How to Play Classical Ukulele

Woodshed — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:35:32 +0000

Contains tabs for 7 classical tunes arranged for standard tuned ukulele:

Blue Danube – Strauss
Bridal Chorus – Wagner
Elephant – Saint-Saëns
Gran Vals – Tarrega
Orpheus in the Underworld – Offenbach
Pizzicato by Delibes
Toreador Song – Bizet

Watch them all here.

The focus is on tunes that you’ll have fun playing and that people will recognise and be impressed by. The focus isn’t on good classical technique or faithful recreations of the original works (in some of them I’ve sythed out the less famous sections). Some of them are tricky to play, some of them are more straight-forward. It’s definitely not for newbies.

You get individual pdf files of each of the tabs along with an ebook with my usual blathering and a few general pointers on playing. It’s not a full on guide to classical technique, more along the lines of the stuff that usually accompanies tabs on here. It’s all delivered digitally.

If you haven’t downloaded one of my ebooks before, please do check out FAQ for more info. And if you’re using iPad/iPhone/iPod read this right now!

Why You Shouldn’t Buy It

You might not want to buy it if:

- You’ve never done any fingerpicking. There’s a variety of difficultly but none of them are suitable for beginners.
- You’re looking to develop classical technique:
- If you play soprano only: Some of the tunes use frets above the 12th.

What If I Get It And It Sucks?

As with all my stuff, if you don’t like it let me know within 7 days (with the email address you used to pay with) and I’ll send you full refund. No questions asked or seething resentment.

How Do I Buy It?

Click the ‘Add to Cart’ button below and hand over your money.

After you pay you’ll be taken to the download page and get it sent to you by email.

I Have A Question

If you have any questions, queries or problems you can email me at ukulelehunt@gmail.com or contact me here.

How to Play Slide Ukulele

Woodshed — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:10:33 +0000

Using a slide on the ukulele seems to be a trend of late. Just in the last few months I’ve seen videos of it used by James Hill, Tomotaka Matsui (of the Sweet Hollywiians), Peter Madcat Ruth and plenty of other people. And it’s not hard to see why. It’s a lot of fun to do, you can pick up a guitar slide very cheap from almost any music shop (or on eBay) and, once you’ve got the basics under your belt, it’s a very intuitive and natural way to play.

The only problem is there aren’t any materials out there for people to learn it. So I’ve put together a mini-ebook outlining the tricks and techniques for slide playing with videos, photos, tabs and mp3s.

It’s focussed on the lap style of playing (that James Hill and Tomotaka Matsui are using) but, since I’m assuming you don’t have one of the world’s three Beltona lap steel ukuleles, it’s geared towards doing it on a standard ukulele with standard strings.

Here are a few of the longer examples from the book:

Blues Flavored Tune

MP3

Blues Riff

MP3

Island Flavored Tune

MP3

The ebook focuses on techniques more than tabs, so it’s not really suitable for people who are new to the ukulele. I had in mind that it would be good for people who had read my blues ukulele ebook (or who were familiar with that sort of thing) and wanted to start playing around with the slide and improvising with it.