Here’s an update of my list of songs with beginner level chords. So no matter how few chords you know you can still bash out a few songs.

C, F and G

If you prefer, you can use G7 in the place of G or vice versa for any of these songs.

NeverShoutNever! – Your Biggest Fan/Did It Hurt?
Noah and the Whale – Five Years Time
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass
Paolo Nutini – High Hopes
SoKo – I Will Never Love You More
The Bobby McGee’s – A Dog At All Things
The Lancashire Hotpots – He’s Turned Emo
The Tiger Lillies – Start A Fire
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra/Kings of Leon – The Bucket

Plus Am, Dm and Em

Addams Family Theme Tune
Alton Ellis – Rock Steady
Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend to Dance With You
Darren Hanlon – All These Things
Electrelane – Cut and Run
Garfunkel and Oates – Me, You and Steve
Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over
GUGUG – California Sun
Israel Kamakawiwoíole/Jason Castro – Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Julien Dore – Cet Air-La
Kate Nash – Foundations
Kate Micucci/The Gooch – Mr Moon
Last Shadow Puppets – Standing Next to Me
LP – Into the Wild
The Lumineers – Ho Hey
Phosphorescent – Wolves
She & Him – Sentimental Heart

Plus D

Allo Darlin’ – Tallulah
Amanda Palmer – In My Mind
Antsy Pants/Bear Creek – Vampire
Belle and Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap
Daniel Johnston – Living Life
Gothic Archies – Shipwrecked
GUGUG/The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop
Keston Cobblers’ Club – You-Go
Phredd – Elmer’s Electric Tricycle
The Dubliners and The Pogues – The Irish Rover
The Pogues – Fiesta
The Little Ones – Tangerine Visions
Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London

Plus A and E7

Camera Obscura – Cock Up Your Beaver
Florence & the Machine – Kiss With A Fist (don’t panic, you can use E7 instead of E in this song)
Joan Jett – Bad Reputation
Kate Micucci & Ted (Scrubs) – Screw You
Paolo Nutini – Pencil Full of Lead
The Pogues – Streams of Whiskey

Plus Bb

Beirut – A Candle’s Fire
Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (You can use C instead of C5)
Ingrid Michaelson – Be OK
Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love
Mumford and Sons – The Cave
Nevershoutnever – First Dance
Neutral Milk Hotel – King of Carrot Flowers
Noah and the Whale – Jealous Kind of Love

More…

Mastered all those? Tackle more:

Easy ukulele songs
Beginner ukulele lessons

The guy playing ukulele in this clip is Benny Wenda. He’s also a leader of the movement to free West Papua from Indonesia.

He’s been living in the UK since 2003 when he was granted asylum after escaping arrest and torture in Indonesia. He now faces arrest and deportation after the issuing of an Interpol red notice.

On Radio 4′s Today program an Indonesian ambassador claims he’ll get a fair trial. Which doesn’t seem likely judging by Amnesty International’s report on Indonesia. The Indonesian government accept that torture takes place and calls it, “unprofessional”.

I heard about Benny from Jimmy off of the Bobby McGee’s:

I met Benny on a bus in Brixton coming back from a gig about three years ago. He had two beautiful little girls on his knee and a ukulele tucked under his arm. I had mine on my lap, we nodded in some kind of uke brotherhood recognition and we started talking.

Benny told me that he was a tribal leader in exile from West Papua, that he had been forced to flee the country under increasing fear for his life from the Indonesian government.

He had been recording a CD of ukulele freedom songs, “everyone plays ukulele over there!” he told me. We had lovely chat, He seemed like a lovely guy and when we shook hands and said “bye” at Victoria, he gave me a leaflet about his “Free Western Papua” cause.

Six months later, totally unrelated, at a music festival on the south coast I met a young lady who came over and started talking to me about my ukuele. Her neighbour played and had shown her how to play. In the silly serendipitous way the world works it turns out her neighbour was Benny and we spoke about him and his daughters and his story, we’ve been friends ever since….

Today I heard on BBC Radio 4 that Indonesia were putting pressure on the British Government to have Benny extradited. According to the Indonesians he is a wanted criminal, an arsonist and murderer.

I don’t believe them.

I don’t know the ins and outs of his case and I certainly don’t know enough to pontificate on the situation in West Papua. But I do know it’s wrong to threaten to send a guy back to a police force that tortured him and continues to torture others.

You can find out more about Benny and Free West Papua on FreeWestPapua.org. And you can follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

I was in the process of updating the Songs with Chords You Know page and became curious about the most used chords on the site. Here are the results (click it for the full size image):

And here’s one showing all chords used four times or more. The first thing that struck me was that it’s a Pareto distribution (near enough) which means if you learn the first few chords you’re going to be able to play most of the songs.

I was curious, so here’s a chart for the chords for ukulele-tabs.com’s most popular songs. The results are similar but there’s a much clearer gap after the top four. So if you want to write a successful ukulele song use the chords C, G, Am, F.

Songs you can play after learning 6 chords

Just learn these six chords:

C, F, G, Am, Dm and Em

And you’ll be able to play these songs:

NeverShoutNever! – Your Biggest Fan/Did It Hurt?
Noah and the Whale – Five Years Time
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass
Paolo Nutini – High Hopes
SoKo – I Will Never Love You More
The Bobby McGee’s – A Dog At All Things
The Lancashire Hotpots – He’s Turned Emo
The Tiger Lillies – Start A Fire
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra/Kings of Leon – The Bucket
Addams Family Theme Tune
Alton Ellis – Rock Steady
Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend to Dance With You
Darren Hanlon – All These Things
Electrelane – Cut and Run
Garfunkel and Oates – Me, You and Steve
Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over
GUGUG – California Sun
Israel Kamakawiwoíole/Jason Castro – Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Julien Dore – Cet Air-La
Kate Nash – Foundations
Kate Micucci/The Gooch – Mr Moon
Last Shadow Puppets – Standing Next to Me
Phosphorescent – Wolves
She & Him – Sentimental Heart

If a song doesn’t use the most common chords

If you come across a song that’s all Eb and Bb and you haven’t mastered those chords yet, there is a way to make it easier: change the key.

To do that visit this site. Take your complicated chord chart. Copy and paste it into the box. Go to the ‘New Key (required)’ drop-down menu and select C. Click ‘Click Here’.

Whatever it spews out will sound right and will usually be easier to play (if not to sing).

Favourite Chord?

All of which raises this question: what’s your favourite chord?

I’m going with Caug (1003) or add in the 7 as well (1001). Leave yours in the comments.

UkeToob is shutting up shop.

youkulele.com (the Italian ukulele site headed up by Jontom) has been putting up tabs – a mix of free and paid for.

I was interviewed by Got A Ukulele…

Peter Luongo discuss 30 years of heading up the Langley Ukulele Ensemble.

Trying to convince Ben Lerman to sell DIY ukuleles.

Kickstarters: Manitoba Hal is raising for his album. Amanda Palmer and Kim Boekbinder are raising for their joint single (Thanks to @im_a_mia).

The Duke of Uke are holding a 5th Anniversary Extravaganza in London next weekend. The first two nights are headed up by The Wave Pictures and Darren Hayman. And Saturday is a ukulele packed bill including Uke Hunt favourites like The Bobby McGee’s, Nigel Burch and Salwa Azar.

The Pixies on Uker Tabs.

I’m sure 2010 will got down in ukulele history as the year of Hey, Soul Sister (don’t even think about it: released November 2009). But I’ll be remembering the year for the diversity, skill and invention on display from the ukers. And it’s heartening to see that, despite all the mainstreamification and talk of the uke being for big get-togethers, it is still an instrument played by weirdos.

The real purpose of the vote: to get people watching excellent musicians. So if there’s a video you think has been cruelly overlooked, be sure to give it a nomination because I’ll be watching anything I missed first time round.

For the first stage, everyone gets to nominate up to 5 videos – leave them in the comments. From those nominations, I’ll cobble together a list of ten (ish) that will be voted on next week. Use whatever criteria you like. I went with whichever videos/songs I enjoyed most.

The Rules

The rules remain as ramshackle as ever:

- There has to be a ukulele in there.
- Videos must have been originally uploaded in 2010.
- Videos must be publicly available online.
- Maximum of five nominations per person.
- Post your nominations in the comments.
- Nominations close midnight 7th February (Hawaii time).
- Ten acts with the most nominations go into the final vote with their most nominated song going forward.
- No prize. Just the love and admiration of the heaving masses.
- No sucking up by voting for me.

Don’t panic if your comments don’t show up right away. First time commenters and comments contains a few links can get held back for spam checking.

My Nominations

Serious problems narrowing it down to five this year. It kills me to leave out Manitoba Hal.

Little6ster – I Wish…
SoftSpot – Half a House
Jónsi and Nico Muhly – Go Do
Kaki King – Falling Day
Secret Home Party – Reciprocation

Videos You May Like

To jog your memory, here are some more videos that have caused a stir in the comments, on the net or in my pants:

Keston Cobblers Club – You Go
Brett Domino – Justin Timberlake Medley
Manitoba Hal – Poulet Shack
4DJB25 – Esmerelda
Savannah Smith – Ventriloquism
Sanfordandsong – Flim
Matt Griffo – One Love
Jim Boggia – Thunder Road
Ben Lerman – Ben Lerman Plays the Ukulele
Ukulollo – Knight Rider
U900 – Twist and Shout
Agathe and Fine – Rambling Man
The Ooks of Hazard – Kids
Lila Burns – Young Hearts, Young Minds
White Hinterland – No Logic
The Bobby McGee’s – Bang Bang Bang
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – Short People
Jake Shimabukuro – Bohemian Rhapsody
James Hill and Victoria Vox – Billie Jean
Yoyoyo Acapulco – Orange
Mike De Velta – Fuller’s Hill
Bella Hemming – Play Guitar
Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer – Songs for Acid Edward
Antarctica Takes It – C&F
Sophie Madeleine – The Rhythm You Started
Veronica Sbergia and Max di Bernardi – Take It Easy Greasy/Dirty Mother Fuyer

16 years in the making, the documentary of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain in Japan has arrived (half an hour long).

If you’re looking for some uke music on Boxing Day, Resonance are broadcasting four hours’ worth of performances from the Wukulele Festival including Sophie Madeleine, The Re-entrants, The Bobby McGee’s and an unmissable set from Bob Brozman. It starts at 8pm (GMT) and you can stream it on their website (or listen on 104.4FM if you’re in London). And take a listen to the Uke Hunt Christmas podcast if you haven’t yet.

The Melbourne Ukulele Festival has grown to encompass a whole week (25th of February till Tuesday the 1st of March, 2011) and a number of cities. The program includes The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, Bosco and Honey and Shelley O’Brien

Ken Middleton has a new ebook out, 12 Hymn Tunes for Ukulele, which you can buy on his website.

Google have invested $600,000 in Miso Media (who made the miSonata app with KoAloha).

Corktown Ukulele Jam mix up ukes and strings for the Hallelujah Chorus.

Holland Greco (who opened the first Uke Hunt podcast) has a uke cover of Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance on the Frank Zappa birthday album.

UPDATE: Must be the season for books. Lil Rev has just sent me info on his latest book 101 Ukulele Licks (PDF link).

Radio Ukulele.fr has a lovely selection of tunes (in the right-hand column). Highlights include Ohta San, Jesse Kalima and The Old Blind Mole Orkestra.

I confess, I’m completely addicted to the ShayTards. And now they have a ukulele theme tune.

Atomic bomb responsible for ukulele revival.

German take on the ukulele revival.

Nice to see an add that’s not using the uke for beachy associations but the noble tradition of lightly disguised filth.

The Pixies uke it up on the tour bus. (Thanks to Paul).

A solo session from Jimmy of the Bobby McGee’s (starts about 28 minutes) including the legendary 69 Ways To Make A Woman Come.

Part 2 of the video round-up (see Part 1 here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Banjoleles banned from the London Underground for being, “undesirable”.

Jimmy from the Bobby McGee’s proved the intellectual superiority of ukulele players when he appeared on the Weakest Link (watch it on iPlayer).

Abatab is an interesting new site where indie artists can sell tabs. It’s only been up a month so there’s not a great deal there yet. But you can buy stuff by Bess Rogers and pick up tab and an MP3 of Kelli Rae Powell’s Don’t Slow Down Zachary free.

Helen Arney leads a gathering of ukulele players at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Sophie Madeleine is raising money for her latest album. And you can get a snippet in the background of Spike Milligan’s home movie.

The Fake Ukulele Orchestra have put up their side of the story, “It has been said that we are advertising our orchestra by using their pictures and material. This is totally wrong and we refute this unequivocally.” But here is one of their dates being advertised as being the UOGB (hat-tip to minusuke on the Cosmos). On the upside, suspicions about the lead singer proved to be well founded.

787.89 – Ukuleles and the Dewey Decimal System.

For balance, Hot Boys with Ukuleles – much more challenging than the hot girls blog I’d wager.

Sam Fox on Beatles Complete on Ukulele.

Jimmy Fallon finds ukulele music annoying when you’re trying to get work done.

Simon Cowell has banned I’m Yours from X-Factor.

Ukuleles help kill the planet (via Bossa).

MP3: who the bloody hell are they? has Darren Hanlon’s All These Things.

Pictures: Sandy Low (from this page), bird ukuleles.

Just because you’re a newbie doesn’t mean you can’t rock the raging patootie out of a few songs. Here’s a list of songs with chords for all.

C, F and G

If you prefer, you can use G7 in the place of G or vice versa for any of these songs.

NeverShoutNever! – Your Biggest Fan/Did It Hurt?
Noah and the Whale – Five Years Time
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass
Paolo Nutini – High Hopes
SoKo – I Will Never Love You More
The Bobby McGee’s – A Dog At All Things
The Lancashire Hotpots – He’s Turned Emo
The Tiger Lillies – Start A Fire
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra/Kings of Leon – The Bucket

Plus Am, Dm and Em

Addams Family Theme Tune
Alton Ellis – Rock Steady
Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend to Dance With You
Darren Hanlon – All These Things
Electrelane – Cut and Run
Garfunkel and Oates – Me, You and Steve
Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over
GUGUG – California Sun
Israel Kamakawiwoíole/Jason Castro – Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Julien Dore – Cet Air-La
Kate Nash – Foundations
Kate Micucci/The Gooch – Mr Moon
Last Shadow Puppets – Standing Next to Me
LP – Into the Wild
The Lumineers – Ho Hey
Phosphorescent – Wolves
She & Him – Sentimental Heart

Plus D

Allo Darlin’ – Tallulah
Amanda Palmer – In My Mind
Antsy Pants/Bear Creek – Vampire
Belle and Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap
Daniel Johnston – Living Life
Gothic Archies – Shipwrecked
GUGUG/The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop
Keston Cobblers’ Club – You-Go
Phredd – Elmer’s Electric Tricycle
The Dubliners and The Pogues – The Irish Rover
The Pogues – Fiesta
The Little Ones – Tangerine Visions
Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London

Plus A and E7

Camera Obscura – Cock Up Your Beaver
Florence & the Machine – Kiss With A Fist (don’t panic, you can use E7 instead of E in this song)
Joan Jett – Bad Reputation
Kate Micucci & Ted (Scrubs) – Screw You
Paolo Nutini – Pencil Full of Lead
The Pogues – Streams of Whiskey

Plus Bb

Beirut – A Candle’s Fire
Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (You can use C instead of C5)
Ingrid Michaelson – Be OK
Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love
Mumford and Sons – The Cave
Nevershoutnever – First Dance
Neutral Milk Hotel – King of Carrot Flowers
Noah and the Whale – Jealous Kind of Love

More…

Mastered all those? Tackle more:

Easy ukulele songs
Beginner ukulele lessons