Robert Yates is a combination of musician, music educator, luthier, uke manufacturer, and owner of Hawaiian Ukulele & Guitar (aka HUG) on Hawaii's Big Island.
We started reading about uke club members devastated that all their planning and work for these events were for naught. So, we thought, why don't we do an online festival?
Once copyrights have expired, you’re free to perform, record, and reuse a song without permission. But what if you’re interested in something a little more recent?
Fuchigami’s road to success turned out to be a lot rockier than he expected it to be after that borderline-miraculous first day learning a Jake Shimabukuro song.
I started playing games and singing songs with my kids, returning to the simple tunes (and childhood) I had left behind. You have to sing to your children—there is no other option.
Chances are you know Noel Paul Stookey as part of the iconic folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Less known is that Noel played ukulele in his pre-folk days.
Roy and Kathy Sakuma have dedicated themselves to promoting the ukulele. Roy is the most successful and influential ukulele teacher ever— nurturing thousands.
Recent Oahu transplants Craig Chee and Sarah Maisel are helping produce the Ukulele Festival Hawaii, long the biggest uke festival in the world.
Nattily dressed in vintage attire, Germany's Bad Mouse Orchestra shares their passion for the music of the 1920s and ’30s, jazz’s golden age.
When a musician friend eagerly showed off his new banjo-ukulele to me, I did my best to refrain from asking him to kindly throw it into a river. But then it grew on me.