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.
80s Medley (Tab)
I was inspired by Action Bronson’s Contemporary Man from his latest mixtape to create a 80s medley of my own. And it’s a good opportunity to show how I intended the riffs posts to be used. And it means there’s plenty of scope to add your favourites to the medley.
The first four songs are the same as Contemporary Man: Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, Phil Collins’ Sussudio, John Mellencamp’s Jack and Diane, Phil again with Another Day in Paradise. Then a couple of my favourites I’ve done before in the riffs series: Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel F and Jump by Van Halen.
More 80’s tabs and chords here.
Buy the Originals
Sledgehammert
Sussudio
Jack and Diane
Another Day In Paradise
Axel F
Jump
2013 is coming to an end. And it’s been another golden year for ukulele music. Here’s a rundown – in no particular order – of my favourite uke albums and EPs of year. Leave yours in the comments.
If you use Spotify you can listen to my Ukulele 2013 playlist with a much bigger selection of the year’s ukulele music. If you’re not a Spotifier here’s a list of the songs on it.
The Flamin’ Mamies – The Flamin’ Mamies
Who: Liverpool’s own toe tappin’ deco dames.
What: Rollocking 20s tunes.
Me & Amelia – Me & Amelia
Who: Brother and sister duo Zeke and Amelia.
What: Simon and Garfunkel for today’s swinging teens.
Ninebarrow – Kingdom EP
Who: British folk duo.
What: Pastoral and historical songs with beautiful harmonies back with perfect uke picking.
Keston Cobblers’ Club – A Scene of Plenty EP
Who: Instrument swapping Kentish five-some.
What: More of the ever popular tuba and ukulele combination on this selection of oom-pah folk pop.
Pokey LaFarge – La La Blues (Chords)
If you’ll allow me to be hipster for a minute, my love of Pokey LaFarge pre-dates Uke Hunt. I was singing his praises back in 2006 (in the grand old days when MySpace was a legitimate site to link to).
So I’ve no excuse for not doing one of his songs before. Luckily, Gavin’s ukulele version of La La Blues was more than enough to give me a kick up the arse.
Suggested Strumming
For the main strum you can use this once each for A, E7 and D.
d – x u – u d u
Then play one down strum (d – ) on the D again and switch to D7 for the rest of the bar playing:
d u – u d –
Then back to the main pattern. Play it twice for the final A.
Put those together and you get this:
Twiddly Bits
Here’s a uked version of the intro:
And this is my favourite little run to play in the outro:
Here it is played slow then up to speed:
Links
Blackbird have just released the Blackbird Clara ukulele made from plant fibre. One of the few ukuleles made from renewable materials.
Some spectacularly colourful ukulele gig bags and cases from Musical Miscellany.
Never seen one of these before: KoAloha Solid Body Tenor prototype.
Fender have finally got on the ukes-that-look-like-Fender-guitars bandwagon with the Fender ’52 ukulele.
Kala are continuing to add to their Ukadelic range including:
Swirls, cheesy beach night and cool decorated skulls and steampunk.
Lanikai LKS-TEU complete with USB connection and Gibson-style fret markers.
1930s The Egyptian Ukulele by Regal.
Pictures
Ivan Petrovitch
Margaret Thompson (as seen on Boardwalk Empire)
heART for PEACE: auction of decorated ukuleles to benefit victims of the typhoon in the Philippines.
New Releases
– Can’t Stop, Shan’t Stop – Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer.
– Heretics by Rusty Cage.
– An Evening With Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer (Live)
– Lost Forever by Craig Robertson.
– Easy Christmas Song ebook.
– Ma Petite’s – Winter Comes, Winter Goes
Pictures
– Dog, beard, ukulele.
– Ukulele haul.
– Grand Cat Show, 1883.
– Decorated ukuleles.
Kickstarting
Videos
– George Formby’s Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith (Thanks to Ron Hale).
– Former Australian PM, Julia Gillard’s rant at ‘sexist’ Tony turned into a song.
Murray Gold – I Am The Doctor (Tab)
Following on from Charlie McDonnell’s Big Bang 2 with the tune from Doctor Who it was based on: Murray Gold’s I Am The Doctor. The theme for Matt Smith’s Doctor.
I also jammed a reference to the main Doctor Who Theme in at the end.
7/8 Time
The main theme is in rather tricky 7/8 time. When counting it I went with “1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4”. But once I’d got the hang of playing it I dropped the count and just went with the swing of it.
Trickiest Bit
The high, screechy violin bit in bars 5-8. You can simplify this a couple of ways. You can drop the note on the A-string 8th fret at the end of the bar and just stick with the 10th fret. Or you could play a simpler version without the screeches. Either repeat the first four bars or play bars 17-20.
Links
Buy the original on iTunes
More Trock tabs and chords.
More theme tune tabs and chords.
