Songs and arrangements
83 posts
Házasodik a tücsök — accompaniment tutorial
Tamás GállRecently 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…
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Dream a Little Dream — intro
Tamás GállDream a Little Dream is one of my eternal favourites, so it is no surprise that it was one of the first songs I arranged , now eight years ago. Back then, of course, I played it a little differently, using less fingerstyle technique. Since then I have developed that side of my playing and added an i…
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Blue Moon of Kentucky
Tamás GállI hope there are some bluegrass fans among you, because I would like to show you the chord accompaniment to one of the genre's evergreen classics. Bill Monroe wrote the song in 1946 — at least that is what he said; I do not understand why Wikipedia gives 1945 — and recorded it that year with his ban…
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Silent Night — reloaded
Tamás GállSilent Night was one of the first fingerstyle arrangements I ever learned. Ten years ago around this time I practised it diligently until, on 11 December 2011, I published a blog postabout it. I remember how hard I struggled to work out how the chords and melody should fit together, choose the finge…
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Imagine — let's play together!
Tamás GállHappy New Year — may it be full of health and ukulele playing! Imagine us all strumming together . That line is not actually in John Lennon's evergreen song, but I would love as many of you as possible to feel inspired to take part in the next community ukulele video. If you do not know what I mean,…
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Imagine — our community production
Tamás GállTo celebrate World Ukulele Day, our latest community production is finished. I published the call for participants a little over two weeks ago. World Ukulele Day itself will only be on 2 February, so I am posting the video slightly ahead of the occasion, but I hope you do not mind. I cannot thank my…
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Money Heist
Tamás GállThe hugely successful series Money Heist — La casa de papel — swept me up as well. But that phase is over now , because only a few days ago we watched the final episode of season five at home. Some people praise or criticise the series season by season. Overall I enjoyed all five: it was exciting, f…
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Folsom Prison Blues
Tamás GállI have been planning for a long time to write a blog post about Johnny Cash and arrange one of his songs — and perhaps I will eventually do several. In my view he is one of those songwriters and performers everyone must have heard of, whether they like his music or not. His life would deserve a sepa…
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Give Peace a Chance
Tamás GállThis song has a sadly topical relevance. I hope the war between Ukraine and Russia ends as soon as possible — a war that perhaps no one truly believed would happen . According to Wikipedia, “Give Peace a Chance” is one of John Lennon's best-known songs. It was recorded on 31 May 1969 in room 1742 of…
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Nemzeti dal — reloaded
Tamás GállYou could say this post is a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, since 15 March was already a few weeks ago — incidentally, the day my third child was born — and I am only now publishing a post about this song, which is literally a “National Song” . What happened was that onl…
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Community ukulele production II
Tamás GállUpdate:thank you for the videos — they turned out really well . Over the next few days I will edit and cut the recordings, and I will be back soon with the finished production. It is always a great pleasure to announce another community play-along project. I hope you will take part in creating the n…
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Schubert — Die Forelle (The Trout), Op. 32
Tamás GállThis wonderful Schubert piece is one of the best-known classical compositions and one that many people may remember from school. This year marks exactly 205 years since Schubert wrote down the song that later provided the basis for the Trout Quintet two years afterwards. It has an exceptionally beau…
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