Pierre Borghi was kidnapped by the Taliban. He kept himself sane with thoughts of ukuleles.
Leftover Cuties are Kickstarting. Many uke rewards for grabs.
Custom designed pocket ukulele.
The xx – Intro (Harp Ukulele Tab)
The xx were the highlight of my sofa-Glastonbury this year. It might have been Arctic Monkeys if it weren’t for that weird gameshow host thing and the cheesy, Oasis-style string arrangements. For a better example of arranging for pop bands have a listen to Alex Baranowski’s work with The xx.
Anyway, their performance inspired me to have a go at this instrumental piece. I first tried it on standard uke but it didn’t work out. I moved on to low-G with was better. Then I went insane and decided to drag my aNueNue harp ukulele out of deep storage.
Harp Ukulele
The harp strings on the uke are supposed to be tuned C, D, E, F. But I retuned the bottom two to A. One to pluck and the other to give a bit of sympathetic resonance. The sympathetic resonance turned out quite well. You can particularly hear the reverb-like effect at the beginning.
Important: The letters above the tab represent the bass note being played in that bar they’re not the chords.
Low-G
The strings tabbed are just tuned like a normal low-G. And it’s tabbed in the same key as the original. So if you’re playing a low-G you can just play this tab along with the record or a bass-playing friend.
Standard Tuning Version
To play it with a high-g ukulele you’ll need to move the whole thing up an octave. Here’s a tab for that. This time with the chord names above the tab.
The xx – Intro (gCEA Tab)
Links
But the MP3
Thexx.info
Crystalised Intro Tab
Here Comes the Sun on Harp Ukulele
The last Three Weird Ass Scales proved popular so here are three more to introduce some new sounds to your playing.
A quick restatement of the disclaimer:
– The “weird ass”ness of the scales depends entirely on your perspective.
– The examples are a lame pastiche rather than an authentic example of use.
Double Harmonic Minor – Hungarian Scale
How it Sounds
In C
C – D – Eb – F# – G – Ab – B – C
In General
1 – 2 – b3 – #4 – 5 – b6 – 7
How to Play It
An Example
Japanese In Scale
How it Sounds
You Might Recognise it From: Sakura, Sakura
In C
C – Db – F – G – Ab – C
In General
1 – b2 – 4 – 5 – b6
How to Play It
An Example
Dominant Bebop Scale
How it Sounds
In C
C – D – E – F – G – A – Bb – B – C
In General
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – b7 – 7
How to Play It
An Example
Pictures
– Iris Boudreau’s painted character ukuleles.
– Fishy machete.
Videos
– Ukulele live documentary
– George Formby’s uke meets Tiny Tim’s
– George Harrison plays the Ukulele at home (possibly)
New Releases
– Something Is Wrong With Me, Part 2 by Craig Robertson
– Demos from Sweet Soubrette
– Henry the Rabbit.
– Free EP from Jacob Borshard.
Kickstarting
– Sophie Madeleine: new album for 2013
– Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s Scottish trip
Campaigning against ukuleles in schools: “These taxpayer-supported schools are hell-bent on indoctrinating your innocent, unsuspecting children into the ways of the ukulele, an unholy instrument of Satan.” Couldn’t agree more.
Eddie Vedder – Tuolumne (Tab)
Nype suggested I do a uke version of Eddie Vedder’s Tuolumne from the soundtrack of Into the Wild (and the precursor to Just Breathe). I was a bit trepedacious as a lot of guitar picking songs end up finger-crunchingly tricky on ukulele. But it actually works out very well. I didn’t even have to change the key.
Trickiest Bit
Moving down from the 10th fret at the end of bar 2 to the 3rd fret. If you have trouble with that you can take off that 10th fret and just play bar 2 like bar 3.
Picking Pattern
The right hand is doing a constant Travis-picking pattern. The thumb alternates between the g and C-strings, the index finger picks the E-string and the middle finger picks the A-string.
Here’s the pattern:
And here’s what it looks like slowed down:
The only variation is that I occasionally miss out the final i to buy some time for the chord change. And the slow-down bit at the end of bar 7.
Links
It’s about half way through 2013 so time to run through a few of my favourite things so far this year. I’m sure I’m forgetting something so leave your faves in the comments.
Favourite Posts
Tabs
Muppet Show Theme
Elvis Costello – Shipbuilding
Pi for Ukulele
Mega Man II – Flash Man Theme
Chords
John Bianchi/Eddie Cantor – The Dumber They Come
Kelli Rae Powell – Some Bridges are Good to Burn
Johnny Cash/James Clem – Big River
Daft Punk – Get Lucky
Favourite Videos
Celisse Henderson – Well
Matt Kresling – My Apartments In Order
Catey Shaw – Run, Run, Run
Brendan Maclean – Stupid
The Staves – Facing West
Sarah Humphreys – Why Don’t We Just Stay Home
Sanford and Adrien Sala and Tesia Rhind – As the Living Do
Keston Cobblers’ Club – Beam
Not Songs
Dale Seever – Spending Time With…Cory McAbee
Matt Kresling – The Madagascar Journals, Episode 3
Favourite Records
Spotify: Ukulele 2013
Check out my Ukulele 2013 Spotify playlist.
Albums and EPs
Various – The Ukulele Mixtape – Various
The Flamin’ Mamies – The Flamin’ Mamies
Phil Doleman & Ian Emmerson – Turn
Manitoba Hal – Devil on the Wall
Ukulollo – Devotion
Singles
Leftover Cuties – One Heart
Nicholas Abersold – Pollux
Catey Shaw – Run, Run, Run
Arctic Monkeys – Fluorescent Adolescent (Chords)
About 1,750 posts ago I put up The Arctic Monkeys’ Despair in the Departure Lounge. Since then there’s been a steady trickle of requests for Fluorescent Adolescent. So it’s about time I got round to it.
It’s a fairly difficult one. Lots of barre chords, the dreaded E chord and some confusing rhythms. Still, none of it’s as tricky as spelling the title.
Twiddly Bits
Arctic Monkeys – Fluorescent Adolescent Intro (Tab)
Here’s the intro part arranged for two ukuleles.
Or you can just about fit both parts on to one ukulele. Which sounds like this:
Or play just the lead line.
Links
Buy the MP3
Despair in the Departure Lounge chords
AM Medley tab
