Writing a jingle. We’ve all thought about it at one point or another. Most of us greatly overestimate our capabilities when it comes to writing a simple jingle (as well as dance, sing, act and play sports). But when it really comes down to writing catchy jingle, it’s not that easy. It is certainly not as easy as Bruce Shimabukuro makes it look.

We spent a couple of days filming Bruce do a series of ukulele video lessons and it was immediately obvious that he’s quite a talent. But what really impressed us was not his playing ability (as impressive as that is), but his writing ability. Anybody can play the ukulele (except me), but composing music is a whole different ballgame. So we thought it would be cool to show how Bruce comes up with his songs and jingles. In this video, not only does he compose the jingle, but he does it in his head…on the fly…in one take. That’s pretty nuts.

He also went a little further and showed us how he wrote a song for a wedding, which I think will be included in his upcoming album. While that music is not in this video, I can tell you that the mood and sound of that song perfectly matches its purpose. The more we work with Bruce, the more we see the breadth and depth of his talent and we look forward to seeing more of his work.

Bruce introduces his series of free online ukulele lesson. Besides the lessons, Bruce will share other aspects of his life as an ukulele instructor, song writer, store owner and performer. Please post any comments and questions you have for him below or on our Facebook page. You can post your questions and comments on Facebook on this page (and any of our blog pages) if you are logged in to Facebook.

Last year we posted a video of Bruce Shimabukuro doing a quick overview on picking and strumming and the response was positive. But it’s kinda hard to actually learn how to play when so much is packed into a short video. At least Bruce thinks so. And if he thinks so, then that’s good enough for me.

So this year, we decided to break down the lessons into bit size segments to make it easier for you to learn a little bit at a time. We’ll be posting a new lesson about once every couple weeks. And don’t worry, if it takes you longer than 2 weeks to learn the lesson, then that’s probably a sign that maybe the uke is not for you. Don’t feel bad though. I have no talent and my hands are kinda uncoordinated so I am quite sure I’d be the flunky in his class.

On a side note, when I asked Bruce about talent vs practice, he was very clear that achieving awesomeness has way more to do with effort rather than raw talent. The trick, he said, is to try to make practicing the ukulele a fun experience like practicing with friends. If it’s fun, you’ll probably keep at it. If it’s not, you won’t.

Anyways, here’s “Strumming Part 1″ below.