The song “Alouetta” is about plucking the feathers of a Lark. It is therefore used to teach the parts of the body. As Wikipedia says: “Alouette” has become a symbol of French Canada for the world, an unofficial national song.[3] Today, the song is used to teach French and English-speaking children in Canada, and others learning
The song “Do Re Mi” was introduced in the famous 1959 Rogers and Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music”. In the musical it is used by the governess Maria to teach the major musical scale to the Von Trapp children, who learn to sing for the first time. The note/chord chart is below:
Here is a simplified rendition of the song “Red River Valley”. As recounted in the excerpt below there are two significant “Red Rivers” in North America, and this song is associated with both of them. This excerpt is taken from Manitoba History: The True Story of the Song “Red River Valley” “The folk songs of
In this video I demonstrate the ukulele strumming technique called “chucking”. It involves muting a regular stroke in a strum sequence. This is a way to occasionally dress up your strumming.
Here is a fairly easy version of the 1960’s song “Wipe Out”. Composed in the form of twelve-bar blues, the tune was first performed and recorded by the Surfaris, who became famous with the single in 1963. This version is meant for “level 2” guitar players – not raw newbies, and not semi-professionals. Among other
Here is a simple “Chords+” version of “Every Breath You Take” in G. The original, a song from the British group the Police, was written and sung by Sting, and released in 1983. In the 1983 Rolling Stone critics’ and readers’ poll, it was voted “Song of the Year”. The original was released in Ab,
You can easily make your strumming more interesting when you’re playing in 3/4 time. Here are a couple of variations. The main point is that you should emphasize the first beat. So it’s like this: “ONE-two-three”. Of course how much you should emphasize that first beat will depend on the song. Generally speaking when you
Here is the song “You Are My Sunshine” broken down into Chords and melody notes. I’m going to start calling this the “Chords+ Version” because we’re mixing melody with chords. pdf version
I asked ChatGPT for a description of the “Island Strum” for Ukulele. This is what I got: “The Ukulele Island Strum is a fun, upbeat strumming pattern commonly used in tropical, Hawaiian-style music and many beginner ukulele songs. The classic Island Strum follows this pattern: Down – Down-Up – Up-Down-Up (or written as: D –
Here is an outline of chords and notes for Ode to Joy in G. On the left it is all chords. On the right some chords are replaced with individual notes. The notes are indicated in lower case, e.g., “b1”. Here I walk thru “Ode to Joy” very slowly to give you a better idea
