Category: Music

The Futulele is coming

All the Internet (it seems) is abuzz with the news that Amidio will be releasing the Futulele in April. The Futulele consists of a hardware device that connects an iPhone and an iPad along with apps that run on both devices to simulate the body of the ukulele (on the iPad) and the fretboard (on the iPhone).

It’s a cute trick, and I’m sure it will be fun for the folks that happen to have both devices, but I can’t help to think that, for the combined price of the iPad ($499) and iPhone ($199), you could actually purchase one hell of a hand-made, real Koa ukulele. Here’s their promotional video:

The Taylor Uke

Yes, Taylor Guitars is getting into the ukulele business. Taylor, whose guitars are well-known for their great sound and beautiful looks (as well as their, um, “ample” prices), is offering a limited edition of 30 matched sets that contain a special Koa “Grand Symphony” guitar (with solid KOA lining) and a matched Koa tenor ukulele. This is called their Builder’s Reserve, Series IV, and 15 sets will be available in the USA, while the remaining 15 are targeted for international distribution.

Prices are rumored to be around $8,000.00 for the set.

Taylor has been saving koa wood pieces for years; whenever they’d end up with cuttings that were too small to use in a guitar, they would set them aside, and it’s these pieces that are being used for the ukulele.

Click on the contact form if you need my address to send me one.

Subway jam session

Unlike a guitar, a ukulele is pretty portable and can be pulled out on the subway should you get the itch to share some tunes with your fellow passengers. What started out as an innocent music break led New York City resident Jessica Latshaw to more than a million views on YouTube in this viral video:

DNAinfo.com has more details on the event as well as the limelight that Jessica suddenly found herself in.

Internet Lessons

Music Lesson by Flickr user tulanesally

The NY Times has a story on how more and more people are taking music lessons over the Internet, usually via Skype or Google Hangouts. It’s a trend that I’ve noticed. For example, Rob Michael, the lead guitarist for the jazzy Atmos Trio, started offering online lessons last year. Matt Dahlberg, one of my favorite modern ukulele performers, also offers lessons via Skype (and he prefers Paypal for payments).

The one major downside of doing lessons online is that the instructor cannot physically place your fingers in the right positions. This may not be a terrible thing except in rare instances.

I’m curious to know if any of my readers has taken online lessons: what do you think? Was it better than IRL lessons? Worse? Why?

Maybe this person should start looking online.