This song has a tortured and unpleasant history. There’s an overview of the song’s history here (including a link to the brilliant Rolling Stone article by Rian Malan on the subject).

The short version: The song Mbube was written and performed by South African Solomon Linda in 1939. Folk song collector, Alan Lomax heard the song and suggested it to Pete Seeger. Pete Seeger adapted it under the misheard name Wimoweh with none of the royalties going to Linda. That was adapted again for the startling song The Lion Sleeps Tonight with none of the royalties going to Linda. Most profitably it was using by Disney in The Lion King without any royalties going to Linda’s family. Initially. After legal wrangles the family eventually got some money. But not before Solomon Linda died in poverty and his youngest daughter contracted AIDS and died, unable to afford retroviral drugs.

But despite its disheartening back-story the song has produced three incredible records (it’s the Disney one I don’t think is up to much).

Suggested Strumming

For the strum start of like this:

d u x u d u x

Then change to the next chord for the final upstrum and play the pattern again:

u d u x u d u x

And keep repeating that.

Which sounds like this:

Strum

If you prefer you can replace the chnk with a strong down strum.

Links

Buy Solomon Linda’s Mbube
Buy Pete Seeger’s Wimoweh
Buy The Tokens’ The Lion Sleeps Tonight
More Pete Seeger chords

Here’s a song Pete Seeger wrote himself (with a bit of help from Ecclesiastes) in the 1950s. But it became a huge hit when The Byrds covered it in the 60s.

It’s just three chords so not hard to bust out during those many times when you’re gathering stones together.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this as the main pattern:

d – d u

In the chorus: Once for each chord in the first two lines. Then four times for each chord on the last line.

In the verse: Twice for each chord.

Twiddly Bits

In the chorus it sounds good if you replace the first down strum with plucking the C-string.

For example for the Bb you pluck the C-string, second fret then strum twice. Because you stay on the F chord for two goes round I like to pick the E-string the second time.

All together it sounds like this:

Pick and strum

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More Pete Seeger songs.

This slave work-song was adapted up by Pete Seeger during his time with The Weavers. It was later picked up by the Kingston Trio and was the standout track on Bruce Springsteen’s The Seeger Sessions.

It’s just two chords all the way through so dead easy.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this as the main pattern:

d – d u d u d u

In the verse, chorus and solo: On the first line play it three times on D and once on the A. Then vice versa (three A, one D) on the second. Here’s how that sounds:

Strum

The one tricky bit is the intro. The timing is a bit strange. It’s like the verses but with a extra bar of 2/4. Which may have been a mistake. Anyway, I’d recommend getting rid of it for your version.

Twiddly Bits

The second solo works really well on ukulele. Here’s a quick tab of that.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More Pete Seeger songs.

Full Playlist

Some of these videos – like the James Hill and Elof and Wamberg – are eligible for Ukulele Video of the Year. So if you see something you like there’s plenty of time to make you nominations.

Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t forget to make you nominations for Ukulele Video of the Year.

New Releases

– Harpy Things EP by Des Wong – The first record I know of using a harp ukulele as its primary instrument. And he did an amazing job with it
– The Castaways new CD Miniature Horses. You can buy it on CDBaby
– Square Meter from Kara Square and Piero Peluche

Kickstarting

– James Hill is raising money for his new album Kickstarter-style.

Tabs

– The Kamiki Ukulele Method tabs
– Collection Of Old Tunes For Ukulele by Michael Madden
– Leftover Cuties ukulele chord book

Pictures

– Glass ukulele
– Electric ukulele girl
– Postman Pat is putting the share sell-off money to good use.
– Strange goings on
– Totoro Ukulele

Videos

– Tune up with U and 900
– 25 hour long ukulele session
– Apparently sales of ukuleles have been skyrocketing
– Epic ukulele headstand

Johnny Depp honing his ukulele skills for next film role

Another arrangement from the ever-excellent David Beckingham. This time a ukulele arrangement of the guitar instrumental made famous by Reverend Gary Davis.

Lots of thumb and two finger picking with the thumb alternating between the g- and C-strings.

Links

Buy the Reverend Gary Davis version
David Beckingham on YouTube
More tabs by David Beckingham

Last year was another golden year for ukulele music. And it’s time again to spread the love for your favourites in this year’s vote.

For the first stage, everyone gets to nominate up to 5 videos – leave them in the comments (click here for the comments section if you reading by email or RSS). From those nominations, I’ll cobble together a list of ten (ish) that will be voted on in the next round. 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 2013.
– Videos must be publicly available online.
– Maximum of five nominations per person.
– Post your nominations in the comments (I might edit comments to make things easier to add up).
– Nominations close midnight Friday 7th February.
– The 5 – 10 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 nominating 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. Also, comments were acting a bit wonky. If you submit it and the page just spins then your comment will have been submitted.

My Nominations

It was a nightmare getting my list down to five.

Sarah Humphreys – Why Don’t We Just Stay Home
Cammy Enaharo – Feeling Sorry
Dingus Khan – Knifey Spooney
Janelle Monáe – Dance Apocalyptic
Elof & Wamberg – Øresundreel

Some Other Contenders

To jog your memory here are some other videos that caused a stir in the comments, on the web or in my pants.

Keston Cobblers’ Club – Beam
Ninebarrow – Birdsong
The Staves – Facing West
Twenty One Pilots – House of Gold
DeAnne Smith – Nerdy Love Song
Catey Shaw – Run, Run, Run
Peter Delaney – My Eyes Are Blessed
Me&Amelia – Relapse
Wilfried Welti – Tourdion
Sanford and Adrien Sala and Tesia Rhind – As the Living Do
Leftover Cuties – One Heart
Matt Kresling – My Apartments In Order
Brendan Maclean – Stupid
Tobias Elof – Kitchen Girl
James Hill and Elof & Wamberg – Uke Talk
Cody Simpson – Summertime of Our Lives
Lennon and Maisy – Happy Birthday Harry Song
Gail Sophicha – Kiyomi
Tom Milsom – Take Me Out
Peter and Paul Luongo – Crossroads
Rhonda Roberts – Sweet Tooth & Candyman
The Seattle Castaways – Freeze Frame
Robyn Zahra Lowzley – August Rush
Sarah Maisel – In a Sentimental Mood
Celisse Henderson – Well
Jay Chou – Ukulele
James Clem – Big River
Victoria Vox – The Heart
War Jacket – Water Wings
UkuleleTim – Fisher’s Hornpipe
Emma Blackery – My Thoughts on Google+
Jan Laurenz – Canzone per un amico
BoeckmannLudwig – Stringing The Blues
Ian Emmerson and Phil Doleman – 1 up Blues
Natalia Lafourcade – Aventurera
Matthew J Richards – Rubinstein’s Melody In F

By my reckoning the last ukulele song to win the Best Song Oscar was Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head in 1969.

But that could change this year with the nomination of Karen O’s The Moon Song this year. The song was written for the Spike Jonze film Her where it’s performed by Joaquin Phoenix playing ukulele and Scarlett Johansson playing a Siri. Here’s a ukulele-based précis if you need to catch up.

I’ve written up two versions of the song. Above is the plain chords based on the Karen O guitar version. And below the ukulele picking version from the movie.

Suggested Strumming

For the main pattern you can use:

d – d u – u d u

Do that once each for Dm and G. You can do it twice for the C chord. Or you can do this:

d – d u – u d u
– u d u d u d –

Just do one down strum each for the F and Fm.

Picking Version

The ukulele version has the same basic chords but a few different inversions. That means you can switch chord inversions as you see fit. Here’s Liz doing an excellent version by combining the picking with the open chords.

The arrangement, though, is slightly different. The intro is longer and there’s a verse missing.

I’ve suggested a thumb and two fingers picking pattern (shown in the first bar and repeated all the way through). It doesn’t seem to be what he’s using but it’s what I’d recommend.

Links

Karen O on iTunes
Visit HerTheMovie.com

When I got my first ukulele, I was completely clueless. This was in those dark, long forgotten days before the internet had been discovered. I didn’t even realise that the strings weren’t supposed to go thickest to thinnest and restrung it.

But you can save yourself from the social disgrace I experienced. I’ve put together a free mini-ebook covering the basics that every first time uke owner needs to know. Here’s what it contains:

Five Things to Know
Five Chords to Learn
Five Patterns to Strum
Five Songs to Play
Five Websites to Visit
Five Things to Get Free
Five Things to Buy
Five Videos to Watch
Five YouTube Channels to Subscribe to

You can download it free by clicking here:

And get playing by following the beginner ukulele lessons.

Hot off the press! Here’s a new, free tab book from Wilfried Welti (one of my favourite ukulele arrangers).

As the name would suggest, it’s a mixture of delights including folk, traditional and classical tunes. I’ve only just got my hands on it myself but the tunes look like they’ve been very simply and thoughtfully arranged. The full list of tabs is:

1 – An der Saale hellem Strande
2 – Bald gras’ ich am Neckar
3 – Nehmt Abschied, Brüder
4 – Der Frühling hat sich eingestellt
5 – Drunten im Unterland
6 – Bunt sind schon die Wälder
7 – Als wir jüngst in Regensburg waren
8 – Hab mein Wage vollgelade
9 – Santa Lucia
10 – Row, Row, Row Your Boat
11 – Und in dem Schneegebirge
12 – Guter Mond, du gehst so stille
13 – Au clair de la lune
14 – Der Mond ist aufgegangen

Here’s what Wilfried has to say:

I want to thank everybody for their kind feedback. I’m very happy for constructive criticism and suggestions too. While I obviously won’t be able to make my arrangements perfect for everybody, I’m always willing to learn and improve.

And I hope this e-book will be helpful for many ukulele players who are looking for some nice and easy practice pieces.

Humble as always! These tabs are a fantastic Christmas present!

Download it here (PDF Link)

Links

Visit Wilfried’s site
Get his other ebooks
His YouTube channel