Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's rendition of that classic Isaac Hayes movie theme from 'Shaft' played live at Cambridge Folk Festival

Noch nie war es so einfach prominent zu werden. Youtube machts möglich. Webcam aufgestellt, ein bisschen mit dem Hintern wackeln, dabei ein bisschen kreativ sein und schon hat man ein paar Millionen Klicks und landet in den Abendnachrichten der Privatsender. Die meisten Internetpromis sind dabei ziemlich austauschbar und halten sich nicht lange.

Wie wunderbar für diese Ausnahme. Julia Nunes ist ein verdienter YouTube Star!
Die 19jährige spielt auf ihrer Ukulele, covert bekannte Lieder, schneidet ihre eigenen Backing Gesänge in ihre Videos und kommt dabei so unglaublich sympathisch herüber, dass man sie einfach mögen muss.
Hoffentlich hören wir noch viel von ihr!

Mein Top Favorit: Keep Fishin von Weezer!

Mehr Infos über Julia!
YouTube Channel
MySpace
Homepage

Gotta love the Brits!!

I'm reminded of my college days when I first heard The Temple City Kazoo Orchestra's cover of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love:

Ouch!

Thanks for listening:)

Difficile de dire qui a été la première personne à Hawaï jouant de la steel guitar, une manière de jouer bien différente: la guitare est posée à plat sur les genoux et les cordes sont frottées à l'aide d'un morceau de métal. En tous cas, c'est Joseph Kekuku qui a popularisé le style dès les années 1890. Les sons exotiques de l'ukulele et les danseuses de hula s'y ajoutent et l'ensemble finit par créer un enthousiasme démesuré. C'est une vague déferlante qui balaie les Etats-Unis, l'Europe et l'Asie. Des groupes hawaïens tournent dans le monde entier et des musiciens locaux les imitent très vite pour combler la demande. Rien qu'en 1917, la compagnie de disques Victor sort plus de 150 titres hawaïens. La famille Moe fera sept fois le tour du monde pendant un demi-siècle jouant dans différents groupes comme les Royal Samoan Dancers de Mme Riviere ou Tau Moe and his Hawaiian Jazzites. Franck Ferera grave plus de 1000 disques en quelques années. En 1928, Sam Ku West fait une tournée de Honolulu à Paris en passant par le Japon, Shanghai, Manille et Hong Kong.

Pourquoi tant de succès ? Cette musique semblait différente, avec ses instruments et mélodies bizarres, créant une ambiance ensoleillée, de mers du sud et de palmiers, proposant un style de vie élégant et sans soucis pendant une époque fort troublée, tiraillée entre crise économique, les horreurs de la première guerre mondiale et une deuxième qui s'annonce. La recherche de l'exotisme était dans l'air du temps: en France, le jazz nègre, les musiques tziganes ou de toute autre contrée plus ou moins éloignée attirait les oreilles.

Cinq disques dans les collections de la Médiathèque offrent un panorama de ces musiques:

Slidin' on the frets. The Hawaiian steel guitar phenomenon (MZ6601) nous emmène d'abord aux Etats-Unis, là où le style s'est ancré profondément dans différents genres comme le jazz, le blues, le vaudeville, la country, puis vers Trinidad, l'Argentine, la France, la Grèce (avec Kostas Bezos que l'on retrouve sur des disques de rebetika sous le nom de A. ou K. Kostis).

Steeling round the world, Hawaiian style (MZ6602) ressort quelques perles dans des collections oubliées de 78 tours. Avec par exemple Miss Ninja dan Ismael & Sweet Java Islanders d'Indonésie ou les Kilima Hawaiians chantant en néerlandais.

Hawaiian Music. Honolulu - Hollywood - Nashville 1927-1944 (MZ6538) se limite aux rapports entre Etats-Unis continentaux et Hawaï, reprenant les classiques de Sol Hoopii à Bob Wills, et la chanson de Jimmie Rodgers, Everybody does it in Hawaii. A partir de cette mode hawaïenne, c'est toute la musique américaine qui évolue: chant et jeux de guitare country et bottleneck du blues.

Hawaiians in Paris 1916-1926 (MZ6540) présente essentiellement les enregistrements de Franck Ferera. L'artiste hawaïen n'a jamais mis les pieds en France mais tout son catalogue était édité sur Pathé France, avec étiquettes en français.

Paris, plages d'Hawaii. Guitares hawaiiennes 1930 (U 0226) se penche sur la carrière de Gino Bordin qui a developpé son propre style utilisant une guitare à 7 cordes.

Tous ces disques sont fantastiques ! Ecoutez-les, et si vous n'avez pas assez, allez fouiller du côté d'Hawaï dans les collections de la Médiathèque, il y a encore de nombreux autres disques.

La première image vient d'un site reprenant toutes les partitions de musiques à thème hawaïen ou exotique, les deux cartes postales viennent d'ici, et la troisième photo est celle de Franck Ferera.

Well after being away for weeks and weeks, I came back with three new podcasts two short weeks ago. Just when I thought it would be a bit before I got to a new one I managed to catch up with Age Pryor and we had a great chat.

We discussed his solo work, collaborative efforts with Fly My Pretties, Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, and his most recent work with Woolshed Sessions.

Age is such an incredible musician and well he is just an all around great guy. I am a bigger fan now more than ever.

You can find out more about Age Pryor by visiting his MySpace page. Also while hanging about on MySpace check out the Woolshed Sessions' page (take a look at the pic folder too... wonderful shots of the beautiful New Zealand countryside and equally beautiful New Zealand musicians.)

Also featured in this podcast are songs from Age's solo albums Shanks' Pony and City Chorus, and his newest song from the collaborative work Woolshed Sessions - Waterfall (a truly breathtaking piece of music with haunting lyrics. I can't describe the feeling I get from hearing it. Amazing.)

Purchase Shanks' Pony here, City Chorus here and Woolshed Sessions here. Also check out the Wellington Ukulele Orchestra's web site here.

Age Pryor Podcast

Stream
[audio http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/2/20/1771786/KbP%20Broadcasts/kbp_episode10_wollywellyagecast.mp3 ]

Download The Podcast

or Subscribe to KBP on iTunes and dock your iPod

Tracklisting

Shanks' Pony - Album: Shanks' Pony
Shouldn't I Know - Album: Shanks' Pony
Best for You - Album: City Chorus
Waterfall - Album: Woolshed Sessions

Brassens avait un talent inimitable pour mélanger la poésie et l'humour. l'Orage est ma chanson préférée, c'est un bonheur d'écouter cette mélodie sur ce poème coquin. Brassens un homme de goût, et de conviction pour preuve c'est un fumeur de pipe!

Voici le fichier TablEdit et le fichier PDF.

Visit this blog to get the meaning of this poetic and humorous song.

Ukulele เป็นเครื่องดนตรี 4 สายชนิดหนึ่ง
หน้าตาคล้ายกีตาร์ตัวเล็กๆ
ถื่นกำเนิดมาจาก ฮาวาย
การตั้งสายแบบปกติ จะได้ออกมาเป็น G-C-E-A
ซึ่งเหมือนกับการเอาคาโป้มาคาดกีต้าร์ เฟรตที่ 5 แล้วเล่นเฉพาะ 4 สายล่าง (1-2-3-4)

เสียงที่ได้เป็นยังไง?
ให้ลองนึกถึง ฮาวาย ...
ชาวเกาะ ...
แสงแดดร้อนเปรื้ยงๆ ...
คลื่นซัดฝั่ง ...
ลมทะเล ...
ต้นมะพร้าวไหว ...
ตึ่ง แช๊บๆ - แช๊บ ตึ่ง แช๊บๆ ...

:) ...

เห็น Ukulele ตัวเล็กๆอย่างนี้ อย่าดูถูกไปเชียว
นักดนตรีที่เก่งๆ เค้าเล่นออกมาได้สุดยอดมากๆเลย

ศิลปินคนที่เทคนิคดีมากๆ (ภาษาวัยรุ่นเีรียกว่าเทพ)
ฟังแล้วเิพลินดีทีเดียว

Jake Shimabukuro
: Japanese-American เกิดที่ฮาวาย

:) ...

อีกคนที่ผมชอบมาก
Israel Kamakawiwo Ole's (IZ)
ศิลปินชาวฮาวายร่างยักษ์ มากับ Ukulele ขนาดธรรมดา
แต่พอดูพี่แกถือแล้งอย่างกับมันเล็กกว่าปกติ (ฮา)
ลองไปฟัง(และดู)เพลงที่ผมชอบจาก IZ

"Somewhere over the rainbow"

น่าเสียดายที่ IZ เสียชีวิตไปแล้วในปี 1997 ด้วยวัยเพียง 38 ปี
สาเหตุจาก severe obesity (ถ้าแปลไม่ผิดคือ อ้วนผิดปกติขั้นรุนแีรง)
คือ น้ำหนัก 344 kg
สูง 1.9m
BMI = kg / m^2 = 95 !!! (คนปกติ BMI แค่ 18.5–24.9 เอง)
และหลังจากนั้นในปี 2004 เพลงนี้ก็ขึ้นมาติดอันดับ 12 ใน Billboard
...
มีความสุขกับการฟังเพลงกันเถิด ...
What a wonderful world ! :)

ที่มาข้อมุล :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukulele
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Kamakawiwo'ole

Ahhhh, the neck. The neck was the one thing I feared probably more than anything else. How was I with no skill with a file or rasp going to ever be able to shape a proper neck. Have you looked at a uke or guitar neck? Compound radii does not give proper expression of what goes into neck shaping. But I am getting ahead of myself...

The first thing to do is actually get a rough shape cut into it. To that end, Mike has an acrylic template he uses for neck/headstock profiling. Then with a marking gauge (I always wondered what they were for) we marked the center line, then filled it in with a pencil line to make it more visible. The headstock thickness gets cut on the scarf joint jig to keep the line straight. After that it is pulled off the jig and freehanded on the bandsaw.  That takes care of the "thumb" side of the neck. Mike has a 1/2" thick neck template he screws to the fingerboard of the neck blank and uses it to cut the rough taper and headstock shape of the neck. Then the neck is placed fretboard side down onto the router table and the remaining wood is removed with a flush cut bit to give the neck it's proper taper.   Then Back to the bandsaw to cut a rough approximate angle for the heel.

Now for the fun part. Neck shaping was broken down into three relatively discrete steps. One, shape the profile and taper of the neck. Two, shape the transition from the neck to the headstock. Three, shape the heel.

To start, visualise (or as I did) draw a centerline down the back of the neck. Symmetry is obviously key here. (unless you're going for an asym shape, but that's your problem) The idea is to get the rough shape across just an inch or so in the middle of the neck and then push it out to the edges and then bring it down to thin out the neck when you have a proper profile carved. Carving (in a way) was similar to the braces. Start with a 45 degree angle and then facet again and again. Work one side, then work the other to keep things symmetrical. The rasp was odd to get used to. I really have no experience with a rasp or much with files either.  Well, other than using them in ways I am sure would make most knowledgeable woodworkers cringe in anxiety. That aside, I think I can get my next neck down to half the time this one took. This one seemed to go on and on forever, but I digress...

After the profile and taper is pretty much defined, Mike had me draw in a sort of rough transition shape from the neck to the headstock. I was pretty bloody sure I'd fornicate this up in a major way, but somehow didn't. Really, it was all about keeping off the taper line and carving down to the transition line, then just morphing it together.  It felt like I was taking for bloody ever to get the neck shaped and in the end it is probably a little thick, but still a nice feeling neck. Certainly not the thickest I've played by a long shot, though...

In the meantime, body work continues as it's ready while I shape the neck.  We removed the clamps from the body and sanded the edges smooth.  The sides tend to facet aroundthe "flame" of the koa instead of bending nice and smooth like plastic would.  A little sanding with the random orbital sander takes care of that.  If it is left, the faceting telescopes into the binding/purfling and you end up with a very wonky line.

The binding/purfling ledge is routed with a laminate trimmer and a 1" rabbeting bit with a properly sized bearing to get the depth of cut required.  As I was looking for a simpler, cleaner look with this uke, I decided to forgo any purfling.  If purfling is used, it is routed first then the binding ledge is cut.  Mike has a little router carriage set up and a cradle for the uke.  The uke sits in the carriage and you essentially spin the uke around to cut the ledge.  All in all, a fairly simple process.

I decided on a Bloodwood binding only on the soundboard side, so we  took the Bloodwood pieces and stuck them in the bender and bent them much like the sides were bent.  We bent two sets in order to have a backup and picked the best ones to use.  The binding pieces were taped together flush, then inserted into the bender.

To install the binding we clamped the first piece tight at the waist, then added another clamp the depth of the uke.  From there we worked toward each end of the uke spot tacking with cyanoacrylate as we went along, using the accelerant to speed things up.  After the side was trimmed into place, we saturated the binding with the glue and sprayed it with accelerant.  The butt joint is important to get clean, but the neck side joint is less so as the neck will (obviously) hide it.  Repeat for the other side.

We nailed the thickness of the binding pretty damn well, so it was only minimum sanding to get it flush to the body.  I then rounded the edges by hand with 220 paper on a block.  If you look at Mike's Gallery, you will notice he uses the faux tortoise shell binding a lot.  Having seen too many bloody ugly pick guards on guitars made from faux tortoise shell, I have an extreme distaste for tortoise shell.  However, Mike uses it to great effect as a binding and part of it I feel is because is the binding is just slightly smaller than a guitar's binding so that it's not as obnoxious.  Mike tells me it's because he rounds it over enough that the light shines through it giving it a very nice look.  Nevertheless, I never thought I would admit to liking faux tortoise shell.  Not that I about to use it on this uke, mind you...

Dovetail time!  The uke is placed in the router table sled and lined up with the centerline in the acrylic fence.  Once it is lined up, it is clamped to the fence and the dovetail mortise is cut.  Using the hand router, a 1/2" plate aluminum jig is taped to the neck with double-sided tape and the 10" radius is cut into the heel to match the body profile.  60 grit sandpaper is then taped with double-sided tape to the body and the neck is clamped into a vise and then sanded to fit using the body as a template.  The neck is centered and clamped to the router table sled and a stepped mortise is cut into the heel block to accept the dovetailed tenon blank.  The tenon block is cut to fit with the bandsaw, then shaped with a chisel.

We also slotted the fretboard today.  First thing to do is to use the jointer to create a reference edge to assure the slots are perpendicular to the fretboard's length.  Slotting is done on the table saw with a pinned slotting template.  The saw blade appeared to be a Stew-Mac slotting blade, although I didn't actually ask.  The acrylic template is attached to the back of the fretboard with double-sided tape and a pin is inserted in the template at the first hole and a cut is made using a sled.  Each successive cut is made by lifting the clamp off the fretboard, moving one pin hole over and making another cut.  Slotting was almost
anti-climactic in its ease.

I decided on a tulipwood headplate.  It looks great with the bloodwood binding!

P.S.   As long time listeners will have undoubtedly noticed, I have finally spent 30 seconds and worked out how to attach pictures to posts, so that should be more common as I finish posting Days 5-7.   In other news, I bought my first uke building tool the other day.  A dead table saw.  Exciting, no!?  I'll use it to build myself a router table like Mike's.  It was cheap, how could I say no?

{via Martha Stewart}

(Past Event)

Ribbon Lei Making

Date: Sat, Jan. 26, 2008

Time: 10am

Place: Katy Geissert Civic Center Library

Description: Leis are suitable for many special occasions, especially Valentine’s Day! Learn the art of     Ribbon Lei making, and create your own ribbon lei to take home. This program is free,     and materials will be provided, but you must register.

Commentary: I thought this was a really cool class to be offered by a city institution.  The library also has a fairly extensive collection of Ribbon Lei Making books, ordered, I expect around the time of this program.  Ribbon Lei making is very popular in the Hawaiian community, as evidenced by my Tutu and her friends gathered around the table sewing them for hours on end.  I hope that in the future they offer more specialized classes such as this.

Torrance Parks & Rec:

South Bay Strummers Ukulele Group - Every Saturday Year-Round

Time:       9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Contact:       Linda Wilson (LWilson@Torrnet.com)
Location:       Bartlett Senior Citizens Center - 1318 Cravens Avenue
Admission Fee:       Free

Polynesian Dance - 10 Week Class

Instructor: Susan Mann

Description: Dance to the best of Tahitian drums and learn basic hula steps.  Required: Tahitian hand tassels-to be purchased from instructor.  Optional: Grass skirt or sarong - may be purchased from instructor.

Age/Level:

5-6/Beg

7-10/Beg

8-18/Beg

12-21/Int

5-18/Adv

Polynesian Dance - Advanced - 10 week class

Instructor: Susan Mann

Description: Prerequisite: Intermediate Polynesian dance.  Hawaiian and Tahitian, with a strong emphasis on Tahitian

Age: 17+

Polynesian Dance - Beginning - 10 Week Class

Instructor: Susan Mann

Description: Learn Dances from Hawaii and Tahiti. Required: Tahitian hand tassels-to be purchased from isntructor.  Optional: Grass skirt or sarong - may be purchased from instructor.

Age: 17+

Polynesian Dance - Intermediate/Advanced

Instructor: Susan Mann

Description: Prerequisite: Beginning Polynesian.  Hawaiian and Tahitian, with a strong emphasis on Hawaiian

Age: 17+

Commentary: What I find interesting about these classes are the required and optional Tahitian hand tassels and grass skirt or sarong.  As far as Tahitian dance is concerned, I'm not that educated, but I do know that as far as Hawaiian dance is concerned, no Halaus allow their members to practice in grass skirts or sarongs.  Typically, we are requried to practice in matching Pa'u skirts and matching shirts.  I think that the allowance of grass skirts and sarongs just promotes the stereotypes of hawaiians and hawaiian dance which also typically include coconut bras.  At E Hula Mau 2008, I saw one group wearing grass skirts - it was a Kane 'Auana number and was meant to be more performative than representative of traditional hawaiian culture.  Additionally, the men wore white slacks under the grass skirts.  There also may have been a keiki number with grass skirts, but the grass skirt was on top of a pa'u.  Usually, grass skirts consist of shredded ti-leaves (a sacred plant), rather than the plastic, lawn looking skirts provided by places like oriental trading company.

Gardena Parks & Rec:

Tahitian Dance

Instructor: Keisha

Description: None provided

Age: 6+

Commentary: When discussing classes and events in the City of Gardena with the community library manager, she claimed that due to the larger Japanese population, Hawaiian classes/events were not included and/or necessary.  What I find interesting though, is that, yes, Hawaiians are a small numerical population of Gardena, but of the surrounding cities, Gardena Houses the largest number of Native Hawaiians (143, 0.2% of population) after Torrance (161, 0.1%).  Additionally, many events and classes offered from within the Hawaiian community are based in Gardena, such as Hawai'i's Daughters Guild.

Carson Parks and Rec:

Hawaiian Dance - 4 Week Class

Instructor: Okima Kapaku

Description: Learn to sway the Hawaiian way! Hawaiian and other Polynesian dances will be taught.  Registration will be taken at the beginning of each month at the Carson Community Center Only.

Age Groups: 12 + & 5-11

Ukulele Class - Meets every Monday at 11 a.m.

Instructor: Stu Stanford

Description: Come out and learn the fundamentals of playing the ukulele and playing tunes.  You will enjoy the social time with other seniors, as well as, playing tunes on the ukulele.

Age: Seniors

Polynesian Dancers - Meets Thursdays

Instructor: Yuriko Rogers

Description: Explore and learn the rich culture of our 50th state by enrolling in our Hawaiian dance class.

Age: Seniors

Senior Dance Troupe of Carson - Mondays and Thursdays

Description: Pacific Islanders bring their rich culture and customs to Carson in the form of singing and dancing.

Age: Seniors

Commentary: What I appreciate most about Carson's offerings is that the city remains cogniscent of the different Pacific Islander Communities within its city.  They seperate Hawaiian dance from Tahitian, which they actually pair with Samoan dance.  They also have a range of activities for a range of ages, such as Dancing, Singing, and Ukulele.  Unfortunantly, the only classes which focus on the musical aspects are geared towards Seniors, but I don't think they'd have a problem sharing their class with younger people.

We plan on serving up nourishing Mad Tea to Asheville this Saturday night.

Hi Patrick!
This saturday we had a birthday party and our weeklyukejam, full room this
time. Wonderfull day, kids, music, tortilla de patatas...
Whit the gifts that the children gave me I made the other video. Between the
dark side and the other side... I don't know why people give me this kind of
things ;)
I hope you enjoy

Is it your birthday, Carlos?

About the helmet: I thought you were going to sing, Somewhere, Over The Death Star . . .

The Wayne City area has more talent than one could imagine in such a small, rural area but there are singers who are simply note-perfect.  There was a great blend of traditional, gospel, and contemporary music.

I closed the service by playing a version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the ukulele (I ain't exactly Jake Shimabukuro, but I ain't bad either).  Got lots of positive feedback on that one, especially from the visiting youth.  I'm sure there might be some older folks grumbling about playing a Beatles song in church, but hey - it was only instrumental, and I did frame it theologically.  (God can make big things from small things just like some can make big music with small instruments).  And I really felt good about the way I played it, which is rare for me.  Self-confidence is an issue.

(Up next, I'm working on learning an arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner to hopefully play at some basketball games this winter).

And the great part - after I preached a five-part series on Bishop Schnase's Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, the church decided to have coffee, cookies, and punch in the fellowship hall after the service.  No one who hosted Church Night had done that before, and a couple of ladies in the church wouldn't take "we've never done it that way before" for an answer.  Yee-haaaw!  It actually gave us time to meet the visitors from other churches!  By jove, I think they're getting it!

Also this week my son played his final grade school baseball game.  He went two-for-three with a single and a double (he bats lefty and he turned on a couple of low-inside pitches, firing the single down the first base line over the first baseman's head, and the double over the right fielder's head).  He also made a spectacular catch from behind the plate (he's the catcher).  The team lost but played well.

And here's the great part- playing in competitive sports has been really good for him.  His level of "mental toughness" has really gone up recently and he is much better able to deal with losses and personal mistakes than before.  He's learned not to beat himself up over striking out or letting a run score, and he's learned to take advice from people who can coach and mentor him in order to make improvements to his game.  Afterward he said, "Dad, I used to think that there was no such thing as a loss that felt good, but our team played really well.  I'm happy with how we played even though we lost."  Big life lesson there for both son and father.

My daughter is now 16 so we don't see much of her anymore.  After cheerleading practice she helps the coach with the grade school cheerleaders, then sometimes goes to the Burrito Shack (a local restaurant) afterward.  She comes in at almost 10:00 unless she has homework.  Last night she sat on the couch between my wife and me and fell asleep there.  It was nice.  I cherish little moments like that one.

Well, back to work.

Quelle sublime chanson! La mélodie est belle et le texte superbe. Un petit bijou qui mêle humour, joie, tristesse, nostalgie, et espoir dans un véritable concentré d'humanité.

Voici le fichier TablEdit et le fichier PDF.

A sublim song about chidlhood, and lost candies...