Ukulele Clubs

(This is a guest post by Ted Parrish, co-author with Wayne Erbsen of our newest book, Ukulele for the Complete Ignoramus. It was be available on August 17, 2015)

One of the many wonders of the modern world has been the proliferation of ukulele clubs in almost every metropolitan area of the country. A Google search and a few inquiries at your local music store will usually direct you towards a group of ukulele enthusiasts. Let’s talk about what these groups do and why you should seek them out.

girls with ukesMost ukulele clubs meet weekly, often at a café or restaurant.

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The Hanging of Fiddlin’ Joe Coleman

American Fiddler cBy Wayne Erbsen

The story of the hanging of Fiddlin’ Joe Coleman is enough to send chills up and down your spine. In 1847, near the town of Slate Fork, in Adair County, Kentucky, a shoemaker and fiddler named Joe Coleman was living with his wife, and his wife’s mother and sister. According to some accounts, Joe had been acting erratically and not long after that, someone smothered his mother-in-law to death with a pillow. A few days later, Joe’s wife went into the woods to gather bark and never came back. Joe went searching for his wife in the

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Build Your Own Chords on Fiddle or Mandolin

MandoFrogBy Wayne Erbsen

One of my students recently asked me to give him a sheet with all the fiddles chords he would need to play most any bluegrass song. I certainly wanted to help him out, but I decided that I wouldn’t be doing him any big favors by handing him the chords on a sheet of paper. Instead, I needed to help him understand how to make up his own chords. That way, if a big gust of wind blew his sheet away, he wouldn’t be up the creek without a paddle, so to speak.

As you already know,

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Fat Finger Blues: Are My Fingers Too Fat to Play Music?

By Wayne Erbsen

One of my struggling banjo students recently wrote me and asked if his fat fingers are to blame for muting the adjacent strings when he played. He even went so far as to send me a photo of his fingers to prove his point. A lot of people have given me the finger, but he was the first one to email it! First, I assured him that the size of his fingers seemed pretty normal, and I wouldn’t point the finger of blame on them. Instead, I suggested the way he uses his fingers many be the

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Yes, There Were Cowboys in Bluegrass Music

Hopalong CassidyBy Wayne Erbsen

As a kid, I desperately wanted to be a cowboy.  I dreamed of owning a horse, riding the range, and doing what cowboys did. And why wouldn’t I? Every night I slept under a cowboy blanket and my lunch box was fully decorated with a decal of a handsome cowboy twirling his lariat. Growing up at the dawn of the age of television, all my heroes were cowboys: Hopalong Cassidy, Shane, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and John Wayne. I watched Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, and Bonanza while eating my TV dinner.

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Cowboys in Bluegrass Music?

Hopalong CassidyAs a kid, I desperately wanted to be a cowboy.  I dreamed of owning a horse, riding the range, and doing what cowboys did. And why wouldn’t I? Every night I slept under a cowboy blanket and my lunch box was fully decorated with a decal of a handsome cowboy twirling his lariat. Growing up at the dawn of the age of television, all my heroes were cowboys: Hopalong Cassidy, Shane, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and John Wayne. I watched “Gunsmoke,” “Have Gun Will Travel,” “The Rifleman” and “Bonanza” while eating my TV dinner. My favorite actor was Gary Cooper,

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The Dark History of ‘Hangman’s Reel’ + Clawhammer Banjo Tab

By Wayne Erbsen

Albert Hash and Emily SpencerHangman’s Reel always reminds me of my old friend and mentor, Albert Hash. I first met Albert at the Grayson County Fiddlers Convention in the summer of 1972, and took an instant liking to him. Not only was he a great old-time fiddler, but I was drawn to him by his plainspoken ways and his humble spirit. He spoke in an old-time Southwest Virginia dialect, and I hung on his every word. The man was wise from his head to his toes, and I spent a lot of time hanging out and playing music with him at

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Hangman’s Reel – Dark History & Banjo Tab

Albert Hash and Emily SpencerHangman’s Reel always reminds me of my old friend and mentor, Albert Hash. I first met Albert at the Grayson County Fiddlers Convention in the summer of 1972, and took an instant liking to him. Not only was he a great old-time fiddler, but I was drawn to him by his plainspoken ways and his humble spirit. He spoke in an old-time Southwest Virginia dialect, and I hung on his every word. The man was wise from his head to his toes, and I spent a lot of time hanging out and playing music with him at his Whitetop Mountain

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‘I’ve Been All Around This World’ + Clawhammer Banjo Tab

By Wayne Erbsen

Of all the many kinds of songs there are to sing, by far my favorites are what I call “real songs.” These were not written in an air conditioned office on the fourteenth floor by fancy pants professional songwriters. Instead, they were written about events that really happened, by real people who were there to witness it.

Judge Parker “I’ve Been All Around This World” could not be any more real if it tried. The outlaw captured in this song was reportedly hanged for murder in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the 1870s. If this is true, the chances are

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“I’ve Been All Around This World” ~History, Lyrics & Banjo Tab

Of all the many kinds of songs there are to sing, by far my favorites are what I call “real songs.” These were not written in an air conditioned office on the fourteenth floor by fancy pants professional songwriters. Instead, they were written about events that really happened, by real people who were there to witness it.

Judge Parker “I’ve Been All Around This World” could not be any more real if it tried. The outlaw captured in this song was reportedly hanged for murder in Fort Smith, Arkansas in the 1870s. If this is true, the chances are good that he

… Read the rest
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