Music, Instruments, Chords, Lyrics, and other Cool Stuff

Ukulele Boogaloo -- Chords, lyrics, and its not-to-be-missed Ukulele World  with photos of ukes visiting the four corners of the world, the seven seas, the seven pillars of wisdom, the smokerings of your mind...but I digress.

Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project  Yes Virginia,  there was music before iPod -- even before vinyl.  And thanks to these folks at U.C. Santa Barbara, here are thousands of downloadable music files copied from early 1900s phonograph cylinders and digitized to MP3 and WAV format --jazz, ethnic, Hawiian, vaudeville, classical, pop. Find something old and really different to work up for your next gig--or to listen to on your iPod.This is just about the coolest site anywhere.

The Sterner Capo Museum  This is the perfect cheap date for these tough economic times. Did you know there have been more than 130 capo patents since 1850? You didn’t? Here is an online museum with amazing pictures of 232 capos of all designs.

The Mandolin Cafe  Mando news, chat boards for players and builders, and the best classified ads anywhere for buying and selling mandolins.

Mandolin Chords, Scales, Tabs Here’s a great site that aggregates links to mandolin chords charts, tablature, scales, etc. This link was sent to me by a music teacher who thought I should add it to my site -- and she definitely hit the nail square on the head! Check it out; you won’t be sorry.

Mandolin Chord Finder This link is included in the site I’ve posted just above, but I’m listing it separately here so you can go to it directly because it is especially cool. Also be sure to check out the tabs at the top of the site because it has lots of other neat stuff,  e.g., Guitar Chord Finder,   Guitar Scales,  etc.

The Mudcat Cafe A folk-based discussion forum, digital database of lyrics to more than 9,000 folk songs, links to festivals, performers, instrument forums, and much more.

Chordie.com Chords and lyrics for thousands of songs. And how cool is this?... you can select the key of each song along with chord diagrams in that key -- and then you can select the chord diagrams for your choice of of instrument-- guitar, mandolin, banjo, ukulele

Chord Voicings If you’re like me and, in defiance of a total lack of natural talent, you mess with alternate tunings and then hit the wall of  “now what do I do?” Here’s the answer. This interactive web tool can find multiple voicings of virtually any chord in any tuning for any stringed instrument. Some suggested chord forms may not lend themselves to human hands -- but then, how do we know everyone on the web is human?

Brad’s Page of Steel  Just about everything you ever wanted to know about lap-steel guitars.

Performers

Ukulele Noir   I can’’t describe them -- no one can. Click the link. If they come to town, be there.

Townes Van Zandt lyrics and chords-- Here are lyrics and chords to most of Van Zandt’s songs -- If you don’t know Townes, you probably know at least a couple of his songs thanks to Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and others. Maybe  “Pancho and Lefty” or “White Freight Liner” ring a bell. Also check out this site, which has no chords but has lyrics by album, many of which are edited and sanctified by his last wife, Jeanene.

Ok, so how about Bruce Springsteen lyrics and chords. I know you’ve heard of him.

Here’s a great site with lyrics and chords for a couple of hundred Carter Family songs. Most of the songs also include audio or video clips of the original recordings.Even if you don’t yet know that you’re a Carter Family fan, you know a lot of their songs because just everybody has done them over the years. A couple of my all-time favorites: “I’m Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes” (to the tune of “Great Speckeled Bird,” which also later became the tune of “Honky Tonk Angel”) and “You are my Flower,” a great song for those among you who inherited the the gene for singing two and three part harmony.

Building a Better World

GreenGigs Dailiy listings of jobs with a green twist. Telecommute -- save gas, reduce traffic, walk your dog, get to know your kids, and maybe even save the planet. Full disclosure -- this is our daughter Lori’s site -- she’s got three sons, a degree in geology, and a rain barrel under her drain pipe.

Friends of Rauscher Farm  -- Guess what -- the big guys don’t have to win; neither does city hall. Here’s how we -- meaning my wife Gloria and her band of leafleteers, sign carriers, letter writers, graphic designers, a volunteer printer, and other outspoken citizens saved 60 acres of open space from becoming little boxes made of ticky tacky.

Vietnam Veterans Against the War -- Who’d have thought, after all these years, there’d still be a war to be against.The men in black rain coats used to take our pictures at demonstrations outside Fort Devens. Now it’s these guys’ turn -- Iraq Veterans Against the War -- to roll the rock up the hill. Hang in brothers and sisters; it ain’t soldiers who make wars.

Snakeroot Organic Farm -- This is my friend Tom’s farm up in Maine. We had overlapping paper routes once (remembrer paper routes? ... rememember newspapers??), went to high school and some of college together. Now he’s a farmer. Go figure. I guess he didn’t want to build ukuleles like everyone else.

Instrument Building Supplies and Information

Frank Ford’s Frets.com  There’s lots of good stuff here for players.  I especially recommend the .Items for Luthiers section for anyone who builds, repairs, or is ready to taking a crack at it.

Rescue Pearl seller of mother of pearl, abalone, shell blanks and strips, and reconstituted stone inlay material. Here’s what I did with some of their abalone and pearl.

Blue Mountain Acoustics  seller of guitar and ukulele hardwoods and inlay materials. I bought the wood for these ukes from Blue Mountain.

String Tension / Fret Position / Bridge Compensation Calculator  This downloadable tool calculates neck tension based on neck length, string gauge, and tuning -- but wait there’s more -- it also calculates fret positions for any scale length (saddle to nut) you enter. And for the truly obsessive it can calculate saddle compensation.

More links coming soon. Come back ... bring a friend,