Usually when I’m arranging for the uke I try to spread things across the strings, campanella style, so you’re not playing the same string many times in succession. But there are times when that doesn’t work out. It’s then I bust out the running man: You pick the string (the E-string in the case) alternately [...]

UPDATE: You can now buy the chords for this song (and other Bess Rogers songs) on Abatabs. Bess Rogers is obviously a bit hit with the sensitive girl types who are fans of her cohorts Ingrid Michaelson and April Smith. I’ve had a bunch of requests to write up one of her songs. Right now [...]

Favourite video this week is a short and sour song from Savannah Smith. There’s only 1 minute and 13 seconds of it so I highly recommend listening to it five times in a row. Credit goes to Bossa for turning me onto Savannah and helping me to convince her to do a video for this [...]

I’m a big enough man to admit this. I was wrong and Noel Edmonds was right. Last week I cosmically ordered a Koaloha Sceptre. This week my dealer of choice put up a Sceptre for the first time. I shall never doubt the Edmonds again. He is my new Jesus. Summer NAMM 2010 was last [...]

Bobbins. Frank Sidebottom died this week. You know he did. He really did. I pity the fool that doesn’t know how to play Kashmir on ukulele. Or what power chords are. Very interesting interview with a ukulele collector on Collectors Weekly. Frank Skinner does a Formby-esque tribute to the vuvuzela. Kina Grannis’s ukulele has been [...]

If you hadn’t noticed, I made it back from Download safe and sound and only briefly jaloped. AC/DC were, as always, highly entertaining and completely ridiculous. The biggest disappointment was Them Crooked Vultures who only had two decent and made up for it with some interminable noodling. The band I enjoyed most, and I wasn’t [...]

The fake strum is a simple technique that I use a lot in my arrangements. So it’s about time I gave it a post of its own. It’s used in fingerpicking pieces to play full chords. It sounds like a strum but it’s just done by picking individual strings in sequence. Here it is played [...]

Rocky and Balls – Love Cake (Chords) You might remember a few weeks months ago I wrote a post about Sophie Madeleine looking for people to perform You Are My Favourite for her next video. The video is finished and you can watch it and grin here. You can also buy it together with bonus [...]

A rare occurrence this week: three videos from the same person. You may as well just visit Lila Burns’s channel this week rather than reading the post because I’ve also nicked two of the videos from her favourites. One of them is Ólöf Arnalds for whom I’m stretching the rules (she plays charango). When you [...]

Unusually, it’s a rather unshowy and understated ukulele that’s got me interested. A Ken Timms Martin Style 0 copy. Looks great and sounds lovely too. On the more showy side is a Black Bear Lyon & Healy 5K Shrine copy. A couple of bobby-dazzler banjo ukuleles on eBay UK: Crown Ludwig, Gibson UB-2.