Mal Blum – Ode to Kulele

Mal Blum – Ode to Kulele (Chords)(PDF)

If they really loved the ukulele, they wouldn’t write songs in the key of E.

But I’ll forgive them that because this is a super-cute song with a hilarious video (by Ballard C Boyd who is due a new ukulele Christmas album pretty soon).

To combat the E problem, I’ve shifted everything up fret. So if you want to play it in the original key, tune down half a step.

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15 Comments

  1. Cardboardfrog December 4th, 2008 10:07 pm

    the video is apparently unavailable!? madness!

  2. Woodshed December 4th, 2008 10:13 pm

    cbf: Good job there were two versions uploaded. Should work now. Thanks for letting me know.

  3. Ukulelezo December 4th, 2008 10:30 pm

    Aw, so sweet.

  4. Marcy December 5th, 2008 6:03 am

    Cute song and video.

    As for the E problem, my first line of defense is to play an E7. You’d be surprised how often that works.

  5. Marcy December 5th, 2008 6:09 am

    OK, I just clicked on your pdf file. Hmph. You put it in F. I hate B flat! I’ve tried every contortion of my fingers that I can come up with, and even though I can play a B flat, there’s always an awkward pause before the chord. Yeah, sounds real professional. :-)

  6. Cardboardfrog December 5th, 2008 10:49 am

    marcy! blashemy! B flat is where its at, all the cool kids sing best in said key….or maybe thats just me.
    real cute song and it works just great in F

  7. Benedict December 5th, 2008 11:51 am

    How are you playing the Bflat marcy? – I used to struggle with it when I plaed the A and E strings with my index finger pressing just those two. It’s much easier for me to bar across the whole first fret with the index and play the D and A# with second and third fingers.

    This also seems to make it easier to slide as a major movable shape.

    How do other people finger this shape?

  8. Marcy December 5th, 2008 8:03 pm

    Damn! I never thought of barring the whole fret. It works! It seems less awkward than the regular way.

    Sometimes I just put fingers on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings (like the E minor shape), and then I’ll mute the 1st string with my pinky, but it’s just as slow as the regular way. Sometimes if I skip an up strum, that’ll buy me a few seconds to get my fingers in position.

    Usually, though, I just transpose.

  9. Ukulele Bartt December 5th, 2008 11:01 pm

    That song by Mal Blum is priceless! Thanks !!

  10. Woodshed December 7th, 2008 10:44 am

    Zoe: Particularly the flour fight.

    Benedict: Thanks for that. Personally, I prefer to just cover the E and A strings, depends on what chords I’m changing from and to.

    Marcy: Glad you’ve found a way that works for you.

    cbf: You’re the coolest kid, so you’d know.

    Bartt: It’s literally priceless to me. iTunes won’t sell it to me in the UK :(

  11. mrvideoo February 21st, 2009 3:47 am

    really love the video on youtube

  12. Emily February 25th, 2009 3:51 am

    She looks like Andy Milonakis.

    That’s mean, isn’t it?

  13. Kate April 9th, 2010 1:02 am

    Love this song, but I can’t figure out the strumming. Help?

  14. Sarah Princess O'Power April 22nd, 2014 2:29 am

    Yay – I am super stoked to discover this – thank you! I love this song and the video is also adorable!! A new favorite for sure. And I appreciate the discussion about Bb. I’m still struggling with it. Maybe my action is a little high. Anywhy, I shall forge on because this song is worth it and so is my ukulele! Thanks again.

  15. Woodshed April 22nd, 2014 10:47 am

    Sarah Princess O’Power: Glad you like it!

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