UK Christmas Number Ones – 1984 (& 1989 & 2004)

The original version of the hugely successful charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?, written by Bob Geldof & Midge Ure in reaction Michael Buerk’s BBC reports of famine in Ethiopia, was performed by Band Aid, a group comprising of the biggest names in British music at the time. It even led to the enormous Live Aid benefit concert the following summer.

In addition to various reissues, the song was re-recorded in 1989 by Band Aid II and 2004 by Band Aid 20,  giving three different versions of the same song the top slot in their respective years.

Here’s an excellent collaborative cover version produced by Ronin Wong, who gathered 43 performers around the world – mainly uke players – into this video collage (full credits & back story). See how many faces you recognise!

And, if you’ve been enjoying this trip down chart memory lane, why not try Smooth Radio’s Christmas Number Ones quiz or Uke Hunt’s annual Xmas ukulele-themed one?

More info on Wikipedia.

 

PLUC Weekend Workout

Musical-U Genre Quiz

How much attention do you pay to the different styles and genres of music when you are listening to tunes? Can you identify what’s jazz or soul? Do you know your arias from your Elbow?

This week’s fun quiz from Musical-U has fourteen short clips for you to match up with the descriptions of various genres ranging from alternative to world, blues to rap & country to ska. Bonus points if you can also identify the artists!

More Musical-U articles & podcasts

More PLUC Weekend Workouts

 

New Year’s Workouts

Happy 2017!

Sheila’s 50th – PLUC

• If you’ve just received your first ukulele, then have a look round our site for playing tips, such as our New Uke For Xmas? article which directs you to some beginners’ guide and handy resources. Or search down the right hand side of the page for the many topics we cover.
• Should you wish to buy a uke, check out our recommendations for decent starter instruments in Good Buy To All That….
• For those of you wishing to access some online lessons,  James Hill’s Booster Uke is free until the end of Jan 2017, which will get you moving up & down the fretboard.
• For a bit of a workout, why not try out the Chord Quiz on Ukulele Go or head over to Uke Hunt’s more challenging Ukulele Quiz 2016.

 

New Uke For Xmas?

English: A Kohala Seminary student poses with her ukulele in this 1912 photo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, if you’ve just received a new ukulele for Christmas, check out last year’s tips for handy resources, beginners’ sites & local groups (or come & join our free weekly sessions if you’re in London, Kent or Surrey).

If you’re looking to buy a uke, see our guide to good starter instruments. And do check round this site for plenty of articles on playing tips and other useful free websites.

And if you just want to enjoy a bit of uke fun, try out the Ukulele Hunt’s annual Xmas Quiz.

We’re back strumming at the Lewis Club on Tue 7 Jan 2014.

Jeanette

 

PLUC Xmas Weekend Workout

Ukulele Club Christmas (Photo credit: Simon Scarfe)

As a Christmas treat, we offer you two festive fun quizzes for the price of one:

1) Guess from which songs do the ‘Christmases’ come (NB If you get enough questions right you’ll win a surprise that can make any song into a Christmas tune!). I managed 10/12, so see if you can better that.

2) And here’s Ukulele Hunt’s annual puzzler – the Ukulele Christmas Quiz 2012 – which I’m just about to enjoy doing. There are also links to previous year’s quizzes.

Jeanette

Other quizzes include: PLUC Weekend Workout – EarMaster; PLUC Weekend Workout – On-line Ear Trainer; PLUC Weekend Workout – Speak Ukulele Challenge!; PLUC Weekend Workout – memrise on-line courses; PLUC Weekend Workout – Theta Music Trainer;  PLUC Weekend Workout – Flashcard Machine; PLUC Weekend Workout – Music Reading Knowledge; A Question Of Uke – TV & Movie Themes; PLUC Weekend Workout – Fretboard Master Game; PLUC Weekend Workout – Guitarator Chord Quiz; PLUC Weekend Workout – Vocal Match Game

 

PLUC Weekend Workout

Here’s a quick quiz to test your music reading knowledge from the Music Tech Teacher.

There are a number of potentially useful quizzes here,ranging from identifying intervals, chord structures & rhythm patterns. We’ll move onto more advanced ear training sites at a later date.

Other music theory postings: Learn Uke Notes Without Fretting; PLUCking Ukes – Striking A Chord; Very, Very, Very Basic Understanding of Music for Absolute Beginners; PLUC Weekend Workout – Howard Goodall’s Story Of Music

Other quizzes include: A Question of Uke – TV & Movie Themes; PLUC Weekend Workout – Flashcard Machine Ukulele Chords; PLUC Weekend Workout – Theta Music Trainer; PLUC Weekend Workout – memrise on-line courses; PLUC Weekend Workout – Speak Ukulele Challenge!; PLUC Weekend Workout – On-line Ear Trainer; PLUC Weekend Workout – EarMaster Reference Songs For Intervals; PLUC Weekend Workout – Fretboard Master Game; PLUC Weekend Workout – Guitarator Chord Quiz; PLUC Weekend Workout – Vocal Match Game