Aloha! I’m back with Part 2 of my Hawaiian/Island-themed and I have a lovely collection of two books for your consideration: Hawaiian Favorites and Hawaiian Classics. Both books feature 8 songs each, standard notation and chord boxes (no TAB), and probably the best thing that can be offered for songs like these: Audio One of the biggest complaints I’ve run into … [Read more...]
The Charlie Brown Collection
By: Russ Aloha, everyone! Let’s talk books! Specifically, let’s talk biographies: One of the best (if not the best) biographies I’ve ever read is called Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaels. It’s a long one, I’ll warn you, but Michaels did a fantastic job giving the good, bad, and interesting of Schulz’s life instead of skewing toward any one direction and the result is a … [Read more...]
Four New Martin Guitars and a Ukulele at Summer NAMM
Summer NAMM is next week here in Nashville, and the announcements are starting to come in. Martin has announced four new models to debut at the show: a new OM-Arts & Crafts-inspired guitar, a D-28 Bigsby guitar, a Jimmy Buffett Custom Signature Artist Edition guitar, and a D-16EPD Poker Dogs guitar. In addition to these guitars, they're also introducing a Konter … [Read more...]
Hamilton: Ukulele Selections
By: Russ Aloha and welcome to a new series for ukulele instruction books! I know it’s going to be hard to surpass the quality of the last series (90s music), but I’m going to give it a shot: There are songs that seem to have been with us forever. Songs that we seem to be born knowing. They’re the songs that bring us directly to a different place mentally and have the … [Read more...]
Andrew Molina GHS Strings
By: Russ Aloha! Before I moved to Hawaii, I knew I was going to be buying an ukulele for me at least, but was trying to get the kids interested in it as well. I found a video of an amazing player tackling Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off,” and my daughter, a huge Swift fan, was intrigued. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftSUaF919VU I was more interested in the player, … [Read more...]