In part I we started the ukulele chord system by learning which notes are used in a chord. Now it’s time to find those notes on the ukulele fretboard. First we’ll have a look at which notes are where on the fretboard. Then, we can search for the chord notes. We will learn that a few shapes are sufficient to play all chords.
Continue reading
Ukulele chords I
Note: this is the first part of a five-part course in moveable ukulele chords, originally published in Dutch. The other parts will follow shortly.
You can find ukulele chords in chord tables which you can find on the internet. But there are many kinds of chords like major, minor, 7th and many more, each in twelve different keys. And you can play each of these chords in a number of ways, resulting in hundreds of ukulele chords. You could learn all of these chords or use a small selection of ‘basic’ chords. A much better solution is to know what you’re doing, and learn a couple of basic shapes. Combined with a little bit of musical theory you can then find all the chords and variations you ever need yourself. In this series I’ll show you how to do just that. Continue reading
The Paleo Diet
Until a couple of weeks ago I’ve kind of missed the paleo diet hype, but lately everywhere I look this ‘caveman diet’ shows up, even in articles about running. I’m perfectly happy with my diet, so I’m not planning to switch to the (incompatible) paleo. But since I found a couple of false claims so support the paleo diet I couldn’t resist doing a little research. It seems like most paleo supporters really try to convince everyone that it’s the only healthy option. It turns out they’re probably wrong.
Stick dulcimer v2
The second version of the stick dulcimer, with sides of bent oak. The top is from standard plywood. The local diy store doesn’t have too much choice in instrument tops. 
Stick dulcimer v1
My first try. This one was quickly made to test the sound, which turned out to be quite ok. Sides are just slightly bent ordinary pine wood.
Install WordPress locally with xampp for Linux
Working on a website or theme is easier to do locally. Unfortunately it’s not that straightforward to get things running. A search on the internet gave a couple of solutions of which some didn’t work and others seemed to insecure for me. So here’s my problem and solution.
Köhler’s Violin Repository of Dance Music
Thee Petrucci Music Library is one of the large collections of classical sheet music on the internet. With a bit of searching you can also find some nice folk collections. In Köhler’s Violin Repository of Dance Music you can find a few numbers of Köhler’s The Musical Treasury (1885). In total there’s hundreds of hornpipes, quadrilles, waltzes etcetera. Written for one or two violins, but of course also playable on other instruments.
Kryptos clue
Just had a look at the progress on the Kryptos cipher. The final 97 characters still haven’t been cracked. At the end of last year Jim Sanborn revealed that characters 64-69 decode to ‘BERLIN’. Since all of these characters are in the code, some kind of permutation is still possible. A combination with substitution is of course also a possibility. Continue reading
Electric ukulele
Today I tried this electric ukulele in Tully’s. It’s a great instrument, especially when played through a Boss GT-3. Here’s a list of common ukulele chords.
Ordo
A new game is Ordo, you have to reach the other side of the board while keeping your pieces connected. You can find the rules online. On the Ordo site you can also download your own board for printing.