I’m working my way through this album from the outside in. I did the opening track here and here’s the album’s closer.
This song has many of the features you’d expect of a Beirut ukulele song: it’s in waltz time, there’s a hammer-on from a second to a major third (although it’s on a D chord rather than the usual F) and there’s plenty of incomprehensible mumbling.
Videos this week include lightening picking from sanford ‘automatic inclusion’ andsong, zombie rocking from the Darling Sweets and this week’s non-uke video from Seth Lakeman and his tenor guitar. Read the rest of this entry »
And this one covered in beads. I’m not sure how it could play, “like a million dollars,” and sound, “fantastic,” with all that stuff on it. But the artist has been on Oprah so it must be good.
Ukulele for Dummies has picked up its first bad review. Which I was expecting to happen. But it’s annoying that the review seems to be based on solely on the video clip on the page. So if you’ve got a copy, now would be the perfect time to leave a review. Good, bad or indifferent. So long as it’s based on the actual book. I’d really appreciate it. And a huge thanks to everyone who has left review.
The picking pattern stays the same the whole way though. But she takes advantage of the re-entrant tuning to make it sound more varied than it actually is.
The picking pattern goes like this:
Thumb picks g-string
Index picks E-string
Thumb picks C-string
Middle picks A string
Joe Dan emailed me with some interesting info about the tuning Lisa uses:
That tuning, e-A-C#-F#, is the tuning recommended in Wendell Hall’s Ukulele Method (edited by May Singhi Breen and copyright 1950, published by Forster Music, Chicago, Ill) for his “Taraguitar” (played like a uke but tuned three tones lower), an instrument I have never seen pictured or identified anywhere. Some believe the Taraguitar might have been modeled on the taropatch ukulele, but perhaps with a somewhat larger body and longer scale length. Hall, of course, was one of ukulele stars of the 1920s ukulele boom (“It Ain’s Gonna Rain No Mo” was his biggest hit of that era.)
Breen, of course, is in the Ukulele Hall of Fame. Hall also developed a variation of the tenor ukulele that he called the “Teeviola,”which was made by Regal and carried Hall’s signature on the peghead, and I own one of those instruments. Sometime after acquiring my first quality ukulele, a Martin concert model in 1961, I stumbled on that same tuning and used it, entirely by ear without even realizing exactly what I had done, and did not fully understand until many years later when I happened upon a copy of the Wendell Hall Ukulele Method, mentioned above. I liked the lower tuning on my Martin concert ukulele because it seemed better suited to my voice and I still use it today on my concert, my tenor and some of my baritone ukuleles.
It was not until the advent of electronic tuners that I knew exactly what tuning I was using, as I had previously only tuned the instrument by ear without comparison to pitch pipe or piano. Perhaps someday you can do the research and publish some background and photos of the elusive Taraguitar mentioned by Hall?
Yes, this is post number 1,500. And it’s just a mish-mash of stuff that reaching that milestone brought to mind.
If you’ve got any thoughts on any of these, leave a comment or send an email. I’d like to know what you think and which direction you’d like to see things go over the next 1,500 posts.
Updates
First off, it’s time to refresh things. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed a few changes to the theme. There’s now a podcast bit on the front page and a Dummies bit in the sidebar. And a few other clean ups. If you spot any issues (like the titles in the How to Play and Review sections are screwy) please do let me know. And if you’re seeing a font like this for the post title (on the website) rather than the Saul Bass type font in the header, could you leave a comment.
I’m also rewriting the ebooks and giving them the same look as the blog. That might mean some of them disappear for a little while before they get a re-release.
And there are a lot of old/outdated news and window shopping posts. What do you think I should do with those? Delete them? Leave them? Rewrite them to make them more timeless?
Slowing Down
Realising I’d written 1,500 posts, ten ebooks and a 360 page paper book made me wonder if I’d written more about the ukulele than anyone else ever. Anyone know of any other contenders?
After doing all that, I’ve decided to slow down posts here. So I’ll be doing one-week-on, one-week-off for a while and seeing how that goes.
If you’re desperate for more, I’ll probably be upping the amount of stuff I post on Tumblr, Twitter and Google+. I’ve been posting a few previews and extra bits of tab to my circles on Google+. So if you’re on there add me and I’ll put you in the ‘Ukulele Players’ circle. Unless your only following me to get in my pants in which case I’ll add you to the ‘Pants’ circle (but I think circles are limited to 5,000 so that one is going to fill up quickly).
Favourite Posts
1,500 posts in and I’ve posted loads of stuff I love, a few things I used to like and now I’m not so sure about, some stuff I don’t like (those are the most popular), and plenty of deeply unpopular stuff.
The Burning Hell – I Love the Things That People Make (Baritone Chords)
How would one go about making this song the official anthem of the internet?
It seems there are two types of site on the internet: sites about things people do (like Facebook, Twitter and Perez Hilton) and sites about things that people make (like YouTube, Tumblr and Boing, Boing). And I think you can guess which side of this I’m on.
The chords up top are for baritone. It’s not quite as nice to play on standard tuning but here it is:
The Burning Hell – I Love the Things… (Standard Tuning Chords)
Suggested Strumming
You can do two down strums for each for Am, E and F; and one each for C and Cmaj7).
Or you can do what Mathias does in the intro and do this for Am, E and F:
A mixture this week of angel voiced young girls (including Bella Hemming and Agathe and Fine) and beardy bluesmen (including Manitoba Hal and Blue Dean).
The Garfunkel and Oates song contains a cavalcade of cursing. You should know that by now. I’m going to stop issuing warnings.
Kartiv2 does a MysteryGuitarMan cut-up music thing and is including quite a few ukuleles at the moment. This one is the most uke-heavy, this one is my favourite and this one has MysteryGuitarMan on uke and a brief appearance from Julia Nunes.
Tally Deushane is one of the top ten college women thanks to sound words like, “Don’t request ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ from a ukulele player.”
This part uses palm muting (resting the palm of your strumming hand on the string just in front of the bridge so it dampens the sound) which is a bit tricky on a ukulele. An alternative is just to play the g and C strings a bit softer.
And the widdle at the end of the verse is my favourite part:
