Last year was another golden year for ukulele music. And it’s time again to spread the love for your favourites in this year’s vote.

For the first stage, everyone gets to nominate up to 5 videos – leave them in the comments (click here for the comments section if you reading by email or RSS). From those nominations, I’ll cobble together a list of ten (ish) that will be voted on in the next round. Use whatever criteria you like. I went with whichever videos/songs I enjoyed most.

The Rules

The rules remain as ramshackle as ever:

– There has to be a ukulele in there.
– Videos must have been originally uploaded in 2012.
– Videos must be publicly available online.
– Maximum of five nominations per person.
– Post your nominations in the comments.
– Nominations close midnight Tuesday 5th February.
– Ten(ish) acts with the most nominations go into the final vote with their most nominated song going forward.
– No prize. Just the love and admiration of the heaving masses.
– No sucking up by nominating me.

Don’t panic if your comments don’t show up right away. First time commenters and comments contains a few links can get held back for spam checking.

My Nominations

Ali Ingle – Ribcage
Keston Cobblers’ Club – For, Words
Mike Love – No Regrets
Laura Marling – Not Done Travelling
Ukulollo – The Earth Under My Feet

Videos You May Like

To jog your memory, here are some more videos that have caused a stir in the comments, on the net or in my pants:

Eddie Vedder – Sleeping By Myself
Wilfried Welti – Gymnopedie No. 1
Walk off the Earth – Red Hands
Walk off the Earth – Gang of Rhythm
James Hill – Heart Shaped Tattoo
Glen Hansard – Come Away To The Water
Stephin Merritt – Andrew in Drag
Jake Shimabukuro – Island Fever Blues
Danielle Ate the Sandwich – Faith in a Man
MrJnobianchi – The Dumber They Come
Carly Rae Jepsen, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots – Call Me Maybe
sanfordandsong – Classical Gas
Svavar Knútur og Markéta Irglová – Baby, Would You Marry Me?
Daniela Andrade – Places We Should Be
War Jacket – Pour Traverser
Ewan Wardrop – In Da Club
Ali Ingle – Tornado
UkuleleTim – Tim’s Jig
Catey Shaw – Family
OK Go – Needing/Getting
Le Royal Boudoir Orchestra – Digga Digga Do
Elof & Wamberg – Øresundsreel
Krabbers – Stuff Ain’t Good
Lisa Hannigan – Somebody That I Used to Know
Sophie Madeleine, Jocelyn Mackenzie & Emily Hope Price – Bei Mir Bist Du Schön
The Vespers – Flower Flower
Jessica Latshaw – Ain’t My Friend
McFly – Love Is Easy
Ben Torres & Camryn Wessner – Banjo
Herman Vandecauter – Ukulele Blossoms
Joy Ike – Movin’ On
Elizabeth Mitchell – Froggie Went a Courtin’
LP – Wasted Love
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – This Charming Man
Ukulollo and Craig – Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Nicholas Abersold – Love Me For My Money
Peter Delaney – Pariah Chimes
The Staves – The Motherlode
Leftover Cuties – Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman – Psycho

I’m a bit queezy about both hip-hop parodies and George Formby parodies. But I took a metaphorical leaf out of 50 Cent’s literal book and didn’t let fear stop me doing this Formbied version of In Da Club.

He tuned up half a step for this but I played it with a capo on the first fret. If you’re just playing for your own amusement you can keep it in standard tuning.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this as your main strumming pattern:

d – d – d u d u

And switch that up with four down strums whenever the mood takes you.

In da chorus: Do the main strum twice each for the C7 and F. For the next C7 do the main strum followed by two down strums. Then one down strum each for the Db7 – C7. Slowed down, it sounds like this:

Chorus Strum

In da verse: Main strum twice for each chord.

In da middle: Main strum twice for each chord. One down strum for the last chord.

In da intro: You can do a fancy bit of triplet strumming (the TTTs are triplets) with this once for the first F and C7:

TTT D –

Then one down strum each for the rest. Slowed down, it sounds like this:

Intro strum

Links

Ewan Wardrop’s Formby show
Buy the 50 Cent version
More hip hop tabs

A whole shed-ton of great ukulele videos since the last UkeTube. So many I’ve had to divide them up between this week and next.

The first instalment includes Ukulelezaza’s band the Oona Libens Trio, a track from Jake Wildwood’s new album (his best yet – download it), a track from Celisse Henderson’s live EP, apartment-hopper Matt Kresling and plenty more.

Full Playlist

Read the rest of this entry »

NAMM: Music’s big show-off shindig has started. Follow Ukeeku for all the important ukulele action. For starters, here’s a Lanikai USB ukulele and songwriting dice.

New Releases: Jake Wildwood Has Been Framed (it’s free to download – scroll past the burning house), Blue Dean Carcione’s Bad Things & Good People, live EP from Celisse Henderson, Kara Square’s Love Songs for Everyone Especially Uke.

Pictures: The Sea ukulele (watch it being drawn here), Johnny Marvin festooned with ukuleles, Ukulele convention by Melissa Four

Captain Beefheart’s rules for playing guitar.

Halifax Ukulele Gang’s giant songbook.

Ralph Shaw asks What’s the next chord?.

Bric-a-brac: Sloth Playing the Ukulele t-shirt, UKULELE a giclee

Videos: 3D printable ukulele test (sounds better than I thought it would but I expect 3D printers are going to be most useful for nuts and bridges in the uke world), Wilfried Welti compares the ukuleles in his collection, Miss Universe doing a ukulele cover, Carmen Electra is clearly into ukulele players.

When I got my first ukulele, I was completely clueless. This was in those dark, long forgotten days before the internet had been discovered. I didn’t even realise that the strings weren’t supposed to go thickest to thinnest and restrung it.

So, to save you from the social disgrace I experienced, I’ve put together a free mini-ebook covering the basics that every first time uke owner needs to know. Here’s what it contains:

Five Things to Know
Five Chords to Learn
Five Songs to Play
Five Websites to Visit
Five Things to Get Free
Five Things to Buy
Five Videos to Watch
Five YouTube Channels to Subscribe to

You can download it free by clicking here:

And get playing by following the beginner ukulele lessons.

That’s it from me this year (except the usual one for the Christmas uke-getters). I’ll be back late-January.

Until then, happy holidays (if you’re into that kind of thing) however you choose to spend it. I’ll be eating, drinking, gambling and letting my servants wear my clothes in celebration of Saturnalia.

If you can’t bear to be without a steady stream of uke, I’ll be posting bits and pieces on my Tumblr and UkeToob. And on Twitter if I get really bored.

See you in 2013 (the year of the F chord) or – if we get apocalypsed – in hell.

The traditional Christmas line-up with a few additions. Including the UOGB and Mariah Carey.

If you’re not sick of Christmas music after this there’s a Ukulele Christmas Spotify playlist here. And some excellent free/pay-what-you-like stuff from Fox and the Hound and Ballard C Boyd.

If you are sick of Christmas music I don’t blame you and here’s a Spotify playlist of the ukulele hits of 2012.

Full Playlist

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s an awful lot to recommend this song. It’s a very sweet Christmas song. It references Stephin Merritt (I think). It was on the same Cherryade Christmas album as that Christmas song I sort of wrote the music for that one time. And it’s also only got three chords in.

The down side is that you need a capo on the second fret (or use D-tuning). But you can even skip that if you don’t mind singing it a tone lower.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this as the main strumming pattern:

d – d – – u d u

Which sounds like this:

Strum MP3

In the verse: do that once for every chord except the G at the end of the third line of each verse (where you do it twice).

In the middle: do eight down strums for the Cs and the main strum on the others.

Twiddly Bits

The little xylophone bit transfers to uke well. Here it is assuming you’re capoed:

Solo MP3

Without the capo, you can play it like this.

Buy it on Bandcamp

Instructions:

– Grab a piece of paper
– Display your uke knowledge
– Check the answers here (no peeking)
– Leave your score in the comments along with your dangs/woohoos.

Name That Chord

What chords are these on a standard C-tuned (gCEA) ukulele?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Name That Celeb

Which famous person is ukuleling in these pictures?

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Name That Lyric

In which popular ukulele song do these lyrics appear?

11. Oh, tiptoe from the garden / By the garden of the willow tree

12. Where troubles melt like lemon drops / High above the chimney top / That’s where you’ll find me

13. Lips that once were mine / Tender eyes that shine

14. Turned up nose / Turned down hose / Flapper, yes sir, one of those

15. Lets get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France / Lets get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance

Name That Ukulele

What brand are these ukuleles? (You don’t have to name the model but I’ll be suitably impressed if you do)

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

Name That Note

In tab for standard C-tuning (gCEA) what notes are these? (e.g. C, D, Eb)

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

Name That Cover

Which act are these ukulele orchestras covering?

26. Trellebelle Ukulele Orchestra

27. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

28. Sinfonico Honolulu

29. Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra

30. The West Cork Ukulele Orchestra

Go here and check the answers.

Past Quizzes

Ukulele Quiz 2011
Ukulele Quiz 2010
Ukulele Quiz 2009

John “King God” Roderick and Jonathan “Jonathan Coulton” Coulton got together this year to make a wunnerful Christmas album with this standout ukulele track.

I couldn’t find the album version streaming on the web anywhere. But here it is on Spotify:

The chord shapes in the chart are, as ever, just one option. Feel free to use these inversions.

Twiddly Bits

Here’s a broad idea of the picking part for each section.

The picking is very tricky. Particularly at this speed.

The thumb is picking the g and C strings, the index finger the E and the middle finger the A. But there’s no set pattern to the picking. I’d highly recommend starting off by slowing it right down and using a more fixed picking pattern. Then work up your own version of the picking from there rather than trying to recreate the original exactly.

Buy it on JonathanCoulton.com