[Dec 2011 | No Comment | 101 views]
Welcome to the December-January 2011-2012 edition of Mel Bay’s Ukulele Sessions®!

Welcome to the December-January 2011-2012 edition of Mel Bay’s Ukulele Sessions®!  This time new columnist Gerald Ross shows you some more great swing chords. Beth Mead shows us how to accompany ourselves with pretty finger style picking on the holiday favorite, Silent Night. Marcy Marxer takes us on a “C” cruise. Joe Mendel shares another [...]

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Featured, Ukulele Lessons »

[Dec 2011 | 5 Comments | 399 views]
Swing Ukulele #2

by Gerald Ross Hello fellow ukulele players! Gerald Ross here.  I hope you enjoy my Swing ukulele instructional videos.  These videos will give you an introduction to closed position ukulele chord shapes.  Using these shapes and the right hand rhythms I demonstrate will help transform your ukulele playing into a more Swingy, Bluesy and Jazzy [...]

Featured, Interview »

[Dec 2011 | No Comment | 74 views]
Tony Graziano Ukuleles

Joe Mendel Tony Graziano has been building instruments since the 1970s, He became interested in ukuleles in 1978 and built them along with guitars until 1995 when he switched to almost exclusively building ukes. He find ukuleles to be very happy instruments that bring joy to players and listeners alike, and they travel well, too. [...]

Featured, Ukulele Tunes »

[Dec 2011 | One Comment | 103 views]
A few words about Silent Night

by Beth Mead Fingerpicking is a great way to accompany yourself when singing! Try it out with this simple pattern that can be used to play Silent Night, a traditional Christmas Carol in 3/4 time. This means that there are three beats in each measure, like a waltz. 1-2-3, 1-2-3…   I have shown the [...]

Featured, Ukulele Lessons »

[Dec 2011 | One Comment | 124 views]
Chord Explorations For Ukulele

Sailing Through Seven Cs by Marcy Marxer Moving from The Root The C major scale contains the notes C D E F G A B C.   We use numbers to represent the scale tones.  The numbers are called intervals.  An interval is the distance between two notes.       The C chord is [...]

Featured, Ukulele Tunes »

[Oct 2011 | No Comment | 1,002 views]
Yes Sir, That’s my Baby

by Beth Mead Yes Sir, That’s my Baby 1902 by Blenkhorn and Entwisle Yes Sir, That’s my Baby has become a standard that has been recorded by over 100 artists in genres from jazz to rock, marimba and country. And now you can play it too! These chord shapes flow very easily from one to [...]

Featured, Interview »

[Oct 2011 | One Comment | 1,746 views]
Jake Maclay & Hive Ukuleles

by Joe Mendel  While looking for a builder to interview for this edition, I came across the Hive Ukulele website and was taken with the elegance of the ukes pictured there: http://www.hiveukuleles.com/  Jake Maclay was a name that I was not familiar with, I am very glad that I am now.  Jake’s background is in art, [...]