For the first time ever, all my nominations have made it through to the vote for Ukulele Video of the Year. Which means either everyone who reads this blog now has impeccable taste or I’ve successfully alienated everyone that disagrees with me.

I only added LP’s Into the Wild to my nominations at the last minute. I was checking through the ‘Other Videos You Might Like’ list and realised that this song is pretty magnificent. Dead simple too. Only three chords in it: G, Em and C.

Whoever you want to vote for you can cast your vote here.

Suggested Strumming

She’s doing mostly down-up:

d u d u d u d u

Do that twice for every chord in the verse and chorus. Once for every chord in the pre-chorus.

Download it for free on her website.

The nominees are in and here’s the final list of contenders:

Poll Closed

You can only vote once and polling closes at midnight Hawaii time on 13th February. I’d encourage you to watch any you’re not familiar with but other than that, go wild. Vote for whoever you like for whatever reason you like (who wins isn’t as important as getting some exposure for excellent videos).

Results

A Banda Mais Bonita da Cidade – Oração
476 – 41%

Lisa Hannigan – Knots
130 – 11%

Nicholas Abersold – Those Punk Rock Days
111 – 10%

James Hill – Hand Over My Heart
105 – 9%

Eddie Vedder – Can’t Keep
84 – 7%

Amanda Palmer & The Young Punx – Map of Tasmania
77 – 7%

LP – Into the Wild
69 – 6%

Raymond Penfield – Addicted to Love
58 – 5%

Keston Cobblers’ Club – Pett Level
53 – 5%

A James Hill double-bill this week including one from his Hi Session. It’s worth checking out their other stuff too. There are uke appearances from Kalei Gamaio and Aldrine Guerrero, and non-uke stuff like this performance by Kuana Torres.

If you haven’t made your nominations for ukulele video of 2011 yet head here and make your pick.

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The real purpose of the vote: to get people watching excellent musicians. So if there’s a video you think has been cruelly overlooked, be sure to give it a nomination because I’ll be watching anything I missed first time round.

For the first stage, everyone gets to nominate up to 5 videos – leave them in the comments. From those nominations, I’ll cobble together a list of ten (ish) that will be voted on in the next round. Use whatever criteria you like. I went with whichever videos/songs I enjoyed most.

The Rules

The rules remain as ramshackle as ever:

– There has to be a ukulele in there.
– Videos must have been originally uploaded in 2011.
– Videos must be publicly available online.
– Maximum of five nominations per person.
– Post your nominations in the comments.
– Nominations close midnight Sunday 5th February.
– Ten acts with the most nominations go into the final vote with their most nominated song going forward.
– No prize. Just the love and admiration of the heaving masses.
– No sucking up by voting for me.

Don’t panic if your comments don’t show up right away. First time commenters and comments contains a few links can get held back for spam checking.

My Nominations

A Banda Mais Bonita da Cidade – Oração
Amanda Palmer & The Young Punx – Map of Tasmania
Keston Cobblers’ Club – Pett Level
Lisa Hannigan – Knots
LP – Into The Wild

Videos You May Like

To jog your memory, here are some more videos that have caused a stir in the comments, on the net or in my pants:

Raymond Penfield – Addicted To Love
Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt – What Are You Doing New Years Eve?
James Hill – Hand Over My Heart
Eddie Vedder – Can’t Keep
Taimane Gardner – Taimane’s Toccata
Seryn – River Song
Keston Cobblers’ Club – Shoemaker’s Song
My Brightest Diamond – I Have Never Loved Someone
Nicholas Abersold – Those Punk Rock Days
tUnE-yArDs- You Yes You
Givers – Meantime
The Jive Aces – Bring Me Sunshine
Pegasus Bridge – Yoko
Celisse Henderson – Me and You
Ukulele Tim – The Summoning
Ukulele Bartt and James Hill – Kashmir
Sungha Jung – I’m Yours
Leftover Cuties – Places to Go
Jake Shimabukuro – 143
KYAS – Bad Romance
Kina Grannis – Michicant
Kate and Janelle – Star Witness
Jonathan Coulton – Down Today
Sophie Madeleine – Oil & Gold
U900 – I Want You Back

If you haven’t already, make sure you get your nomination in for the Ukulele Video of the Year 2011.

Current high-flyers are Lisa Hannigan, LP and Eddie Vedder. If you think someone else deserves a look-in head over to the post and make your nominations in the comments.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who cringes whenever they hear unimaginative use of ukuleles on TV. So Rob Manning’s score for Channel 4’s Girls on the Pull a refreshing change (if you’re unfamiliar with 4’s naming tactics it’s a documentary about compulsive hair-pulling).

Vanilla Ice plays ukulele for hipsters (seems like the video only works in the US though), Warren Buffett ukes for the Chinese, and The Rock plays to promote his film.

Makers of the film The Descendants attempt to bribe Oscar judges with a ukulele. Although Brett McKenzie is the true uker’s choice for an Oscar.

The Ukes for UNICEF festival takes place in Berkhamsted (UK) on the 3rd March and features Uke Hunt friends Ken Middleton and Krabbers and plenty more.

Coverage of the industry-fest NAMM on Ukeeku and Ukulele Underground.

On Uker Tabs: Coheed and Cambria, Bombay Bicycle Club and Charlie McDonnell.

Pictures: Taylor Swift in Vogue, mustachioed paper valentine ukulelists.

How to learn the ukulele well enough to (almost) get you laid.

There’s a lot to love about the BBC’s updating of Sherlock Holmes (and a few things – like all the tilt shifting – to hate) and one of the parts I love most is the music (by David ‘James Bond’ Arnold and Michael Price).

It’s interesting to hear how similar the score for Sherlock is to the music for the film version of Sherlock Holmes by Hans Zimmer despite the music for the TV version being written before the film came out.

My version of Sherlock’s Theme is all done with fingerpicking. After the intro, it’s all:

C-string = thumb.
E-string = index finger.
A-string = middle finger.

Make sure the melody stands out from the backing (the notes in brackets)

Melody Version

My arrangement of the tune is quite tricky. So here’s the plain melody for the tune (without the intro). You can play it as it is or jazz it up in any way you see fit.

Buy the DVD

Download Podcast #13
Subscribe on iTunes
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Podcast #13 in your face.

The January 2012 podcast features an interview with Lila Burns (where everyone finds out they’ve been pronouncing her name wrong) and plenty of excellent tracks.

Tracklist

1. Lloyd Gabriel – Unhook Your Heart
2. Kiwafruit – Alone And Thinking Of You
3. Megg Farrell’s Whiskey Social – O’ Fear Nothing, Ms Bennet
4. The Great Sebaldo – Man On The Train
5. Sara Dennis – Lost Times
6. Lila Burns – Witching Hour
7. Lila Burns Interview Part 1
8. Lila Burns – Again and Again
9. Lila Burns Interview Part 2
10. Lila Burns – Timeline
11. Spoon Blind Williams – Oh! Wow
12. The K – Unusual Possibilities
13. Manitoba Hal – Down In Pubnico

You can get in touch and submit tracks for consideration if you follow the rules (particularly the one about file format) via:

Facebook
Soundcloud
Email at podcast@ukulelehunt.com

I’ve had a bunch of requests for Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know since the five people on one guitar version went viral. Inspired by the success of that they attempted the same thing with a ukulele. And they do successfully play ukuleles sometimes.

Suggested Strumming

Use this once for every chord:

D – D U

The only exception is the C5 in the last verse. Play the same pattern loads of times (16 at my count).

Pay attention to the dynamics in this one. Start quietly and bash it out in the choruses.

Twiddly Bits

You can play the ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ intro like this:

And the bridge bit like this:

Pre-order the album
Buy the Walk Off the Earth version.

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.

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