Peter Moss - how to make a ukulele solo

A quickie. I had to post this. Regular readers will know that I've posted Peter Moss before - just check out the label cloud at the bottom of the page for more... but here's a wonderful freebie from virtuoso player Peter Moss... how to make a ukulele solo!



And... if you liked that (who wouldn't?) Peter is now doing individual Skype lessons!

Details here....

Thanks for dropping in!

What am I Doing with this Tenor Banjo?

Yes, you read it right - a tenor banjo. It has been a really weird couple of days - I'll tell you about yesterday next time - but suddenly I find myself the owner of this rather large big brother to my banjolele!

As ever, it's Himself that's to blame really... LSH - he came in at lunchtime saying he'd seen a second-hand banjo in a shop for £50 - four strings...."That's a tenor" said I..."That's a good price for a banjo......"

Now, I've never had or played a banjo, but I've always had a soft spot for them; I love to hear one played well - the late great Barney McKenna of the Dubliners was a fantastic player of Irish tenor banjo. So - it was irresistible - by tea-time, it was mine. £60, not £50... but an okay price to have a banjo to have a go at - and all I knew about them was that they have four metal strings, and different tuning from the ukulele.

Now I'm a little wiser. The first discovery on Google was that I've paid the same price for this used instrument as I would have paid for a new one! It's a Swift - £60. Amazing. That just can't be right. But what the heck, I can sell it on if I don't like playing it, and hopefully not lose more than a few pounds. It's obviously a very basic banjo. That's fine. I only want to explore....

Next - tuning. Easily found by internet search; standard tuning, CGDA. Irish tuning, GDAE. So I think to myself - I'll tune it up to standard tuning til I know what I'm about... TWANG! Goes the second string..... so I start to loosen the others off again - and TWANG goes another. Now I only have two strings left on it.

This is a rapid learning curve.... I search online for new banjo strings - and learn that different gauge strings are used for standard tuning than for Irish - not surprising really, as Irish tuning is a whole fourth (four notes) lower than standard. Then it came to me - the banjo must have been fitted with strings designed for Irish tuning - and trying to pull them up five notes higher broke them straight away! So now I have to wait for some more to arrive in the post.

It's just as well - after all, I've got my handsome new Kiwaya soprano to play!

Meanwhile - it's not ukulele - but here's Barney.

I'm so glad we saw the Dubliners on their tour last year, before Barney shuffled off this mortal coil.... RIP Barney McKenna

"GOING HOME" from Dvorak's "NEW WORLD SYMPHONY" - Ukulele solo arranged by Mike Lynch

Another of ukulelemike's (Mike Lynch) wonderful solo ukulele arrangements, this time of the beautiful and rightly popular Largo from the New World Symphony by Antonin Dvorak.

Also known as "Going Home", and played by Mike Lynch himself.




I couldn't wait to get my hands on the tab for this. £3.33 in sterling...

I now have enough uke music to keep me amused until 2022...

Enjoy...

Bliss...

Celtic Fiddle Tune Medley - Ben Lyman

I'll be posting shortly on a real Ukafrolic of a weekend in Blackpool at the GFS - the George Formby Society. But as I was trying to catch up on posts I've missed on my subscribed threads on the Ukulele Underground Forum, I saw this video posted by Ben Lyman.

I've loved traditional folk music since I was introduced to it in my teens by a boyfriend back in 1967 - giving my age away again here! There is something deep and haunting about these old Celtic fiddle melodies, and Ben performs them beautifully here on his ukulele. I just had to share with you.

The tunes are
1. Banish Misfortune
2. Planxty Irwin
3. After the Battle of Aughrin
4. The Wind that Shakes the Barley

Thank you, Ben, for allowing me to share this on my blog; you play just beautifully - another inspiration for me!

I must practice, practice, practice......

The Summerhouse Practice List

Days like this you want to bottle and keep. The best early summer weather; cloudless blue skies, a suspicion of a breeze, the air soft and warm...

LSH (Long-Suffering-Husband) decided to do just that this morning - bottle it - and went off in search on elderflowers to make elderflower cordial. But he returned disappointed; it's just a bit early. In the hedgerows the elder blossoms are only just starting to come out, but the May blossom with its heavy, heady, intoxicating scent is flaunting itself everywhere. In the garden, the cherry blossom has gone but the azaleas, rhododendrons and the few alliums are at their best, and the grass is the greenest and lushest that it will be all year.

We've waited for two miserable months for this - but it's here. It's nearly June, and like in Carousel, it'll be bustin' out all over.

And at last I've opened the doors to my summerhouse.

A gift from LSH, my summerhouse has been my joy for the last two summers. I treated the outside, stained the inside, laid flooring, made curtains and drapes, bought souvenirs from trips to hang on the walls, and bought little tables and easy chairs. It's a haven at the bottom of the garden. I sit out of the heat when it's hot, and out of the wind when it's breezy.

And now - yes, I've been playing my ukulele in there.

Yesterday I promised myself half an hour - but it stretched to over an hour. I went straight through my practice file - then back again in reverse. Today; half an hour's playing... a glass of wine... and a snooze. Oh bliss!

So here's my practice file; the ukulele music I love, that challenges me just enough.

My Practice List

Wildwood Flower - practising to perfect; bluegrass, Ken Middleton's tab.
Finlandia - ukulelemike Mike Lynch's arrangement
Cherry Blossoms - Mike Lynch
Here Comes The Sun - Richard G's Ukulele Songbook
Mister Sandman
Til There Was You - Meredith Wilson
Just the Way You Look - Jerome Kern
Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks
My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes - Richard G's Ukulele Songbook
I Can't Give You Anything but Love - Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields
Where or When - Rodgers & Hart
I'll See You in my Dreams

"Somebody's Lonely" on Prince Wong's Ukulele

Here's one of my ukulele heroes, John Bianchi, giving his own highly accomplished take of "Somebody's Lonely" on his ebay bargain Martin Style 2 soprano uke, believed to have belonged to Prince Wong.

I've listened to this four times already, it just blows me away... the tune is a new one to me - it's so pretty, so catchy, and so beautifully played by John. I'm going to be really studying this video for playing tips! "Somebody's Lonely" was written by Benny Davis and Joe Gold in 1926 and it sounds wonderful on this little vintage Martin ukulele.

John's own blog, "The Ukaholic", is always full of interesting pics and well-written information on the ukulele and banjolele. Look here for lots more on his Prince Wong Martin Style 2.

"Finlandia" - Ukulele Arrangement by Ukulele Mike Lynch - Comprehensive Tutorial...

In my childhood, I don't remember a time when there wasn't some "serious" music in my life. In the late fifties, when I was small, the radio was always on, the "light" programme, as it used to be called - the only equivalent to Radios 1 and 2 in the UK today. So there was plenty of popular music, with smatterings of popular classics, usually in the request programmes. That was where people of all ages heard such music as the pieces used in Disney's "Fantasia," some Chopin.....Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and film music like Nino Rota's "The Legend of the Glass Mountain", and Richard Adinsell's "Warsaw Concerto". My mother loved these. If these last two came on the radio, all activity literally came to a standstill while she listened. And it all seeped into my soul. By thirteen, I was head-over-heels with the music of the Beatles, and any classical music that touched that other part of me.

"Finlandia" by Sibelius was one of those pieces that you heard on the radio from time to time. The melody conjures up the peace and tranquility of the dark, coniferous forests and the snowy vistas of Scandinavia. Ukulelemike Mike Lynch has arranged it as a solo for ukulele - and, wonders - it isn't a difficult piece. You can get the tab, but watch the video and the tutorial and you may get it from that alone. Thank you, Mike!

Enjoy!