Abe's Ukulele Podcast

My guest today is Bryan LaPlante.

News

The uke contest winners were decided. The cutest video of my kids picking out the winners can be found here

The CT Ukulele Festival is happening on Sept 29th!

Bryan has a great story of his musical upbringing and how he met the ukulele.

He is a student of the James Hill Ukulele Initiative and uses percussive techniques in his classroom.

You can find Bryan's website here

Some of the musicians Bryan mentioned are Natalie McMaster and the Leahy Family

Hui, according to Mirriam-Webster, means

JHUI is the abbreviation for the James Hill Ukulele Initiative. The new thing is that we call it JaHUI (jahooey). It's nice that it has a deeper meaning other than a silly pronunciation.

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Thanks for your patience in getting this episode out this month!

I'm doing an ukulele giveaway with Uke Life Co!

Head over to my Instagram page for details.

Listen to the episode for extra chances at winning for podcast listeners!

The First CT Uke Fest is happening on Sept 29th in Norwalk, CT!

I talked about why you should consider practicing songs more slowly from time to time to check your technique.

Craig Chee & Sarah Maisel's music can be found here. There are also digital albums available.

Brad Bordessa's Music

Brad's teaching website is called Live Ukulele.

The Ukulele Underground Podcast is full of great ukulele tips, tricks, and info.

The Habitat by Gimlet Media.

Listening to Abe's Ukulele Podcast on Radio Public earns me money. It's also a pretty decent podcast app, for Apple and Android, that's easy to use and makes reccomendations for you based on your listening.

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Today’s episode is a commentary on my first studio album, which came out earlier this year. It’s not a super in-depth breakdown of each song, but a brief discussion in real time on different aspects of the album and the artistic decisions/considerations that went into everything.

My hope is that you can gain some insights and inspirations for your own songwriting. I structured it this way to keep it simple and fun.

This is my first ever real-time album review. How do you like it?

Let me know what you’re doing while listening to the podcast. I’d love to hear what you think of it so far, too. My goal for the podcast is to be a resource to help players and teachers hone their craft, so it helps to know how I’m doing in reaching that.

You can reach me at [email protected]

To hear the album alone go to ukuleleabe.com

The new riff rundown series I’m doing can be found on Instagram and Facebook. So far I’ve done In My Life by The Beatles and Is This Love by Bob Marley.

I got a new mic (was borrowing one) and a new podcast host. I’m happy with it so far.

For the final episode in this special series, I sat down and talked to Mike Holzer, the chief ukulele evangelist of the Allegheny Ukulele Kollective and Festival Director of the Allegheny Ukulele Soiree. Make sure you get your tickets soon for next year’s. They’ll go on sale around October.

The Mighty Uke was a movie that they screened at a Soiree in the past.

Fusion Bags is a company who’s cases I’ve been seeing more and more. They are known for holding two ukes.

Mim from Mim’s Ukes was one of the vendors. She brought many ukes and did set ups all weekend.

Some other vendors there this year were Dewdrop Ukuleles, Mainland Ukes, Leis & Things by Debi, The Hug Strap, and the Adaptive Ukulele System.

How to Start and Grow an Ukulele Club is the book I mentioned.

The Quiet American is one of the teacher/performers scheduled for next year’s Soiree.

Is Pono a K-brand? It’s made by Ko’olau.

You can support this podcast by sharing it with a friend,

rating it/subscribing on iTunes or Google Podcasts.

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AUSS no. 4 features a Steel City Ukes native! Amber Rozel is a teacher and performer that you may not have heard of, unless you’re from Pittsburg, PA. She’s also a classmate of mine from the James Hill Ukulele Initiative in Toronto. She may be the least famous guest I’ve had on the show, but it’s definitely one of my favorite conversations!

We talked about teaching tips, playing past the 3rd fret, practice schedules, and so much more. The saddle we were talking about is called a compensated saddle.

You can learn more about the Suzuki method here.

In case you’re curious, you can read more about musical counting systems here.

More information about the James Hill ukulele program is here.

Yes the 8th fret on the 1st string is F, unless you aren’t playing a C6 tuned ukulele.

A great teaching tip is a chart: 2 great things and 1 thing to improve for the next week. Use gold stars, too! It’s called 2 stars and a wish.

There’s only one more episode from the Allegheny Ukulele Soiree after this, and it just might be the best one yet!

As always, you can find me and my music at ukuleleabe.com.

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Here’s 3 of 5 from the Allegheny Ukulele Soiree! Today’s episode is with Danielle Ate the Sandwich.

There are many ways to listen to this podcast and be notified of new episodes.

There are many other apps and services, like player.fm, podcast fanatic, podcast addict, overcast, and many more. I’d love to hear how you’re listening to this.

You can contact me at [email protected]. Don’t forget about the free strings!

I’ve got two sets I’m giving away. They’re not available in stores and they’re a gorgeous blue and red (each one color). All you have to do is leave a review on iTunes and send me and email once you’re done.

You can support me and the at patreon.com/ukuleleabe  or  ukuleleabe.com.

You can find Danielle’s website at danielleatthesandwich.com and all of her music can be found here.

The documentary “Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson” can be found here. Danielle wrote the sound track for that.

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This is the second installment of a special uke fest series I’m putting out as quickly as I can. These episodes were all recorded on April 21, 2018 in Altoona, PA. In today’s episode I sat down with Craig Chee and Sarah Maisel.

*audio note: there is a workshop going on in the next room, so the audio quality is not quite perfect, but I think it adds to the overall feeling of the series

Craig and Sarah’s website, as well as all of their music, lesson info, and touring schedule can be found at cheemaisel.com.

I know I’ve mentioned it before on the show, but it’s just so good. Another recent great video of them can be found here:

The 5-string instrument I mentioned is a Mexican Vihuela.

Campanella is a playing style. A great resource to start can be found at Ukulele Hunt.

As I’ve mentioned before, Ka’au Crater Boys are a great source of inspiration for playing uke.

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole is essential ukulele listening. For more great ukulele songs, check out my Spotify playlist. I regularly update it, so be sure to save songs you love. I try to focus on unique and beautiful representations of the ukulele’s potential.

Benny Chong is another great player to watch.

To win a set a Soprano Crystal Colored strings, leave a review on iTunes (Apple Podcasts) and send me an email at [email protected].

It’s important to email me so that I can connect with you to get your prize to you.

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Here is part one of a special series I’m doing on the Allegheny Ukulele Soiree.

The Soiree website can be found here: http://ukulelesoiree.com

In this first of the series I had a chance to sit down and chat with Jim D’Ville. He’s a wonderful teacher/performer that put on a bunch of great classes and a wildly entertaining set at the concert on Saturday night.

You can find out more about Jim and everything he does at his website here: playukulelebyear.com

The chord charts mentioned can be found here.

Deering banjo company makes a banjolele: https://www.deeringbanjos.com/products/goodtime-banjo-ukulele

Allegheny Ukulele Kollective (yes that’s how it’s spelled) is a great uke club doing amazing things, like putting on this awesome uke fest.

Thank you to everyone for reaching out and letting me know what you think of the podcast so far!

To enter to win a set of soprano Koaloha crystal colored strings, leave me a review on iTunes.

*I forgot to mention in the recording that you also have to email me at [email protected] so that I can contact you if you are the winner. You have until June to enter to win.

iTunes/Apple Podcasts link

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I’m so excited to share today’s episode with you! I was able to sit down with Jake Shimabukuro for an interview last month when he came through Fairfield, CT for a concert.

Jake’s website can be found here. From there you can read more about him, hear his music, see where he’s playing next, and more. The song at the beginning and end of our conversation is “Missing Three” by Jake Shimabukuro from the album Grand Ukulele.

Nashville Sessions is his most recent album. You can hear it on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon among other shops.

Life on Four Strings is a wonderful movie from 2013 that shows a bit of Jake’s life as a virtuoso and touring musician.

Dave Preston is playing guitar with Jake on tour, and Nolan Verner is playing bass.

We talked a bit about how to practice more and make it easier for you to improve.

Ukulele Hale is a fantastic ukulele school in Honolulu, HI, founded by Jody Kamisato.

When we were discussing it, I said at one point “if you haven’t seen it” while trying to address you, the listeners. I think Jake thought I was talking to him, which is when he pointed out that the uke he’s using now on his tour is that exact model. I thought it was kinda funny. Of course he’s seen the uke being made for him!

I had a chance to play it a little. It’s truly an incredible instrument!

We talked a bit about strings and the pedals he’s using, too.

For the contest, make sure you send me an email so that I know what your username is and so I can get the strings to you if you win.

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This episode I’m sharing a few of my favorite ukulele players to give you some inspiration. They all have a big presence on Instagram and I highly recommend checking them out on that platform.

As you may know, I love hearing and discovering the uke in many different scenarios. All of these players do what I think is a great job at exploring what the uke can do. This is not some ultimate list, just me sharing with you what I think are great sources of learning and inspiration.

First up is Destiny G, from the USA. She’s a music teacher and a fabulous singer. Her featured song is here, and you can find her instagram here.

Next is Natasha Ghosh, from the Netherlands. She covers a lot of really neat arrangements. She does her own as well as arrangements from other people. Her featured cover is here, and you can find her instagram here.

The next artist is Eat My Uke, from the UK. He also does a lot of really awesome arrangements. One I particularly love is here, and you can find his instagram here. He also plays uke in the band Bud Sugar, which you can listen to here.

Lastly, you gotta check out Banjolele Tinman. He specializes in “dance music for the old at heart.” The track featured is from his upcoming album which you can pre-order here. His instagram is here and his website is here.

My own inspiring way to play the uke was a cover of Cherry Wine by Hozier. You can here the full version here. And yes there are tabs here.

Finally, a huge source of inspiration (I’ve mentioned before) for me is The Ukulele Site. My son won an ukulele from them and they have so many amazing sound samples so you can listen to tons of amazing ukes. It’s not just great for hearing different ukes, but lots of great little tunes from the players there. Check out their instagram here for future contests!

I have two sets of KoAloha Crystal Colored Strings to giveaway! As far as I can tell, you can’t buy these anywhere. They’re soprano strings, and one set is red while the other is blue.

To enter the contest, just leave me a review on iTunes and send me an email at podcast(at)ukuleleabe.com once you’re done. If you’ve already left one, you’re already done. You just have to send me an email.

You can check out the strings I’m giving away here. I’ll be picking the winner at random and announcing it on a future episode.

I’m heading to the Allegheny Ukulele Soiree, so if you’re there come say hi. I’d love to meet you!

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