Ukulele Virtuoso...Peter Moon

Till today, one of the most prolific ukulele performers to ever come on to the ukulele music scene, is Peter Moon. Peter, whose ancestral background consists of Korean and Chinese descent...was born in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Playing with the legendary Gabby Pahinui(slack key guitarist numero uno) in the 1960’s, to becoming the founding member of the group called The Sunday Manoa with members Robert and Roland Cazimero, released their first album called Guava Jam, which featured one of their most iconic songs called “Kawika”. Of the stringed instruments that Peter has mastered are the ukulele, tiple and slack-key guitar. His lighting fast fingers becomes an ever lasting trademark for him. In 1979, the ukulele sensation formed his newest band called The Peter Moon Band, releasing the album Tropical Storm which produced 4 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards(award which is considered to be Hawaii’s equivalent to the Grammy Awards) In 1983, the band released their second album Cane Fire which garnered them 6 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. In the 1980’s, Moon released a third album called Black Orchid, which won a Na Hoku Hanohano award for album of the year...In the 1990’s, Moon made his first ukulele instructional video called “The Magic of the Ukulele”. A video of the song...Kawika below...

The ukulele duo...

 Here in Hawaii, we are very lucky to have so many ukulele virtuosos and groups that feature the ukulele as an instrument that can really compete with other instruments, especially it’s close cousin...the guitar. I’d like to mention that back in early 1990’s there was a duo named Kaau Crater Boys consisting of members Earnie Cruz Jr. and Troy Fernandez, which was formed, that wrote and sang this song called “You Don’t Write”, released in 2003, which to me was one of the best local driving like beat music at that time, that got my feet to start tapping and then my hands started drumming on an old coffee table that I remember from when I was a little kid...I love listening to that song (cranked up the volume of course) on the radio, whether it was at home or on the car cruising to my favorite spot called “point panic” on the south side of the island to go bodysurfing. I liked it so much that I figured how to play that song by ear, really loved the picking part of that great ukulele piece...a video of them below.

My ukulele video

 There are 3 things that I like in this music world: One, that I can just turn on the radio to listen to practically whatever type of music there is out there, two, that I can turn on the tv and depended on what channel I turn it to, I can watch music on the tube, whether it be a solo artist or groups performing on stage or live performances. Three, before this COVID-19 thing happening now, I was able to see music being performed live on stage by various artist and groups which in my opinion is the best way to analyze how great there performance really is in the raw...no studio settings to make a song sound greater than it actually is...love, love, love it...

This my ukulele cover of the song: Raindrops keep falling on my head...

Not a ukulele star...but trying...

 There was an old ukulele that was kinda stashed in a closet that was in an apartment with my parents and an older brother that I grew up in this town called Kalihi. I think someone helped me get out that ukulele...I must've been like 10 or 11 years old when I first held that ukulele which was standard in size. This particular ukulele, if I remember correctly, had no name on it (I think) and it had the regular nylon strings on it...I didn't care what shape it was in...but boy oh boy was I so happy that there was at least, an ukulele that I could try to figure out how to play it. The first thing was to tune my newfound friend, which I had no idea whatsoever...but I tell you from that day forward, that that song called Sushi stuck in my mind. (I mentioned about that song on my previous post before this)

In the beginning...the ukulele

 I always liked listening to music but one day, my older brother Earl put on this one album on my parents old stereo system...the type of stereo that folds up the two speakers, one on each side of the turntable...and I couldn't believe my ears what I was listening to. It was a guy called Ohta san and he played the ukulele so beautiful that it made me wanna keep listening to the songs over and over again...I particularly liked one ukulele arrangement called Sushi...That one song made me want to play the ukulele...this is the video of the song below...

Ukulele solo instrument

I know there are a lot of people out there that love to listen to the ukulele as a solo playing instrument...and there are a lot of people that like to listen to the instrument being played in a group or band setting...I myself like both variations. The ukulele...even though just a four string instrument...has been versatile to many genres of music throughout the years like pop, jazz, contemporary, reggae and blues just to name a few...the ukulele is such an extraordinary instrument!

First ukulele blog post

 This is my very first post for my blog and I hope that you will follow me through this journey and give me some feedback as to what kind of information that you would like to see here...like maybe the type of ukulele that’s affordable to play, ukulele songs, ukulele videos, ukulele musicians...