Percy Copley at The White Swan, Hebden Bridge!

I haven't posted for a while. Been busy. Life just gets busier, somehow! But the ukulele is always to hand, and the days are few and far between when I can't fit in a few minutes playing. As well as playing I love to listen to good players, good performers. At GNUF last year, one of the performers to really impress me was Percy Copley. I loved his folky-bluesy finger-picking style. He'll be at GNUF again this year, (5th-7th May) but unfortunately I will not - so when I found that we were free on Saturday, the day he would be playing at The White Swan in Hebden Bridge, I held my breath and suggested to LSH (Long-Suffering-Husband) that we hop up north to Hebden Bridge, (a fair way from we are!) stay the night, and enjoy the concert! To my delight he said ok! So in a shake of a lamb's tail the case was packed, a hotel room booked and we were away. It's wonderful to do things on the spur of the moment sometimes.

Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire has changed a lot since the last time we passed through it - that was many, many years ago. More than thirty. It's prettier than it was, it's vibrant, and it has suffered. The Boxing Day floods of 2015 brought havoc and misery to the town. The floods were bad and the link will take you to a page where you can explore photos and articles about why it happened... but businesses and homeowners alike suffered as the roads and buildings went under water. The last business to reopen was the The White Swan... the landlady Liz doing an awful lot of the clearing up herself, getting by with a little help from her friends.

Now Mary Agnes Krell, the main organiser of GNUF, lives in Hebden Bridge with her partner the ukulele builder Rob Collins. (tinguitar) They were not flooded out but being big-hearted folks they were there helping everyone else to sort out the mess. And although on the whole, the town is recovering and getting back on its feet, Liz and The White Swan could still do with a bit more help, a few more folks through the doors... so Mary got hold of Percy Copley and organised a free concert at the pub, for the sole purpose of getting more punters through the doors buying ale! I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty wonderful. Mary knows how to do these things and is very, very good at it! I don't throw these words around a lot - but Mary Agnes Krell really is AWESOME! A good head for doing things and a great heart for doing them for the right people. As I sat listening to Mary speak, and saw Liz the landlady, and realised what the night was really all about, I was very moved. It was very special.

The concert was good. Very good. Percy did a uke workshop to start off with. It wasn't easy, I could see that; various levels of experience among the uke players there, and a lot of noise from the folk enjoying themselves at the bar! But Percy battled on manfully with astonishing good humour and everyone enjoyed it, I could tell from the faces!

The concert was opened by a very talented local youngster of just fourteen, Isaac Hughes-Dennis, who writes his own (very good) and amusing songs, and has a big smile and a very engaging way with an audience. So very entertaining! How is it that these youngsters don't seem to have a single nerve in their bodies! He is definitely a name to watch.

Percy did two half-hour sets, the first being all ukulele, the second being tenor guitar and mandolin. The uke and tenor guitar were loaned to him by Rob Collins, and they sounded great.

The fact that we made a two and a quarter hour journey and paid for a hotel room overnight tells you how much I wanted to hear Percy sing and play. I knew how good he was, and on Saturday I enjoyed every minute. So did LSH. If you are a regular reader you'll know that my LSH doesn't play and has to take my word for it if I tell him that someone is worth the effort of going to see them! No, he was not disappointed. Percy sang and played a wide range of songs and we were both entranced for the whole evening.

Percy will be at GNUF again this year - get a ticket before they are all gone! And check out his website here
to see, buy and get a listen to his CDs. I have both... you need these, you really do!

Thanks for dropping in, I appreciate it. I'll try to post again before too long! I do have plenty to tell - just not a lot of time to tell it! I'll work on that!

Grand Northern Ukulele Festival - GNUF 2017 - dates announced!

I love GNUF.

It's so jam - packed with all sorts of exciting things going on...

It's so varied...

There are so many lovely people there...

The music is wonderful, as is the atmosphere...

And there's going to be a Fifth one!

Can you figure out the dates?

You'll spot artists from past GNUFs sharing the date here! Just click the pic!



In case you can't read them on your phone... put this one in your diary... The fifth GNUF will begin on the fifth day of the fifth month of 2017!

In Huddersfield...

The organisers will be releasing the line-up later on... but a little bird told me that the wonderfully talented and versatile Andy Eastwood will among them! Fabulous...

Life and Ukulele - the whirl goes on....

As I write, I have paused for a minute or two mid-mop, vac and dusting... preparing to welcome into our home a new ukulele friend from thousands of miles away, Myrna Ukelele. We live in the English midlands, she lives in Alaska. How does this come about? The first link is the Ukulele Underground, and specifically the branch of UUers who take part in the weekly fun contest, Seasons of the Ukulele. Myrna has been in there from week 1, myself from week 29. It's now week..... not sure. Been too busy to take part. OK so it's Season 226 now. So you make friends, watching each other's youtube videos. Then suddenly, someone makes it across the sea to a uke festival. Seasonistas can meet up for real. Isn't that wonderful? Myrna and I met up a few weeks ago at GNUF, the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival, held in Huddersfield in the north of England - since then she has been in France and in a couple of hours time she lands at my local airport, where LSH and I will be meeting her. A home-cooked meal later on, even a strum and a song or two ..... then tomorrow off we go to Cheltenham to the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain.

I must stop there... busy busy...

Watch this space!

3 String Cigar-box Uke building workshop at GNUF 2015...

Just one of the great things about a ukulele festival is the workshops. At the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival (GNUF) in Huddersfield a few weeks ago, I put together a 3 string "cigar-box" uke in a workshop by Rob Collins of tinguitar.com These things fascinate me, especially when I hear someone who can play one.

Here's Emerson Rogers playing his - he certainly knew what to do with it! The slide is simply a small piece of copper tubing.
I was really impressed with the way Rob had prepared this workshop. It was an hour in length - no time to do detailed building instruction or to drill holes etc... but enough time to do an assembly job on the kit provided.

It's the sort of project that will benefit from a bit of finishing off - a sanding and coat of varnish of some sort. And the box (not a cigar box actually but it does the trick) would look good decorated. And then to get some music out of it..... it will wait til the winter months.
Rob was very innovative with the nut and bridge for this little "uke"...

As you caan see, the nut is a bolt - yes, the nut is a bolt! (Groan...) and the threads make good slots for the strings to fit into!

The bridge appears to be a bolt with the end cut off - the threads hold the strings in place. Very neat.
You'll notice that there's no sound hole - Rob explained that with a large enough sound hole, the top would be weakened and would need bracing - as a ukulele has. So there we go, we all had a neat and practical first foray into basic uke building! It was great fun, and everyone got their three string cigar box finished in the time. "f" holes would be cool though... I wonder....

Speaking of "cool"... this ranks pretty high on the list... In May we were fortunate to be able to visit the Kamaka factory in Honolulu, for the tour given by Mr Fred Kamaka himself - and here he is, showing me the museum-piece cigar-box uke made by Sam Kamaka... what a wonderful experience that was - and that's simply beautiful!

Well, I've got my porch, got my cigar box uke, all I need now is an injection of blues-ology to get me going! I live in hope.....

Sarah Maisel and Craig Chee - Sarah talks about their new sound

Come Back Home (GNUF Tour Version)



Sarah and Craig put this video together when they got back home to America to share their memories of the folks at the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival (GNUF) held in Huddersfield, England in May. It is a joy... (I was very surprised and thrilled to see my own face pop up there with Sarah...)

They are a very special couple, as anyone who has met them or seen them perform together on stage will tell you. Off-stage they both have a genuine warmth, which embraces anyone they meet - that certain something that makes you feel as if just at that moment you are the most important person in the world to them... and their on-stage chemistry makes their performance something quite exceptional - every time.

When I first heard Sarah play, at UFGB two years ago, her style was jazz standards, but she and Craig have now worked on developing their own sound, as you can hear in the video and on their first full length album together, just released, "Scene 1: Take 1".

This is what Sarah told me...

"When Craig and I first started working together- we really just played our own styles, and backed each other up. I played low G and he played High G. Eventually we started to want more from our playing- especially if we did not have a bass player or guitarist with us. Two ukes, even with the high G and low G didn’t’ give us the depth of sound we were looking for.

For our CD “With Love”- Craig decided to play Baritone ‘Ukulele for a song or two. This gave us the depth we were looking for, but we still weren’t 100% happy with the Baritone sound. We had already begun working with GHS Strings (USA) on creating custom string sets. After working with the Baritone Uke, he asked them about creating a set for the uke that would be Baritone tuning, but re-entrant (meaning the top string is a high note). AND he wanted this set to fit a TENOR ‘Ukulele. The main reason for wanting the tenor uke scale was ease of travel- it is much easier to travel on planes with a tenor uke, than with the baritone. The Re-entrant tuning was important because he still wanted to play it like an ‘ukulele, utilizing that top string. Though this tuning is not new (Lyle Ritz and Benny Chong have both used it), for some reason it never gained popularity. After months of trial and error, we figured out the set and the uke became a new instrument again! Craig could not stop playing it and became re-inspired. We started doing harmonizing picking, along with our harmonizing vocals and we realized we had such a large sound for two people and two ukes.

It has been a fun and wonderful experience and we are very happy with the direction we are headed. When we perform together, we do switch instruments frequently. It’s actually very refreshing for us, as performers, to have a change of pace during the show. You would think it’s difficult to wrap your head around, but it really isn’t! All of the chord shapes are the same- but you’ll be thinking in a different key. MEANING- If I am playing a standard tuned uke in the key of C, Craig will be playing the Bari-Tenor tuned uke in the key of F. Once you get used to thinking of songs in numbers- like , the 1 chord, or the 4 chord, it is actually very easy to switch turnings."

Fascinating stuff! Thanks for that, Sarah!

And just in case you didn't know, Sarah and Craig are indeed a couple and will be marrying in Hawaii in September!

Watch this video on youtube

And - if you want to read more about Craig and Sarah, there's a great article and interview here on Rock at Night...

Masters of their art, each signature on my Little White Uke! Who's there so far?

My Little Blue Uke (sky-blue Mahalo, taken everywhere) has a Little White counterpart - the one I won (so proud!) in a songwriting competition hosted by one of the Seasonistas on the Ukulele Undergound Forum last Christmas. I generally keep it as my D uke and it comes out occasionally.

Just before I left home for GNUF (Grand Northern Ukulele Festival)on Friday, I had a brainwave... so many of my ukulele heroes would be there... why not ask them all to sign it? And I did!

Almost all of the signatures on here belong to players featured on this blog more than once.

What they all have in common is that I love their music and they are indeed masters of their art. And all are quite different.

I regret that I didn't catch Zoe Bestel to sign it. She just gets better and better. Her voice is ethereal and her delivery will break your heart. She is featured on this blog more than once, as a singer who plays ukulele and writes much of her own material.

The work of both Mike Hind and Ben Rouse is pretty new to me. But Mike Hind (AKA Uncle Elvis) just owned the stage during his set - he did indeed hold the audience in the palm of his hand ... and Ben Rouse supporting him on bass (as he supported others, as well as doing a great set in his own right on uke) was phenomenal, he tore the place up. Such nice fellas, too, both of them. So they are there, kindly gracing my Little White Uke with their signatures.

So who of my known favourites have you spotted? Well... there's Phil Doleman; (music from the 20's and 30's - a great musician and performer - and teacher!) Manitoba Hal, blues uker extraordinaire; Sarah Maisel and Craig Chee, jazz standards and original songs, (soon to be married.... wonderful...) Aaron Keim, (The Quiet American) - all-style fingerpickin and all-round super-duper musician; Peter Moss, long-time virtuoso player on wooden uke and banjo-uke, Mike Warren, exemplary Formby player who plays a mean wooden uke too... young Michael Adcock, who is fast making a name for himself on the uke scene, and last but not least, Mike Hind and Ben Rouse.

I have room for a few more.

I know who I want on that uke. Superb musicians and entertainers all. And there's a space on my wall where it will hang for a while and inspire me to...

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! That's the only way to go, folks... the only way to go.

Hawaii and a great uke festival (GNUF)... what more could a ukulele girl ask for?

Did I tell you I was going away for the holiday of a lifetime?

Across two ponds to finish up on a rock in Hawaii?

Sure I did! And we got back last Tuesday after five days on the loose in Honolulu and then a cruise round the islands, finishing up sailing across the North Pacific to Vancouver for a flight home to England and a few days jet-lag. And a ukulele festival. Ukafrolics galore, dear readers, ukafrolics galore! The festival was GNUF - the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival, held in Huddersfield 23rd and 24th May. It was fantastic. I've just read Barry Maz's comprehensive account of it in Got A Ukulele blog... and if you want to read all about it I suggest you hot-foot it over there because as always, it's very thorough, and very detailed. I'll be saying a few things about it over the next few days. For now, here's David Morgan (DJ Morgan Ukuleles) with the beautiful uke he made that became MINE a few weeks ago (yes I did tell you all about it...) enjoying the buzz and the music in the pre-festival get-together in the Head of Steam pub on Friday!

What a lovely fella he is!

And here's one from Hawaii....

Where is this and who are the two lovely fellas here? That's Yours Truly in the middle, of course, proudly sporting my Ukulele Underground teeshirt... answers please in the comments! You'll have to sign in to Google... and sorry but there are no prizes! I just want to know you're there, and on the ball, ukulele-wise!

Clawhammer ukulele? Try lesson 1 by Aaron Keim

A few uke players sometimes play clawhammer style. Aaron Keim, AKA "The Quiet American" is one of them ... are you in the UK? You want to see him live? He'll be at the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival in Huddersfield, England - 22nd to the 24th May this year, 2015. And he will be doing a workshop on fingerpicking - NB, fingerpicking, NOT clawhammer.... anyways, I've got my ticket, booked my workshops, including this one.

Better be quick if you get in on it - there are not many tickets left, and workshops have begun to sell out!

Thanks for dropping in... I'm getting back to my practice now!

Grand Northern Ukulele Festival

The Grand Northern Ukulele Festival - Huddersfield, England.

22nd - 24th May, 2015.

The tickets for this stupendous ukulele event in the North of England have nearly all gone - they really have! Last year's festival was phenomenal - I know, I was there... and I have my ticket for this year's, so I'm All Right Jack! If you want to go, get in there sharpish. Because many of the greatest names in the ukulele world are going to playing there.

Manitoba Hal Brolund, Sarah Maisel and Craig Chee, Aaron Keim, the Quiet American, Phil Doleman - and many more, including Mike Warren of the GFS, Zoe Bestel, Dead Man's Uke, ... and still more!

A snippet of hot news is that Remco Houtman-Janssen (Ukulelezaza) is returning to do something new. He's put together a collaborative set called, "Ukulelezaza & Friends" where he'll be playing music with a range of different performers. That's going to be really exciting to see, what a great way to enjoy talented performers doing their thing!

Also. Mim from Mim's Ukes in the USA is going to be at the festival. It's her first ever visit to the UK!

Workshops - The Festival Workshops will led by some of the top ukulele players, performers and makers in the world. These all take place at the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival (23-24 May, 2015) at the main festival site - the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield. To attend workshops you'll need a festival ticket... and look out, be quick - Phil Doleman's workshop is sold out already! For one, I'm not surprised.... but that's another story!

Getting time to blog hasn't been easy these last couple of weeks again - life is such a Ukafrolic, there's little time to write about it! A couple of weekends ago LSH and I were at a rather exciting uke weekend in the very north of England near Hadrian's Wall - haven't had time to tell you all about it. Well, I will, just as soon as I can.

And I'll tell you all about the uke lessons I've decided to take after all this time.

And right now, I'll get back to my uke "homework"....!

Thanks for dropping in - I appreciate it. I really do.

Carter Picking - bring it ON! Tutorial by Aaron Keim, The Quiet American

Two or three weeks ago or thereabouts, I was scouring the net, looking for a tutorial on Carter-picking. Uke players come in two kinds, one with a huge background of guitars, and the other with little or no guitar experience. I'm from the latter, and had only just become acquainted with the term - but when I did, I wanted to be able to do it on the uke. Nothing doing - but I did see Aaron Keim (AKA The Quiet American) pop up somewhere in the search, saying that he was preparing some tutorials on it. Well now he has, and it's really exciting....

Carter picking is a finger picking style where you pick out a melodic line with the thumb, and flick in strums with the first finger. Although Maybelle Carter didn't actually invent the style, it was she who became well known for using it and brought it to prominence. It's a lovely catchy, bouncy style that just gets your feet tapping right away... think Johnny Cash!



Aaron gives four pages of help and tabs - for that and videos click here

I've featured Aaron Keim on these pages before, he's a fantastic uke player - just check out the tag cloud at the bottom. If you're in the UK and want to see Aaron live - well, he'll be coming to the 2015 Grand Northern Ukulele Festival in Huddersfield next year! I've got my ticket already, oh yes!

(Pssst - that's a Mya-Moe uke he's playing. Beautiful American luthier-built ukes. Fred (the rooster song) from Quebec was playing a Mya-Moe banjo-uke in my post from the other day, too... see that distinctive headstock....)

Thanks for dropping in! Now to practise that Carter picking.....

After a monster couple of Ukafrolicking weeks, coming up...

Two weekend uke festivals in nine days takes some reporting on.... but I'm getting there, honestly, in between washing, various other bits of housework and sick-visiting - so, coming up...

(I love this pic of me with Johnny Foodstamp thanks to Kate Howard!)

The September convention of the GFS (George Formby Society) in Blackpool - a bit of a spotlight on the band, Johnny Foodstamp visits from Nashville, and as many more delights as I can possibly cram in before life tears me away....

Also - The GNUF (Grand Northern Ukulele Festival) in Huddersfield - this was two weekends ago, but I still have lots that I want to tell you about in my own way and from my own perspective. So bear with me and I'll be with you shortly!

Grand Northern Ukulele Festival 2014 - Michael Adcock makes his mark!

I first met 16 year old Michael Adcock two years ago, the first time I went to a George Formby Convention at Blackpool. I remember admiring his Cartwright banjo-uke and chatting with him in the lobby of the Imperial Hotel as we waited for the doors of the convention room to open. Michael has long been a fan of Formby-style playing and is well used to taking the stage at Blackpool, wowing the audience with split-stroke prowess - but he hasn't stopped there.

There are quite a few talented young Formby syncopators right now; brilliant players, all of them - and boy, is it hard to play those Formby solos - but Michael is one player who has branched out and discovered the versatility of the wooden uke, including the music of Roy Smeck. Roy Smeck, self-styled "Wizard of the Strings" was as famous in America during the 1930's as George Formby was here in the UK. He played a number of fretted instruments including ukulele and dazzled his audiences with his playing. I've featured players of his music on here several times before...

Michael also became a huge fan of Peter Moss and has been studying his style, working hard to emulate his hero - to great result! Peter invited Michael to join him on stage at Blackpool, also at the Nantwich Ukulele Festival and now, this last weekend Michael joined Peter Moss and the other fringe players at the GNUF.

And his verdict? "Best weekend of my life!" Well deserved, I reckon.

And here are the pictures to prove it - playing this time with Phil Doleman and also with Ukulelezaza, Remco Hautman-Jannsen

Bottom - with the Mersey Belles and with Zoe Bestel....







Photos thanks to Teresa Adcock.

Huddersfield hosts the Great Northern Ukulele Festival 2014 - I wonder what Harold would have thought?

Our first visit to Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Walking towards the Town Hall, we passed the magnificent building which is Huddersfield Railway Station with its classical style facade and rather large statue of Harold Wilson, prime minister during the early 1970's - the first thoughts that came into my head were memories of the three-day-week and industrial strikes - it made me feel my age. Thank goodness for the GNUF. Inside the Town Hall with my weekend pass wristband, I was promptly rejuvenated! Stick with me for a day or day or two and I'll tell you all about it from my perspective.... if you can't wait, get over to Got A Ukulele blog for a full run down..... Barry Maz does a fantastic blogging job, running round taking photos, taking notes on the hoof, it makes me feel tired just watching him at work! Me, I'm a lazy blogger, I'm afraid .... much too busy just enjoying the music and chatting, and generally hoping I'll remember enough detail to share when I get home!

Fear not, I've plenty to tell.... come back shortly and I'll have the first snippets ready!

The Great Northern Ukulele Festival 2014 - got my ticket - have you got yours?

The second Great Northern Ukulele Festival (England) is being held this year in Huddersfield, after great success in Pontefract last year. And this year I'm going, even though it falls only the week before the GFS September convention in Blackpool. LSH (Long-Suffering-Husband) approves as he reckons he can spend lots of time exploring the Huddersfield taverns selling over a dozen different brands of real ale - should I say Real Ale!

With the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain headlining and a veritable host of big uke names performing and doing workshops, it's all set to be another rip-roaring success - so my advice is, get your tickets and workshop tickets NOW....

There are no fewer than seventeen workshops to choose from, over the two days (13th and 14th September) and they will sell out, so if you don't want to be disappointed, get it sorted! The workshops are selling well, and the latest additions to the list of workshop tutors are no other than two of my favourite performers, the great Peter Moss and Ukulelezaza (Remco Houtman-Janssen)

Peter Moss workshop

FROM MAJOR to MINOR, WHAT COULD BE FINER? - Music Playing Workshop Sat 13 Sep 2014, 2:00PM

"In the workshop we will explore how to play general root position chords.
Then I will construct popular chord sequences in the keys of C, F & G. Also
introducing Minor chords & relevant combinations. Next to explore what 4/4
& 3/4 mean and how they can be applied."

Ukulelezaza workshop

12th STREET RAG - Music Playing Workshop Sat 13 Sep 2014, 11:00AM

"Always thought the classic ukulele tune 12th Street Rag was beyond your capabilities as a strummer? It's not! Ukulelezaza will teach you the basic melody line and will show you how to elaborate on that with both the left and the right hand. Slowly at first, and with some practice you can speed it up and wow your partner, friends, family and pets even more."

Regular readers will know that I have featured both of these great instrumentalists several times in this blog - just search the tag-cloud at the bottom!

Five weeks to go and I'm quite excited about this festival - check it out, see who's going to be playing... and there's even a Festival Fringe! with a range of extra events!

Well - I'll see you there!

Thanks for dropping in!

Manitoba Hal - Ukulele Blues book! I've got mine.....

Manitoba Hal - what a lovely fella, what a great blues man... it was Ken Middleton who introduced me to Hal's music a couple of years ago, and when Jo and John Stevenson of Ukulele Crazy arranged for Hal to come and do a concert and workshop for us locally, last October (2013) I couldn't wait. I posted about it here. Both the workshop and the concert were superb, unforgettable.... I have Hal's CD's on my ipod, playing in the car - Hal makes blues on the uke sound the most natural thing in the world.

Then a week or so ago, I was reminded that Hal has now produced a book on his blues method - so I ordered one. The good folk at the Great Northern Ukulele Festival are assisting Hal in getting this book "out there", and the magnificent Mary Agnes Krell posted my book out to me with a sticker for this years GNUF... and a very classy sticker it is, too -

As for Hal's Ukulele Blues book, there's plenty in there to keep me busy for quite some time - the strums, progressions, shuffle chords, turn arounds, pentatonic scales, a few songs and more... I've read high praise of it, and here I'm adding mine! Get stuck in there!

Get your copy from the Great Northern Ukulele Festival on this link

There's also a link the GNUF shop with other goodies on their webpage, here....