Ukulele Tonya

Imagine a room full of musicians playing all sorts of old-timey, bluegrass and folk melodies. Yet amidst the expected mass of mandolins, gaggle of guitars, bunch of banjos and fistful of fiddles there are—not one, but—two ukuleles! Yep, I was invited to an informal folk jam session frequented by local players at Augie’s Coffee down in Chico. Michael (whom I’d bought my fiddle from) told me about the monthly gathering on Friday afternoon and I decided to give it a try. I’d read from others on various forums that some folk musicians are open to ukuleles—and some aren’t. Thankfully this group was of the welcoming type!I arrived with my little soprano LoPrinzi and within 30 minutes was sandwiched between mandolins, with a stand-up bass behind me. Mark came along—he spent the time working on his computer, taking some photos for me and enjoying the music with the other patrons at the shop. We played a range of songs which I’d never head of (that’s just not been my repertoire—at least up until now!); most were in the keys of D, A and even E (arghh! I hate the E chord in first position; I ended up doing the 4-4-4-7 version) but there were a few tunes in G and even C. No chord charts, for the most part (although Bernie, from the Butte Folk Music Society, who played mandolin beside me, was generous in sharing those songs that had them). I discovered that my ability to “hear” chord changes and anticipate the chord progressions improved almost magically as the afternoon went on. (Read on …)

Who goes to Hayward (California) to play the ukulele? Thousands of us did on April 29—and if you weren’t there, you missed an event that’s as rich in Hawaiian culture as it is in four-string delights. Held at the Hayward Adult Learning Center, this year’s event was the 14th annual, making it the longest-running (and oldest!) ukulele festival on the mainland. This festival has a true ohana feel. While some of the out-of-the-auditorium jamming was definitely non-island oriented (Beatles, anyone? Petula Clark? John Denver?), the performers inside are members of the many Bay Area-based ukulele schools and clubs and their performance repertoire was almost entirely Hawaiian (including contemporary and hapa haole as well as some lovely old melodies that just made me sigh and want to collapse beneath a coconut palm). (Read on …)

I realized at our last meeting of Ukuleles of Paradise that a lot of folks have only a minimal knowledge of Hawaiian music. It’s just not something they’re familiar with or have heard much (if at all!). To help remedy that, I’ve written a very brief primer on the topic, “Learning About Hawaiian Music” and I have posted it in the Files section of this site. The article includes a (brief) summary of what you might hear in Hawaiian music as well as an abundance of links for online Hawaiian radio, vintage recordings, places to listen to/purchase Hawaiian music and even an online site where you listen to traditional songs and speak Hawaiian while you play along on your ukulele!

While you’re in that section of the site, you may want browse around and see what other files you might be interested in. I created most of these for members of the local ukulele group to help answer questions or as topics for a future meeting.