Saturday, January 29, 2011

Free Celtic & Bluegrass Sheet Music Downloads

Ken Middleton's site is ranked a "Top 50 Ukulele Sites."
 While wandering the internet looking for renaissance music I found Ken Middleton's site. He's offering a number of free Celtic and Bluegrass sheet music downloads. They're in tab making them easy to play. Click on the link below to explore his site.

Ken Middleton Free Music Downloads ~ Celtic, Bluegrass & More

And when you simply must have more, visit Ken's store (at the link below) and pick up his sheet music e-books.
Ken Middleton's Celtic, Bluegrass & Hymn e-books  

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Jamming At The Intracoastal Waterway

Nancy has got a music background and has been teaching me about the structure of music - those foundational pieces necessary to play easily with other people. I'm teaching Nancy about playing notes and melody. Each time we get together we each learn something new. And, of course, we have fun. This week Joey joined us and fell in love with the ukulele.

Nancy & Joey are playing "America" on the ukulele.   
 
Joey picked up the ukulele just 30 minutes prior to our ICW Jam and started playing tab immediately. FYI: Nancy is playing a Mainland soprano and Joey is playing a Makala Dolphin soprano.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Jimmy Buffett Ukulele Songbook Released

BuffettInfo.com tells us that Alred Music Company has just released a Jimmy Buffett ukulele songbook, Uke 'An Play Jimmy Buffett.

Jimmy plays ukulele and you can too.
 Before moving to South Florida from New Hampshire, I used to listen to Jimmy Buffett music all the time as a way to escape the long, cold New England winters. I'd turn up the heat, take off my shoes and socks, and put Jimmy on the stereo.

Most people don't know that Jimmy's smile on "Off To See The Lizard" prompted me into becoming a writer.  As a gift to myself for my 40th birthday, I wrote what I called a "little story". When contemplating what to write about, I popped this cd into my Bose and thought, "Gee, I'll write a little story about that smile and what I imagine was behind it."


The smile that prompted my writing career.
The goal was simply to amuse myself. Eight months and 10,000 words later, I realized I was onto something.The little story became a novel which eventually led to the Pug At The Beach books.

And to this day, I still wonder about what made him smile like that.

Now that I play ukulele, well, this just opens up doors to all sorts of interesting adventures!

Here's the link to the original post on BuffettInfo.com:
http://www.buffettinfo.com/front-page-news/2641-buffett-ukulele-songbook-released.html#axzz1BKRocSkO

And here's the link to Alred Music Publishers:
http://www.alfred.com/Products/Uke-An-Play-Jimmy-Buffett--00-36799.aspx

Now, get out there and make some music!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Let's Have A Song Swap!

In the January 2010 issue of their newsletter, the BFC (below) gave thanks for their Song Swap which took place on New Year's Day. It sounded like such a good idea I thought we should do that!

Let's have a Song Swap!
This really image doesn't really need to be here but isn't it cute?

We'll set a date for sometime in July, 2011. Pick a song you love or one you'll think someone else will love and we'll swap 'em and then play 'em. I'll be in Maine in July so we can play in person. Maybe we can also hookup with these folks:

Playing music in Milton Mills, NH.

 Remember, play a little bit everyday but only play for fun!