, nine very enthusiastic beginner ukulele players arrived on the top floor of the Alexandra bookshop at Nyugati tér for the recently announced ukulele course. A few minutes af…
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Report from the ukulele meetup
Tamás GállI arrived excitedly at the venue of yesterday's ukulele meetup shortly before 5 p.m. Loaded down with ukuleles, I made my way inside, and it was not long before the first “colleagues” arrived. My first thought on seeing the venue was that it was rather dark – how were we going to find the chords? –…
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