Ukulele instructor and recording artist, Bruce Shimabukuro, is back with his second lesson on strumming. In his first strumming lesson, he went over some of the basics including tips on technique. This time he goes over chords and hand placement.
KoAloha Tenor Ukulele Prior to Shipping
May 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
We recently received an order for a KoAloha Ukulele through our parter, The Ukebox. Here, Issac shows us what the ukulele looks and sounds like prior to putting it in the case for shipping. Actually, it doesn’t ship from the store. It goes from the store to our fulfillment center where it is carefully packed for shipping. Part of that process includes loosening the strings as a precaution. Our shipping experts told us that the strings should be loosened for shipping in case the package gets bounced around during transit. If the strings are tight during an impact, the strings could put extra pressure and friction on the instrument. So for shipping, loose strings are better. Anyway, as this video says, this ukulele is on its way to a customer in Jersey City, which is about as far from Hawaii as it gets in the US. We hope the customer loves his shiny new ukulele!
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Hawaii Five-0 at Buckingham Palace
May 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Well, another season of Hawaii Five-0 is in the books. In the spirit of that show, here’s a video taken by some fellow American tourists on vacation in London of the Buckingham Palace Band playing the famous Five-0 theme song. Sadly, they couldn’t name the TV show it was from. But at least they knew it was a TV show and seemed to enjoy the music and setting.
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Bruce Shimabukuro: Strumming Part 1
May 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
If you’re trying to teach yourself the ukulele, Bruce’s intro lessons is a good place to start. In his first lesson he goes over the basics of strumming, including some technique pointers. Give us some feedback on this video so we can take that into consideration when doing future ukulele video lessons.
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Bruce Shimabukuro Intro to Ukulele Lessons
May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
If you’re interested in learning how to play the ukulele but aren’t sure if you’re ready to invest the time and money in classes yet, check out our free video lessons featuring Bruce Shimabukuro. In this first intro video, Bruce explains what he plans to go over in his first few lessons.
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Fast Ukulele Song by Bruce Shimabukuro
March 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
After a rough performance, Bruce wrote a song that expressed his frustration with himself. I am sure a bad ukulele performance for him is still quite awesome. This is the second song that he played for us where the music really matched his inspiration for it. He’s definitely a good ukulele player. But his song writing skills are even more impressive.
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The Making of a Jingle, Ukulele Style
February 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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.
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Bruce’s Intro to the Free Ukulele Lessons
February 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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.
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How to Get Awesome at Ukulele – Lesson #1
February 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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.