Ukulele Tonya

Note: I didn’t have a camera this year at the festival, but I did have my little video camera. I’ve posted a video of a bit of the festival activities here; but do take some Dramamine before you view it. It’s a bit bouncy… (The video is also embedded at the bottom of this post in case you don’t want to head over to YouTube right away.)

Ouch—I’m sporting an ukulele sunburn today. You know—it’s when your inner forearms are toasty pink all the way from where the sleeve on your Hawaiian shirt ends down to where your thumb starts. Oh, and peeking from today’s “work attire,” there’s a matching burnished red “V”, too, corresponding to the collar line of that same Hawaiian blouse.

While that sunburn is feeling pretty warm, what’s warmer still are the memories of a great ukulele weekend spent enjoying the Northern California Ukulele Festival (Hayward, CA).

You see, the unique pattern of that sunburn springs from spending several (happy!) hours in the sunshine, playing ukulele with friends old and new at the festival. We played, as one friend said, “every chord ever known,” as the sun shined down on us—hence a sunburn tattoo that is only on the skin surfaces exposed while strumming and chording. Can I say, “Ouch” one more time?

But it was more than worth it!

(Read on …)

Nope, we’re not “sssshhhhing” anyone in our library. The materials in the new Ukuleles of Paradise library are meant to help you makes some great music (noise?) and help you play better.

In addition to a copy of The Daily Ukulele for use during meetings, the library of Ukuleles of Paradise now has a wealth of learning materials. I’ve put the word out about our lending library and a Bay Area friend in the ukulele world has gifted us with some wonderful resources. This donation was at no cost to us, meaning I’ll be using the money we have in our “fund” to buy even more items. (Thank you very much, Peter and Craig!)

Go here to browse the titles in our library (I know, it says “My Library” and has my photo, but I can’t change that heading in the library software—it really is our library for Ukuleles of Paradise!). The library shows a short description of each item; I’m looking forward to member reviews of their favorite learning materials in the library and I’ll include those reviews in the description. Members may borrow the materials (one at a time, please) at no cost for one month. All you need to do is send me an e-mail ahead of time and I’ll bring the items to the meeting. I figure that’s easier than me becoming a human packhorse and hauling them all to each of our meetings!

These materials are not for duplicating (copyright laws clearly prohibit the copying of items not in the public domain) but for you to borrow to learn from—and perhaps decide to buy a copy for yourself.

(Read on …)

Santa’s budget might have been a bit tight around your house this year. So, of course, that certainly explains why you didn’t find the William King tenor or a 3K Martin under your tree come Christmas morning.

But if you’ve been good (and if you’re an ukulele player, I’m just gonna guess that you’re “good” in some form or another), you might have some Christmas cash that someone slipped your way and told you to buy yourself “something you’d like.”

Now’s the time to do the buying. Thanks to Jim and Liz Beloff, I have just the suggestion for you to start the new year with ukulele joy: run to your nearest computer, log on to Flea Market Music and buy yourself a copy of The Daily Ukulele: 365 Songs for Better Living.

Yes, it’s $34.99. And, yes, all of you penny-pinchers, you can find a lot of ukulele songs on the Internet for FREE. And, yes, some clubs (notably the folks in Santa Cruz) have some wonderful “collections” of fun-to-play ukulele songs for a small fraction of the $34.99.

But there’s simply no comparison with Daily Ukulele. Not only is it the creative offspring of Beloff, who reigns as ukedom’s own pater-familias, but if you had to limit your music shelf to just one item, you can consider it “the only songbook” an ukulele player really needs.

Believe me, I don’t say that easily. As someone with a passion for Hawaiian-style playing, I typically don’t like “all in one” songbooks because they rarely have any island songs, or they have just a few. This collection though has a great selection of Hawaiian—as well as songs from every other genre (a complete listing of songs is on the website above).

(Read on …)