Le Domino banjo ukulele – haven’t seen one of those before.
A few more Ohana resonators up including my favourite, the Vita.
Little boy plays ukulele.
Videos from the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii Exhibition 2010 including a close look at the ukes. There are also some pictures on Ukulele Me Crazy.
Kala have a new look website. As do UU.
Long-time friend of the Hunt, Jenny has is blogging Hot Girls with Ukuleles which is not safe for work. At all.
New friend of the Hunt, Lorraine Bow gets interviewed by the Guardian.
Rivers Cuomo’s opinion of Fender ukuleles seems to be similar to that of many commenters (if you feel different you can win a Weezer signed ukulele here).
Pictures: Ukulele Underground, Antique Muse (NSFW), the running man with a ukulele.
MP3: Indie Music Database has one from The Chord and the Fawn.
What it’s really like to work in a music store.
In the comments: The best comment ever, “many of these people seem to stroke your dick which is obviously bigger and more important than your ear you deaf bastard.” Yes, my penis is bigger and more important than my ear. And everyone wishing to stroke it should form an orderly queue.
Countdown Theme (Tab)
Emily suggested the Countdown theme should be on the essential snippets post. And she’s quite right.
It’s another classic from Alan ‘Grange Hill‘ Hawkshaw. The tune is in C and fits very nicely on the ukulele. The only odd thing is that the theme is repeated 5 times – presumably to make up the 30 seconds.
I’ve finally accepted that I’m not going to convince the world of the vast superiority of campenella, so this one is very straight forward.
Links
Buy the original version
More TV theme tabs
Alan Hawkshaw’s Grange Hill Theme
I’ve had a few people ask me what I use in my playing and in putting together the site. So I thought I’d list everything I’ve been asked about (and a few I haven’t). And I’d be interested to know what you use: to record audio, make videos and, of course, what your favourite ukulele is. So do leave a comment.
Ukuleles
What size/make ukulele do you play?
I’m a fully paid up tenor-man these days. My favourite at the moment (by some distance) is my KoAloha Sceptre. But I still have a soft spot for my Ohana which I use regularly.
For quiet and electric playing I use my RISA. My EleUke sucks giant monkey-balls.
Accessories
What tuner do you use?
Mostly my ears but sometimes a Kala KC-02 clip-on tuner
What strings do you use?
What capo do you use?
Shubb mandolin capo. But be warned, it’s not suitable for smaller ukes.
Do you use a loop pedal/effects pedal?
I have a Boss GT-10 which does a whole mess of crap.
Tabs and Chords
What do you use to make your ukulele tabs?
Guitar Pro 6. I’m also using Sibelius (for the top secret Operation Exploding Carrats) which is massively over-priced and complicated for ukulele tabs. I’m beginning to loath it with every fibre of my being.
What do you use to make your chord charts?
I make chord diagrams in Guitar Pro. Then I put together the chord sheets in OpenOffice. I also use OpenOffice for the ebooks but I’m thinking of switching to iWork for both.
Recording
What mic do you use?
The most recent ones have been done with a sE Electronics USB2200a. I’m not a big audio guy so I want something I can just plug into the computer and have it work. This mic is great for me. Pricey but it sounds good and is very easy to use.
Before that I was using a Zoom H2 which is handy for away from the computer recording, equally suitable for use by idiots and much cheaper.
What software do you use to record?
GarageBand. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best book/place to learn this (and iMovie)? I’m still a Mac noob. Before that I was using Audacity.
What do you use to make videos?
I’m not qualified to offer anyone advice on this. I just use the camera in my iMac and iMovie.
Blogging and Site
What software do you use for blogging?
The site is powered by WordPress. It’s hard to think of a reason why anyone would blog using anything else.
Who designed the site?
The site and logo were designed by Ben Lew. Who did a great job. The theme before that was one of the Revolution themes. If you’re really hard core, the theme before that was Cutline.
What do you use to sell your ebooks?
I use eJunkie to sell my ebooks. They’ve been really great. Cheap, monthly flat fee and I’ve never had a serious problem (I can’t even think of a minor one). I started out with ClickBank and they really sucked. It was expensive and I didn’t want to be associated with the junk products that mostly use it.
Misc.
Things that no one has asked about and don’t have an obvious effect on the site but without them the site would suck or possibly not exist.
Online Storage
DropBox A must for anyone who uses more than one computer and finds themselves endlessly uploading to thumb drives. And free (up to a point).
Reading
I reread these regularly to make sure I never do something stupid like getting a job.
Seth Godin The Dip
Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance
Anneli Rufus Party of One
Steve Pavlina 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
Listening
Watching
TED
Ira Glass on Storytelling Part 3 is essential for anyone who makes anything they care about (and dovetails with The Dip
The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight (Tabs and Chords)
A song to support the embattled ukulele brother Billy Corgan. I think he was remarkably restrained. I would have Axled the guy.
Besides that, it’s an incredible song. And a complicated one. No two verses, chorus or bridges are the same. Getting it to sound right on uke takes some finangling. So the pdf is a bit messy and it’ll require some explanation.
Tuning
Even the tuning isn’t straight forward. It’s tuned down, but not quite half a step. Here are some tuning notes.
Intro
For the intro I’ve written it up as the full guitar part – with the occasional added C note on both the G and Em chords. If you’re playing along with the song, you can just play straight G and Em chords. Which is what I’ve written up when this section pops up later in the song.
Main Riff
A fun little fingerpicking riff to play. I’m picking with thumb covering g and C; index finger on E string and middle finger on the A string.
This is Riff 2 in the tab. Riff 1 is just the first two bars of this.
Bridge
Not too much to worry about here. But watch out for the final C chord. In the first bridge it lasts two bars, in the second it lasts one bar.
Chorus
In the chorus I’ve thrown in the string part as well. It is slightly tricky to play. If you want to avoid it, Am would seem like the obvious choice. But, and I can’t explain why, G sounds like the best chord to me.
And I think that covers it.
Favourite video this week comes from Secret Home Party (with guest appearance by Danielle’s moon). And I like the idea of them being a group of talented buddies who get together occasionally to make music and have a laugh. I want to be in that band.
Enough of the fake Ukulele Orchestra, from now on only the real guys; this week covering one of my favourite songs of all time. Also this week: Neutral Uke Hotel (going by The Motion Uke) covering one of their own songs, Uketreehugger (brace yourself for some drunken shouting around the 1 minute 40 mark) and the return of Sebi’s Monkey Island themes and ginormo-bass.
Kala’s roundabout ukulele amps are now up for sale. They’re only 10 Watts so you’re not going to be playing Carnegie Hall with them. But it’s certainly plenty for a practice amp, making yourself heard with a guitarist, or letting the flash Harry louder than the rest of the ukulele group.
Most interesting uke this week is this 1930s electric Rickenbacker ukulele. It has to be a one off. The price and rarity makes it collectors only, but you have to read the eBay description. Interesting, informative and with a yarn in there.
If you happen to be in Honolulu this weekend, the ‘Ukulele Guild of Hawai’i are having their annual exhibition at the Hawaii All-Collectors Show. Sure to have a number of weird and wonderful ukes. Also present: Imperial Storm Troopers.
Beltona resonator – I shall watch and despair as the price on that one rises.
Nice unmarked 20s ukulele.
Not exactly ukulele related but Aardvark Manifesto.
Pretty good article on the uke resurgence on SFGate (via Ukulelia). The usual stuff but done more intelligently. Can anyone enlighten me as to where in I’m Yours this ukulele that everyone talks about is?
Jim D’Ville asks National Reso-Phonic three questions.
Acilius did such a good review of the UOGB re-releases I don’t think I’ll be able to do one myself.
The Guardian lists John King’s Partita No. 3 as one of the best reworkings of Bach.
Spare a thought for Ukulele Ike.
Maccaferri plastic guitar catalogue.
As a proud Yorkshireman, it’s good to see the Yorkshire/ukulele connection getting recognised: Ralph Shaw spreading the Yorkshire aloha and H.U.G. will take part in Sunday’s Yorkshire Day Symphony.
Ukulele lessons help teacher walk again.
MP3s: You have to listen to and download Craig Robertson’s version of I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You.
Photos: UOGB take a dip, find the queen without a king, meff ‘n jojo’s Tiny Instrument Revue, Nice hat, dear (NSFW and you have to be logged in to see it), Seductive like an orangutan
In the comments: Can anyone give Uke-Less-Liv advice on how to manipulate her parents into getting her a uke?
Tallest Man on Earth is probably my favourite act at the moment. So much so I’m considering a rare field-trip schlepping to Salford to watch him play here. So it didn’t take too many requests to get me to tab up this song.
Open-F Tuning
He plays the song in open-C tuning with a capo at the 8th fret. To mimic that you can tune to open F (fCFA) by tuning the g-string down a whole step and the E-string up half a step.
Intro – F-Tuning
The chords aren’t exactly the same as he plays on the guitar, but I think these sound about as close as you’re going to get:
Chords – F-Tuning
One extra thing: keep playing the hammer-y on bits from the intro on the F chords in the verse.
Standard Tuning
With a few adjustments you can play the intro in standard tuning (with the capo still on the third fret) without losing much.
Intro Tab – Standard Tuning
A few more adjustments to the chords and you can play it like this:
Tallest Man on Earth – King of Spain (Chords)
The chords are named as if the capo wasn’t there. So when you see F you play the F chord shape.
Requested by Erin and Andrew
I’ve had a copy of Learn to Play Fingerstyle Solos for ‘Ukulele by Mark Kailana Nelson (Mel Bay) for an absolute age. And I’ve got a lot of pleasure out of it. So it’s long past time I gave it a write-up.
What You Get
Tab and standard notation intended for high-G tuning (although 13 of them can be played on baritone or low-G according to the book) for
Ahi Wela (which you can download tab for on his site)
All Through the Night
Aloha ‘Oe
Blue ‘Ukulele Blues
Danny Boy
Dona Nobis Pacem
E Ku’u Morning Dew
Galiarde
Gaviotas
Greensleeves
Hilo March
Isa Lei
Kaulana Na Pua
Las Mananitas
Mbube (Wimoweh)
Minuet
Minuet in G
New Spanish Fandango
Over the Rainbow
Planxty Irwin
Pua Sadinia
The Ragged Little Flea
The Southwind
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Wehiwehi ‘Oe
As the title suggests, it’s all fingerpicking.
It comes with a CD with a recording of each arrangement (but no tuning notes).
You get brief guides to reading music and tab (probably not enough if you’re entirely new to them but a decent reference) and fingerpicking; performance notes for each piece and a list of chord inversions.
The Good Stuff
Perfect for Intermediates: I think this is the best book around for intermediate players who are experienced with chords and want to start tackling fingerpicking pieces. Each track has some performance notes that are going to offer you some guidance.
And the tunes are arranged fairly simply.
There’s a lot of crossover between the tunes in this book and those in, the more advanced, John King’s Classical Ukulele. They make for an interesting comparison. Here are the opening bars of Greensleeves arranged in Fingerstyle Solos (at the top) and Classical Ukulele (at the bottom) in the same key.
Mark Nelson’s version is much easier to play but less elegant.
Mbube (aka Wimoweh aka The Lion Sleeps Tonight) and Over the Rainbow: Easily my two favourite arrangements in the book. Over the Rainbow is particularly useful for occasions when someone you want to impress requests it.
FYI: Using Over the Rainbow to impress a potential suitor: acceptable. Using I’m Yours or Hey, Soul Sister to impress a potential suitor: entirely unacceptable. Using Wimoweh to impress a potential suitor: very much encouraged.
The Not So Good Stuff
Lack of Variety: You might have noticed I like to play uptempo tunes. Unfortunately, Fingerstyle Solos for ‘Ukulele is very heavy towards the slow, light tunes. There’s very little fast tempo stuff.
Not always carefully arranged: Some of the position choices in the book completely baffle me. For example, here are the opening notes for Planxty Irwin:
I can’t see any reason for that big jump between 3rd and 8th fret when you could play the C note much more easily on the g or E strings.
I have found myself rearranging a lot of the tunes in the book to suit my own style. Not necessarily a bad thing.
Overall
Definitely a recommended book for people looking to start of fingerpicking. Also a lot of fun to use as a basis for your own arrangements of tunes.
You can get a free arrangement from the book on his site.
