Jul/24/13

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6 Great Books by Ukulele Playing Authors

Whether you’re spending your summer lounging on the beach or – like me – curled up in a darkened room praying for it to end, you’ll need a good book to read. If you’re looking for suggestions here are six great books by ukulele players. Some are ukulele related, some music related, some just excellent reads.

If you’re looking to improve your ukeing rather than your mind this summer I can highly (and self-interestedly) recommend Ukulele for Dummies and – for more advanced players – Ukulele Exercises for Dummies.

If you can recommend any other ukulelist authors or any good reads leave a comment.

Jim Tranquada and John King – The ‘Ukulele: A History

You can read my review of this book here. But the tl;dr version is: “It’s the best ukulele I’ve read. Buy it if you care at all about the history of the instrument.”

If you’ve heeded my previous calls to read this book you’ve got two follow ups:

– Another posthumous book co-written by John King this time with Tom Walsh: The Martin Ukulele: The Little Instrument That Helped Create a Guitar Giant. It’s only just come out and supply is limited. Amazon recently let me know I could expect mine sometime around the end of October.

– If you’re looking to fill in on wider Hawaiian history Sarah “off of This American Life” Vowell’s Unfamiliar Fishes. It’s informative, humorous and occasionally snarky. And it finishes up with a thought provoking comparison of IZ’s take on Over the Rainbow with his Hawai’i ’78.

On Amazon UK
On Amazon US

Charlie Connelly – Our Man in Hibernia: Ireland, the Irish and Me

As well as being a ukulelist and a top bloke Charlie Connelly is one of my favourite authors. If you’re into Bill Bryson’s understated humour and sharp observations you have to check out his books. They’re all great but the account of the move to his ancestral homeland of Ireland Our Man in Hibernia is my fave.

If you’re more into audiobooks then Charlie’s are a no brainer. Most of his books have been adapted for BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week and Attention All Shipping was voted second best audiobook of all time after Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

On Amazon UK
On Amazon US

Jem Roberts – The True History of the Blackadder

Speaking of Hitchhikers, ukulelist, Cilla coverer and historian of British comedy Jem Roberts is currently writing a guide to the Hitchhiker galaxy. While he’s working on that you should check out his guides to I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue and Blackadder. Just in time for you to get the Prince George references on Twitter.

On Amazon UK
On Amazon US

Sylvie Simmons – I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen

Sylvie Simmons has been one of the top music journalists since the seventies. She’s interviewed the most important musicians of the last 40 years for all the rock magazines that matter.

Her latest book is a biography of Leonard Cohen. She’s been promoting it with performances of Leonard Cohen songs on her uke. Thus becoming the first person in history to do a ukulele cover of Cohen song that isn’t Hallelujah.

On Amazon UK
On Amazon US

Mark Wallington – The Uke of Wallington

After his blues band couldn’t get a gig Mark Wallington took refuge in the one place where musical ability is never a bar to performance: ukulele open mics. The Uke of Wallington tells of his trip around the country playing his uke at every open mic he could find.

This one was also a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. They clearly hold ukulelists in high regard.

On Amazon UK
On Amazon US

Vincent Cortese – Roy Smeck

Official Wizard of the Strings Roy Smeck was a master of the ukulele and an unsung hero of music. Vincent Cortese sets the record straight with a biography of the great man. Cortese was a student of Smeck so he can offer personal reminiscences as well as a thorough history.

On Amazon UK
On Amazon US

Have I missed someone out? Let me know in the comments.

Jul/23/13

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Skinny Lister – Colours (Chords)

I’m slightly dismayed I managed to miss this when it was released last year. Perhaps I had to wait for the hot weather before I could take the song in. But I’m very glad I did. You should certainly check out their music if you’re digging their modern-day Dexy’s Midnight Runners/Mumfords without rods jammed up their arses thing.

Colours is a lot of fun to play and a very good piece for beginners to play.

Suggested Strumming

The actual strumming pattern on the ukulele is dead simple. It’s just all downstrums:

d – d – d – d –

Colours Strum 1

If you’re playing it by yourself you might want to try something a little more involved. I like this for most of the song:

d – d – d u d u

Colours Strum 2

And if you’re feeling brave a bit of semiquaver strumming for the big buildup at the end.

d – d u d – d u d – d u d – d u

Colours Strum 3

Twiddly Bits

The guitar solo in the song (similar to the intro and played through the song) works well on the uke if you move it up an octave.

Here’s how that uke version sounds.

Colours Solo

Links

Buy the MP3
SkinnyLister.com
Play a song called Colors without the u.

Jul/13/13

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Skinny Lister, Janelle Monae: UkeTube

Full Playlist

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Jul/12/13

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Friday Links

Pierre Borghi was kidnapped by the Taliban. He kept himself sane with thoughts of ukuleles.

Leftover Cuties are Kickstarting. Many uke rewards for grabs.

Custom designed pocket ukulele.

DeAnne Smith song marred by cat interference.

Ukkulele.

Jul/11/13

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The xx – Intro (Tab)

The xx – Intro (Harp Ukulele Tab)

The xx were the highlight of my sofa-Glastonbury this year. It might have been Arctic Monkeys if it weren’t for that weird gameshow host thing and the cheesy, Oasis-style string arrangements. For a better example of arranging for pop bands have a listen to Alex Baranowski’s work with The xx.

Anyway, their performance inspired me to have a go at this instrumental piece. I first tried it on standard uke but it didn’t work out. I moved on to low-G with was better. Then I went insane and decided to drag my aNueNue harp ukulele out of deep storage.

Harp Ukulele

The harp strings on the uke are supposed to be tuned C, D, E, F. But I retuned the bottom two to A. One to pluck and the other to give a bit of sympathetic resonance. The sympathetic resonance turned out quite well. You can particularly hear the reverb-like effect at the beginning.

Important: The letters above the tab represent the bass note being played in that bar they’re not the chords.

Low-G

The strings tabbed are just tuned like a normal low-G. And it’s tabbed in the same key as the original. So if you’re playing a low-G you can just play this tab along with the record or a bass-playing friend.

Standard Tuning Version

To play it with a high-g ukulele you’ll need to move the whole thing up an octave. Here’s a tab for that. This time with the chord names above the tab.

The xx – Intro (gCEA Tab)

Links

But the MP3
Thexx.info
Crystalised Intro Tab
Here Comes the Sun on Harp Ukulele

Jul/10/13

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Three More Weird-Ass Scales

The last Three Weird Ass Scales proved popular so here are three more to introduce some new sounds to your playing.

A quick restatement of the disclaimer:

– The “weird ass”ness of the scales depends entirely on your perspective.
– The examples are a lame pastiche rather than an authentic example of use.

Double Harmonic Minor – Hungarian Scale

How it Sounds

Hungarian Scale

In C

C – D – Eb – F# – G – Ab – B – C

In General

1 – 2 – b3 – #4 – 5 – b6 – 7

How to Play It

An Example

Hungarian Scale Example

Japanese In Scale

How it Sounds

Japanese In Scale

You Might Recognise it From: Sakura, Sakura

In C

C – Db – F – G – Ab – C

In General

1 – b2 – 4 – 5 – b6

How to Play It

An Example

In Scale Example

Dominant Bebop Scale

How it Sounds

Dominant Bebop Scale

In C

C – D – E – F – G – A – Bb – B – C

In General

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – b7 – 7

How to Play It

An Example

Bebop Dominant Example

Jun/29/13

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UkeTube

Full Playlist

Read the rest of this entry »

Jun/28/13

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Friday Links

Pictures
– Iris Boudreau’s painted character ukuleles.
– Fishy machete.

Videos
– Ukulele live documentary
– George Formby’s uke meets Tiny Tim’s
– George Harrison plays the Ukulele at home (possibly)

New Releases
– Something Is Wrong With Me, Part 2 by Craig Robertson
– Demos from Sweet Soubrette
– Henry the Rabbit.
– Free EP from Jacob Borshard.

Kickstarting
– Sophie Madeleine: new album for 2013
– Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s Scottish trip

Campaigning against ukuleles in schools: “These taxpayer-supported schools are hell-bent on indoctrinating your innocent, unsuspecting children into the ways of the ukulele, an unholy instrument of Satan.” Couldn’t agree more.

Jun/27/13

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Eddie Vedder – Tuolumne (Tab)

Nype suggested I do a uke version of Eddie Vedder’s Tuolumne from the soundtrack of Into the Wild (and the precursor to Just Breathe). I was a bit trepedacious as a lot of guitar picking songs end up finger-crunchingly tricky on ukulele. But it actually works out very well. I didn’t even have to change the key.

Trickiest Bit

Moving down from the 10th fret at the end of bar 2 to the 3rd fret. If you have trouble with that you can take off that 10th fret and just play bar 2 like bar 3.

Picking Pattern

The right hand is doing a constant Travis-picking pattern. The thumb alternates between the g and C-strings, the index finger picks the E-string and the middle finger picks the A-string.

Here’s the pattern:

And here’s what it looks like slowed down:

The only variation is that I occasionally miss out the final i to buy some time for the chord change. And the slow-down bit at the end of bar 7.

Links

Buy the MP3
EddieVedder.com
More Vedder tabs and chords.

Jun/26/13

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Favourites of 2013 So Far

It’s about half way through 2013 so time to run through a few of my favourite things so far this year. I’m sure I’m forgetting something so leave your faves in the comments.