I recently had the opportunity to sit down (virtually) with Jerry Hoffmann. He runs Boat Paddle Ukulele Company of New Haven Missouri. Jerry has developed a ukulele that has a unique shape that immediately caught my attention when I stumbled upon his website a few months ago. I was so interested in his Boat Paddle ukes, that I commissioned him to build one for me.

Julie: How did you originally become interested in the ukulele?

Jerry: It was Joe Brown’s rendition of I’ll See You In My Dreams at the Concert for George in 2002 that did it for me. I think that was the turning point for a lot of people who hadn’t considered the ukulele as a serious instrument up until then. I went out and bought a cheap uke right away, but there was no way that it could sound as good as Joe Brown’s old Martin. After becoming frustrated at the quality of ukes available, I decided to build my own, and then the frustration of not being able to build a great ukulele inspired me to keep building them.

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We’ve all heard of ukuleles that are made with popular woods such as Koa, Mahogany, Cedar and Spruce. But how about a ukulele made of Bamboo? No, I’m not making that up. Just ask Chuck Danford as the Bambukulele is his creation.

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I just received an email about an interesting new website /service called iVideoSongs.com. This site has high quality videos that teach you to play an entire song from start to finish. Right now it’s heavy on acoustic guitar, but there are also some banjo, piano, electric guitar and drum songs. The titles are all shot in high definition at 1280 x 720 resolution and generally range in size from 200 MB to more than 500 MB each. There are beginner, intermediate and advanced level songs in different genres such as Folk, Indie, R&B, Country, etc. From what I can tell, beginner and intermediate videos are $4.99, while advanced videos are $9.99 each. Like iTunes, you can view a short snippet of a video before you buy it. There are even a few tutorials that you can download for free.

Now you might think who cares, I can watch all the videos I want for free on YouTube. I also love YouTube, but the quality of the videos on this new site really beat the snot out of YouTube And what is really cool is that some of the videos have the actual song writers showing you how to play their songs. For example, you can buy a video with Graham Nash teaching you how to play Our House on piano.

The only thing missing from iVideoSongs.com is a ukulele section!!!

The Ko’olau Pono PKC 1-E was the first ukulele that I purchased when I came down with the uke virus last October. Pono’s are Ko’olau’s economy line of ukuleles. They are built in an Indonesian factory, on the island of Java and then their final adjustments and set-up are done on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. In Hawaiian, “pono” means goodness and excellence. Let’s see if this instrument lives up to that definition…

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I recently had the opportunity to sit down (virtually) with Heidi Litke and Aaron Keim. They both run Bean Sprout Ukulele Company, which builds the Bean Sprout banjo ukulele.

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This coming Saturday, I’ll be on my way to San Francisco, California to attend Macworld Expo next week. I’m hoping that I can see everything I need to see at the show and then spend the rest of the days that I’m there sight seeing and other things. So my question for anyone listening, is…  what ukulele related stores, places, venues, etc., should I plan to see while I’m there?

Since I recently started playing a ukulele, I’ve been interested in various accessories that go along with playing a stringed instrument. Admittedly, there aren’t many. But the main accessory that I use every time I sit down to play (or try to play) a song, is a tuner. A month ago, I took a look a the Intelli IMT-500 tuner. I like it very much, but like any good gadgeteer, I’ll be happy to dump it for something better. Today I’m going to tell you about the eNote Clip On Digital Chromatic Tuner from ELECA. Read on to see if it beats the Intelli.

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Why do I love the ukulele? Let me count the ways…

1. Ukuleles take up less space than a standard sized guitar. Below you see the case for my Collings OOO2H in the background and my Pono concert sized ukulele in the foreground. The Collings is a small body guitar, so as you can see, you could store 2 or 3 ukes in the same space that a guitar requires

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Title: A Flying Leap
Artist: James Hill
Label: Borealis Records
Year: 2006

Click the image above to visit the product page on Amazon.com

Tracks:
1. Uke Talk (2:11)
2. Song for Cheri (4:23)
3. Down Rideau Canal (3:36)
4. Little Wing (3:09)
One Small Suite for ‘Ukulele:
5. I. Allegro con brio (3:30)
6. II. Largo cantabile (3:54)
7. III. Vivace giocoso (5:09)
8. Fleas My Dog Has (2:32)
9. Skipping Stone (3:16)
10. Never On Sunday (3:15)

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