By: Russ Aloha! Shhh! Do you hear that? That's the sound of the Christmas season upon us and do you know any Christmas songs on ukulele? If you're anything like me, the Christmas season rolls around and you think "it sure would be nice to know some Christmas songs." After all, they're catchy, bright, and even the sad ones still make you feel good in a way - a lot of them are … [Read more...]
Review: Swingin’ Jazz Ukulele
By: Russ Aloha! Let's talk about jazz and, more specifically, jazz on the ukulele. The ukulele shines when you play jazz on it, both with a low G and a high G string and the reason is pretty simple: due to the relative highness of the instrument's scale and the lack of an additional two low strings (the guitar's E and A strings), the tone is brighter, snappier, and … [Read more...]
Review: The Ukulele Way
By: Russ Aloha! Let’s talk about musical goals! It’s important to have musical goals. After all, if you don’t you end up wandering aimlessly and, while Tolkien said that not all who wander are lost, the vast majority are and when you’re lost, every step in any direction feels like a mistake and a step wasted. How do you know if you’re making progress anywhere if you don’t … [Read more...]
Standards & Gems
By: Russ Aloha! While walking through a school, I saw a group of teens sitting close together in a circle playing ukulele and singing to each other. It wasn't here in Hawaii, but rather San Antonio, Texas, and the students were all there temporarily from different areas of the country. But they played the same songs and smiled as they sang. Whenever I would jam on guitar, … [Read more...]
Review: Billy Joel for Ukulele
By: Russ Aloha! One of my favorite things about the ukulele is its ability to play almost any genre of music (hard rock and metal notwithstanding - at least not to me) and turn it into something new, but still pleasurable. Take Billy Joel, for instance: the piano man has largely been behind the… well… the piano for his career, but his songs are so well-written and … [Read more...]