When I say ‘essential’, I’m not just talking about records that are nice to listen to. All these records have changed the way I think about making music on the ukulele. They’ve inspired me to try something new, to be more ambitious in my playing or to think about the instrument in a new way. […]

I’ve been lusting after a KoAloha Sceptre for a long time. So much so that as soon as the Southern Ukulele Store got one in they contacted me for an easy sale. With these things, there’s always the possibility it’d be a let down once I got it. So… Specifications Size: Tenor Construction: Solid Koa […]

I avoided watching Ralph Shaw’s Essential Strums for Ukulele for a very long time. I knew I was going to be writing my own guide to strumming and I didn’t want to be unduly influenced by it. The problem was I had nothing to tell the people who asked me if it was any good. […]

If you’re anything like me you’ll often hear, “Wow, I didn’t know they could be that small. Does it even work?” And I expect I’ll hear it even more often now I’ve bought a Kala Pocket Uke. The Pocket Ukulele is Kala’s sopranino size ukulele (although they do the smart thing market-wise and avoid the […]

I’ve used Guitar Pro for all the tabs I’ve made on the site. It was easily the best tabbing software around but GuitarPro 5 had a number of drawbacks for uke tabbers (read about them in my review). So I was very eager to try out GuitarPro 6 which was released earlier this month. Here’s […]

Christmas is coming fast and it’s time to start practicing a few tunes to entertain the family. With John King’s Classical Ukulele and Famous Solos and Duets for ‘Ukulele being the two best ukulele tab books around and his arrangements of Carol of the Bells and What Child Is This? being great, I felt pretty […]

If you’re a regular on the blog, you’ll have noticed I’ve linked to quite a few of Jim D’Ville’s posts on Play Ukulele By Ear. His posts are always interesting and informative and I think ear training is essential for any musician. So when Jim was kind enough to send me a copy of his […]

The RISA solid ukulele isn’t like any other ukulele out there: it’s shaped like a hollowed out cricket bat, the tuning pegs are at the wrong end, it doesn’t have a head, its bridge is aluminium. Obviously, I had to have one. Stats Construction: Solid walnut. Fretboard: Walnut 17 frets. Neck: Solid walnut. Bridge: Aluminium. […]

Before you read this review, you should know that aNueNue sent me this ukulele to review for free. I’m anyone’s for a bag of Wine Gums, so feel free to take this review with whatever degree of salt you see fit. They asked me which of their ukuleles I’d like to review. My initial reaction, […]

I’m a huge fan of John King’s Classical Ukulele book (in an, “OMG!!!1! It changed the way I think about the ukulele,” way). So it was only a matter of time before I picked up his Famous Solos and Duets for ‘Ukulele as well. The book contains tab and standard notation for 22 tunes (18 […]