Now Part Of The Education Collective

     I'm pleased to tell you D'addario contacted me with an invite to their education collective,which of course I joined! Ukulele is the primary instrument I teach,along with mandolin on Skype. I'm also following D'addarios ukulele hub,which always has some interesting info and following the hashtag on Twitter is always fun. #ukulelehub

Venezuelan Folk Music On Ukulele 

     I was exposed to Venezuelan folk music a couple of months ago and fell in love with it. On mandolin,I was wanting to play classical guitar pieces,however the arrangements didn't work well. I started listening to Venezuelan folk music and it not only worked beautifully for mandolin,it translates beautifully onto ukulele. 
     A  dropped D tuned ukulele is very similar to the Venezuelan Cuatro- a four stringed instrument that is the South American cousin to ukulele. The music just sings on uke,and I've been arranging some of the music I have for mandolin into tab for ukulele. If you belong to the Ukulele Underground,you can look at a cuatro thread under "other instruments" and find a wealth of information there should you be curious. And I found a Venezuela Ukulele account on Twitter so am now following that,along with bandola (Venezuelan four string mandolin) and cuatro players. 
    I was used to laying in C tuning so I've had to relearn chords for the D tuning and it's well worth it. Check out videos on U tube to get a taste of the music.....you won't regret it!