https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S7R-jtxFo8 Check out the above video for an example of how a green screen can liven up your YouTube videos! This humble green screen can transform even the most humdrum of YouTube videos into something a bit more lively! But how does it work? Adding a large swathe of a bright colour to your video that is ‘unnatural’ (i.e. doesn’t really appear much in the real world), makes it incredibly easy for your video editing software (Final Cut Pro X in my case) to remove this background. And from there, you can add in whatever you like! This could be a spaceship, an oce ..read more

It’s not everyday that you see your all-time favourite band play live, for free, at your local shopping mall. But this week that’s exactly what happened to me! On Wednesday afternoon, a huge steel box appeared at The Grove in L.A. on with a 24-hour countdown clock on the outside... and due to some cryptic messages left on the band’s official Instagram page, I had a feeling they might be involved in some way. It was quite a low-key affair - I arrived about 25 minutes before the clock hit zero and there were only a dozen or so other people already there - although it packed out pretty quickly o ..read more

This week I went to the NAMM expo at the Anaheim Convention Centre in California. It’s basically a big - and I do mean BIG - trade fair for people in the music biz. Thanks to my association with Kala, I was able to wangle an invite to the event and I had a blast! As well as having a go on just about every single type of musical instrument you can imagine, I spent a lot of time checking out some very cool ukuleles. I even bumped into my fellow online uke teacher, the very talented Cynthia Lin, and we performed an impromptu duet. I saw ukuleles that were literally every colour of the rainbow ..read more

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but somehow the crazy little ukulele channel that I started for a bit of fun back in 2011 has just reached ONE MILLION SUBSCRIBERS! This is a huge milestone for me, and one I'm personally really proud of! When I made my first video I had no idea that anyone would even watch it, let alone subscribe! In fact, I actually only made it for a friend of mine who had recently bought a ukulele, as a sort of tongue-in-cheek joke that I thought he (and he alone) might enjoy. Little did I know that people would actually start watching, commenting, sharing and - most ..read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s83vcxadOZo Today I heard that Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer of The Cranberries, had sadly passed away. Although I'm meant to be in bed taking it easy - and in truth can barely speak because of the painkillers I'm on due to the dental work I've just endured - I felt like I couldn't let this go unmarked. The Cranberries were one of the very first bands I ever saw live, all the way back in 1995 as one of the support acts for R.E.M. in Milton Keynes. And although I was of course excited to finally be seeing Michael Stipe et. al. in person, I also couldn't wait to ..read more

To help support this blog, please check out my Amazon store for my top ukulele and ukulele-accessory recommendations! Today I went to the dentist for some work... as well as being extremely expensive, it will also keep me out of commission for the next week or two - in fact, in the aftercare instructions, it actually forbids me from doing any cardio at all for at least two weeks, so I guess the Couch-to-5k will have to wait just a little bit longer! Although I have to admit that there is a little bit of vanity behind getting my teeth sorted, it has also become quite a medical necessity in rece ..read more

To help support this blog, please check out my Amazon store for my top ukulele and ukulele-accessory recommendations! This year I've decided to make some changes to my life! 1. Write (at least) one song a month This is a really personal one for me - I learn several new songs that other people have written every single week... so surely I should be able to write one or two of my own? Yet, over the last ten years I've probably written a total of about 3 of my own songs... So this year, that changes! Whether or not anyone else will ever hear them is currently undecided, but I'm at least going to ..read more

I get asked a lot about barre chords! It's sad, but lots of people tell me that they skip over a lesson if it has the dreaded B minor chord in it, even if it's a song they've always wanted to learn. Recently I made a video about how to play them - you know, really play them, not just skip over them or pretend they don't exist! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm0zdivCvZM If you haven't watched it already, you should probably check it out when you have a couple of minutes to spare. But if you haven't got a couple of minutes to spare, let me sum up some of the key points for you: What is a barre ..read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIhMk-uF6Q As requested by many of you, here's a quick look at what's currently lurking in my ukulele closet - I'll post a more in-depth video of my collection posted soon! 4. Kala Travel Tenor: http://amzn.to/2xs0Nj2 5. Kala KA-C Concert Ukulele: http://amzn.to/2v09bFP 6. Flight DU-BASS Bass Ukulele: http://amzn.to/2wjnVjI 8. Kala KA-SLNG Mahogany Soprano Long Neck Ukulele: http://amzn.to/2wcRzZG 10. White Fender Stratocaster: http://amzn.to/2xs4k0Z 10. Fender Champion 20 Amplifier: http://amzn.to/2iDTL7G 12. Jasmine Acoustic Guitar: http://amzn.to/2xH9OUT 15 ..read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa1RMyK3SDI Last year, America's Got Talent winner Grace Vanderwaal gave this awesome tour of her ukulele collection for The Journal News, her local newspaper. Today, I'm going to give you a little break down of each of these ukes, let you know if they're any good, and tell you where you can get them from... Enjoy! 1. Diamond Head DU-101 Rainbow Soprano Ukulele (Brown ukulele) This was Grace's first ukulele, and it's a super cheap, very basic, run of the mill soprano ukulele. Even the manufacturers say that it was "designed to be affordable", which is a pretty c ..read more