After a hard fought battle and over 1,000 votes in the Ukulele Video of Year vote the winner is Rob Pachol (AKA Sanford and Song) with Adrien Sala and Tesia Rhind playing As the Living Do.

The video is the first in Rob’s “Sanford and Songwriter” series where he hooks up with a local songwriter and adds ukulele accompaniment. It’s a real masterclass in how to use your ukulele to enhance a song without overwhelming it. He weaves his lines into the song so deftly that it seems the song was written with them in mind. I learned a lot from watching and listening and it’s a deserving winner.

It was a close run vote all the way and the runner up, Jontom’s Born to Run, deserves a shout out too.

Rob was kind enough to answer a few questions on how the video came to be and tips on how to accompany songwriters with your ukulele.

We’re used to seeing you playing solo, what made you start the Sanford and Songwriter series?

I started the series to freshen up the channel a bit, and to promote some songs by locals who’s material I happen to like, with an emphasis on Adrien Sala’s music.

I also wanted to join the ranks of players trying to pull the ukulele out of its pigeonhole a bit, as far as how it can sound as an accompaniment instrument. Adding ukulele to a song doesn’t mean your song has to end up sounding like a Prius commercial. You know what I mean. (As far as I know there isn’t even a ukulele in that Prius commercial, but you THINK there is!)

How did you get together with Adrien and Tesia?

I’ve known Adrien for awhile, but the three of us came together to play the ceremony at a friend’s wedding a couple years ago. That’s how I met Tesia. I really fell in love with Adrien’s songs and the way our picking styles complimented each other, and then Tesia’s voice.

What sort of preparation do you do before the video? How much rehearsing goes on beforehand?

The only preparation for the songwriter series stuff is my learning the song beforehand, and coming up with a complimentary arrangement. A week or so later we run the song a couple times, then video a few takes. Not much to it, unless the featured songwriter doesn’t like a detail I’m playing, then I have to fudge around a few minutes for replacement parts. (“As the Living Do” was of course video’d by Mike Latschislaw. That’s why it looks so much better than my usual Canon camera junk.)

What are your top tips for accompanying others?

I suppose the first tip is to play in service of the song, and to the songwriter’s wishes. Although this is where things can get touchy, especially if you’re like me and easily grow attached to the parts you create. Adrien and I were recording an instrumental track to one of his songs, and he didn’t like the way I was bending a note. A typical sort of blues bend, but on ukulele I thought it sounded somewhat unique. He thought it sounded “too Winnipeg”. Ha! I fought for the bend, and he acquiesced, but I really should’ve stopped being a jerk and stopped bending. I should just go out and write my own songs full of bendy ukulele if it means that much to me.

Another simple tip is to arpeggiate the chords instead of strumming along. Particularly when accompanying a guitar part. This is where the ukulele can really be used to it’s fullest potential. You can easily do suspended chords over the guitar’s simple major chords and they wont clash. They add a lot of “air” to the sound. If someone is strumming along in D, try arpeggiating a Dsus4 (maybe it’s a Dmaj add 11?) Anyway, the chord position is 0220. I LOVE that chord…

What can we expect from you in 2014? When are you releasing a record?

2014 is the year to get it in gear and record some music. Adrien? Tesia? We did record some demos in 2012 which we intended as a springboard to greater things, but life kind of got in the way. Adrien had a baby girl, Tesia got married and has been working hard on her band Sibyl, and I’ve been waiting for a kick in the ass.

Links

Subscribe to Sanfordandsong on YouTube
Adrien Sala on MySpace
Tesia Rhind’s band Sibyl

With the range of instruments Man Man used it was only a matter of time before a ukulele showed up. And sure enough this ukulele ditty cropped up on their latest album On Oni Pond prompting quite a few chord requests.

The chord chart shows the basic chords of the song. Around those he’s doing some fancy bits of filigree that you can find below. But the song works really well without them if you prefer to play it that way.

Simple Strumming

You can use this pattern almost the whole way through:

d – d u d – d u

Do that twice for every chord. Make sure you swing the strum (so the down strums last longer than the up strums – you can get a feel for it by listening to the song).

Here’s how that sounds:

Simple Strum

The one exception is the C-C7-C bit at the end of the verses.

Do the main pattern once for the C. Then either play the lick or do this once each on the C7 and C:

d u d u

Chord Variations

For the F chord play two down strums. Then take you middle finger off the g-string and strum up (Fadd9 chord). Then hammer you middle finger back on so you’re back to F. Then strum down and up. Then go back to taking your finger off and play that part twice more.

Together the pattern looks like this (with the hammer-ons indicated by Hs)

The first bar of the A7 you do the same thing. The difference is you take off your index finger and hammer that on. So you’re switching between these chords:

For the second bar you play a down strum of A7 with your middle finger on the A-string, first fret. An up strum on A7. A down strum with your middle finger on the E-string, first fret. Then up on A7. And repeat that. Together it looks like this:

Here’s a video of that section played slowly:

The Dm section is exactly the same as the F. The only difference is you take off and hammer-on your middle and ring fingers.

Similarly with the C7. You take off your index finger and hammer that back on in the first bar. Then it’s d u d u for the C and C7 or you play the lick.

Other Twiddly Bit

Here’s the little downward pattern at the end of Verse 2:

Links

Buy it on iTunes
Visit ManManBandBand.com

Full Playlist

Early contender for next year’s Ukulele Video of the Year from Anne Janelle with some beardo on ukulele. Still plenty of time to cast your vote for the 2013 video of the year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t forget to cast your vote for Ukulele Video of the Year. Currently Jontom is in the lead with Walk off the Earth second.

It’s not often you see an interesting, well written piece about ukuleles in the mainstream media so Vulture’s article In Defense of the Ukulele is very welcome. It’s a follow up to an interview with Cristin Milioti (the ukulele-playing mother of How I Met Your Mother) and the anti-uke hate she provoked.. It makes some thought provoking points about ukulele and gender-shaming.

Bill to make the ukulele the state instrument of Hawaii. But it does have some competition from the ipu (which has a better claim in my opinion).

The Ukulele Is Not The Happiest Instrument In The World…Rant!

Team ukulele has been out in force at the Olympics with Julia Mancuso winning bronze in the alpine skiing super combined and luger Kate Hansen causing delight and disapproval with her warmup routine.

Pictures

– Amy Crehore’s Twitch uke is approaching completion.
– Bird ukulele
– AFP chord chart art
– Ukulele Joe Thomas
– Uke diagrams

Videos

– Automatic strummer
– The woes of having a cat that isn’t weird enough to make internet money (via thingsisawthatilove).

I couldn’t let Pete Seeger week pass without writing up this song in some form. In the spirit of the song I’ve kept the arrangement super simple. I go through the verse three times. Getting more strident each time.

First Time Through

I’m just playing the melody. Picking it out with my thumb.

Second Time Through

Harmonising the melody. I’m picking this with my thumb on the lower string and index finger on the higher string.

Third Time Through

Playing the melody back with the chords. I’m just using my thumb here. Strumming up to the melody note.

Links

The Pete Seeger version on iTunes
More Pete Seeger songs

The nominations are i, they’ve been fed through a highly complex algorithm and a final list of candidates has been spat out. Now it’s time to vote for you favourite. If you’re reading by email or feed reader and can’t see the voting doodle click here to be taken to be taken to the blog.

Rules

– Voting closes at midnight at the end of 23rd February.
– You only get one vote.
– Even if you already know who you’re voting for check out the other videos.
– Use whatever criteria you want. I’ll be voting for the one I like the most. (Who wins isn’t as important as getting some exposure for excellent videos)

Voting Closed

Here are the results:

Sanford and Friends: 476 votes 41%
Jontom – Born to Run: 408 votes 35%
Walk off the Earth – Royals: 163 votes 14%
Elof & Wamberg – Øresundreel: 37 votes 3%
Little Miss Higgins – Early Morning Thief: 28 votes 2%
James Clem – Big River: 27 2%
Sarah Humphreys – Why Don’t We Just Stay Home: 15 votes 1%
Dingus Khan – Knifey Spooney: 8 votes 1%
Moselele – Do They Know It’s Christmas: 3 votes 0%

The Contenders

Watch the playlist

Sanford and Adrien Sala and Tesia Rhind – As the Living Do
Elof & Wamberg – Øresundreel
Little Miss Higgins – Early Morning Thief
Moselele – Do They Know It’s Christmas
Walk off the Earth – Royals
Jontom – Born to Run
Sarah Humphreys – Why Don’t We Just Stay Home
James Clem – Big River
Dingus Khan – Knifey Spooney

When I heard about the death of Pete Seeger I knew I’d have to dedicate a week to him. He was a massively important figure in music and important in a way you don’t see very often. As a musical middleman.

None of the Seeger pieces I’m featuring are entirely his own work (even Turn, Turn, Turn takes its lyrics from Ecclesiastes). And Seeger’s versions of these songs aren’t the best known (or necessarily the best versions). But he had an amazing knack for taking songs from across the globe that had been overlooked and presenting them in such a compelling and accessible way that they were begging for others to take the song and run with it.

He was also unusual in how strongly he knitted music and politics together. And he did it so effectively he was dragged before the House Un-American Activities Committee to answer for such Un-American activities as singing at the “May Day Rally: For Peace, Security and Democracy.” How many musicians today could you imagine being called before government for their political opinions?

But if you still care about making your voice heard today is the EFF’s The Day We Fight Back campaign protesting against mass surveillance. Head to TheDayWeFightBack.org to join the campaign.

Pete Seeger Chords

The Tokens – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Walk off the Earth – Little Boxes
The Weavers – Pay Me My Money Down
Pete Seeger – Turn, Turn Turn

Coming up: tab for an instrumental version of We Shall Overcome.

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.