Hi everyone,

I’ve been getting some small responses from various sources (emails, friends, comments on the site..) about beginner ukulele, how to get started, where to get lessons etc….

There’s only so much that I can help out with ‘where to get lessons’, as I have limited contacts for ukulele lessons in Singapore. So I’ve decided to post some content with relation to ‘Ukulele for Beginners’. This way, beginners can learn the basics from this site, before venturing off further.

So lets start off with tuning the ukulele.

Musical Notes:

Standard ukulele tuning is tuned to a High G Tuning. This means that the notes from the 4th string till the first string, is G C E A respectively, with the G note being a higher note than the rest (Thanks Richard, for pointing that out) with the A note being the highest note. There are basically 2 ways to tune your ukulele. One is by ear (with reference notes of course) and the other is by using a tuner. You may tune your ukulele by ear by referencing notes from this website. They have a good ukulele tuner online. For a physical tuner, you may purchase one from your nearby musical instruments shop.

Just for your reference, this is the one I personally use. You only need to clip it onto your ukulele headstock, and pluck the strings while tuning accordingly.

Once you have your ukulele in tune, you are ready for some ukulele playing~!

Stay tuned for the next lesson~

Hi everyone!

Here’s the official blog post for the 2nd Ukulabu Meeting event.

The 12th of December 2008 marks another milestone for www.ukulabu.com, for we have managed to meet up for the second time within a short period of time, and we have new faces as well. I would like to introduce the 2 new faces…. Wongyy and Celine~

This time around, Kenny booked the jamming studio at Peninsula’s Guitar 77. The time was from 7pm till 10pm. I only arrived at 730pm, as my work only ended at 630pm. Everyone else reached on time (Sorry guys, but I really don’t have a choice)..

The new comers Celine and Wongyy were a bit shy at first, but it was really soon that they got into the mood and started volunteering to sing.

Both Ralph and Wongyy brought along their song books and there were many songs~! We were just flipping through the pages and playing the all time favourites. Some songs that we played were Imagine, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, You’re Beautiful, Stand By Me, Hey Jude and much more~!

Ralph showed us some of his skills with the keyboards, and I was quite surprised that he could play the keyboards. Way to go Ralph~!

I was surprised to see songs like “The Final Countdown” in Wongyy’s songbook. Perhaps we need to bring in the electric guitars from the jamming studio to really rock that song~ Haha…

To sum up, here are the group photos of the people who attended~

Many thanks again to you all, (Kenny, Celine, Ralph, Wongyy) for coming to the meeting. It really means a lot to me, having setup Ukulabu.com and meeting all you nice people through there. And whats best is that we all share the same love for the ukulele. I sure did have a fun time, singing more than I usually would..

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all~!

Until the next meeting then~~
For now, take care~!

-Alan

Hi everyone,

It is confirmed again that I am required to work in the Singapore office once again next week (8th - 14th December). If possible, we can have another Ukulabu meeting!

Hope to hear from you all!
It’s been really quiet recently…

I’d like to post a small shoutout to everyone~

I was playing my ukulele when I suddenly thought of the next Ukulabu meeting (I can’t wait to see everyone and other new folks too). The next thing which came to my mind was the jam session. It’ll be a good idea if we could start planning for the jam session, as in what songs we are going to play.

All in favour? I came across this song from Dominator’s site, and I hope we can jam to it. Dominator has got tabs for it as well. You can download it here. Although I have not gone through his tab, but I feel the rhythm of the songs should be quite manageable. There are lead parts and solos as well. I can take on those parts.

Here’s the video of the song. Do let me know how you all feel about it. Lyrics can be obtained here:

Please feel free to suggest any songs which you all wish to include in the next jam session.

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone has been well. Being close to the end of the year, there’s kinda lots of stuff to take care of. But of course, I have been playing the ukulele. Came across this video which teaches 4 strumming techniques. I myself use the first 3 techniques, but the 4th one is new to me. The 4th one gives a rather aggressive sound. Jake uses it in the fast part of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. Anyway, I hope you all will find this video useful, and incorporate it into your playing as well. Good luck~

Hi everyone!

Here’s the official blog post of our first ukulabu.com meeting, which took place on Friday, 14th November 2008. Once again, I can’t thank everyone enough for taking time off to come to this meeting. Now, I’d like to introduce the people who attended the group meeting!

As for details on the meeting, read on~

We met up at Peninsula Shopping Center at around 7:30pm. Ralph and Shermin reached early, while Kenny and I were stuck in the ‘rather bad after work hours’ traffic. Nevertheless, we were not that hungry, and decided to have food after the jam session.

It has been years since I last stepped into a jam studio, the feeling of having a drumset, 2 guitar amps, 1 bass amp and the microphone just brought me back to my old days, when I was in a band and jamming away. But hey! This is different now. It’s the very first time I entered the studio with not one, but many ukuleles, as well as people who play it!

Most excellent~!

We didn’t plan anything before hand, and we ran out of ideas of what to do within a short period of time. Being an ukulele player myself, I didn’t really play much ’strum and sing’ songs…. Shermin was quite a new player… In the end, it was Ralph who saved the day! He started recalling songs from his song book and with just a few chords, we were able to jam songs such as ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’, as well as other Beatles songs. Ralph is also a good singer, and we had a good laugh when he started playing ‘Rock Around the Clock’, one of Elvis Presley’s rock songs. Very soon, we were back on track and having more fun!

Very soon, it came to 9pm, and we had to leave the studio. Ralph and Michael had to go elsewhere to pick someone up. Kenny, Shermin and I wanted to go for some food. So we all exchanged contact numbers and bid each other goodbye. We also agreed to meet up next time!

All in all, we all had fun. New friendship, bonded together with music and ukuleles!

I’d like to end this post with 2 seperate group pictures, taken inside the studio. As for videos, I will post them up, as soon as I get them from Ralph. So stay tuned~

Hi all,

It is confirmed that we are meeting in Peninsular Plaza on Friday, 14th of November 2008, 7pm. Kenny has booked the studio at 7pm. Dinner will be quite rushed, due to the time accommodation. After dinner, we’ll jam and have fun till 9pm. The studio is only available till that time.

On behalf of everyone, I’d like to really thank Kenny for booking the studio and for his generosity of letting us use his ukuleles. I myself didn’t bring back my ukulele due to too much luggage load from KL. Kenny has offered to bring 3 of his ukuleles. So once again, thank you very much!

So far it’s Kenny, Shermin and me, who has confirmed the meeting. I am still awaiting Ralph’s email. Any of you who wish to join in, can do so as well! Just drop a comment in here~

See you all soon!

Hi everyone,

I presume that everyone is coincidentially busy, like what Kenny said. It so happens that I am required to work from the 10th till 14th of November in Singapore. I’d like to take this rare chance to meet up with the guys and gals from Singapore, who have supported this site so far.

Let us discuss and try to agree on a good day and time (preferably after 7pm, unless its the weekend of that week)..

The itenary? Dinner, chit chat, photo-taking sessions and ukulele playing. I don’t know if there’s a place whereby we can have food and play around there at the same time (won’t wanna disturb others)… I’m up for suggestions~!

Appreciate everyone’s response.

Take care~

Hi all,

I apologize for the lack of updates recently in the site.
Been kinda busy recently…

We’ve got a new visitor named Ralph from East Coast, Singapore…

Once again, thank you all for your understanding and support in this site!

- Alan Soo

My goodness, its been 10 days since I last updated anything here.
Time certainly flies, as I’ve been rather busy with work itself.

Anyway, for those of you who have checked out the Ichigo Ichie Live 2007 post earlier, there is this song entitled サボテ ンの花, which translates to ‘Saboten No Hana‘. I first came across this song in this particular YouTube video. It cause my attention and I started figuring out how to play it, by watching the video over and over again. The song is actually off a Japanese Dorama Under The Same Roof. The artist is named TULIP.

So here it is, my recording of the song. This time, I tried using back my normal mic used for MSN video call chats. Distance wise, I was about half a meter away from the mic. Mixed it with SONAR’s reverb, without any compression this time. The recording is much softer, but I kinda liked it.

I appreciate any feedback from anyone~