I’ve only bought one ukulele this year (my aNueNue harp ukulele) and I haven’t entirely formed my opinion on that yet. But there’s other stuff I’ve bought this year (or wangled for free) that has been well worth the money.
Music
The ukulele albums I’ve listened to most this year are:
Both are a random assortment of tracks that happened to pop into my head. I’m sure I’ve left out plenty of stuff (and quite a few great uke albums aren’t on Spotify).
Books
I am, of course, going to be completely biased and suggest you buy a copy of Ukulele for Dummies.
On less self-interested note, I’d highly recommend Lil’ Rev’s 101 Ukulele Licks for anyone looking to do some ukulele soloing.
My copy of Ralph Shaw’s The Ukulele Entertainer has yet to wing its way across the ocean but – since it’s based on his blog posts – I feel confident that’ll be well worth the money.
On a non-ukulele front, and after some initial skepticism, I took the plunge and bought a Kindle. It’s part of my drive to get rid of as much junk from my life as possible. I’ve tackled the biggest problem (CDs) and books are next on the list (ukuleles are third – don’t know what I’m going to do about that). Best thing about it: you can hook it up to Instapaper and make it a whole lot easier to read long articles on the net.
If you’re worried about me being easily bought (a very fair position to hold) the stuff I got free was: Leftover Cuties, Emily Scott and 101 Ukulele Licks. I would have gladly paid full whack for all of them.
I thought I’d do a tab to give you an idea of what the stuff in the How to Play Christmas Ukulele ebook is like. Which, by the way, you can get $2 off if you use the code ‘armadillo’ by the 18th December.
But I’m not sure why I chose this one. I can’t stand the ‘baby Jesus meek and mild’ lyrics. I’m more into the ‘Jesus is here to fuck shit up‘ songs. But the tunes nice.
Like in the ebook, I’ve done two arrangements for this. The first one is a full arrangement that has the melody and back played on one uke. It’s arranged very simply. The right hand is all done with the thumb. And the left hand is based on familiar chord shapes (F, Bb, Gm and C).
Melody Arrangement
Away in a Manger (Melody Arrangement Tab)
The second arrangement is even simpler. The tab is just the single note melody which stays in the first position (except a quick trip to the fifth fret). And the chords above it.
For the strumming I’m doing this once for each bar:
– 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.
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4.
5.
Name That Celeb
Which famous person is ukeing in these pictures?
6.
7. Half a point each.
8.
9.
10.
Name That Singer
Who is singing these ukulele songs? (Update: Round ruined by YouTube changes!)
11.
12.
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14.
15.
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)
Also up this week: The Jive Aces, Imelda May, Injured Birds using a banjolele in a new way and plenty more besides.
You can blame YouTube for this week being shorter than usual. They took away the x button that allowed you to get rid of videos in your subs box (even after you’ve watched them). And then they took away the two pages that still let you do that. So I’ve probably missed a whole load of good stuff.
Aquila have had to stop making real gut strings due to mad cow disease. Before you panic, it shouldn’t affect their bionylon and nylgut strings (thanks to Zym).
No Hawaiian category in the new slimmed down Grammys. But the ukulele is represented in the 2012 nominations list by Eddie Vedder’s Ukulele Songs. My nominations for Ukulele Album of the Year are:
I’ve just put out the 2nd edition of How to Play Christmas Ukulele. The main points of feedback I got from the first edition were:
– Make the arrangements easier.
– Make the tabs bigger.
– Do videos.
So that’s what I’ve done.
I’ve made the full arrangements simpler. There’s less fancy fingerpicking – they’re mostly just using the thumb of the right hand. And even simpler still, I’ve done melody-only arrangements (so you’re just playing one note at a time) with chord boxes for the backing.
There are videos for all the full arrangements and MP3s for all the melody arrangements (they’re made so you can adjust the balance on your speakers and play along to the chord backing).
The book has a new look and the tabs are easier to read.
If you bought the first edition, you should already have an email letting you download the new edition free. If not, send an email to ukulelehunt@gmail.com with the email address you used to buy it and you’ll get the second edition.
Once you’ve paid (payments handled by PayPal) you’ll be taken to the download page and receive an email with a link to the page where you can download a zip file containing:
– Tab for full arrangements 11 Christmas tunes for standard tuning (gCEA re-entrant). You can watch videos of all of them being played on YouTube.
– Tab and standard notation for the melodies only with accompanying chord boxes.
– A pdf file containing performance notes for all the tunes and descriptions of some of the techniques used.
– MP3s of all the melody arrangements. You can hear the melody being played and – after a bit fiddling with your balance knob – use them as a backing track.
If you haven’t bought an ebook from me before you might want to read the FAQ page for more information. And if you’re using an iPad or any idevice, you’ll need to download to your computer, unzip and transfer the files from there.
The Full Arrangements
Here are the videos for all of the full arrangements:
I’ve just put out the 2nd edition of How to Play Christmas Ukulele. The main points of feedback I got from the first edition were:
