Posts Tagged ‘Ukulele’
The Bowley Soprano Ukulele arrives at Piano Covers Online. All solid Ukulele bearing the name of Samuel Bowley Barnes – a founder of popular traditional music in Victorian Britain.
Crafted from solid mahogany for the Top, Back and Sides, and equipped with open-gear machineheads and Aquila strings, The Bowley Uke is a superb instrument.
Specifications
- Solid Mahogany Top
- Solid Mahogany Back and Sides
- Rosewood Fingerboard
- High-Quality, Open Geared Machineheads
- Aquila Strings
All solid Ukulele bearing the name of Samuel Bowley Barnes - a founder of popular traditional music in Victorian Britain.
Why The Bowley? Samuel Bowley Barnes was one of the leading lights of Victorian traditional music patenting numerous accessories and improvements for the banjo whilst widely as a double act with Albert Mullins.
Naturally with S. Bowley Barnes being such an important part of Victorian Britis popular music, the instruments bearing his name must earn the right to bear it.
We believe that The Bowley is a superb instrument with solid timbers, superb strings and a clear pure tone. All things that Bowley Barnes would gladly put his name to!
Cheltenham is to be the home of the first ever Ukulele Festival of Great Britain.
The weekend in June will feature top ukulele talent from this country, Europe and America. There will also be workshops for adults and for children, jam sessions, mass busking, a cabaret/open mic night, stalls, raffle and more. The ukulele has risen in popularity with the likes of Frank Skinner and Harry Hill learning the instrument.
Frank Skinner is one of many celebs who have learnt to play the ukulele
“It has been put together by four of us ukulele fans,” said Phil Collins. “We all play the ukulele and we all live in Cheltenham so we thought what better town to put on yet another festival.”
Organisers are hoping to sell 600 tickets for the main event in Cheltenham Town Hall on Sunday, 20 June, 2010.
Phil puts the ukulele’s surge in popularity down to the internet and celebrities learning to play it. “We have a guy in our group who taught Harry Hill to play and of course Frank Skinner and Phill Jupitus play the ukulele,” added Phil.
“It’s mainly comedians that play it because it’s such a fun little instrument.”
The Ukulele Festival of Great Britain takes place in Cheltenham on June 19th and 20th, 2010. For more information, please visit the official website.
A couple of weeks ago we were asked for one or two tips for ukulele beginners. Our brains went whiring into action (actually, is was more a nasty screetching and cracking of gears). We ended up with a big list of stuff.
So here, in their original, un-rewritten form, are just a few…………
1. Record yourself playing and listen back to it. It’s difficult to play and listen to yourself at the same time. Quite often just noticing what you’re doing wrong is enough to fix the problem. It also gets you used to playing infront of the mic – making it less of a big deal when you want to record yourself properly.
2. Much to the RIAA’s disgust, you can’t sue someone for stealing a chord progression. Although Metallica tried to sue the band Unfaith for changing from F to E. If you hear something you like, work it out and steal it.
3. Practice so slowly you can’t possibly make a mistake. If you make the same mistake over and over again, it’s incredibly hard to get rid of it. It’s much easier to start slow, get the tune under your fingers and gradually speed up. If you’re more consciencious than me, you’ll use a metronome while you’re doing this sort of thing.
Tanglewood have done it again!!
They have released some great additions to their family of Ukuleles and their latest additions include the following:
- TU1 Tanglewood Soprano Ukulele
- TU1 Tanglewood Soprano Ukulele with Luxury Hard Shell Case
- TU1-CE Tanglewood Electro Acoustic Cutaway Soprano Ukulele
- TU1-CE Tanglewood Electro Acoustic Ukulele with Luxury Hard Case
- TU2-ST Cove Creek Soprano Ukulele
- TU2-ST Cove Creek Soprano Ukulele with Luxury Hard Shell Case
- TU3 Concert Ukulele with Luxury Hard Shell Case
- TU4 Tenor Ukulele with Luxury Hard Shell Case
- TU5 Baritone Ukulele with Luxury Hard Shell Case
- TU6 Tanglewood Soprano Ukulele with Gig Bag
- TU6 Tanglewood Soprano Ukulele with Road Safety Bag
Impressive additions to an already popular and high quality line up. Our entire Tanglewood Ukulele line up can be seen by clicking here
Almost all the ukulele tuning notes online seem to be for standard tuning. So here are some tuning notes for a few more out of the way tunings.
Re-entrant C-tuning g,C,E,A – Sometimes referred to as standard tuning. It’s the most common ukulele tuning.
Re-entrant D-tuning a,D,F#,B
Used to be more popular than it is now. Most of the old song sheets from the ukulele heyday are in D-tuning. Nowadays, the only place I really see it used often is with Formby acolytes.
Using a Tuner
If you don’t trust your ear to tune the uke (or you want to check you’ve got it right), you can use a tuner.
If you’re tuning at your computer, you can download the AP Tuner free and it will tell you the pitch of each string as you play it. The readings should be this for standard tuning:
G = G4
C = C4
E = E4
A = A4
Don’t worry about being bang on 00.0. One or two either way doesn’t matter much. For tuning away from the computer, you can use a ukulele tuner. You can find out more about them here: ukulele tuners.
The concept here in this light hearted article is simple: if you could hop into your DeLorean, whack it up to 88 mph and visit yourself when you were buying your first instrument, what advice would you give?
In about 50 years’ time I imagine myself sitting in a comfy chair and my grandkids scurrying up to me in their space-pyjamas and asking, “Granddad, what was life like before the internet?” And I’ll say, “Put down your hoverboards, jump up on my knee and I’ll tell you.” Then I’ll twirl my mustachios wistfully and reply, “It was AWFUL!”
Back when I got my first ukulele – during my teenage guitar obsession – there were no internets, YouTubes or blogs to teach a boy anything. I didn’t know anyone who played ukulele. I’d heard George Formby and one other song with a ukulele once. I didn’t have a clue. As a result, it took me many years to see the potential of the uke. So here’s what I’d tell the fat, ugly, stupid, teenage me as he wandered into Bakewell Music Shop to buy a ukulele.
Ukulele Is The New Rock and Roll – According to Piano Covers Online Customers
Students are reviving interest in an instrument that seemed to have disappeared from the music scene. The ukulele is now one of the coolest instruments for young people to be seen with and a number of schools and colleges have started ukulele clubs as part of their enrichment programmes.
Grandparents will remember the ukulele in the films of George Formby in the 1940’s but 60 years later it has re-emerged into pop music through bands such as Noah and the Whale.
Yes, definitely a “Lazy Arrival”. In actual fact this is the announcement of the arrival of Lazy Ukuleles into the Piano Covers Online range.
We are delighted to strengthen our increasing and impressivbe range of ukuleles with the Lazy Uke’s.
Lazy Ukuleles are attractive instruments and available in a range of colours (Red, Blue, Pink, Purple and Natural). They boast:
- Rosewood fingerboard
- Geared Machineheads
- Nickel Silver Frets
- Comes in an attractively designed full colour box
Lazy Ukulele Purple
If you want to learn how to play the ukulele, you must know how to tune it first. Tuning your ukulele is critical to producing the beautiful music you want to create. If you’re uke isn’t in tune, then all of your music will sound…well…a bit off. Stringed instruments, such as the violin, cello and piano, often get out of tune for various reasons, so it’s a good habit to tune your uke before every session.
Remember, the four musical notes of most ukuleles are G, C, E and A. These are the notes to which you need to tune your instrument. Read the rest of this entry »
