Many thanks for your many positive responses to last week’s email announcing the return of this newsletter. It was exactly what I needed to give me a powerful starting boost. Some of you told me a bit about yourselves and many more simply wrote, “Yaaay Ralph!!” Which...

The Ukulele Entertainer e-Newsletter is back. Everybody say, "Yaaaay Ralph" The story so far: I've spent my adult life making a living playing the ukulele, first as children's entertainer Ralph the Clown (back when clowns were more funny than scary) and from 1997...

In 1996 while walking through the Skytrain overpass in Vancouver's Waterfront Station I drew level with a street musician who said, "There was someone looking for you. He wants to give you his ukulele." Part 1 Yusuke Kawakami is a third generation luthier. That's...

I do enjoy British telly. In North America I had little time or inclination for TV watching but there’s something about being in England that has me interested in almost anything that comes on the box. Although, having said that, much British programming actually does...

Every now and then we make a big decision that involves big change. And although change is good it is also stressful. But for me that stress of change also brought with it an interesting way to dispel stage fright. Having lived as a British expat in Canada for more...

I came across a wonderful document online. It is purportedly a list of advice given by Theolonius Monk on how to play music and was written down by saxophonist Steve Lacy in 1960. It’s the condensed wisdom of Monk scribbled onto a spiral bound notepad. Makes you...

It's a surprising by-product of my musical life that as well as becoming an entertainer I also ended up teaching music. It's surprising because my father was a school teacher and, like many young people who resist following their parent's path, I set off on a...

I was once surprised to meet a ukulele player who told me he'd never learned a song all the way through. This state of affairs rendered him unable to perform in public, a condition he liked very much. But these days I find it equally strange to discover people who...

At a very young age I knew way more about penguins than most people ever know. While other boys were busy bashing conkers and trying to strangle each other with striped school neck ties I kept myself separated from the herd mentality by being South Yorkshire's premier...

There's a joke I often use in the middle of my busking act. After singing and cavorting with audience members I announce, "If you've just arrived and are wondering who I am and why I'm here: My name is Michael Bublé!" and then I add, "This is what I do on my days...

Ralph Shaw announces a summer 2017 cruise to Alaska featuring a daily ukulele class.

Rock music is a strange and unusual genre. Its sound derives from simple combinations of basic musical ideas that have remained popular for sixty years. So it's no surprise that modern creators of rock music have a hard time coming up with something that hasn't...

It's interesting that the fear of messing up a live stage performance is a lot like the fear of heights, in that it is the fear itself which causes the unwanted thing to happen. The good news is that, unlike falling off a cliff, a major performance error is not going...

I dreaded having to move. The fact is that I’ve never really done it. Not properly. My parents never moved (or “flitted” as we call it in my part of Yorkshire) and when I came to Canada with a suitcase, a banjo and a backpack I thought I was only coming for an...

My father in law, Bob, passed away last week at the age of ninety-six. It’s a ripe old age and you might say he had a good innings. Nevertheless I find it almost impossible to get used to living in a world in which Bob no longer exists. His long life has somehow made...

The subject of Capos had many of you clamping down on your keyboards to tell me what you think of them. Most feedback was in support of the lowly capo but several of you dislike them. I think all the reasons are valid ones depending on the circumstance. Here is your...

My dictionary defines capo (typically pronounced Kay-po in USA and Kah-poh or Kap-oh in UK and Europe) as A device for a guitar, lute, banjo, etc., that when clamped or screwed down across the strings at a given fret will raise each string a corresponding number of...

We practice to be the best we can be, and, although performance perfection is something we strive for, deep down we don't really expect to pull it off. Most of us know that by the end of the show we'll be able to look back with self-critical eyes and point to various...

There is a way of giving someone positive feedback that can be both beautiful and devastating. I remember clearly one such moment on Montreal's Saint Hubert Street. I was twenty-one years old and had been playing the five-string banjo for a year and a half. I thought...

As someone who writes books as well as entertains with music I am fascinated by how artists choose the medium in which they work. Why does one artist decide to communicate their experience in the world by carving a fifteen foot block of marble whereas another artist...