by Alice Bulmer | Apr 15, 2019 | Beginner ukulele, Community music, New Zealand music
This post is about Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi, one of New Zealand’s beloved waiata. (If you’re not a New Zealander, waiata is the Maori word for a song.) It’s such a great song. It has beautiful, inspiring, meaningful lyrics. “Stand up together, people.” It’s short, so it’s...
by Alice Bulmer | Jan 22, 2019 | Community music, Ukulele lessons, Ukulele music theory
This is a very basic, practical introduction to transposing for the ukulele. In this post I cover what transposition is and why it’s useful. I also discuss four tools for transposition: a chord chart, an online transposer tool, a capo and barre chords. Many...
by Alice Bulmer | Jan 14, 2019 | Beginner ukulele, Community music, Ukulele teaching
I knew I was going to be a ukulele teacher at the age of six. My mother, Sue, taught me three chords and three songs, and I was hooked. I thought, “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life!” I was having such wonderful fun strumming. I played and sang and...
by Alice Bulmer | Dec 10, 2018 | Community music, Music and wellbeing, Ukulele beginners
When we start playing ukulele a world of unforseen possibilities opens up. I’m not exaggerating! This happened for me, and I’ve seen it working like this for many others. Beyond performing There’s a common attitude that making music is about performing, whether it’s...
by Alice Bulmer | Nov 30, 2018 | Community music, Ukulele research
This week music researchers are heading to my hometown of Hamilton for an international popular music conference. IASPM-ANZ 2018 is hosted by Wintec‘s School of Media Arts, which has a large and lively popular music department. (The full name of the organisation is...
by Alice Bulmer | Nov 5, 2018 | Community music, Ukulele books
This post is about ukestra, community music, Mark Jackson and Jane Jelbart. And The Sum of the Parts. If any of these terms are strange to you, read on! Jane and Mark are community musicians, based in Newcastle, Australia. They’re also musical entrepreneurs and social...
