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.
Mike Post and Pete Carpenter – A-Team Theme (Tab)
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
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)
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – Afternoon Delight (Chords)
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.
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:
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
It’s your last chance to use the half price code on the How to Play Ukulele ebooks. You can claim 50% off any of the ebooks (except Ukuleles for Peace) until the end of September by using this code on the checkout page: cowhouse
Pictures
– Scotty Dog ukulele
– House of David Ukulele Band
– Life at Sea (c.1925)
– Correct response to the apocalypse.
Releases
– The War Ponies – Warriors of Warfare
Playing
– New bumper Ukulele Wednesdays songbook
– Herman Vandecauter’s 10 ways to optimise your practice are the exact opposite of NPR’s 10 Ways To Optimize Your Music Practice.
– Bored of changing chords? One chord songs.
Videos
– Tiny Tim on Roseanne
– Aaron Keim’s favorite strums
– I Love Lucy
Ninebarrow – Birdsong (Tab)
If you’re a fan of folk music you absolutely have to follow the Songs from the Shed YouTube channel. They have a huge range of sessions from acts on the UK folk scene. The latest session to make me prick up my ears was Ninebarrow’s performance of Birdsong.
They’re a great uke and vocal duo and their Kingdom EP is one of my favourite ukulele records this year.
Plus their fingerpicking riffs make it perfect for this week’s theme.
Birdsong is played on a low-G ukulele. But it does still sound right on a high-g uke.
The picking is done with the thumb and two fingers method (with the thumb covering the G and C strings). But I prefer to use one finger per string on the Am7 in the intro/verse since the G and C strings are played in quick succession.
Links
Following on with this week’s fingerpicking accompaniment theme with some popular ukulele picking patterns.
I’ve put up a few mini-posts earlier today covering:
– One Finger Per String Picking Method
– Thumb and Two Fingers Picking Method
– Fingerpicking Notation
This post follows on from those and the Fingerpicking Ukulele – First steps post with patterns using those picking methods.
Thumb and Two Fingers Picking
PIMP Pattern
A simple pattern using each finger in order with the thumb starting on the g-string then moving to the C-string. Making a p i m p i m p i m… picking pattern.
Since you’re using three fingers, this pattern is well suited to playing in triplets.
Complicated PIMP Pattern
A similar pattern to last time. But here you’re not using triplets so you have to fill out the bar with just the first two notes of the pattern. So you play p i m but just p i the final time.
Reverse Pattern
Rather than going up the strings as you did in the last two patterns here you pluck with the thumb then go down the strings. So it’s p m i repeated.
Alternate Picking
Alternating is my favourite way to use the thumb and two fingers method. Here the thumb alternates between the g- and C-strings.
In this particular pattern you pluck g-string with your thumb, E with middle, C-string with thumb, A with middle. So it’s p i p m.
One Finger Per String Picking
PIMA Pattern
Picking with your thumb and going up the strings to make p a m i.
PAMI Pattern
Here you pluck the g-string with your thumb. Then go through the strings in the opposite direction. Making a p a m i pattern.
Choosing a Pattern
If you’re unsure of which method of picking to use for a pattern I have a general rule for choosing.
If the g- and C-strings are played next to each other at any point I go with the one finger per string method. It’s much easier than having to switch strings with your thumb quickly.
But if the g- and C-strings aren’t played consecutively then I’ll go with the thumb and two fingers method. I find it much easier to play in general.
Here’s a quick illustration. This is the first thumb and two fingers method played using the one finger person string method. If you’re anything like me you’ll find it trickier to play this way.
Links
In ukulele tab the finger you use to pluck the note is indicated by a letter in italics above the tab. They look like this:
Each letter corresponds to a finger on your picking hand:
t or p = Thumb
i = Index Finger
m = Middle Finger
a = Ring Finger
So when a note has an i above it you pluck that string with your index finger.
You won’t always find the picking notation. Sometimes you’ll just see it at the beginning of the piece and you just carry on that pattern all the way through. Sometimes you’ll just get the fingering for tricky sections.
The names are shortened from: pulgar, indice, medius, annular.
Links
If you need a primer on reading ukulele tab in general, check out How to read ukulele tab.
Fingerpicking Patterns
