Ukulele Video of the Year: Winners and Runners Up

Each year on the blog I run a contest to find readers’ favourite ukulele video of the year. Here are the winners and other popular entries.

2012 Winner: Sophie Madeleine, Jocelyn Mackenzie & Emily Hope Price – Bei Mir Bist Du Schön

Who? English singer/songwriter teamed up with the lady parts of Pearl and the Beard.

Why is it popular? Good times and awesome Andrews Sisters harmonies.

Want to hear more? Visit SophieMadeleine.com and PearlAndTheBeard.com.

Read the winners’ interview.

Learn to play it Bei Mir Bist du Schon Chords

2011 Winner: A Banda Mais Bonita – Oracao

Who? Big band of Brazilian buddies.

Why is it popular? Good vibes and an irresistible melody.

Want to hear more? Visit their website.

Read The winners’ interview

Learn to play it Oracao chords

2010 Winner: Manitoba Hal – Poulet Shack

Who? Burly Canadian blues uker.

Why is it popular? Funky blues riffery and fried chicken.

Want to hear more? Listen to Hal’s stuff on Bandcamp.

Read The winners’ interview

Learn to play it Poulet Shack tab

2009 Winner: U900 – Diamond Head

Who? Adorable Japanese knitted pair with a love of the Ventures.

Why is it popular? The characterful pair and wonderful animation proved a big hit amoungst ukulele players and kitch lovers across the net – making a big splash on Boing Boing.

Want to hear more? U900 – Ukulele Ventures

Read their winners’ interview

Learn to play it Diamond Head tab

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More than any site (yes, even this one) YouTube has been the place been have first encountered the ukulele and had an urge to pick one up. Here are the most popular ukulele videos on the site. Read the rest of this entry »

Tiki Farm Theme (Tabs)

I hate Facebook. I used to have a secret account and then people started finding me. I ended up shutting it down. But, to my shame, I had to set up a new secret secret account just to play Happy Island. I have to admit I’m completely addicted. When a game starts influencing your sleeping patterns, you need to take a good look at your priorities.

Despite being set on a Hawaii-like island, there are no ukes in its theme tune. But there are ukes aplenty in the tunes that back the Happy Island-a-like Tiki Resort and its sister game Tiki Farm. So, obviously, I had to get tabbing.

The tune is fairly straight-forward. It sounds like it’s being played with a pick, but you can just about get away with not using one.

Here’s my version of the tune:

MP3

Play Tiki Farm on Facebook

Ukulele & accordion is fast becoming the new ukulele & kazoo. This week’s contribution to the combo comes from Les Poupées Gonflées (literal translation = The Swollen Dolls – that has to be a French euphemism).

Also this week, Seeso has moved all his covers to a new channel and has bravely reupped his cover of the Red Hot Chunky Puppies (it’s now illegal to use their name on the internet). Other performers in this week’s selection include gentle-folkie Anna Ash, noise-merchant Williwaw and The Polyjesters with a song about Mrs Nahasapeemapetilon.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another new uke and another new wood for Kala with the Kala Butterfly. MGM refers to it being made from bicote. He might mean bocote – the heavy grain certainly looks a lot like bocote. Either way, I don’t think it’ll make its way on to my shopping list.

Two lovely vintage Favilla ukuleles: Favilla Teardrop and a Favilla Wimbrola modified into a four string ukulele.

My favourite uke of the week: Kamaka Tiple.

Ukulele Ventures tab book from Japan. I wonder if that’s what U900 used.

Ukulele in a canoe.

Diverting backside.

Check out the Stackridge podcast on Monday for a ukulele special including George from the UOGB co-present and tracks including Uke Hunt faves the Bobby McGee’s and Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer. And there’s a performance by Fairport Convention.

I’ll be heading off to Ukelear Meltdown this weekend. If you see me, say hi. I won’t bite.* Other festival possibilities include Wukulele (they’ve only announced one act, but that act is Bob Brozman), the Belper Ukulele Day and, of course, Donington. Let there be rock.

DFW have a series of posts on the uke starting here and taking in why people took up the ukulele.

Photos: Joe Strummer on ukulele (Thanks to Will who has many more famous ukers here), Ralph Shaw busking, Harold Walden, Herman gives Roger a ukulele and tells him that the only way to diffuse the Marshmallow Man’s anger is to play music.

tUnE-YaRdS 4AD session (via Bossarocker

Ukulala is back after a long break.

Michelle Blades is a synesthete.

Ukulollo shares his fancy video technique with Armelle.

MP3s: Blind Pilot did a ukulele version of 3 Rounds and a Sound for Daytrotter, Gorilla vs. Bear has White Hinterland’s highly effected uke.

* I might bite.

Nickel Creek – Anthony (Chords)

Sara Watkins has a few ukulele songs knocking around but this one – from Nickel Creek’s Why Should the Fire Die? – is the standout. The tuning she uses in this one is rather unusual. It’s like a low-G ukulele tuned down two frets (to F Bb D G). I worked out the tune using a baritone ukulele with a capo at the third fret.

I included the shapes for standard tuning in the chord chart. Here are the chords for her weird-ass tuning.

Twiddly Bits

Here’s the little riff she plays through most of the song:

If you’re using standard tuning, you can get away with playing it like this:

Suggested by Ashley and Frank

You may have noticed this is my seventh post in the space of six hours. It’s all part of the overhaul of the site that will be taking place soon.

With over 1,000 blog posts on Uke Hunt and a bunch more in the other sections, it’s getting impossible for people to find what they’re looking for. So these posts are designed to guide people towards the stuff that they’ll find most useful.

The first set of ‘lessons’ are divided by difficulty with a couple more focusing on styles (fingerpicking – which needs a bit of filling – and blues).

If you’ve got a suggestion for a section or something that should be included in a section, let me know in the comments.