That’s it from me for 2013 (year of the F chord). Just about. There’ll be the mini-ebook for Christmas uke-getters and possibly a super-special surprise post (or possibly not). After that, I’ll be back in late January.

Until then, happy holidays (if you’re into that kind of thing) however you choose to spend it. I’ll be eating, drinking, gambling and letting my servants wear my clothes in celebration of Saturnalia.

If you can’t bear to be without a steady stream of uke, I’ll be posting bits and pieces on my Tumblr, UkeToob and on Twitter.

Full Playlist

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New Projects
– New ukulele online magazine: Ukulele Rhythms Magazine with contributions from Uke Hunt favourites Sarah Maisel, Kimo Hussey and Jim Tranquada.
– Mr. Hewitt’s Middle School Ukulele Orchestra are Kickstarting their uke club (with the slightly unexpected support of Queen Latifah).
– New ukulele podcast: Ukulele Lately.

New Releases
– Gaspar Pozzi – El Amor Existe (a gorgeous record that would have been one of my records of the year if I’d heard it in time).
– Christmas Is Where You Are by The Jive Aces

Pictures
– Country Nerd Scout
– Caravaning ukulele
– Una Fleming plays a giant ukulele (Thanks to Karl).

Videos
– Ukulele round on University Challenge at about 15:20 (UK only I think).
– Also on the Beeb Helen Arney sings about astronomy as for the next Stargazing Live.
– Orangutan plucks and smashes a ukulele
– Looking forward to this technology coming to ukuleles.
– The Seattle Castaways help light up Seattle’s Christmas tree. New record from them soon.

A more challenging Christmas song this time. There are a lot of chords to keep track of. But many of the changes are just one note being raised or lowered by a fret so it’s not as tricky as it first seems.

I based this version on the version on JoCopedia with a few adjustments here and there. Mostly to make it more ukeable.

Tricky Chord Suggestions

For the A+ (A augmented) chord there are a couple of options:

– My preferred method is to hold down both the C and E strings with the tip of my index finger. It takes time to learn but it does make for an easy chord change.
– You can play the A before it with your first and third fingers. Then add your second finger on the E-string for the A+.

If you don’t fancy the E chord run in the pre-chorus you can just play E for the whole thing. Same with the Esus4 – E move in the chorus.

For the Dmaj7-F#m in the chorus you can play them both 2120. You lose the movement between the chords though.

Some Suggested Strumming

Here are a few ideas for the strumming:

Intro: A bar of ‘d u’ on the A. Then one down on the A, then ‘u d u d u d u’ on the A+.

Verse: ‘d – d u d u d u’ on the A. And ‘d u d u’ on both the D and E.

Chorus and Pre-Chorus: Mostly ‘d – d u – u d -‘. With two downs each for the E run in the pre-chorus. And in the chorus ‘d – d’ on the Esus4 and ‘u – u d -‘ on the E.

Links

Buy it from JonathanCoulton.com ( Direct PayPal link)
More Jonathan Coulton chords
More Christmas tabs and chords

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The Uke Hunt iPad app launched on Monday. And it’s been doing well. Over 500 downloads by the end of Wednesday.

I’ve been getting plenty of feedback on it (a big thanks to all those people). Here are the main questions I’ve been getting. I’ll keep this updated with any other FAQs I get.

There’s also a guide to using it here.

Will there be an Android app?

No, there are no plans for one.

Visitors to the site using iOS way out number my visitors from Android. They also stay longer and read more pages.

Plus the iOS was a big financial stretch for me. So it’s unlikely there’ll be an Android app any time in the foreseeable future.

Can I move the ebooks I’ve already bought into the app?

Sorry, it’s not possible to do that. But you can move them from your computer into iBooks on the iPad. Apple has a guide to transferring PDFs here.

It crashed. What do I do?

Argh! Sorry about that. There does seem to be a problem with some iPad Minis. We’re looking into that (I say “we”, someone who knows what they’re doing is looking into it). Hopefully it’ll be fixed in the first update.

If you find it crashing I’d really appreciate it if you leave a comment, send me a message or Tweet me @UkeHunt letting me know what you were doing at the time, which iPad you have and which iOS version.

Time for the annual Uke Hunt Christmas time-waster.

– Grab a pen and paper
– Display knowledge.
– Check the answers here (no peeking).
– Return in triumph or despair and share you score in the comments.

Name That Chord

What chord are these on a standard gCEA tuned ukulele? (E.g. C, Em, G7 – there’s nothing more complicated than that here)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Name the Celeb

Which celebrities are clutching a ukulele? (Click for a bigger picture)

6.

Photo by Abigail Toribio

7.

8.

9.

Photo by Joe Cereghino

10.

Name That Lyric

Which songs – oft covered on the ukulele – are these lyrics from?

11.

Love is a burning thing / And it makes a fiery ring.

12.

When you were here before / Couldn’t look you in the eye / You’re just like an angel / Your skin makes me cry.

13.

Now and then I think of when we were together / Like when you said you felt so happy you could die.

14.

I heard there was a secret chord / That David played, and it pleased the lord / But you don’t really care for music, do you?

15.

Stuck in her daydream / Been this way since eighteen / But lately her face seems / Slowly sinking, wasting / Crumbling like pastries / And they scream.

Name That Cover

Which acts are these ukulele orchestras covering?

16. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

17. West Cork Ukulele Orchestra

18. Trellebelle Ukulele Orchestra

19. Sinfonico Honolulu

20. Rocky Mountain Ukulele Orchestra

Name That Note

What note are these on a standard gCEA tuned ukulele? (E.g. C, D, Eb)

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

Name That Maker

Name the brand of the ukulele (e.g. Martin, Gibson, Mahalo) (Definitely click for bigger pictures on this one)

26.

Photo by Magnus Forrester-Barker

27.

Photo by John Sargent

28. (The ones on the front table – if you can name the ones on the table behind I’ll be very impressed)

Photo by lusciousblopster

29.

Photo by Eric Golub

30.

Photo by Monsieur Gordon

Now head here for the answers

Past Quizzes

Ukulele Quiz 2012
Ukulele Quiz 2011
Ukulele Quiz 2010
Ukulele Quiz 2009

I’m a sucker for a depressing Christmas song. And this is one of the best.

The original version was in the uke-tricky key of Eb. So I’ve written up the version she’s been singing in recent years which is in the easy key of C.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this strum almost all the way through:

d – d – d u d u

Do that twice for every chord.

The exceptions:

– You can do just one down strum per chord in the bridges.
– Play the pattern five times on the “PLEASE!”s at the end of verse three.
– Just strum up and down on the big-ass finish until you run out of breath.

Links

Buy the original
More Christmas tabs and chords

Uke Hunt has an iPad app! It’s free so you can go to iTunes and download it right now. Or just search for “Ukulele Hunt” in the iTunes Store. So long as you don’t mind a bit of, “Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor”.

What’s it for?

For a long time it’s been a frustrating experience getting my How to Play Ukulele ebooks onto an iPad. Apple decided you couldn’t download zip files to an iPad so you have to download to a computer and transfer the files over.

Which is a shame because the iPad is such a great place have tabs and learn playing. Also there’s a whole lot more you can do on there that you can’t do with a PDF.

So I set to work on making an app with, Uke Hunt designer, Ben Lew and Ryan Waggoner.

And I think it’s turned out fantastically well.

What’s in it?

The app gives you a way to download ebooks and tabs without any hassle. All the ebooks are optimised for the iPad. It also gives you streaming video and audio examples right in the page.

Free eBooks: The app comes pre-loaded with “So You Just Got Your First Ukulele…” There’s also a completely updated guide to reading ukulele tab that you can download free.

Paid eBooks: Most – but not all – of the How to Play Ukulele ebooks. Those currently in app are:

– How to Play Ukulele Strums
– How to Play Christmas Ukulele
– Christmas Ukulele 2
– How to Play Classical Ukulele
– Now to Play National Anthems
– How to Play Slide Ukulele

Free Tabs: You can download free tabs including classical, Christmas and traditional music.

Paid Tabs: Because PayPal fees make it pointless, I haven’t been able to sell individual tabs before. But iTunes just takes a flat percentage so now you can by single tabs. For example, if you don’t want to buy the whole Anthems ebook you can just buy the UK anthem or the US anthem individually at the 69p/99c level.

How to Use It

There’s a guide to using the app here.

iPad Advantages

The big advantage with the app is that everything you need is right there on the page. You can:

– Listen to audio in the app. Play it, pause it, shuffle around while you’re looking at the tab.

– Watch videos in the app.

– There’s no messing about transferring files.

– Pay in your own currency

iPad Disadvantages

Because of the way iTunes works I can’t offer the refunds that I do with the ebooks. There’s no way for me to do it at all.

It’s harder to get your stuff out of the app. There is an ability to print single tabs and each section of ebooks individually. But you can’t print the whole thing off like you can with the ebooks.

Price Drop!

I’ve dropped the prices of the ebooks way down for now. So it isn’t a huge cost for people who have bought the ebooks before and want the iPad version.

But even if you don’t want to spend any money there’s plenty in there for free.

Questions and Comments

This is just the first release of the app. So if you have any suggestions, questions or comments leave them in the comments below or send me a message.

Full Playlist

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Enter an online raffle to benefit Ukuleles for Peace – prizes include a ukulele signed by all of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Pictures

– Twenty One Pilots fan art.
– Ukulele camp girls.
– Crocheted Ukulele.
– Monster hand chord chart.
– Attack on Titan ukulele.
– “The Greatest Artist In The World” paints a couple of ukuleles.

Videos

– James Hill’s ukulele epiphany

New Releases

– Aaron Keim has released an illustrated fingerstyle instruction book. Get the digital version here and the real life version here.
– Persian Pelican’s How to Prevent a Cold.
– James Hill’s jazz ukulele book.

Exciting lineup for the 2014 Grand Northern Ukulele Festival in Huddersfield is announced.

A possibly insane way of learning ukulele chords: Practical Mnemonics For The Ukulele.

Lana Del Rey gets a signed Smurf ukulele for $10,000.