Walk off the Earth have certainly had a good start to 2012. Their five-people-on-one-guitar Gotye cover hit it big and they had plenty of other excellent videos to back it up. Including some uke action.
Also new since I last posted, Supercute! rope in Kate Nash and Andrew WK; David Wax Museum rock a jarana; drinking songs from The Sprialtones, Howlin’ Hobbit and Gerald Ross; and loads more besides.
This weekend is NAMM (the orgy of musical instrument makers) and this year the CEO of NAMM is putting his money on ukuleles. Follow the action on Ukeeku including Mahalo’s attempt at making a ukulele worse than the flying V and whatever the hell this is.
The big curiosity on eBay at the moment is this huge collection of ukuleles. Looks like an interesting set of ukes but the $55,000 price tag and the seven-word description are off-putting.
Strange ukulele-ish instrument.
Ipana Tooth Paste: protects gums and makes you play the ukulele weirdly close to your face.
Doll outfits are more expensive than all my clothes put together: Barbie’s Ken A Go-Go
After years of being promised, the Jake Shimabukuro tab book is finally on the way. It’s for his latest album, Peace, Love, Ukulele, but does have his arrangement of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Jontom has released a new ebook 50 Licks for Ukulele.
Ukulele juggling (via @WillGroveWhite).
Pierce Brosnan endorses Kamoa (via Ukulovely).
The Netherlands has a new premier ukulele outlet The Jumping Flea Market run by The Uke Box.
Trying to make conversation at the Corktown Ukulele Jam (via loriroberge).
New releases: Manitoba Hal’s Flirting with Mermaids, Kahiwa’s Love Story, MeggFarrell’s Whiskey Social, The K’s Simple As That
Lou ‘Bossarocker off of the podcast’ Armer is promising one new song a week in 2012.
There are plans for building this five-string ukulele at the bottom of this page (via Herman Vandecauter).
Springsteen on Vedder and the ukulele.
The great strumming pattern video list.
Amongst the works that would have entered the public domain on 1st January under the law in 1978 is ukulele-club favourite Folsom Prison Blues. As it is, it is going to be under copyright until 2051.
Not ukulele related, but check out Sorie Kondi on Kickstarter. He’s a musician from Sierra Leone. He’s been invited to play at South by Southwest but needs to raise the money to make the trip. From his Kickstarter page:
Being born blind in such a poor country and never receiving any formal education would seem like enough hardship by itself. But then his life was uprooted in 1996 when civil war forced him to leave his home and seek refuge in Freetown. Despite the ongoing war, he began recording his first album there in 1998, and finished it after 4 months. But on January 6, 1999, the rebels staged a brutal assault on Freetown called Operation No Living Thing. Almost all the city’s residents fled to the bush. Sorie was abandoned, forced to hide inside his house for 5 days while much of the city was looted and burned down. When the dust settled, the master tapes had been lost and his career plans derailed. He decided to remain in the capital city, in a neighborhood called Fourah Bay, renting a one-room shack perched on a dangerously steep hill (dangerous, that is, even for a sighted person).
This video went up yesterday and I’ve already had a deluge of requests. Including three from one person. So I’ve set aside my holiday shenanigans (and my irrationally intense dislike of JGL) and put it up in time for New Year’s.
It is a really lovely song with some nice jazzy touches. Like the I-II7-iv-V7 turnaround and the G#7 leading into the middle.
If you don’t fancy dashing up to the 6th fret for the F#7 you can play it this way.
For intro you can do this for the first three chords:
d – d u
And a down strum for the E7.
And you can do just down strums for the main bit of the song too.
In the verse: four down strums for the A and G7. Two each until the B chord (four for that) then back to two each.
In the middle: four down strums for the C#m and two each for the others in the first two lines. In the third line, six down strums for the C#m and two for the F#7. Then four each in the last line.
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 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.
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Uke Hunt Christmas Podcast 2011 in your face.
Packed with Christmassy tracks from acts including former session guests Uke’s Not Dead and Helen Arney. As with any Christmas, it contains swearing and adult themes.
1. Alfred Williams – The Queen’s Rap
2. Uke’s Not Dead & Helen Arney – Just for Christmas
3. Thomas Oliver Jones – Gabriel
4. Sara Dennis & Gavin Wood – (Be Mine) This Christmas Time
5. Ballard C. Boyd – The Firewood Song
6. Lloyd Gabriel – Choking You
7. Shiny and the Spoon – Buried
8. Jane Cameron – Cold Dead Leaves: Get the EP on Bandcamp
9. Ryan Patterson – Stainless Steel Man
10. Phredd – Merry Pirate Christmas
You can get in touch and submit tracks for consideration if you follow the rules (particularly the one about file format) via:
Last post of 2011 (except the usual one for the Christmas uke-getters and possibly a podcast). I’ll be back mid-January.
Until then, happy holidays (if you’re into that kind of thing) whatever that may be and however you choose to spend it. I’ll be eating, drinking, gambling and letting my servants wear my clothes in celebration of Saturnalia.
Here’s a selection of my favourite ukulele Christmas videos. See you in 2012!
Tis the season to be jazzy. And I’ve thrown some decidedly jazzy bits into this tune from A Charlie Brown Christmas.
I’ve added an intro with a few licks (using the E minor pentatonic scale) and some discordant chords. It’s played very loosely so feel free to change whatever you like or – even better – come up with your own.
Other than some unfamiliar chords, the tune isn’t too challenging. The right hand is all done with the thumb (except for the last chord).
Revelation of the week is LP. I wasn’t hopeful when I clicked on the video but I was blown away. Also this week, Kate and Janelle sing to save their schoool and break the shit out of Neko Case’s heart in the process. And the uke-adjacent clip of the week is Tamburica 5 sing the Croation folk song that inspired Lili’uokalani to write Aloha ‘Oe which in turn inspired this Cajun tune (I’m not sure why that lady is so scared of such an adorable dog).
UPDATE: You can download an MP3 of LP’s performance on her website for free. (Thanks to SamD)
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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.
The ukulele albums I’ve listened to most this year are:
Givers – In Light
Leftover Cuties – Places to Go
Emily Scott – i write letters i never send
Tune-Yards – W H O K I L L
But there are plenty more great ukulele songs released this year. I’ve made a Spotify playlist of some of them I could find on there.
And I’ve put together a Spotify playlist of my favourite non-ukulele songs of the year.
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).
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.
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