Tracklist
Gilberto Gil & Eliel Carvalho – Parabolicamara?
U Can Uke & Vinícius Vivas – The Reason
tenspd – G O N E
SeattleUke – Airmail Special
Thomas Zwijsen – You Give Love A Bad Name
EmiSunshine – Hibiscus
Bob Guz – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Aline Kelly – Killing Me Softly
Jonathan Lewis – Tourdion
– Lost tapes of a young Joni Mitchell playing ukulele found.
– Eddie Vedder played a song for Jimmy Carter on a ukulele made of wood from Carter’s estate. Close-ups of the uke on luthier Beau Hannam’s Facebook.
– Jake Shimabukuro discusses how he’s been handling the hellscape of 2020.
– Magpie joins the THUG’s Ukulele Group for some C scale practice.
Window Shopping
– Island Electric Baritone.
– KoAloha 25 Anniversary Silver ukes.
– 1930s Regal Tiple.
– 1959 Casper the Friendly Ghost ukulele.
– Kanile’a ISL-S Premium.
Patreon
A massive thanks to Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers. And double thanks go to September’s Tenor backers:
– Dan.
– Fiona Keane.
– Joseph Freeman.
– Katherine Penney.
– Kie77.
– Mr Daniel Barclay.
– Nick Parsons
– Olga deSanctis.
– Pat Weikle.
– Pauline LeBlanc.
– Sandi Clement.
– Trevor Mccravy.
September’s Patreon exclusive for Concert and Tenor level backers is Robert Johnson’s Love in Vain.
The Beach Boys – God Only Knows (Tab)
There’s so much going on in this song: the complex chords, subtle key changes, that weird thing at the start of the bridge. If you want a breakdown of the theory, I recommend 8 Bit Music Theory’s discussion of the song. But I do want to call out the slick move from the bridge into the third verse. The bridge ends with the “God only knows…” bit from the verse transposed up 2 and a half steps (bars 33-35) then slips seamlessly back into the verse in the original key.
The toughest bit to play is the outro. The original has three different vocal lines going at once. Taking some pointers from what I learned playing two songs at once, I trimmed the parts down so only two lines are playing at once. It’s still tricky to keep track of.
Links
Choan Galvez – Larry’s Waltz in Progress (Tab)
Today is a guest tab from, Uke Hunt favourite, Choan Gálvez.
This is a piece from Choan’s new series of tabs for waltzes dedicated to ukulele lovers called Waltz in Progress. You can get the rest of the tabs as they come out by joining his Patreon or waiting until they’re released together at the end of the series.
Links
Tracklist
Bobby Alu – Dreamin’
mxmtoon ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – ok on your own
Valerie June – Somebody To Love
Xavi Sanchez – Untrue Blues
Natasha Ghosh – Wish You Were Here
Elisabeth Pfeiffer – Space Oddity
Nicolas Fingerstyle Ukulele – Agua De Beber
Demetrius78G – Sympathique
Edem Soul – Yellow
Frank Fairfield and Meredith Axelrod – Mythological Blues
Bruno Mars – When I Was Your Man (Tab)
Despite it having over 900 million views on YouTube, I’d never heard this song before it was suggested by Patreon Taras and a surprisingly large number of YouTube commenters.
But it’s a catchy song and has some nice elements to it. I particularly like his vocal bends. So I’ve incorporated those into the arrangement. The trickiest bend is in bar 23. There you’re fretting the C-string, 3rd fret without bending and playing the E-string, 5th fret with a bend. That takes a bit of practice to get right. And I recommend using your middle and ring fingers to bend the string.
Links
It’s been many years since I did a gear list. So here’s a rundown of the ukes, strings and various other things I use.
Ukuleles
Main Ukes: For most of my videos I use a tenor Ohana TK-35G. The pointy uke I sometimes use is a tenor KoAloha Sceptre.
Practice Uke: I’ve been enjoying using my RISA solid tenor for practicing. It’s compact, indestructible and quiet.
Misc. Ukes: For non-tenor ukes I play: soprano Kala KA-ASLAS, aNueNue Lani II (which I have strung in low-G), and an Ohana baritone.
Accessories
Strings: Clear Worth strings most of the time (I’m not a fan of the brown Worths). Although I do use Aquilas on some of my ukes.
Tuner: Fender bullet tuner. Tuners keep getting smaller and smaller. And this one is tiny. It also has a clear, bright display and feels very sturdy.
Capo: Shubb ukulele capo. Although it doesn’t work on all my ukes. I also use a G7th ultralight capo which is more versatile.
Tabs and Chords
Tabs: Guitar Pro 7. I’ve been using Guitar Pro since I started the blog more than 13 years ago. I wrote a review of it here (tl;dr: I like it).
Chords: I’ve been Sibelius to make chord charts. But it is massive overkill if that’s all you’re using it for. And, since the version I own doesn’t work with recent versions of MacOS, I’m dumping it and switching to Fretspace.
Slow Downer: I use Capo 3 to help tabbing by slowing down songs and changing the key. Both of which it does very well. It does also claim to work out chords for you. But that is hit and miss at best.
Recording
Mic: Audio-Technica AT2020 USB. Super-easy to use and a decent sound for the price.
DAW: For recording audio, I use GarageBand. But I’ve been putting in more effort with the sound recently and I’m considering upgrading to Logic Pro X.
Instagram videos: A few people have asked how I do the scrolling tabs in my videos. And I do it in the most brainless way possible. I just use the “Ken Burns” effect in iMovie.
Tracy Chapman – Fast Car (Tabs)
Considering what a massive hit this was, it’s not structured at all like a pop song. The verses are a jumble of words and the chorus doesn’t hit until two minutes into the song. But the guitar riff and the “You’ve got a fast car” refrain are both great hooks that sustain the song until the chorus.
The wordiness of the verses presents a bit of a problem for a ukulele version. There are long sections where it’s just the same note repeated. To make that manageable, I’ve done three things. First, I slowed it down. Second, I haven’t played every syllable she sings. Third, I’ve split the notes between the strings e.g. in bars 10 and 12 the A note alternates between the g-string 2nd fret and the open A-string. Even with all that, I found it a challenge to play.
Links
Tracklist
Zoë Bestel – Teardrop
Xavi Sanchez – Saturday Night Rub
The Avett Brothers – Prison To Heaven
Alamat Ni Ug – Nag-iisang Bituin
Kahi Kaonohi – Pohai Kealoha
George Hinchliffe – The Snig Hill Stroll
RMR x Einer Bankz – Dealer
Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq – One More Kiss, Dear
Tobias Elof – Circular Path
Covid rules force schools to ditch recorders in favour of ukuleles as it turns out kids sharing spit isn’t the best for hygiene.
On Video
– Electronicos Fantasticos jam on their ukuleles made of TV screens.
– Heart transplant recipient played ukulele, sang a duet before surgery
– Billie Eilish's ukelele goes up for sale
– Rebecca Black bows to the pressure.
Window Shopping
– I was agonising over whether to buy this Rebel Quark but someone more decisive beat me to it.
– Ohana Custom Shop koa tenor.
– Tsuburaya Ultraman ukulele.
– G-String Sun concert.
– Ties for ukulele straps (via @hermanvdc).
Patreon
A massive thanks to Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers. And double thanks go to August’s Tenor backers:
– Dan.
– Fiona Keane.
– Joseph Freeman.
– Katherine Penney.
– Olga deSanctis.
– Pat Weikle.
– Pauline Leblanc.
– Sandi Clement.
– Trevor Mccravy.
Augusts’s Patreon exclusive for Concert level backers is Queen’s Love of My Life.
