A documentary about the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain The Ukes Down Under is raising funding. Robert Stern made a documentary about them six years ago and has filmed them again on their Australian tour this year. There’s the usual array of rewards including copies of both documentaries and a chance to appear on the DVD. You can fund it and find out more on the Indiegogo page.

I love this little ukulele animation: Heart Strings.

New Releases: New covers EP from Leftover Cuties, Craig Robertson has a new album songs inspired by Film Noir titles, Corner Laughers’ Poppy Seeds. And Anne Janelle’s debut solo album is out – you may know her as James Hill’s partner Anne Davison and James ukes on a couple of the tracks.

Lil Rev talks about Ukuleles In Old Time Music. And here’s a direct link to the PDF.

The Britain’s Got Talent judges weren’t impressed with the kazookeylele but other uke acts did well. Loveable Rogues reached the final (international version and The Jive Aces made it to the semis (Non-UK version).

The Uke of Wallington is Radio 4’s book of the week (thanks to @pabloscott).

The Garfunkel and Oates App has chords for their songs.

Ukulele pins

On Uker Tabs: Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Take a Pebble

I lied to everyone and told them I could play the ukulele.

I thought I’d posted this one months ago but there it was in my drafts. And it deserves posting because the Leftover Cuties album puts a grin on my face every time I hear it. It’s an effective poppy updating of the 30s uke sound. And it’s a good time for it to crop up because the Cuties have a new collection of covers coming out soon. You can preorder it here and get two tracks straight away.

Suggested Strumming

In the verses you can keep it dead simple with:

d – d – d – d u

And in the choruses you can use:

d – d u – u d –

Easy Version

If you’re not into barre chords, you can play this version with a capo on the first fret.

Twiddly Bits

The song has a great blues outro that goes like this in the original key:

And you can play the stylophone intro like this:

Move both of those down a fret if you want to play it in the easy key.

Buy the MP3

I’m taking a break and I’ll be back on the 18th May.

An actual ‘venturing out of Woodshed Towers and going somewhere’ type of break for once. Although I will be spending most of the time lounging around watching snooker.

See you then.

A bit of sad news: Boulder Acoustic Society have gone their separate ways. But you’ll still be able to get your fill of old-timey ukulele because Aaron is continuing with his solo project The Quiet American.

One video from them today along with two traditional Irish tunes (I’m currently the under the influence of Charlie Connelly’s Our Man in Hibernia), a Stones-y Gaga cover from UOGB, fretboard wizardry from Tim and the Heff and plenty more besides.

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I’ve had a few people ask me about tabs for the melody lines I play in the chord examples in Ukulele for Dummies. So I’ve put a few bits together. This isn’t anything official or perfect – it’s just a cleaned up version of the tabs I made when I recorded them. But I wanted to do something as a thanks to everyone who has made the book a much bigger success than I was expecting by buying it, recommending it and reviewing it. You can download the tabs here and the password is the first word of Chapter 13:

Tabby Extra

If you haven’t left a review yet, it would be great if you could because it can end up with just people who want to moan about their CD missing or slow delivery reviewing it: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon CA.

Jim Tranquada and John King’s The Ukulele: A History is available for pre-order on Amazon (and five months later and twice the price in the UK).

Luna’s ukulele suitcase amp is very handsome.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain have put a chord chart for their version of Hot Tamales (PDF link) and they’ve started a video tutorial series.

After the Creative Commons post I made a list of my Creative Commons tabs and whatnot.

Bossarocker’s ukulele shindig Levenshulme Uke Up is having it’s second meeting and it’s going to be a regular deal. So if you’re in the Manchester area head along.

Free Music: Vespers sampler, Bone and Bell EP, Ariel Rubin.

Videos: Shit People Say to Ukulele Players, Kazookeylele on Britain’s Got Talent.

Pictures: Buster Keaton, Felix the Cat, cat/ukulele tattoo.

On Uker Tabs: Gold on the Ceiling by The Black Keys

Being a fan of playing theme tunes on the ukulele, I very much enjoy the Uke of Carl blog. Carl’s done some great tabs of movie, TV and game themes. It was the first birthday of his blog yesterday so I asked him to guest blog a few of his arrangements and he was kind enough to agree.

My Most Viewed Video

Theme from Angry Boys

I posted this late on a Friday night after watching the show. It was a quick one I worked out by ear. When I awoke on the Saturday morning it had notched up well over a thousand views. This was around 950 views more than I was used to at the time!

My Most Requested Tab

Theme from Morrowind

This is a lovely melody, I’m not surprised that I get almost daily emails asking me for a copy of the TAB. I’ve just started to play Skyrim, so updates to my site will probably begin to peter out until I get sick of it.

My Video With The Most ‘Dislikes’

Theme from Parks and Recreation

Although I don’t dwell on it, the dislike button on Youtube is a strange invention. This has had 5 dislikes so far, compared to 8 likes. Perhaps the public didn’t like the mask I made for the video? I think it’s a vast improvement to the one I normally wear.

The One That Took The Most Time

Theme from Star Trek

No matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t get a perfect take on this one. After around a month of nightly attempts, I settled with this performance. People have often remarked that I look bored in my videos. I’m not bored, just angry and frustrated that I take so long when recording.

Theme from Star Trek (Lead Sheet)

Visit Uke of Carl.

Download the MP3

Podcast #15 in your face.

And it’s the last one (or at least the last one in a good while). But it’s going out with a bang with an interview from Manitoba Hal and a bunch of great tracks.

A huge thanks to everyone who has let us play their tracks, been interviewed and played sessions. And to everyone who has listened, commented and spread the word about the podcast.

And most of all to Bossarocker who has dedicated a shed-load of blood, sweat, tears and baked goods to the show. You can keep track of what she’s up to on her website and on the Twitters.

Playlist:

1. Victrola Lague DeBushwick – Fascination

2. Thomas Oliver Jones – Find A Friend

3. Tyrone – Lonely

4. Ciati Conlin – Our Life in Concentration Camps Pt 1

5. The Brass Traps – Settle Down

6. Lesley Marie Boileau interviews Manitoba Hal feat:

7. Manitoba Hal – Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women

8. Manitoba Hal – Incredible Bread Washing Machine

9. Manitoba Hal – Atlanta

10. Phredd – It’s My Birthday

11. Joker the Boxhead – So To Speak

12. Jack Lidgeley – Ode to the Disillusioned Worker

13. Jim the Schoolgirl – Tiptoe Thru Tha Tulips

14. Loveswing – The Brave

15. The Love Leighs – Philadelphia

Now that Netflix has made its way to the UK, I’ve been binging on episodes of the middle-class meth-dealer show Breaking Bad. I’m slightly concerned about what I’m going to do when I’ve watched them all. The plan is to take the edge off by watching the middle-class pot-dealer show Weeds.

Which brings us to this song which was used as the Weeds theme tune.

Suggested Strumming

I’ve done it slightly differently this time. Instead of say ‘play this twice for blah blah…’ I’ve set it out so you can just do this pattern once each time you see a chord:

d – d u d u

Strum

The only exception is at the end of each verse. There do two downs on the F and one on the C7 before going back to the pattern. (Let me know in the comments if you want me to do that more in the future or never again.)

Or you could just do one strum each and follow it with some box slamming like they do in the video.

Twiddly Bits

You can play a version of the slide lick at the end like this:

Which sounds like this:

Outro

Buy the MP3

I was in a very spring mood earlier this week – helped by springy tunes from Herman VDC and Danna Richards – and then it went and bloody snowed. So this posted has ended up as blossoms and summer dresses mixed with furry collars and duck-sweaters.

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Left-handed ukulele chord chart for beginners.

Kate Micucci romances Conan O’Brien ( alt. link thanks to @ukegnome).

I celebrated my 100th video with a cover of Napalm Death.

Google’s Project Glasses clearly has a glitch. It doesn’t set off a giant alarm when the wearer buys a ukulele book other than Ukulele for Dummies (thanks to Zym). (I covered that tune too).

Most popular ukulele videos in March.

Play Ukulele By Ear has three questions for Bob Brozman.

Pictures: Mr. Burns is a Ukulele Hero, Sad puppy, Ukulele rockstar trio, Pat Boone plays Superman a song (Thanks to PaulC), The Id and the Ukulele.

On Uker Tabs: Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl and Mumford & Sons’ The Cave.

Videos: Ukulele robot, ukulele/hurdy gurdy.