I avoided watching Ralph Shaw’s Essential Strums for Ukulele for a very long time. I knew I was going to be writing my own guide to strumming and I didn’t want to be unduly influenced by it. The problem was I had nothing to tell the people who asked me if it was any good. […]

She and Him – Gonna Get Along Without You Now (Ukulele Version) (Chords) It’s a shame there isn’t any uke on She & Him records. But at least Zooey Deschanel is busting out her K-Wave for live performances of this cover version. The live ukulele version of the song differs from the album version (and […]

Videos this week include the Wellingtons with Bret taking the lead on a Randy Newman song (subscribe to their new channel), a snippet Martina ‘used to sing with Tricky’ Topley-Bird and her ukulele playing Ninja (see him more clearly here) and Ukulollo being hilarious. But my faves this week are a couple of originals from […]

Musicguymic has a bunch of Fleas with tenor necks. The proportions on those are going to take a bit of getting used to. Does anyone know anything about Double Island ukuleles? Other than them seeming to be Australian, the web turned up blank. Betty Page with uke (second photo), America’s Beverage of Moderation.

This Facebook group is trying to get Tiny Tim inducted into the Ukulele Hall of Fame. I’m not quite sure of the Ukulele Hall of Fame’s status, they haven’t inducted anyone since 2007. Nevertheless, it provokes two interesting topics for discussion. Should Tiny Tim be in the Ukulele Hall of Fame? Who should be in […]

Rodrigo Y Gabriela – Tamacun (Tab) Tamacun is a rare treat. A guitar instrumental that transports to the ukulele directly with hardly any finangling. The melody is played almost exclusively on the top three strings above the fifth fret. And the chords are dead simple (Am – G – C – E until the solo). […]

This is a technique people have been asking me about since my Rockabilly Roustabout video although it’s a technique I use often. But if you want to see how it’s really done you have to check out James Hill. Strum blocking is a way of playing single notes with strums. You block off the strings […]

Alaska in Winter – Close Your Eyes, We Are Blind (Chords) It’s been far too long since I had some Zach Condon on the blog. And the tune he did with Alaska in Winter is packed with Beirutisms (the Bbadd9 chord, hammering on the g-string, 2nd fret in the F chord, switching the song half-way […]

I pilfered no less than three of this week’s videos from Jeff’s sites Humble Uker and Humble Baritonics. He’s been turning up some great videos recently so you should subscribe to both blogs. Hot on the heels of Billy Corgan is another 90s hero converting to uke: Trent Reznor. The uke crops up in the […]

I find Weissenborn ukuleles very appealing. But $3,000? Always wanted to have “Kelly Boy De Lima” scrawled across your fretboard? Other than that, a rad looking uke. Charity auction for ukulele signed by Ingrid Michaelson. Photos: Handsome young man smoking, Baltimore beach gang.