Tag Archives: www.ukulabu.com

Lessons: Fingernails? Yes or No….
22
Feb

When I first learn how to play the ukulele, I came across this thought of whether or not to leave fingernails on my right (strumming and hand plucking) hand. Maybe I’ll share my thoughts with you all now.

Initially I kept a certain nail length, about 2mm.. And I found that my playing was kinda ‘picky’ sounding. As the nails were hard and they created a more ‘picked’ sound. My nail length was about the same as the picture below:

 

And my playing sounded like this:

 

So I switched and cut my fingernails, to minimize the chances of any part of my nails from touching the strings. After that, my playing sound changed, and sounded like this..

 

Basically, playing without fingernails gives a softer sound, which is more suitable for slow and soft sounding songs. So depending on what kind of music / song you’re playing, you should experiment around with having longer or shorter nails, and eventually develop into your own style….

Well, there are a lot of other factors which needs to considered. For example, if you are a female, as females tend to leave longer nails, due to fashion or beauty reasons, you might be reluctant to cut your nails. Also, if you play more strumming of chords, rather than finger picking, nails would help you sound louder.

If you have any questions, pop me a comment, and I’ll try my best to answer your question.

Have fun!

Blog: Ukulabu’s 3rd Meeting Session
18
Jan

Ukulabu’s 3rd meeting session took place at ‘The Ukulele Music Co.’ on Friday, 16th of January 2009, and it was a huge success. The members from Ukulabu.com and The Ukulele Music Co. came together for a night of fun ukulele strumming and learning~!

Although I was unable to make it to the meeting session, due to last minute work commitments, I do feel a sense of accomplishment, as I see that Singapore is slowly showing signs of having an ukulele community. And with the help from the friendly folks at ‘The Ukulele Music Co.’, I’m sure the community has a great future ahead, and will continue to grow~!

With that, I will end this blog entry with some pictures of the event. You may view the other pictures on Facebook by clicking here. For videos, click here. Pictures from Glyn and Simon, from ‘The Ukulele Music Co.’

After Chinese New Year, I will be going back to Kuala Lumpur, and probably won’t be able to take part in any meetings in Singapore for quite some time. However, I will try to make time and come back. Hope to see you all soon! Take care everyone!

 – Alan Soo

 

Lessons: Ukulele Tuners
16
Dec

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~

Blog: 2nd Ukulabu Meeting in Singapore
15
Dec

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

Next Ukulabu Meeting’s Jam List
24
Nov

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.

Blog: Our First Ukulabu.com Meeting
17
Nov

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~

 

Ukulabu Meeting in Singapore Confirmation
11
Nov

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!

Annoucement: Travel back to Singapore (10th – 14th November)
4
Nov

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~