Crosscurrent - CAAM's Jake Shimabukuro Contest Finalist: Dominic Pieranunzio

Dominic Pieranunzio
Roseville, CA

Dominic fell in love with the ukulele on a trip to Hawaii in 1997. It was also when he first heard Jake's music. Dominic is self-taught and played lead guitar (aka Dominator) for most of his life.

http://caamedia.org/blog/contest/2012...

Why do you want to play for Jake Shimabukuro?
Jake and his music have had such a positive impact on my life. It's been a dream of mine to share the stage with Jake ever since I saw him perform "live" for the first time at Borders in Sacramento. At Borders I presented him with a copy of the tab I had just prepared from the video of While My Guitar Gently Weeps (the video in Central Park that he has become so famous for). Being able to spend some time with Jake and play music for him means so much to me.

Tell us something unique about yourself!
After coming back from Hawaii with my Pure Heart CDs in hand I started trying to find tablature for his music. A Google search for ukulele tablature for Jake's music produced no results. In fact, at that time there was absolutely no ukulele tablature available on the Internet. That's when I decided I was going to have to learn to play his songs myself. Over the next few years I kept practicing and started attempting to learn Jake's music as well as other ukulele music I had become exposed to. I wanted to keep a record of my work and so I decided to create tabs to have as a reference. As I began creating the ukulele tabs I became more aware of other ukulele players that were eager to learn and anxious for tabs. That's when I decided to create a free website called "Dominator Ukulele Tabs". Over these last ten years I've had the opportunity to communicate with and meet many people from all over the world who share the "Aloha Spirit" of this precious little instrument we call the ukulele. Without Jake's inspiration, none of this would have been possible!

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  Film & Animation

[CAAMCHANNEL]

Hey, folks! We have another Jake Shimabukuro contest going on this year. For more details about the contest, please check out CAAMedia.org

[CAAMCHANNEL]

It's official. Dominic has been chosen by Jake to play on-stage with him LIVE at the Castro Theater in San Francisco on March 14th. Congratulations to Dominic!!! Please join us on the 14th.

[Dominatoruke]

Thanks to everyone who took the time to view the video and cast your vote. I'm humbled and overwhelmed by all the heartfelt comments and your enormous show of support. I've been dreaming of this for a long, long time and because of you it will now become a reality.

I want to thank CAAM again for putting this all together because without your vision to have such an event I would have to be content with just keeping my dream alive. Now I can actually realize it. Thank you so much.

[ashesoneeight]

Jake in disguise

[Mark K]

That's a fine looking uke. What wood went into making this little baby?

[rbrbrbb8018]

His left hand is dancing!

[WWEEZZYY]

Damn! Awesome performance there.



[Atippong2012]

I also learn from dominator's tab and could say that his tab for jake's song is almost perfect.

He is awesome.

[Keithava]

Nice performance. I like it but your not Asian, lol. And I love your Ukulele. Congrads

[soccerbros123]

Congrats man....Although I didn't win I still want to congratulate you for winning and wish you luck on your performance with jake on the 14th. :) Good job and see you on Wednesday!