New Releases
– Spirit Runners (Kate McLennan and Noel Tardy) Choose Love.
– New live album from UOGB Uke-Werk Live in Germany. And here they are being interviewed by Stefan Raab (in English).
– Williwaw – another diversionette.
Videos
– Helen Arney sings a googol.
– Vaudeville Entertainer Bobbie “Uke” Henshaw Plays His Ukulele (thanks to Ron Hale). Read his bio here.
– Don’t take a ukulele to a guitar fight.
Pictures
– Lots of lust-worthy restored vintage ukes on Antebellum Instruments.
– Film-inspired ukulele designs.
– Charles Dance takes a uke break.
After an extended hiatus Makapili Ukuleles – a favourite of Wilfried Welti – are back in business.
Takashi Tateishi – Mega Man 2: Flash Man Theme
I’ve always had a bias towards 80s game themes. Which I’ve taken to be partly because I did most of my gaming in the 80s and partly because 80s game music was much better.
But the ever-interesting – even for non-gamers – Extra Credits had an episode about video game music a while back made me look at it in a more nuanced way.
They make the convincing argument that game music hasn’t got worse, just less memorable. I’d completely forgotten that game music was there primarily to increase immersion in the game. And as far as that goes game music certainly is better now that it was in the 80s.
But the fact that 80s game composers were restricted to three notes and had to come up with memorable tunes certainly does make for good conversions to ukulele. And I think the Flash Man theme from Mega Man 2 works particularly well.
Trickiest Bits
Bars 3 and 4: I use fingerpicking through most of the song. But for the rapidfire notes in bar 3 and the first half of bar 4 I’m strumming.
I switch back to picking for the last half of the bar. Fret the third and second frets here with your ring and middle finger and have your index finger on the E-string second fret ready for the pull-off.
Bar 17: For the last note barre across the second fret.
Bar 21: If you’re using a soprano ukulele you can play this bar like this:
Links
Buy the MP3
Interview with Takashi Tateishi and other early Mega Man composers
More Game Theme Tabs
For a bit of a lark and a time-waste I’ve put together a couple of ukulele-related crosswords.
The first is ukulele-related stuff (uke parts, accessories, sizes etc.). And the second one you have to work out the surname (or last bit of their pseudonym in some cases) of various famous ukers.
You can either do them online or download and print out the PDFs. Either way, you’ll need to download the answer PDFs to get the solutions.
Leave me a comment telling me how you did and whether you’d like more of them.
Ukulele Crossword
Ukulele Players Crossword
Ukulele Players: Online Version
Warning: Spoilers in the comments.
She & Him – I Could’ve Been Your Girl (Chords)
I’ve been enjoying the new She & Him album a whole lot since its release. I was originally going to write up the album’s ukulele song but went with this one instead because it’s great.
Suggested Strumming
Good with the old standby:
d – d u – u d –
You can jazz it up with a touch strum on the first down-strum (so you’re just lightly strumming the g and C strings) and a four-finger strum on the second. So it sounds like this:
Do that once for every chord. Except the last A chord in verses 2 and 3 and the instrumental section where you do it twice.
Twiddly Bits
Here’s M Ward’s little twiddle at the end of the choruses:
Links
Buy the MP3
SheAndHim.com
She & Him – Gonna Get Along Without You Now (Chords)
She & Him – Sentimental Heart (Chords)
Peter Luongo is retiring as head of the Langley Ukulele Orchestra after over 30 years. He’s going to be replaced by his son, and mighty fine player, Paul Luongo.
Watch
– Episode 3 of Matt Kresling and his ukulele’s Madagascar Journals. This episode: lady troubles in Mozambique. This is a fantastic series. If you’re not up to speed episode 1 is here.
– PBS’s Jake Shimabukuro documentary Life on Four Strings if you’re in the right part of the world.
– Spending Time With…Cory McAbee (Thanks to Ron Hale).
New Releases
– Book documenting The Martin Ukulele by John King and
– Peter Delaney’s Witch Bottle
– The Flamin’ Mamies debut EP
– Ukulele by Jan Laurenz
Education secretary Gove back to school for ukulele (cc: everyone who believes that playing the ukulele will make you a better person crap).
Molly Lewis – Open Letter to Stephen Fry (Chords)
Another free culture ukulelist ahead of Culture Freedom Day today. This time Molly Lewis and her blush-making song for Stephen Fry.
Twiddly Bits
The intro has a fine piece of picking. There’s also a strummed version of it which crops up later in the song.
Links
Buy it on Bandcamp
sweetafton23.com
Britney/Molly Lewis – Toxic tab
Tom Cruise Crazy Chords
Still Alive Chords
Want You Gone Chords
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Ukulele Mixtape (Zip 59MB)
Continuing this week’s celebration of free culture ukulelists ahead of Culture Freedom Day with a free ukulele mixtape.
All the tracks are distributed under a Creative Commons license so you’re free to pass them along to anyone you think might enjoy them. And if you find anyone you like I strongly recommend throwing a bit of money in their direction.
Tracklist
1. I Can’t Dance (I Got Ants In My Pants) – The Flamin’ Mamies
CC BY-NC-ND
2. Oh, the Wind Will Blow – Doug Hoyer
CC BY-NC-ND
3. The Leopard – Craig Robertson
CC BY-NC-ND
4. A Simple Rag – Howlin’ Hobbit
CC BY-NC-SA
5. Down Today – Jonathan Coulton
CC BY-NC
6. Alone and Thinking of You – Kahiwa Sebire
CC BY-NC-SA
7. Sleep. – Entertainment for the Braindead
CC BY-NC-ND
8. St Guinefort etc. – Gwyn Edwards
CC BY-NC
9. A Heart With Your Name On It – Kara Square
CC BY-NC-SA
10. MyHope – Molly Lewis
CC BY-NC-SA
11. I Found It – Wisdom Tooth
CC BY-NC-ND
12. Roll of the Heart – The Drows
CC BY-NC
13. Ukulele Anthem – Amanda Palmer
CC BY-NC-SA
Jonathan Coulton – Re: Your Brains (Chords)
It’s Culture Freedom Day on Saturday. It’s a day to celebrate artists who let others freely use, study, distribute and improve on their work. That’s particularly useful for anyone learning an instrument as it means you can pass around tabs and chord sheets, play their songs and put them up on YouTube without fear of being hassled by the man.
So this week is dedicated to ukulelists who participate in free culture. Starting with one of Jonathan Coulton’s non-uke songs.
Suggested Strumming
In the verse: You can use this as the main strumming pattern:
d – d – d u d u
Except for the two quick chords at the end of lines 1, 2, 5 and 6. Just two down strums each for those.
Which – slowed down a little – sounds like this:
In the chorus: For the main strum:
d – d – x – x –
On the F chords you can just do down strums. Or you can follow the what he does by doing:
– One down strum on F
– Take your index finger off so you’re playing an Am shape. And strum that once.
– Do that four times.
So the chorus strum sounds like this:
In the bridge: One down strum for each chord.
Links
Buy the MP3
JonathanCoulton.com
Tom Cruise Crazy Chords
Christmas in July Chords
Want You Gone Chords
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
