Jingle Bells is one of the most popular secular Christmas songs in the world. You will learn the chords to the song and also to play the melody in this ukulele lesson!

I will show you how to play the song by using ukulele tablature. Tablature is a music notational system that shows you where to put your fingers on your ukulele in order to play melodies and chords.

The most common type of tablature notation or tabs uses lines that represent the strings and numbers on the lines to show which frets to press down.

I will use another type of tab notation that I call number tabs.

Why number tabs?

1. Number tabs work better on article sites and will not be distorted if the fonts are changed.

2. Number tabs makes the information accessible to visually impaired readers using braille.

I will not use lines to represent the strings but instead use numbers for both strings and frets this way:

fret/string

This means that the first number will tell you which fret to press down and the number after the slash which string to use. 3/1 for example means: Press down the third fret on the first string!

0/1 means, play the first string without pressing down a fret! This is called to play an open string.

The first string is the bottom string when you play the uke the ordinary way.

Here are the first chord, C-major, that we will use in this song:

C: 0/4 0/3 0/2 3/1

In this chord you can see that the only string to press down is the first string but you will play all four strings together.

When you play this chord you should strum the strings from the fourth down to the first string with your right hand thumb or your index finger or in some other way.

Now we can sing the first line of the song. I have put the chord in brackets before the syllable where you are to start playing it. You can strum the chord in an even pace according to your taste:

(C)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way

In order to sing the next line and play the chords you will need the chord F-major:

F: 2/4 0/3 1/2 0/1

And here is the next line:

(F)Oh! what fun it (C)is to ride

For the next line we need the chord D7 and G7:

D7: 2/4 0/3 2/2 0/1

G7: 0/4 2/3 1/2 2/1

Here is the next line to play:

In a (D7)one-horse open (G7)sleigh

Then you have to sing the lyrics once more with slightly different chords:

(C)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
(F)Oh! what fun it (C)is to ride
In a (G7)one-horse open (C)sleigh

Here you have the same song with the melody written with ukulele tabs:

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way

0/2 0/2 0/2 0/2 0/2 0/2 0/2 3/2 0/3 2/3 0/2

Oh! what fun it is to ride

1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 0/2 0/2

In a one-horse open sleigh

0/2 0/2 0/2 2/3 2/3 0/2 2/3 3/2

Then you have to play the melody once more and change the last line to:

In a one-horse open sleigh

0/2 0/2 3/2 3/2 1/2 2/3 0/3

I suggest that you play the notes in the melody that are on the first fret with you index finger, the notes on the second fret with your middle finger and the notes on the third fret with your ring finger.

About the Author: Peter Edvinsson invites you to download your free sheet music and ukulele tabs at http://www.capotastomusic.com
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

Kpop music or Korean popular music is music that comes from Korea, also famous in other parts of Asia such as Japan, China, Taiwan, Honk Kong and some South Eastern Asian countries. The rise of Kpop music is considered part of the rise of the Korean Wave (“Hallyu”). Korean music was challenged in 1992 when a Korean popular music group called Seo Taiji and Boys mixed traditional Korean music with American rap, rock and techno influences.

Their success, followed by other experimental groups (line panic) is what contributed to the present day’s popularity of Kpop. Korean popular music scene met afterwards the influence of dance-oriented acts such as the famous hip-hop duo Deux, followed by teen idol groups such as Baby V.O.X., Fin.K.L., g.o.d, H.O.T., Shinhwa, Sechs Kies, and S.E.S who were highly popular in the mid 90s.

Today, pop groups are still fashionable, despite the current emergence of R&B and hip-hop in Korean music. MC MONG, 1TYM, Rain, Big Bang and Epik High are some of the bands that have made hip-hop popular, together with other underground artists such as Drunken Tiger, Tasha and Dynamic Duo. Rock music has also gained recognition lately, represented by artists such as Yoon Do-Hyun Band and Seo Taiji. For techno/dance Korean music lovers, Lee Jung Hyun and Kim Hyun Jung, two of the veteran artists in the industry, are the favorites. Kpop music has become famous worldwide, thanks to artists such as BoA, who has become Korea’s highest-selling international artist.

Apart from BoA, other artists as well have contributed to the popularity of Korean music outside their country’s borders. Rain and Se7en are some of the artists who sold their albums in other countries from eastern Asia. However, the greatest challenge for Korean artists (in fact, for all Asian artists) is to enter the profitable English-language music market.

As English has become an international language, the only way for a singer to achieve international recognition is to sing in English, so that everyone should be able to understand the lyrics. Korean singers are aware of that and a few of them (Rain, Se7en, Skull, a reggae artist and Min form JYP Entertainment) are planning to make a debut on the USA music market soon. Once they have managed to conquer the American listeners, the door to worldwide fame will stay open for them.

R&B, hip-hop and dance are the popular music styles today in Kpop music, which one can compare, from this point of view, with English pop music. Boy bands, girl groups, pop singers and R&B stars, currently dominate the Korean music scene. Ballads are also very popular. Some people argue that more diversity is necessary in Kpop music, but perhaps the rock industry will also develop in the future and everyone will be satisfied. The future looks bright for Korean singers and it is probably just a matter of time until they will conquer the US charts and the rest of the world. Kpop is gaining more and more fans every day and Korean artists are gaining popularity in US and Europe.

About the Author: If chances for Korean music stars to become popular outside their country were rather low in the past, things are just about to change. Many Korean artists are preparing their US debut and, apparently, it is only a matter of time until Americans will turn charmed to listen to Korean tunes. The future is promising for Kpop music, as Korean singers are getting close to international recognition.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

Houston, Texas is home to one of the most prominent and independent hip-hop scenes in the world, largely influencing both gangsta rap and the larger southern hip-hop community.

The man credited with being the central figurehead for the uprising of hip-hop is the late DJ Screw (real name Robert Earl Davis Jr). Screw was the creator and pioneer of a new style of hip-hop, which was christened “screwing” after its creator. This method involves the key tracks of a cut being slowed down when remixed. DJ Screw began making mixtapes of the slowed-down music in the early 1990s. Originally, this process involved mixing two copies of the same record, slowed down either on the turntables using pitch shift or later through use of an after-mixer device. Phasing, flanging and echo effects were originally the result of the two records being played at millisecond intervals.

Many Houston area artists, such as Big Love, Willie D and Ganksta NIP began to incorporate the slowed tempo into rap songs. Willie D’s song “Die”, from the album ‘I’m Goin Out Lika Soldier’, featured a slowed-down sample of the line “all I have is my balls and my word” from the movie ‘Scarface’, well before “screwing” gained more mainstream acceptance.

The genre was associated with both the use of marijuana and the consumption of “syrup”, a cocktail of cough syrup, mixed with the prescription drugs codeine and promethazine (DJ Screw’s death in November 2000 was attributed to either an overdose of codeine, or a gradual build-up of codeine in his body’s system as a result of years spent abusing the drug). This has been credited as influencing the genre’s psychedelic style.

DJ Screw made a significant number of mixtapes (purported to be in the thousands), usually with a theme. This provided a significant outlet for MCs in the South-Houston area, and helped local rappers such as ESG, Lil’ Flip and Z-Ro gain regional and sometimes national prominence, and it is likely that hotels in Houston would have played host to several record labels’ talent spotters eager to check out the genre for themselves.

Early tapes were often “screwed” versions of instrumentals over which rappers would later freestyle, but later tapes were mostly vocal tracks with occasional toasting or freestyle intermissions, and by the time of Screw’s death, the genre had become widely known throughout the southern United States.

Currently, the style is best exemplified in the music of Swishahouse DJ Michael 5000 Watts and Chamilitary DJ OG Ron C. Their work has helped establish current rappers Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, Slim Thug – all of whom achieved massive mainstream success and placed Houston firmly back on the hip-hop map, as well as rap groups such as The Colour Changin’ Click and The Screwed Up Click. More major recording labels have embraced the genre, and chopped and screwed albums occasionally outsell the unmixed version.

About the Author: Andrew Regan is an online, freelance author from Scotland. He is a keen rugby player and enjoys travelling.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com