Archive for April, 2018

UkeTube: Chance the Rapper, Kuinka, Scott Matthew

Full Playlist Tracklist Chance The Rapper X Einer Bankz – Grown Ass Kid Kuinka – Mistakenly Brave Taimane – Fire Scott Matthew – End of Days Manitoba Hal – Way Down in the Hole Zoë Bestel – Grey Skies Camsuke – Campanella Waltz Krista Muir – Morther of Crowys Eliel Carvalho – Sampa

Friday Links: RIP Ukulele Ray

Very sad news this week that Ukulele Ray has died. He was a long-time champion of the ukulele, a fixture in the community and the pioneer of lunchbox ukuleles. Two exceptionally good records out this week: Zoë Bestel’s Transience and Ukulele Sketch Book from Craig Robertson. Highly recommend giving them both a listen. The eighth […]

Edith Piaf – La Vie En Rose (Tab)

La Vie en Rose (Tab) What a great song this is. I’ve already covered the chords and a tab of the tune is way overdue. There’s loads of room to add your own spin onto this song. You can play around with dynamics and pacing, change the phrasing, throw in chord extensions or add in […]

Indie Rock Riffs: Franz Ferdinand, Vampire Weekend, Hinds, Parquet Courts and More

I regularly post “7 second ukulele lessons” on Instagram. Here’s a roundup of some of the recent (and not so recent) indie songs I’ve covered. Housekeeping: The website is having some trouble handling comments at the moment. So if you submit a comment it might not work. Don’t know what I’m going to do about […]

Billy Bragg – Between the Wars (Chords)

Billy Bragg – Between the Wars (Chords) It was St George’s Day on Monday so I thought I’d do a song by the most English singer I can think of. And now Morriessey is persona non grata that’s Billy Bragg. His songs are a bit hit and miss for me. But when he hits the […]

UkeTube: I’m With Her, Uker-Rapper Collabs

Full Playlist Tracklist I’m With Her – See You Around Jay Hollywood x MARLOWE – Connected Einer Bankz & Salsalino – Long Run Aline Kelly – Estudo V Manitoba Hal – Hope Of A Brighter Day Victor and Penny – Wake Up Early Matthew Brian Kirkland – Loch Shiel Jonathan Lewis – Heart Shaped Box […]

Friday Links: Foxy Uker, Howlett Legacy

Paul and his Ukulele by Robert Broder is the tale of a young fox’s travels with his uke. Speaking of peripatetic ukers, the UOGB took time out of their US tour to play for an elementary school uke club. Window Shopping – The Southern Ukulele Store has some Pete Howlett Legacy Series ukes. The electric […]

U2 – One (Tab)

U2 – One (Tab) In One U2 make use of a simple melody trick that crops up in many popular songs. They take the highest note used in the verse (the E on the A-string, 7th fret) and use that as the first note of the chorus. It makes the song peak at the right […]

Why Use a Capo? And Tools for Transposing

I’ve written a bunch of posts about capos. But AJ pointed out that I’ve never done a post explaining why you might want to use a capo. So time to rectify that. To Make a Song Easier to Play Most of the time I use a capo is to make a song more uke-friendly. When […]

Luis Fonsi – Despacito (Tabs and Chords)

Luis Fonsi – Despacito (Chords) I’m about five billion views late to this one but with Fonsi’s latest includes a bit of ukulele and this track having a few tasty licks it’s still worth doing. Update: Well, I can now pretend I’m being hyper topical rather five billion views late. YouTube had to take down […]