Cal-Mum Ukulele Club Spring Concert

Well, Tom Toyama found us a great little tune with "Count on Me" by Bruno Mars. It was such a catchy sweet tune that we all latched onto it and loved playing it. Tom's wife was in the audience and caught the concert on video. We will have to search again next year for another viral tune that will make kids want to practice, practice, practice...

Here is the ukulele club playing and singing along with our 4th and 5th grade chorus.
Never hurts to have a good drummer...

Bruno Mars - Count on Me

Here's a fun song that our elementary school will be playing in our annual Spring Concert. This video has been a huge help for our ukulele kids while trying to practice the song.

The video can be found on YouTube at:

331 Guitar Club - a cool YouTube channel that can be used by ukulele players. 331 Guitar Club is a middle school guitar club in the Bronx. This site features moving chord charts that they use to learn and master new songs.

Jason Mraz' "I'm Yours"

Here is a great little video showing how to play "I'm Yours" on the uke. Kids (and I) love to play this sweet little tune.

A little waltz

The band director at our school has created a piece that has really been a hit with the ukulele club kids. It is a beautiful number that is very fun to play, and introduces many kids to a style of music with which they have had little exposure.

Here is the tutorial video by Tom:

The plucking pattern is 1st and 3rd once followed by the 2nd and 4th twice

1920s Supertone Rebuild

Well, the old Supertone has been hanging on the wall for a couple years now, and I though I'd better do something with it - so it would stop looking at me. It does have a few problems to overcome before it will be playable.

1. Remove and re-glue bridge into proper position so it can be tuned
2. Fix four cracks in the top 
3. Fix one small crack in back
4. Fix broken brace
5. Reposition neck because it is 1/16" lower than top
6. Remove polyurethane
7. French polish to replace finish

I'll post a recording of how it sounds after I get it all done.

Video Christmas song with chords and music

I've been trying to think of a way to get a song with the old "bouncing ball" video so kids could play along and not loose their place. I think I came close by capturing multiple images of a Word document with chords and words. I used the free software of Chordette to create the chords, and some screen capture software to take pictures of the document. Then I dumped them in the correct order into Movie Maker. An hour later... or was it two hours...? Well, here is the song, I Wanna Go To Hawai'i:

Easy to play along :)

Lesson One: Brother John

Starting back with the Cal-Mum Ukulele Club this last week and decided I needed a practice book with companion videos. I'm not getting as much contact time with the club members, so I'm putting up the videos and searching for those self-starters to help get the uke tunes rolling.

Life is busy, and I have to capture these videos in one take - as you can see.
Oh, also, I switched the blog format back to the original - much easier to edit.

Toyama Celebrates

As a band and instrument instructor he has brought music to countless students at Cal-Mum Elementary School. Now, T. Toyama captures the pure joy of the birth of his grand-dauaghter "Grace" in a musical piece for ukulele that he has aptly entitled "Celebrate".

Toyama recorded the beautiful number on his Kamaka tenor ukulele that was purchased last summer on a trip home to Hawaii. The tenor was added to his Kamaka collection that he started while in 6th grade when his parents purchased a brand new Kamaka soprano for him for $25...

You can follow him on his new YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/tmuse2010