Phil is a familiar face at ukulele festivals all over the UK and around the world and is the author of the popular books "How Music Works On The Ukulele" and "How Songs Work On The Ukulele". He has also composed music for the LCM ukulele exams. As well as the uke, he also plays 5 string banjo, tenor banjo, lap steel, and guitar.
As a solo performer, you'll find him playing vintage swing, hokum, old-time, country and jug band music (and original songs in those styles), and he has released several albums and EPs, both as a solo act and in collaboration with other artists.
“massively entertaining” Blues Matters Magazine
“Genuinely good-time music from ukulele stalwart, who also plays a mean banjo” fRoots Magazine
Your teaching style is excellent and encouraging!Thank you for providing these lessons and I’ll keep hoping for the next one for beginning players. Thanks again!
I have some beginner RU-vid lessons here... www.learntheukulele.co.uk/beginners And on Patreon I have 4 levels of lessons, the level 1 lessons are quite simple, and there is a theme dedicated to 3 chord songs.
Looks like fun… love the song! You need percussionist to accompany you to balance out the sound. Thank you for sharing. What venue was this… love the fish. 😀🥳
another song from my old repertoire that I don’t remember anymore. great version too, Phil. today I’m going to set up my new (cheap) guitar for Nashville tuning and hopefully the new sound for my palette will spur me on to recovering some of what I’ve lost.
Hi Phil, great explanation, you made it seem a lot less daunting than I thought which was why I avoided it in the first place! Would you advise using fretboard stickers showing where the notes are? I was thinking of getting some in the hope it would help in learning the notes until I know them and they would give me a visual aid as well as an aural one?
Cheers! They may help, but I think they they can be a bit of a crutch, and might slow you down in the long run. They also force you into an unnatural position, trying to look at the fretboard!
Have a look at this video on holding the uke. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nHpL-U3qZ9A.html Holding the uke up with the left hand palm will really restrict your ability to play.
They are all different inversions, which just means the notes are the same, but in a different order (all of these are just combinations of the notes of Eb, G and Bb). They are really useful when it comes to playing chord melody, as our ear tends to pick out the highest note we hear as the most likely melody note.
I'm relieved to have found you! I feel encouraged that I can do this with your help. I'm 75 and don't feel it, and I want to strum and sing on my own. Gotta build some callouses now!
I’ve had my ukulele for about a week and trying to figure out strumming patterns was something I was struggling with. Your video definitely helped me to understand how a strumming pattern works! Thanks!
7 years later the Youtoobs algorithm gets around to recommending this to me. I’d try to find it in the online version of the magazine but I’m already up to my nipples in songs I’ll never find time to learn. 🤷🏻♂️
