Sad news this week that Michael Aratani has died. Better know as MusicGuyMic, he was the internet’s most loved ukulele seller. His eBay store always had the newest and most interesting ukuleles. After illness and eBay fees forced him to shut that down he returned and had recently been working with Hawaii Music Supply. He’s a big loss to the ukulele world.

T-shirt update: The standard black Uke Hunt t-shirt has reached its goal and will be made. So if you’ve ordered one of those you’ll definitely be getting one. And if you order one between now and 13th November you’ll definitely get it. Find out more about the t-shirts here.

New Releases
– A new book from The Idler’s Tom Hodginson and Gavin Pretor-Pinney The Ukulele Handbook covering uke history and starter advice.
– Free ebook from Uke of Carl: Hanon for Ukulele.
– Get Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk’s Over Land and Sea for free.
– Pre-order Sweet Soubrette’s Burning City.
– An album of ukulele covers of Smiths songs in German from Perrecy: Du bist das Opfer.

Pictures
– Amy Crehore’s Tickler Twitch Uke is close to finished.
– Mighty Boosh ukulele.
– Ukulele urn (Thanks to Shireen).

Videos
– West Midlands police fighting crime with Formby parodies.
– Can’t decide which size to get? Get all of them in one uke (Thanks to Ron Hale).

Exciting but expensive ukulele jaunt in Mexico with James Hill: The Ukulele Carnival.

Following on from Take My True Love… with another tune from the closing stages of Breaking Bad. This time an instrumental version of Marty Robbins’ El Paso from Felina.

This piece – while not really bad – is a challenge. I’ve slowed it down slightly from the original version to make it more playable.

There’s a bit of a mishmash of picking techniques. Mostly it’s one finger per string with some supporting strums. But I switch to thumb and two fingers in the sections where the g-string isn’t played.

The other technique I use is the roll strum. I use that in bar 9.

The Trickiest Bit

The run in the bar three is very difficult. The first part is played campanella style. That gives you two open strings during which you can move from the first position up so your middle finger is playing the note at the sixth fret.

Easy Version

Marty Robbins – El Paso (Easy Tab)

Here’s a much more straight forward version without the intro and just playing the melody.

Links

Buy the original on iTunes
Limeliters – Take My True Love (Chords)
Breaking Bad theme tab

Tired of walking around without a dirty ukulele pun on your chest? The solution has finally arrived.

It’s a little different to the normal way though. I’m using Teespring which is sort of a Kickstart for t-shirts. So you put in an order for your shirt, if there are enough orders by the end of the campaign the shirts are made and sent out. You’re not charged until the end of the campaign. This way of doing it means all the shirts are printed at once and exactly the right shirts and sizes are made.

So if you want one of the shirts they’ll only be available until 13th November. After that you’re all out of luck.

There are four different t-shirts. All of them are $17.50 each. You can pre-order them on Teespring:

Standard Black (American Apparel Crew)
Standard White (American Apparel Crew)
Women’s Black (Bella Ladies Relaxed Fit)
Women’s White (Bella Ladies Relaxed Fit)

Each of the shirts has a goal of 30 shirts. So if there isn’t enough interested in it by the 13th November that particular shirt won’t get printed and you won’t be charged.

You can cancel your shirt order at any time up to the end of the campaign.

Delivery

Teespring is based in the US so shipping outside of that is more expensive and will take longer. But I’ve launched the campaign so that the shirts should arrive before Christmas anywhere in the world.

Domestic (United States) shipping $3.85 + $.25 for each additional t-shirt. Your shirt should arrive within 10-14 days from the end of the campaign.

Domestic (Canada) $7.50 + $1 for each additional t-shirt. Your shirt should arrive within 17-21 days from the end of the campaign.

International shipping is $10.50 + $1 for each additional t-shirt. Your shirt should arrive within 17-21 days from the end of the campaign.

For more information on the shirts and the system take a look at Teespring’s FAQ.

Standard Black

Buy it here
Price: $17.50
Available until: Wednesday 13th November 2013

Standard White

Buy it here
Price: $17.50
Available until: Wednesday 13th November 2013

Women’s Black

Buy it here
Price: $17.50
Available until: Wednesday 13th November 2013

Women’s White

Buy it here
Price: $17.50
Available until: Wednesday 13th November 2013

Two songs from the closing stages of Breaking Bad this week. Starting off with The Limeliters’ Take My True Love by the Hand from the dung beetle scene in Ozymandias.

It’s a simple song. Just four chords repeated. But you do need to capo at the first fret if you want to play along with the original.

Suggested Strumming

For the F and F7 do this once each:

d – d u

And for the rest of the chords do this once each:

d – d u – u d u

Together they sound like this:

Strum

Twiddly Bits

The guitar does a lick at the end of each chord progression. Here are a couple of ideas you can use on the uke. Again, use a capo at the first fret when you’re playing along with the original.

Here’s how that sounds along with the chords.

Lick 1

Lick 2

Links

Buy on iTunes
Limeliters.com
Breaking Bad theme tab

Full Playlist

Read the rest of this entry »

New Releases

– The tab book for Jake Shimabukuro’s Grand Ukulele is available in the US.
– Kevin Hufnagel’s experimental uke album Ashland.

Pictures

– Rat and uke taxidermy
– Correct playing stance
– Painted ukulele
– Gloria Swanson

Musicwood – a documentary about the over-foresting of sitka spruce for guitars and ukes.

Bret McKenzie on being the Ambassador for the New Zealand Ukulele Trust.

Part of my sworn duties as a ukulele blogger is peruse the YouTube uploads and check out anything interesting. Recently that has involved clicking on everything titled “A Team Ukulele Cover” hoping it would be the theme tune to the superior 80s TV show. And every single time I’ve been distraught to find it’s another cover of that Ed Sheeran song. Never again let it be said I don’t make sacrifices for my art.

So in the spirit of “If you want something doing properly don’t ask an Ed Sheeran fan” I’ve done my own version.

I can’t really blame them though. It was a trial getting it to sound right on the uke. I cropped out the boring bit in the middle but I kept all the exciting bits.

Technique-wish it’s a mish-mash. The first ten bars are played with strums (including roll strums for extra emphasis). Then there are octaves plucked with thumb and index finger in bar 10. That’s followed by the fifths in bar 13 again plucked with thumb and index.

Links

Buy the MP3
More theme tune tabs.

If you’ve been following the blog for a while you’ll have noticed that I love theme tunes. Even more, I love working them up for ukulele. So here’s a selection of my favourite film, TV and game themes that I’ve done over the years. It’s split up into theme tunes (mostly tabs) and songs (mostly chords).

If your favourite theme (on the site or not) isn’t included let me know in the comments.

Best Movie Theme Tunes

James Bond Theme
Duelling Banjos
Indiana Jones Theme
Harry Potter – Hedwig’s Theme
Pirates of the Caribbean Theme

More movie themes
Test your movie theme knowledge

Best Songs from the Movies

Carly Simon – Nobody Does It Better (from The Spy Who Loved Me)
Ryan Gosling – You Always Hurt the Ones You Love (from Blue Valentine)
Eddie Vedder – Rise (from Into the Wild)
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova– Falling Slowly (from Once) (Instrumental Tab)
Spinal Tap – Sex Farm

Best TV Themes

Sherlock’s Theme
Batman Theme
Magnum P.I. Theme
The Office: An American Workplace Theme
Fraggle Rock Theme

More TV Themes
Test you TV Theme knowlege

Songs from TV Shows

Kate Micucci & Ted – Screw You (From Scrubs)
Joan Jett – Bad Reputation (from Freaks and Geeks)
Flight of the Conchords – Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros
Way Down in the Hole (from The Wire)

Best Game Themes

Super Mario Bros Theme
Angry Birds
Mega Man 2 Flash Man Theme (Tabs)
Wet Hands (from Minecraft)

Best Songs from Games

Jonathan Coulton – Still Alive (from Portal)
Jonathan Coulton & GLaDOS – Want You Gone (from Portal 2)

More Game Themes

The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s recent visit to these shores for a run at the Edingburgh festival was a huge hit with them impressing audiences and fighting accusations of steroid abuse it would seem. To celebrate I’ve written up their take on the Starland Vocal Band’s sitcom fodder Afternoon Delight.

The chord sheet is based on the WIUO version but I’ve cribbed bits from the original version like the intro. They’re both in the same key so you can mix and match as you like.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this two bar pattern for most of the song:

d – d u – u d u
– u d u – u d –

Use that once for each chord in the verses, bridges and solo.

Strum

In the chorus and outro do one strum per chord. Except for the Dm and F on “delight”. Go back to the main pattern for those.

Twiddly Bits

Here’s a little ukulele intro based on the SVB version:

And here’s how it sounds:

Intro

For the solo I’d recommend improvising a solo around the F major scale. And throw in a minor third for a bit of colour. When I’m playing it I like to noodle around with these notes:

It’s notes from the F major scale with a b3 and without a 7.

Links

Buy the Starlight Vocal Band version.
Buy the WIUO version.
Visit the WIUO’s website

Full Playlist

Read the rest of this entry »