Votes are pouring in for the Ukulele Video of the Year. A big early lead for Sophie Madeleine but the others are slowly catching up. Make sure you cast your vote before the deadline.
An early contender for my nomination for the 2013 list from Catey Shaw with a song that’s been run, run, running through my head all week. Also up is Steven Tyler doing an Aerosmith classic with Halemanu, Da Ukulele Boyz rip it up, Jim Boggia covers one of the most covered songs ever and plenty more.
Did you forget about Valentine’s Day? The only way to make it up is with a Kanilea Ku’Uipo with a heart shaped soundhole.
Jack Johnson and Pepe Romero signed cigarbox ukulele in aid of the Kokua Hawaii Foundation.
The Todd Rose ukulele both looks and sounds very interesting (via Phredd).
Pictures: 1960s girl group (if anyone recognises them please leave a comment), Henry James Soulen’s The Ukulele Player
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that the site has been updated. Two big differences: UkeToob is now properly integrated with the rest of the site and the site should now be more usable on your phone. If you come across anything acting funky, please do let me know.
Along with that, I’ve started using a new service for email subscriptions. Feedburner, which I’ve been using so far, seems to be slowly dying and the new one looks much better and is more reliable. So if you want the new one, sign up in the sidebar and unsubscribe from the old one (click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of the old, ugly emails).
Will Grove White of the UOGB does Gangnam Style ukulele style.
Gibson sues SpongeBob SquarePants over flying V ukuleles.
New Releases:
– Kelli Rae Powell has just released a live record, if you haven’t heard her stuff before it’s the perfect jumping off point. Listen and buy on her website.
– Covers EP from Allo Darlin’.
– Debut album from Da Ukulele Boyz.
Pictures:
– Joe Strummer with uke (one I haven’t seen before).
– Aero Uke ad.
Videos:
– Nicholas Abersold’s ukulele strumming machine.
– Take Elvis to the fair (via Ukulele Brasil).
– Ukulele on Bunheads.
I’m hoping the silver lining to the cloud of shitty comedy in the UK will be plenty more memorable theme tunes. Most shows seem to take themselves far too seriously to have a theme tune capable of being hummed or played on the ukulele.
But you couldn’t accuse the Dad’s Army theme of taking itself too seriously. It’s a pastiche of the already self-mocking music hall wartime song. The even recruited WWII crooner Bud Flanagan of Flanagan and Allan. Although I would say the cover by Billy Childish is the superior version.
My version is a mish-mash of strumming and picking. The simplest way to play it is to set up your right hand the one-finger-per-string way with:
Thumb – g
Index – C
Middle – E
Ring – A
Once you’re confident doing that you can throw in strums where you see fit.
The nominees for the 2012 video of the year are in. Cast your vote in the doodad below. If you’re reading by email or feed reader and can’t see it click here to be taken to be taken to the blog.
You can only vote once and polling closes at midnight Hawaii time on 24th February. I’d encourage you to watch any you’re not familiar with but other than that, go wild. Vote for whoever you like for whatever reason you like (who wins isn’t as important as getting some exposure for excellent videos). And, contrary to what an idiot told you yesterday, WOTE are nominated.
Sophie Madeleine – Bei Mir Bist Du Schön: 400 40%
John Bianchi – The Dumber They Come: 205 21%
Walk Off the Earth – Summer Vibe: 150 15%
Laura Marling – Not Done Travelling: 130 13%
Keston Cobblers’ Club – For, Words: 93 9%
Julia Nunes – When I Fall In Love: 17 2%
The vote for Ukulele Video of the Year starts tomorrow. You’ll have to wait until then to see the nominees. One thing I will reveal: Walk off the Earth didn’t make the cut. A surprise to me given how huge a year they had last year. In order to console this huge blow to their career, here’s WOTE’s Sarah Blackwood and her Big Muff covering Weezer’s Say It Ain’t So.
I’ve tabbed up this version. But if you want to play it in the same key as Weezer play the same chords with a capo on the third fret.
Intro
The intro combines chords and a bit of picking like this:
Verse
In the verse you’re strumming on the off-beats. Also, rest your hand on the string afterwards so they should short.
– d – d
For the F and the C at the end of the verse do the same as at the end of the intro: d u x on F then one up strum for C.
Together they sound like this:
Chorus
Do this once each for Am and E:
d u x x
Once each for Am and E.
Then for F: d u x
Then C: u – u d u
Notice you’re coming in on the C on the up-strum; slightly earlier than the down strum you come in on the other chords. At the end of the intro/chorus just hold the first up-strum on the C.
Together they sound like this:
There’s little bit of picking at the end of the verses:
And the big solo goes like this:
Don’t forget to make your nominations for your favourite videos of 2012.
This is part two of the holiday roundup, so a few of these are eligible for nominations including Blue Dean Carcione doing a track from his new album and Dennis Schütze’s playing of Handel. Other’s you’ll have to make a note for like The Seattle Castaway’s debut video and Sarah Maisel’s wonderful version of In a Sentimental Mood.
It’s tough trying to sell ukuleles in 2013. The selection of ukuleles gets more bloated every year. Recent new entrants include Eastman, Godin and Lâg Guitars, Moku and AmiAmi.
Looking at Ukeeku and Ukulele Underground‘s coverage of the music trade show NAMM it’s clear it’s too late to put out a well-made, sweet-sounding ukulele and expect anyone to give a shit.
Here’s your complete guide to ukulele selling tactics of 2013:
Get them endorsed by a dead guy:
– Bill Tapia ukuleles (Ukeeku was particularly scathing about these in his NAMM roundup).
– Martin’s IZ tribute ukulele.
– Peavey’s Jack Daniel’s ukulele.
Hire musicians that can make any uke sound great:
– Benny Chong and Byron Yasui for Kamaka
– James Hill and Bakithi Kumalo for Kala
– Yuna playing for Taylor
– Sarah Maisel for DaSilva.
– Gerald Ross and Ken Middleton for Ohana.
Make it gaudy:
– The route one of making your ukulele stand out. This has been a successful tactic for Luna so they’re stepping up their game with mermaids, fairies and dragons.
– The Mahalo “art series” goes with skulls, hearts, spiders and signs of the zodiac.
– Collings go with flowers, spaceships and snakes.
– Even the tuners are getting in on the act with Swiff’s cartoon tuners featuring aliens, batman and a reindeers.
Banjoleles and Resonators:
– Magic Fluke’s new banjoleles (one designed by Janet Klein)
– Kala’s banjolele and resonator ukuleles.
– Guitar resonator specialists Beard has introduced Beard ukuleles (no match for the moustache ukulele of course)
Outdated selling techniques:
– Mahalo go with cultural appropriation, sex and dancing Gangnam style. Knock it off, Mahalo.
Shapes and sizes
– Eleuke’s peanut shape
– Kala have made their pocket uke even tinier. One day it really will fit in your pocket just like a pocket chord dictionary.
A couple of years ago Patsy Monteleone set himself the task of covering 100 songs from the Great American Song book on ukulele. He’s been recording consistently great stuff and he’s final reached 100 (and done a bonus). You can listen and download them on his website (in the Box on the sidebar) for free. I highly recommend grabbing some.
If you’ve watched TV at all in the last two years, you’ll have noticed that ukuleles are used in 73% of ads. So no surprise that the 2013 award for Music in Advertising went to a uke-featuring ad: OK Go’s bit for Chevy. Their prize? A bunch of ukuleles.
Pictures: Ukulele Photoshop Contest, Formby doodles, Bruno Mars custom KoAloha.
Ukulele dominoes. If dominoes isn’t challenge enough for you try the board game for virtuosos.
Often seen as merely a , New York Times best-selling author with a huge YouTube following,
John Green’s lasting legacy will certainly be the videos of him semi-competently playing FIFA ’11 as Swindon Town on his brother’s YouTube channel. It must really annoy him that he won a Printz Award for his spare-time work while his magnum opus goes unrecognised.
But no great work goes unrecognised on this blog. So I hastily cobbled together a medley of Swoodilypooper goal songs. In the spirit of the game, they’re with heart rather than skill.
I didn’t include Lallana’s song in the medley because the minimum goal frequency for inclusion is, “occasionally”. But if you’re more lax you can play it like this.
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