This is probably my favourite ukulele song from last year. And it’s an excellent song to start practising your fingerpicking. There are just two strings involved (E and A) and the rhythm is constant. Pluck the E string with your thumb and A string with your index finger. Other than that, just a lot of sliding around.

In bars 24 and 28 I really wanted to tab 7 – 9 – 7 – 9 rather than 7 – 8 – 7 – 8 because the 8 is very discordant. But I’m fairly sure that’s what she’s playing (it’s a noisy part of the song anyway so can get away with either).

You can download it for free on Amazon and buy their other stuff there too.

Download Podcast #2 here

Bossa has done another knock-out job with the podcast this month with tracks from very familiar people (the UOGB and Sebi) to people I’d never heard of. Highlight of the episode is a live session from knitter and ukulele-donker David Leach. And do listen to the end because the last track is a killer.

You can download the podcast above (you have to click through to the page) or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes by clicking here (or search iTunes for ‘uke hunt’). A big thanks to everyone who has rated and commented on the podcast. We really appreciate it.

You can also subscribe with the Podcast RSS feed by adding it to Google or adding it to My Yahoo!.

You can find a full list of the podcasts here.

Tracklist:

1. The Corner Laughers – For the Sake of the Cat

2. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Anything is Beautiful Which

3. The Moody Gowns – Treat Me As You Treat Your Wife

4. Sebi – Youtubers United!

5. Matt Griffo – Pandas Are Cute

6. Tiger Mendoza – Never Be the Same (Applejack Mix)

David Leach live session + interview:

7. Twenty Two

8. Forgotten Summer

9. Ready for It

Also check him out on Soundcloud & Etsy

10. Chonkinfeckle – Nothing Like That

11. Adriaen van der Moer – Ukulele Jam

12. The Love Leighs – Texas Woman Song

13. The Aposematics – Red Shoes

14. The Joker & the Thief – Primrose

15. Lemos – Alice

People who get things done sicken me. In the time I spend procrastinating over writing a short blog post, Cosmo Jarvis will have written and directed a short film, and composed and played the music for it and, I expect, have rustled up some galantine de faisan chaidfroid for the crew (check out He Only Goes Out on Tuesday). Handsome, talented bastard.

Job one for playing this song: tune down half a step to F# B Eb Ab.

Suggested Strumming

For the verse, d – d u – u d u. Once for the chords C to F and twice for G and Dm.

Then for the chorus throw in a chnk.

Twiddly Bits

Here’s my attempt and put the various recorder riffs onto two ukes. These ukes are also tuned down half a step.

Recorder Riffs

Buy it on iTunes

Requested by Fraser and Alissa.

Nickel Creek have always been too smooth and nicey-nicey for my tastes. So I’ve been a bit slow in picking up on Sara Watkins. But she is incredible. This song had me in tears.

Also up this week: Dala (who are being supported/blown off the stage by Ukulelezo in a couple of weeks), Nigel Burch and his banjolele (who may be unwelcome on the London Underground but are very welcome here) and plenty more.

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Kala have a new and very stylish wood and leather ukulele stand. A bit more expensive than your usual stand.

Prototype Mainland banjo-ukulele.

Some nice vintage ukuleles around this week: Weissenborn #10 concert ukulele, Ernest Kaai, Kumalae.

Boy and girl with ukuleles.

Banjoleles banned from the London Underground for being, “undesirable”.

Jimmy from the Bobby McGee’s proved the intellectual superiority of ukulele players when he appeared on the Weakest Link (watch it on iPlayer).

Abatab is an interesting new site where indie artists can sell tabs. It’s only been up a month so there’s not a great deal there yet. But you can buy stuff by Bess Rogers and pick up tab and an MP3 of Kelli Rae Powell’s Don’t Slow Down Zachary free.

Helen Arney leads a gathering of ukulele players at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Sophie Madeleine is raising money for her latest album. And you can get a snippet in the background of Spike Milligan’s home movie.

The Fake Ukulele Orchestra have put up their side of the story, “It has been said that we are advertising our orchestra by using their pictures and material. This is totally wrong and we refute this unequivocally.” But here is one of their dates being advertised as being the UOGB (hat-tip to minusuke on the Cosmos). On the upside, suspicions about the lead singer proved to be well founded.

787.89 – Ukuleles and the Dewey Decimal System.

For balance, Hot Boys with Ukuleles – much more challenging than the hot girls blog I’d wager.

Sam Fox on Beatles Complete on Ukulele.

Jimmy Fallon finds ukulele music annoying when you’re trying to get work done.

Simon Cowell has banned I’m Yours from X-Factor.

Ukuleles help kill the planet (via Bossa).

MP3: who the bloody hell are they? has Darren Hanlon’s All These Things.

Pictures: Sandy Low (from this page), bird ukuleles.

With the hat, the class, the relaxed air of mischief, if Top Cat had lived in the 30s he’d certainly have been a uke player. But he was around in the 60s when no-one played the uke – there’s not even one in the Hawaiian episode. Nevertheless, the theme tune is crying out for a ukulele arrangement. A lot of jazzy turns in there – which do make it quite tricky to play.

There’s a lot of switching between picking, melody strums and supporting strums (in brackets in the tab) – which is probably best picked up by watching the video.

Just because you’re a newbie doesn’t mean you can’t rock the raging patootie out of a few songs. Here’s a list of songs with chords for all.

C, F and G

If you prefer, you can use G7 in the place of G or vice versa for any of these songs.

NeverShoutNever! – Your Biggest Fan/Did It Hurt?
Noah and the Whale – Five Years Time
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass
Paolo Nutini – High Hopes
SoKo – I Will Never Love You More
The Bobby McGee’s – A Dog At All Things
The Lancashire Hotpots – He’s Turned Emo
The Tiger Lillies – Start A Fire
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra/Kings of Leon – The Bucket

Plus Am, Dm and Em

Addams Family Theme Tune
Alton Ellis – Rock Steady
Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend to Dance With You
Darren Hanlon – All These Things
Electrelane – Cut and Run
Garfunkel and Oates – Me, You and Steve
Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over
GUGUG – California Sun
Israel Kamakawiwoíole/Jason Castro – Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Julien Dore – Cet Air-La
Kate Nash – Foundations
Kate Micucci/The Gooch – Mr Moon
Last Shadow Puppets – Standing Next to Me
LP – Into the Wild
The Lumineers – Ho Hey
Phosphorescent – Wolves
She & Him – Sentimental Heart

Plus D

Allo Darlin’ – Tallulah
Amanda Palmer – In My Mind
Antsy Pants/Bear Creek – Vampire
Belle and Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap
Daniel Johnston – Living Life
Gothic Archies – Shipwrecked
GUGUG/The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop
Keston Cobblers’ Club – You-Go
Phredd – Elmer’s Electric Tricycle
The Dubliners and The Pogues – The Irish Rover
The Pogues – Fiesta
The Little Ones – Tangerine Visions
Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London

Plus A and E7

Camera Obscura – Cock Up Your Beaver
Florence & the Machine – Kiss With A Fist (don’t panic, you can use E7 instead of E in this song)
Joan Jett – Bad Reputation
Kate Micucci & Ted (Scrubs) – Screw You
Paolo Nutini – Pencil Full of Lead
The Pogues – Streams of Whiskey

Plus Bb

Beirut – A Candle’s Fire
Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (You can use C instead of C5)
Ingrid Michaelson – Be OK
Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love
Mumford and Sons – The Cave
Nevershoutnever – First Dance
Neutral Milk Hotel – King of Carrot Flowers
Noah and the Whale – Jealous Kind of Love

More…

Mastered all those? Tackle more:

Easy ukulele songs
Beginner ukulele lessons

What’s she doing with a bloody mandolin? There’s already enough mando/uke confusion out there. Luckily, most commenters were distracted by the drummer.

Suggested Strumming

This will see you most of the way:

Twice for D, once for G, once for D.

For the A – G – D – A chords and the end of each verse just do the first half of the bar (four down strums) for each chord.

Chord Inversions

With the song just being 3 chords, it’s a great place to start playing with chord inversions (playing the same chord in a different way) and chord substitutions (playing one chord in the place of another).

A dead easy chord substitution you could use in this song is to use 7 chords (D7, G7, A7). And of course, you’ve got inversions of the 7 chords.

Put these together and you could play a verse like this:

Verse with inversions (MP3)

She didn’t request it, but this one is for Ida.

Sliding into a well-known song to perk up the audience in the middle of a song no-one knows is a cliched, shameless trick. And I love it. This week Tom McRae and Matt the Electrician pull it out. With Matt the Electrician’s choice resulting in a bubble-riot amongst the 4 year olds in the audience.

Also this week another one from Secret Home Party (who I bullied into setting up on YouTube so comment, rate and subscribe), a clip from UOGB’s Ukulelescope show and Sara Watkins should wear those glasses all the time.

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