Some tunes you may wish to bone up on before the big night.
Addams Family Theme Tune
Chopin – Funeral March
Dance Macabre
Ghostbusters (Duet)
The Gothic Archies – Freakshow
London Bridge Is Falling Down (From Halloween)
The Misfits – Dig Up Her Bones
The Misfits – Halloween
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (from The Exorcist)
This is Halloween (From Nightmare Before Christmas)
Twilight Zone Theme
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London
Usually I wait until just before Halloween before I put up the Halloween stuff. Partly because it seems strange doing it much earlier but mainly because of lack of foresight. But this time round I’m giving you plenty of practice time.
You can go with a very simple strum:
d u d u d u d u
Or you can 70s it up a bit with some 6 chords and a glam-rock rhythm.
After the, “Let’s do the time warp again…” there’s a chance to throw in a few widdles. You can use the A minor or A major pentatonic or, in this case, a bit of both.
And here’s a minor bit up the neck:
And the end of the song:
With three weeks’ videos to choose from, this post really packs the fantastic. This is usually the point where I say which is my favourite, but this time the first six are all contenders.
There’s no shortage of Les Paul type ukuleles but the RISA Les Paul is more authentic looking than most. It has steel strings so it gets the humbuckers and toggle switch. And I want one.
A couple of ukulele manufacturers venturing into the 6-string world. Kanilea with a guitarlele. And a Kamaka guitar from the 20s(I had no idea they’d ever made a guitar).
Super-sweet mango and spruce soprano from Michael J King.
But sometimes mango can make it look like someone has vomited down uke.
Robot made my Kate Micucci.
For glamour… and l’amour…
I think we can all agree that ‘ukulele comeback’ news like this piece in the Wall Street Journal is hopelessly out of touch. The comeback is old news, but recently I’ve been wondering if we’ve passed the high-tide mark. Certainly some of the people originally attracted to the uke for its uniqueness are moving away from it. Jens Lekman has vowed never to play it again, Stephin Merritt has moved on to bouzouki, the last Beirut album was uke-absent. Now even Ingrid Michaelson is ditching it for her next album because of its association with Hey, Soul Sister.
Volume 2 of Jim D’Ville’s Play Ukulele by Ear is out now.
There’s a ukulele group starting Nottingham. I’m considering going so if you’re planning on signing up, let me know.
Shigeto has some ukulele lessons in Japanese – but there are videos and tabs for the monolingual.
Ukes at the movies: Megamind and Giant Gila Monster.
MP3s: Free bandcamp tracks from Michelle Blades and entertainment for the braindead.
Pictures: Sharpie Pirate Wench Ukulele, Ukulele 2, but no good, uke4, Ukulele Jamboree poster (NSFW) and Ukulele Inferno poster.
I’m taking a blog break for the next 3 weeks. Including an actual holiday (in Slovenia) and two weeks working on the top secret Operation Exploding Carrats.
See you on the 24th.
Two videos you only need to watch half of this week. Lou Barlow (off of Sebadoh) does two songs but the most entertaining part of the second is watching the people stood out in a rain storm. In the Polytecnik video the song stops and the visuals keep going. I assume it’s a video screw up but you can never tell with these arty types.
Also this week UOGB’s Richie lays out, She and Him and the only Nirvana ukulele cover I’ve enjoyed.
It’s interesting to see more US companies bringing out banjo-ukes recently – particularly the mix between the smaller style of banjolele which I associate with the US (like this one Aaron Keim is playing) and the larger type played by English ukers like George Formby and Mr B (I have no interest in banjoleles so these terms are completely wrong). Lanikai have gone with the English style for their LBU-C. The Mainland banjolele is a minimal one. And Morgan Monroe have a mixture of both. I’m a bit surprised Lanikai have gone with the English-style. The influence of Mr B? Or am I missing something?
Last week’s highly ornate Blueberry ukulele divided opinion in the comments. According to shumanyo, “Blueberry ukes look very nice but they are way too braced and damn heavy so the uke simply doesn’t vibrates resulting in a uke that is not and not ‘’singing”much. The soundborad is way too stiff.” Which isn’t a surprise. But we all know it’s how pretty the outside that matters, so here’s another one – this time featuring a scantily clad lady.
Photo: Beach group.
Ken Middleton’s new ebook 12 Tunes for Celtic Ukulele is available to buy on his website. Plenty of free tabs on his site too.
Hester Goodman from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has a solo record coming out You Could At Least Smile. You can on UOGBfans. And here’s the first TV interview and performance from a very fresh faced version of the Ukes back in 1988.
Missing uke in Auckland: Friend of the blog, Zoway was supposed to be getting a Mango Fluke for her eighteenth birthday. Her Dad was bringing one over from the big island, got as far as Auckland airport and lost it. It’s a long shot but if anyone knows its whereabouts shoot me a message.
Live ‘Ukulele has an interesting post about tabs vs. working out by ear. While I think there’s a lot to be gained from using other people’s tabs, you certainly do get to know a song better and come up with something more personal if you work out your own version.
How come this never happens to me?
The Transport for London vs. banjoleles battle continues (via Got A Ukulele).
MP3s: New one from entertainment for the braindead on Bandcamp for free.
Jamie Cullum on uke if you can be bothered to sit through the ad (not really worth it unless you’re a fan).
Pictures: Awww bless friend of the blog, J-Hob is now a Dad and the Hoblet is already air-uking, Jason Schwartzman, ukulele Gaga hat
In the Comments: jerika pointed to a clip of Kaki King playing a song other than Falling Day on her uke.
Why was I using my Sceptre in this video? The trickiest part of this song is the clapping: keeping the rhythm is tricky but dealing with the constant danger of your uke dropping to the floor is the big worry. So don’t use your favourite uke. Of course, you could save yourself the bother by doing chnks instead of claps. But where’s the fun in that.
In place of a set of claps, I did a couple of fills. They were improvised using the C major pentatonic. Here’s the first twiddle I did:
Or you can twiddle like this:
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