A flurry of F-words, gaffes and misinformation as the British media has gone on one of their ‘the ukulele is making a comeback’ kicks (as they’ve done a couple a times a year for the last five years). A selection of the goings-on:

– The most amusing was in the Telegraph which was originally sub-headlined, “The ukulele is hard to take seriously thanks to its association with George Forman.”
– The Daily Mail originally had it, “It seems there are several theories as to why the ukelele – or ‘uku’ as it is nicknamed – is enjoying a revival.”
– Michael White laid into the UOGB’s Proms performance pretty viciously (despite being quite positive about it at the time).
– Huffington Post illustrated the story with a picture of Sting playing a guitar.
– The Express headlined “Now the ukulele outsells electric guitars,” but quotes figures that don’t seem to back that up.
– The Guardian reckon it’s only possible to play the ukulele (or ‘ukukele’) like George Formby: “Something in the posture required to play the ukulele – shoulders hunched, elbows akimbo – probably encouraged a perky grinning manner: it’s probably impossible to play the ukukele in any other way.”
– And on TV: Channel 4 News and on Daybreak (with Lorraine managing to knock out Sweet Child of Mine at 6:30am).
– One interesting fact in the brouhaha:

180 music shops were surveyed with 42 per cent saying the ukulele had seen the biggest rise in popularity in the last year. 31 per cent stated that keyboards had seen the largest growth, and 16 per cent for acoustic guitars.

I need to calm down after that epic bitch-fest with some Bigfoot and Tiki cartoons.

The UOGB present the Ukulele Podcast of Great Britain with a guest appearance from Glenn Tilbrook. And here’s Will playing what he claims is the world’s smallest playable ukulele (which Alvin Okami may take issue with) (thanks to Ron).

Vo-do-de-o Days charts the history of Tiptoe Through the Tulips.

The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra are on iTunes.

Lots of intriguing pictures from the Tokyo Hand Craft Guitar FES.

The ukulele bit on Cougar Town (thanks to Anna). If you’re in a location-blocked country you can still watch Josh Hopkins having a bit of a uke here.

Angry Birds might be annoyingly addictive and sometimes annoyingly annoying, but the theme music is outstanding. It’s one of two games I play and don’t turn the music off for (the other is Pizza Boy).

For my version, I did mess around with things a bit. The intro section is picked with a bit of running man picking (alternating index and middle). The main section is mostly played with the thumb flicking down on the g and C and the index finger flicking up (which a few strums thrown in). In the final section, Thumb on g, index on E and middle finger on A.

Lead Sheet

Here’s just the basic melody and it’s a bit more faithful to the original. So you can play it simply as it is or arrange your own version around it.

Here’s how it sounds by itself.

Lead Line

Buy Angry Birds stuff.
Buy Ari Pulkkinen’s music.

Download MP3

The May 2011 edition of the podcast is here. Helen Arney very kindly took time out of her tour with the Uncaged Monkeys to have a hilarious chinwag with Bossarocker and play a few songs. As well as that there’s a bumper crop of songs.

You can get the latest Uke Hunt podcast delivered straight to you by:

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You can get in touch and submit tracks for consideration via:

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Email at podcast@ukulelehunt.com

Playlist:

1. Ukulollo – The Beat of the Strum

2. Aaron Keim – Wandering Boy

3. Ruth Acuff – Nightingale

4. The Mother Ukers – Lucifer

5. All Young Girls Are Machine Guns – Swing Back Baby Blues

6. Helen Arney (in session) – Christmas Love Song

7. Helen Arney (in session) – Strong Woman With A Broken Heart

8. Helen Arney (in session) – The Perfect Boy

9. Martin White & the Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra – Four Minutes & Thirty Three Seconds

10. Howlin’ Hobbit – 20th Century Fads

11. Shiny and the Spoon – Black Nag

12. Arch Larizza – I Don’t Need Another Ukulele

Site update: I moved the site to a new host over the weekend which is why you may not have been able to get on it. Hopefully, things have shaken out now. If you’re reading this by email or feedreader and can’t get on the site please do send me an email at ukulelehunt@gmail.com. Or if you notice anything else that’s wonky. Thanks!

***************SPOILER ALERT***************SPOILER ALERT*********************

Portal 1 is easily the best satire of working for a large corporation with all the jumping through hoops, monitoring, lies and promises of far off rewards. It’s a shame games rarely go for satire because they’re one of the best mediums for it.

Portal 2 does a similar job by making us forget everything we learn in Portal 1 and make us put power in the hands of one being and hope that this time everything will be cool. Replicating the hope-over-experience of countries who sell arms to non-democratic countries and organisations again and again and again and again and again each time saying, “You better turn out to be pretty cool or I’m going to be pissed.” I could easily go on and on about the game but I should move on to the song.

No ukulele this time and it doesn’t transfer entirely happily. But you can still make a good fist of it.

Twiddly Bits

You can play the little riff like this:

Riff

Suggested Strumming

I think the riff sounds better on uke if you include the chords with it (shown in the chord chart). That beefs it up a bit and means you can play it an octave lower. You can strum this for the first chord in the riff:

d – d – d – d u

Then switch to this for the next chord:

d – d –

Then stop.

That sounds like this:

Verse Strum

In the chorus you can just switch between the usual F# and B chord shapes, but the ones shown keep the ascending sound. Either way, you can use this strumming pattern:

d – d – d u d u

Once for each chord.

Chorus Strum

Buy Portal 2
Buy Jonathan Coulton stuff

It’s a shame I never got to see the Asylum Street Spankers live before they split up. They were one hell of a band. Two video this week from their trio of final shows; one with Pops Bayless on uke duties and the other with Christina Marrs.

Quick warning: I’m going to try to move the site this weekend (if I get the courage) so it will be down for some time. I’m not sure how long. Last time I tried it was a bit of a disaster.

Read the rest of this entry »

Martin, being a very generous company, allowed employees near retirement to come in on their days off and build an instrument of their own choosing. While it was a bit stingy not to let them do it in their work-hours, it has produced a healthy number of collectable ukuleles. This week there’s this 1947 Spruce-top Martin Tenor. It’s being sold by Ukulelefriend so the description is well worth a read (just don’t look at the price).

With all the hype surrounding Eddie Vedder’s uke album, I hope some will spillover onto his luthier of choice: Eric DeVine. Who makes handsome ukuleles like this.

I think this ukulele is too camp to have been made in ‘late 1800’s to early 1900’s’.

8-string pineapple from Kapono

The solid-body Kala UBasses are around and I’m quite taken by the Skyline Red model.

London’s chief ukulele floggers, the Duke of Uke are being chucked out of their premises. You can help them out by buying a t-shirt or donating on their website.

While we’re in London, good friend of the blog and all-around fantastic person, Lorraine Bow is running two ukulele courses from early June – one for ‘absolute beginners’ and one for ‘advanced beginners’. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend signing up.

Amsterdam may be famous for its legal laxity but Amanda Palmer got arrested for playing her ukulele in public. You can read her side of the story here.

Listen to Eddie Vedder’s ukulele album on NPR.

Stephin Merritt is releasing a new obscurities album and you can grab a free uke track from it on Merge Records.

Make your own felted ukulele gig bag

Lil Rev is raising money for a new album.

Religious cult’s ukulele band.

Playable lego ukulele (thanks to Emily).

Ukulele minimalism and songs with one chord.

I intend to steal this pun next time the Bushman slow-delivery issue crops up.

Photos: a tour of the Kamaka factory (via Ukulelia), 3 neck ukulele and others (also via Ukulelia)

Continuing the celebration of Manchester in honour of the Bossarocker’s Ukulele Show with five – mostly jangly – Manc riffs.

The Stone Roses – Waterfall

I moved this one up a fret because I like this sound of the g-string ringing. But, if you want to play along to the record, it’s easy to move everything down a fret (and the G down to the C-string 6th fret).

Riff

The Happy Mondays – Loose Fit

This one is slightly adapted to keep it in the same key.

Riff

Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart

I wanted to have this one strummed. That way you can get away with implying the low B and A notes in the last two bars rather than playing them.

Riff

The Chemical Brothers – Galvanize

I don’t know if this one even counts as being from Manchester. The Chemical Brothers were both born in London and this riff was sampled from Moroccan Najat Aatabou.

Riff

The Fall – Wrong Place, Right Time

I couldn’t let this post go without one from The Mighty Fall. The first half of the riff sounds great with full chords. But it does make the second half – played as single notes – sound a bit wimpy.

Riff

More Manchester

The Smiths – This Charming Man
The Fall – Theme From Sparta FC
The Fall – Blindness
The Fall – How I Wrote Elastic Man
The Happy Mondays – Step On

Yes, Uke Hunt is four years old. I’ll forgo the usual self-indulgent post and do a quick look back at the last twelve months on the blog and in the ukulele world.

Stats

My mind continues to be blown by the number of people who visit. In the last year there have been 3.4 million visits and 17.5 million page views. Both up about 75% on the year before.

As always, a huge thanks to everyone who visits the site. And in particular to everyone who gets invloved by commenting, emailing and mentioning the site around the net. Knowing that people appreciate the site and find it helpful really makes the difference when I feel like packing it in.

May 2010

In chords: Billy Corgan and South Park.
In video: Trent Reznor busts out the uke and Honeycomb do an incredible session.

June 2010

The internet debated if Tiny Tim should be in the Ukulele Hall of Fame.
Frank Sidebottom died.
In tabs: Rodrigo Y Gabriela
In chords: She and Him

July 2010

The Uke Hunt podcast makes its debut.
I released How to Play Classical Ukulele and tabbed up O Fortuna.
I bought my favourite ever ukulele.
I considered the upside of having ads on the site.
I listed the essential ukulele records of the 2000s.
In tab: Tallest Man on Earth and Bjork
In chords: Darren Hanlon and Amanda Palmer

August 2010

I listed songs with chords you know (an update to that coming soon).
I talked ukulele history with Jim Tranquada.
The Big Foot and Tiki Show hit the net.
I listed my tools of the trade.
In tabs: Kaki King and Top Cat.
In chords: Cee-Lo Green, Mumford and Sons, Paolo Nutini and Smashing Pumpkins.

September 2010

I got my hands on the Mighty Ukulele DVD.
In tab: Fraggle Rock.
In chords: Rocky Horror Picture Show.

October 2010

I went to Wukulele without anyone noticing and caused such a ruckus with my write-up that I took a post down for the first time ever.
Ukulele in poetry.
Jim Boggia covers Springsteen.
In tabs: Duelling Banjos, The Stripper and Falling Slowly.
In chords: UOGB and Carly Simon
Riffs: Dillinger Escape Plan, Deee Lite

November 2010

I discuss why you should give a crap about copyright terms.
I round up ukulele iphone apps.

In tabs: Ellie Goulding, Sonic the Hedgehog and five Black Keys riffs.
In chords: Florence and the Machine and Sophie Madeleine.

December 2010

Ukulele Quiz 2010
Christmas chords for: The Hives and Cyndi Lauper, Rocky and Balls, Weezer and Hello Saferide (one of my favourite Xmas tunes of all time and it gets zero comments).

January 2011

Amanda Palmer grows that shit like a jungle.
I find out about quelbe and fungi.
In tab: Gorillaz.
In chords: Charlieissocoollike’s entire album

February 2011

Manitoba Hal wins ukulele video of the year.
The UkeTube takes a trip to Madeira.
In tabs: Manitoba Hal and ABBA.
In chords: Beach Boys, WIUO and Ryan Gosling.

March 2011

Kahauanu Lake (writer of Pua Lililehua) passed away.
I do my best to stick up for Tiny Tim.
In tabs: Crazy by Willie Nelson and Gnarls Barkley
In chords: Eddie Vedder, Bee-Gees and The Pogues.

April 2011

Musicguymic shut up shop due to ill-health.
The name U K L Lee crops up on Obama’s birth certificate.
I have a shot at explaining Bosko’s CAGFD system.
In tab: tUnE-yArDs, John King and the Cabral manuscript.
In chords: Mumford and Sons

May 2011

I wrote the post you’re reading right now.
In tab: Five grunge riffs.
In chords: Garfunkel and Oates and The Smiths

It used to baffle me how people could describe The Smiths as depressing when they’re one of the funniest bands there’s ever been. Now I’ve figured it out: they were trying to work out how to play this song on the uke and it made them want to crack their skull open. Yes, it’s a bit of pisser. But this week is Manchester week and it couldn’t be Manchester week without The Smiths.

Johnny Marr, being a flash bastard, isn’t happy just playing the chords. In the first chorus, for example, the bass suggests the same chords as the verse but the guitar is doing something completely different. I’ve written up the chords as played by guitar in the first and third chorus, and as suggested by the bass in the second and fourth.

And don’t go asking for a strumming pattern.

Twiddly Bits

The original guitar intro uses open strings which makes it tricky to play on the uke. This is what I adapted it to:

Intro

The solo, on the other hand, works quite well.

Solo