I’ve been underwhelmed by the electric ukes I’ve tried but I’d certainly be willing to give this Pete Howlett Firefly Ukelectic a go.

String Tinkers cigarbox ukes (and other instruments).

Kickstarter for a plastic ukulele. Looks interesting but the minimum is more than I’d lay down on a Kickstarter. Plus it’s got a huge goal and a very long way to go.

A Turturro turnover mandolin ukulele (mandolin on one side, uke on the other) that actually looks in pretty good nick.

Photos: 1943 Camp Shelby, Ivan Petrovitch.

Keyboard baritone ukulele.

Lyon and Healy bell ukuleles turn up quite often but I think this is the first Lyon & Healy Vintage Bell Tiple I’ve seen.

Neil Armstrong: first ukulelist on the moon. You can celebrate the great man with the chords to Allo Darlin’s Neil Armstrong (thanks to Konrad).

New Music: Two solo ventures from band members. Small Fry by Will Grove-White (of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain) and Nocturnal Emissions by Ian Emmerson (of The Re-entrants). Also out is the marvellous One, for Words by Keston Cobblers Club; James Hill influenced uke and bass music 12 Ornli’ Syge Tracks For Ukulele Og Kontrabas by Elof & Wamberg; L’Uke Play Ukuleighties and La Bohème Moderne by MeggFarrell’s Whiskey Social

Further listening: new track from the upcoming Jake Shimabukuro album

New Books: Ukulelezaza Solo Ukulele Book and DVD, Ukulele Bartt’s beginner book and a free chord ebook from Craig Robertson, That Dress Song and Poster Book.

Further reading: Acoustic Guitar: Digital Edition Ukulele Special (Thanks to Ron Hale)

Pictures: Loads of vintage photos and ukuleles on uketeecee’s Tumblr dedicated to Martin ukuleles. Machete museum pieces. Goat ukulele salesman (via beginnersuke)

On Video: Inside Elderly Instruments documentary (via Ukulelia).

On Uker Tabs: Iron and Wine’s The Sea and the Rhythm

Hey girl, the Breaking Bad tab I put up earlier was really short so I made you another one.

This is the ukulele bit in Blue Valentine (and on the DVD menu) that isn’t You Always Hurt the One You Love.

Buy the Blue Valentine Soundtrack

I’ve been bitching about modern theme tunes for a long time. They all have atmospheric, doom-laden theme tunes you can’t even remember let alone hum in the shower. And the Breaking Bad theme is no exception. But the series is great so I wanted to do a version anyway. And I’m sure the inevitable Badger spin-off will have a great theme tune.

I started off playing this without the slide – which you can do if you don’t play slide – but it didn’t sound quite right. There’s a lot more pointers in my How to Play Slide Ukulele ebook but the main thing is to mute the strings behind the slide so you don’t get any nasty overtones. Other than that, you don’t have to be too careful with your technique. There’s a fair bit of slide noise in the original which just adds to the atmosphere.

Buy the MP3

If you’ve been following the blog closely you’ll certainly know Wilfried Welti. I’ve been posting his videos since 2007 and put up his two free tab books: Solo Ukulele für Einsteiger and Weihnachten mit der Ukulele.

If you were impressed by his arrangements you’ll want to get hold of the three ebooks he’s just released. He was kind enough to send me copies of them and they’re excellent. Wilfried has been working on these for years (I know because I’ve been talking to him about them for that long) and it really shows. The arrangements are as clean and meticulous as his playing.

He’s selling them way too cheap so I recommend you grab them before he comes to his senses. Here’s a quick overview of each one. But if you don’t want to faff about go here and add everything to your cart.

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I always think the best protest songs are the ones by the people directly affected by the issue. And Pussy Riot’s latest adds weight to that by being the best song by political prisoners since Mzwakhe Mbuli’s Triple B.

I’ve included phonetic lyrics cribbed from this site which also has the English translation.

In better news, West Papuan campaigner and ukulelist Benny Wenda‘s INTERPOL red notice has been lifted after it was recognised as being politically motivated.

Suggested Strumming

For a simple – and suitably punky – strum, in the intro and verses just this once for the A and G#:

d u d u d u d u

Then on the F# keep the same pattern but mute the strings (by releasing the pressure on the chord) so you’re playing this:

d u x x d u x x

Or you can do this little twiddle similar to the guitar part:

Together those sound like this:

Strum MP3

In the chorus it’s two down strums for the C, one each for the B and A. Then back to the pattern for F#.

Twiddly Bits

And here’s a uke version of the solo.

Visit FreePussyRiot.org

UPDATE: Here’s Melbourne Ukulele Kollective playing Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer.

Love this tune. The whole album is great. You can get it on Bandcamp on a ‘pay what you like’ basis.

First order of business: tune down a whole step to F Bb D G. Here are the tuning notes:

Tuning Notes

The strumming starts off dead easy. It’s just down strums. I like to play it with my thumb just to give you a bigger contrast with the loud bits. After that it gets a lot more complicated. My best advice is to go with the flow. Otherwise you can watch his pared down performance and follow that.

Twiddly Bits

On the second pair of Fmaj7-F6 in each line he does this little twiddle:

Get the album on his Bandcamp.

I haven’t been paying as much attention as usual so this week’s video roundup is a bit shorter than usual. If you’ve seen any videos I should know about leave them in the comments.

But among the videos I did find is one by the ever excellent Wilfried Welti. He’s just released three new e-books from Wilfried Welti. More on those when I’ve had the chance to check them out.

If you’re just watching the playlist, don’t miss Where Are All The Buffalo? on Vimeo.

NOTE: I usually can’t stand Formby parody covers of modern songs but this one is pretty great.

Full Playlist

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Beck is releasing his next album Song Reader only as sheet music, “and, when necessary, ukelele notation.”

Other books: The Bad Girls & Mean Women Songbook. Ode to uke – a ukulele novelty book (from the guy behind Ukulele Porn). The first book I’ve seen specifically for 6-string ukulele.

Release: The Love Leighs’ All Your Talk of Love

Videos: Garfunkel and Oates’s webseries on HBOGo (check your ukuleles for golden tickets). The inevitable ‘bunch of people on one ukulele covering Gotye’ video. Short film with Eddie Vedder: Ukulele Songs (just make sure his ukeing doesn’t make you, “puke on some chick.”).

On Uker Tabs: Marchetti’s Fascination

Pictures: Kauai Music and Sound’s logo looks familiar (Thanks to Rayan). Funny hats. Fixing Ohta San’s ukulele.

After the last hip hop riffs post people seemed keen for a follow up. And I’m more than happy to oblige with five six more.

Same riffs rules as always: it’s not the whole song and not necessarily in the original key.

Kanye West – Touch the Sky

Riff

A significantly slowed down sample of Curtis Mayfield’s Move On Up. The track was produced by Just Blaze and you can see him jamming on this song with, unexpectedly, John Mayer.

I’ve changed the key of this one to make it more ukeable. Here it is in the original key.

P.S. They censored “skeeted” in the video?

Beastie Boys – Sure Shot

Riff

My fingers kept tripping up over this one so I simplified it by removing the lead in note at the end of the second bar. If you’ve got mad skills you can play it like this:

Public Enemy – Public Enemy No. 1

Riff

Okay, so this is an intro more than a riff but it warrants inclusion by being great. It’s based on a 12-bar blues riff which is something you don’t hear a lot of in hip hop.

It’s in B so I’ve moved everything up a fret for the uke version.

BONUS: Killer Mike – Big Beast

Riff

I didn’t originally plan on including this one but I had to for three reasons:

– It borrows from the Public Enemy No 1 intro.
– I love Killer Mike.
– The video is completely insane.

Like Public Enemy No 1, it’s in B but I’ve moved it up a fret for the uke version.

Jay Z – Dirt Off Your Shoulders

Riff

I included Jay Z twice in the last hip hop post and again in this one. I’m sure this fact will be bragged about in the next song he does about how awesome Jay Z is.

Eminem – The Real Slim Shady

Riff

Keep the notes on this one really short by releasing pressure on the strings right after you play them. I’d recommend barring the third fret with your index finger all the way through.

More Hip Hop

Hip Hop Riffs Part 1
Mr B – Chap Hop History
Jay Z – Death of Autotune
Biz Markie – Just a Friend
Outkast – Hey Ya

More riffs for ukulele