New Releases
– Pre-order the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s debut album. (Wait, debut album? … So it is).
– Maybe by Sage Harrington.
– UkePunk’s Punk Police The Album.
– Wild Child’s The Runaround.
Learning
– Halloween chord book The Haunted Ukulele.
– You can find all my Halloween tabs and chords here. And in case you still can’t decide what to be.
Kickstarting
– The Blues And The Abstract Uke by The Paul Hemmings Uketet.
Pictures
– Ukulele photoshop contest.
– Cat submits his ukulele record to Sony.
The ukulele orchestra feud continues with head UKUO man Peter Moss calling the UOGB “more of an amateur orchestra” and “a semi-professional outfit”. Which The Guardian followed up with, “Court papers show the UOGB turned over £4m over the past five years from a global concert schedule, which included shows at the Carnegie Hall in New York and Sydney Opera House”.
George Harrison’s sordid interest.
A luthier finds out if you can make a souvenir ukulele playable?
Arctic Monkeys – AM Medley (Tab)
Way back in 2007 the second ever chord post I did was Despair in the Departure Lounge. Since then there’s been a steady stream of request for more Monkeys which I’d always replied to with, “I’ll do another Monkeys tab when they go back to making good records.” Johnny called me out on that promise correctly pointing out that the new album is awesome.
So here’s a medley of most of the songs on the album:
One for the Road/Do I Wanna Know?/Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?/Arabella/Knee Socks/I Want It All/R U Mine?
Trickiest Bits
The trickiest bits for the fretting are the two big leaps on the fretboard. There’s the big slide up in R U Mine? where it isn’t such a big deal if you don’t hit it exactly. The really hard one is the 8th fret in bar 5. Cut that 1st fret note before it really short to give yourself some time to get up.
The trickiest bits for the strumming hand are the palm muting (i.e. lightly resting the underside of your hand on the string at the bridge to muffle the strings). In One for the Road and Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? I’m muting all the strings. In Do I Wanna Know? I’m trying my best to mute the C-string while letting the E- and A-strings ring. As you can hear in the video I don’t always pull it off. It’s hard to get right so there’s nothing wrong with playing this section without any muting at all.
Links
ArcticMonkeys.com
Arctic Monkeys on iTunes
Fluorescent Adolescent tabs and chords
Despair in the Departure Lounge chrods
Get Plucky with the Ukulele is the new book by Will Grove-White off of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and his own group Will Grove-White & the Others.
As you would expect of someone who started playing the ukulele when it was ignored and deeply unfashionable in the 80s, Will has an obvious deep love of the ukulele. And that’s reflected in this book’s wealth of uke knowledge, anecdotes and photos collected over decades of playing.
The book does a full sweep of the ukulele. The first half covers the history of the ukulele and notable ukulele players (those famous for ukulele, famous for their music and famous for other reasons). And the second half delves into how to play the ukulele. The writing is witty, informative and opinionated. I heartily recommend picking up a copy.
Will was kind enough to send me one and here are a few of my favourite bits to whet your appetite.
Laura Dukes, Rabbit Muse and Charlie Burse
Great to see these three getting some attention. It’s a crime that all Rabbit Muse‘s music is all still out of print.
Usually I’m the sort of pedant referred to in the book who points out that a tenor guitar isn’t a ukulele. But that Charlie Burse clip is so great I’m willing to overlook it.
The Ukulele Built in a POW Camp
For sheer bloody minded ukulele fanaticism in the face of misery and torture, Second World War veteran Thomas Boardman has to take the first prize.
There are a bunch of profiles of musicians and other famous folks who play the ukulele packed with interesting detail and anecdotes. But my favourites are the less well known like Greenwich Village ukulele painter Bobby Edwards.
The most impressive is the story of Thomas Boardman who managed to build himself a ukulele from whatever bits of wood, metal and wire he could scavenge as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp in World War II. If you ever find yourself in the Manchester Imperial War Museum search it out.
America Takes Hawaii (And it’s Ukulele)
It came as no surprise that when in 1893 a group of European and US businessmen (with some gentle support from a group of US marines overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy…
Too many histories of the ukulele gloss over the machinations behind the uke’s first big push into popularity. So it’s good to it being pointed out that the ukulele was used by the businessmen who stole Hawaii from the Hawaiians to drive tourism to the island and fill their pockets.
Aside: After this good work it’s a bit of shame that he includes a couple of illustrations of the ‘topless Hawaiian hula girl in a grass skirt and lei’ variety.
Part of the strategy of these businessmen was to use songs and images to present a Hawaii packed with pliant, nubile women. And those songs and images are, unfortunately, still part of ukulele culture. With the huge contribution that Hawaiian women have made to the ukulele world it’s time to cut that bullshit out.
This is a criticism of the ukulele world in general rather than the book in particular. The writing in the book is very strong on the contribution of Hawaiians and women in general to the ukulele. And I think it provides the framework for understanding why these images are part of ukulele culture.
If this sort of thing is your bag I wrote a whole thing about music and cultural appropriation.
Agatha Christie Murder Solved by Uke
You caught her round the throat with it and strangled her… And you put another string on the ukelele – but it was the wrong string, that’s why you were so stupid.
*Spoilers for the 80 year old short story The Bird with the Broken Wing.* It gives me great pleasure that a character would be undone by their lack of uke knowledge.
The book also has the real-life murderous tale of Frederick Galloway ‘The Ukulele Slayer’.
Playing in a Ukulele-Only Group
Even though you’re all playing the same instrument, you don’t all have to play the same thing.
This is the bit I was really looking forward to. The only other people as well qualified to write about this are also in the UOGB. And with the number of people who are part of ukulele groups there’s no shortage of need for help on this.
Unfortunately, there’s just half a page on this. But it’s a good half page. And I’m still holding out hope of a full book on the subject from one or more members of the UOGB.
Links
Buy on Amazon UK
Buy on Amazon US
More on WillGroveWhite.com
Cole Porter – You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To
I had a clutch of requests for this Cole Porter song after posting Victor and Penny’s version the other week. And I’m always eager to write up a song that includes an aug7 chord.
Being a Cole Porter classic, You’d Be So Nice has been covered by a horde of people including Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone. But I’ve stuck to Victor and Penny’s ukulele version for the chord chart.
Suggested Strumming
Here’s your main strum:
d – d – d u d u
Here it is slow then up to speed:
That will do you for most of the song. But there are a few quick chord changes on E7-Emaj7 and
You can play those:
d u d u
Which sounds like:
The only shorter chord change is right at the end. Do one down strum per chord there.
Links
Last chance to order a Uke Hunt t-shirt. The minimum order has been passed so they’re definitely going to get made and shipped as soon as the pre-ordering is done.
Pictures
– Light-box ukulele.
– And that’s why you don’t play ukulele with a pick.
– Martin found under a bed.
New Releases
– Allo Darlin’s We Come from the Same Place.
– Nicholas Abersold’s String Cheese.
– Emilyn Brodsky Eats Her Feelings.
Learning
– Two new tab sites: Fingerstyle rules! (click on the letters on the right for the tabs) and the Spanish language Ukelatino.
Videos
– 1936 Harmonica & Uke: Percy Spouse + Sid Owen, Australia (Thanks to Ron Hale).
Ukulele chord changer – like the Chordmaster that Islanders used to have. You strap it to the neck, press a button and it’ll make a chord for you. I wouldn’t recommend it for most people but I know a guy with arthritis who uses a Chordmaster so worth checking out if you have those sort of problems.
Another one for the Riffs for Ukulele series. Usual rules apply: they’re intended to be played for a lark (even more so with these punk pop songs); no, I’m not going to write up the full song; and they’re not necessarily in the original key (although only Sum 41 in this post isn’t thanks to some capo deployment).
Paramore – Still Into You
With Paramore’s recent foray into ukulele songs it’s only right I include one of theirs. Two riffs on this one. The top one is plucked thumb and two finger style and the bottom one using alternate picking.
Blink 182 – What’s My Age Again?
After a bit of octave shifting the arpeggio riff in this one works way better on ukulele than I was expecting. Thumb and two finger picking for this one again. Try to emphasise the notes on the g- and C-strings.
Green Day – American Idiot
Capo on the first fret for this one too. The switch from G to F at the end of bar two is very fast. If you’re struggling with it you can just switch the F for playing all the strings open like at the end of bar 4.
Sum 41 – Fat Lip
Not going to lie, this one is pretty preposterous on ukulele. But, hey, Sum 41 were a pretty preposterous band.
Panic! at the Disco – I Write Sins Not Tragedies
I’m not sure if this one entirely belongs in this post. But I’ve become obsessed with it recently. I tried to get all the discordant bits in. Which makes it much more difficult than it needs to be. Here’s a simpler version:
With all the intricate and dexterous actions that evolution has equipped our hands for it’s left us woefully unprepared to play an Fmaj7 chord on the ukulele. It’s made plenty of chord changes a pain in the arse too.
Laziness to the rescue! You can change the fingering of a chord or use a different inversion to make changes much more straightforward.
Here are a few tricky chord changes that can be simplified with a bit of rejiggering.
A to D
Here’s an obvious refingering. If you use your second, third and fourth fingers to play it you can keep your first finger tucked behind.
The Sucker Way
The Smart Way
Video Comparison
Em to B7
In chord charts the B7 is almost always shown played with a barre. But it doesn’t have to be. Switch the notes on the g and A strings and you get the Em chord shape with everything moved across one string.
The Sucker Way
The Smart Way
Video Comparison
G to B7
Another B7. This one doesn’t actually have a B in it. But thanks to crazy ear-shenanigans your brain fills in the B for you (here’s Vi Hart explaining it as well as why chords and scales are as they are).
The Sucker Way
The Smart Way
Video Comparison
Anything to Fmaj7
If anyone tells you to play Fmaj7 the 2413 way throw your ukulele at them and run away. They are not your friend. In the first take of my trying to play the chord you can actually hear my wrist cracking as I attempt it.
The Sucker Way
The Smart Way
Video Comparison
D7 to G7
Like the B7, this version of D7 doesn’t actually have a D. But it is way easier to play. This version is often called the ‘Hawaiian D7’ for reasons that elude me.
The Sucker Way
The Smart Way
Video Comparison
Links
Ten ways to play an E chord
How to Play Ukulele Chords – my ebook on chords and chord theory.
Junior Brown – Better Call Saul (Chords)
This one is hot off the press. The new song for the upcoming Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul. Although it’s performed by Junior Brown and his guit-steel, the lyrics are by show creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould with music by Dave Porter (composer of the Breaking Bad theme). On the downside, the video is only available in the US but you can listen to the song here.
The chords transfer very nicely to ukulele and there are a few tasty licks too.
Suggested Strumming
Here’s my favourite main strum:
d – d u d – d u d – d u d – d u
That’s just d – d u four times. That’ll see you most of the way through. There are a couple of places where the changes are quicker. For the A – C in the odd numbered verses and the E7 – D in the solos just do d – d u twice for each chord.
That’s pretty frenetic. So if you want something similar go for this:
d u – u – u – u
With the up strums short (stopping them just after you strum). Again, just split that in half for the quicker changes.
Twiddly Bits
There are a few simple but effective twiddles throughout the song. Here’s the little intro:
The little riff in the second half of the solo:
And the little run at the end:
Links
BetterCallSaul.com
JuniorBrown.com
Buy it on iTunes
Breaking Bad theme tab
