Stories

What to Do When Shopping for a New Uke

BY MIM | FROM THE SPRING 2019 ISSUE OF UKULELE CHECK THE SPECS Manufacturers and retailers often label laminate ukuleles as simply the name of the wood. For example, a laminate mahogany ukulele will be labeled “mahogany,” while a ukulele…

Ukulele Events: MARCH, APRIL, MAY & JUNE 2019

Submission Information To be included, email event name, date(s), and contact information to editors.uke@stringletter.com. Listings are free for ukulele events, though we may not have space to include every submission. Deadlines for the next four issues are: Summer 2019   February…

Advertisement

Get a Smoother Sound on Your Ukulele Using Legato Techniques

BY DANIEL WARD | FROM THE SPRING 2019 ISSUE OF UKULELE In music performance and notation, legato (Italian for “tied together”; French lié; German gebunden) indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, the player makes a transition from note to…

Ukulele Holiday Strum Along Recap

Last Friday, Ukulele magazine hosted our 3rd Annual Holiday Strum Along. We invited anyone local to the San Francisco Bay Area to come join us at Kaleidoscope Coffee here in the quaint town of Pt. Richmond (which also happens to…

ukulele strap

Should I Use a Strap with my Ukulele?

Don’t let high (or low G) anxiety get to you. If you’re wondering whether it’s time to get your ukulele strap on, here are some honest answers and easy guidelines.

New Albums from Jake Shimabukuro, Herb Ohta Jr., and Jim Beloff

3 New Uke CDs Reviewed Jake Shimabukuro The Greatest Day [JS Records] Given how Jake’s groundbreaking, off-the-cuff recording of him playing George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in New York’s Central Park brought him wide acclaim; it’s surprising that…

Advertisement

Ukulele Lesson: Sing It and Play It!

BY JIM D’VILLE | FROM THE WINTER 2018 ISSUE OF UKULELE The technique of solfège involves assigning the notes of a scale a particular syllable, and then practicing by singing different note sequences using these syllables. Italian music scholar Guido…