I wish we had songs this good when I was a kid. All we had was Fingerbobs (okay, so Bagpuss was pretty amazing). I can certainly relate to the story of a mad scientist working away in the shed with everyone wondering what’s he building in there?

This track turned up on the Phredderiffic in a uke-less form. But I’ve written up the uke version from Phreddtube because, of course, it’s far superior.

Suggested Strumming

In the verses, he’s using the same figure as the intro. But if you’d rather strum, you could go with:

d – d – x u d –

For the chorus:

G…………C
d – d – – u d –

D…………C
d – d – – u d –

Buy it on iTunes and check out his new album Phreddtastic!

UPDATE: The poll is now closed.

After totting up the nominations, here are the 10 nominees for this year’s award:

Ukulollo – Ravel’s Bolero
Ukulelezo – Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun
uke3453 – ma-i-na-ku-ma-na
U900 – Diamond Head
tUnE-YaRdS – Hatari
Dent May – Love Song 2009
Sophie Madeleine – Take Your Love With Me
John King and James Hill – Larry O’Gaff
Todd Baio (doogey9) – I’m a Uke-aholic
Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer – Chap Hop History

You only get one vote, so use it wisely. I still haven’t made my mind up – although I have safely eliminated one of them.

Vote here (you’ll have to visit the blog if you’re reading this by email or in a feed reader).

[poll id=”4″]

Voting ends Tuesday 9th February (midnight Hawaii time).

I think the fact that The Who – one of the hardest rocking bands in history – had a ukulele song deserves a bigger mention than it usually gets. Perhaps it will do now that Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey both regularly play the song live on uke.

They both play Blue, Red and Grey slightly differently to the version on The Who by Numbers (which is the version I’ve written up). The original is played in D-tuning but both now play it in C-tuning. Daltrey uses the same chords as the original while Townshend uses – broadly – the same chord shapes as the original (so it’s a tone lower). Another difference is that Townshend uses the F – C7M progression from the bridge in the verses as well.

Suggested Strumming

Time to invent a new bit of shorthand: t = touch strum (i.e. a down strum only hitting the g-string).

The only tricky bit is the intro:

D………..Dsus4
t – d – – u d –

For the rest of the song it’s just

t – d – t – d –

over and over.

Last year, the ukulele world lost two of the classiest players and arrangers for ukulele: John King and John Kavanagh.

John Kavanagh’s arrangements of ragtime tunes on his album Parlour Music were a particular inspiration for me. He managed to make those insanely tricky pieces sound clean and elegant. So I was very privaleged to have been able to exchange emails on our shared passion for playing ragtime on the ukulele and delighted when he was generous enough to say nice things about my Ragtime arrangements – in this excellent article on Ragtime ukuele – despite my obvious noob status.

The same mastery of ukulele arrangement is on display on the album he was working on when he died Small Rooms. The album has been completed and released by John’s friends and family – who have done a great job with it – and it’s well worth checking out. You can stream clips of it on johnkavanagh.net and buy it here

John’s ukulele lessons:

Finger and thumb strum lesson
Getting that bluegrass sound

I feel a bit guilty for all the UK-centric theme tunes I do. The only US shows I watch have doom laden intros (House, Heroes) or featureless backing for a voiceover (The Daily Show, Mythbusters). So if you have any suggestions for non-UK theme tunes that would work well on the uke, let me know.

Having said that, the Coronation Street theme tune doesn’t work too well on the uke. It’s a little too slow for the uke’s sustain. Which is why Ian Re-entrant’s funky version works well. But it’s a more faithful version that I’ve tabbed up.

Don’t forget to get your nominations in for ukulele video of the year 2009.

Back to this year, two fantastic videos include loops, beats and electric ukes from Kilgore Trout is Dead and Little6ster (which I think is the first contender for video of the year 2010). Also this week is the swearier of Sebi’s two odes to WMG (his story has been picked up by the Swiss press), Judy Marshak and many more.

Read the rest of this entry »

A couple more new ukes from NAMM 2010:

– Ohana resonator here’s ,resonator specialist, Bob Brozman testing it out.
– Uke-blog tributing Ukulelia ukulele.

If you can’t wait for the Ohana resonator to turn up, this nickel-plated bell brass Recording King Resonator seems like a sweet deal. But it’s still the National resonator that makes me go all gooey in the knees.

Keli’i are turning out some curly koa ukes at a reasonable price.

Picture of the week: Ukulele side-hugs.

The New York Times declares the end of the ukulele fad, “The high school girl has shelved her “uke” with her slave bracelet.” Michael has been turning up a whole load of great stuff on The Backwards Ukulele Player – well worth subscribing to.

Line-ups for the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain and Denver UkeFest 2010.

The Blockheads play ukulele for a little while at least (thanks to Mike for that).

Frank Skinner wants to write an England football song on ukulele.

Armelle finds 7 ukulele tutorials for strumming and fingerpicking.

Hergonomic ukulele design.

Things to make: a ukulele from a tub of butter.

MP3s: Local Vertical has April Smith’s rather brilliant Colors, Eardrums has Oh, Harry’s He Is Not the One. Here Comes the Flood has a track from the new Julia Nunes EP, Seychelles Footwear are giving away the ukulele song from their ad.

Pictures: Norwich Ukulele Society = super cool, uker on Google Street View.

In the comments: In response to the post about Mid-East ukuleles, robgonzo mentioned this rather fantastic instrument he had made.

One event I’m very much looking forward to following this year is Bosko and Honey’s Oz Safari. Compared to New Zealand, we hear very little about the Australian uke scene. So I’m eager to learn more.

One Australian I don’t expect to be seeing on the Safari – I believe he lives in the US now – is Scott Matthew. But it’s a good enough segue for me because I’ve been meaning to post this one for an age.

Before you tackle it a couple of things you need to know:

– It’s played in D-tuning
– It’s in 3/4 time.
– For the picking use your thumb on the G-string then one finger each for the other strings.

“And IIIIII…” part is A7 then one strum each on D – D7 – D6.

Suggested by Emilie and Antwan.

Time to look back on the ukulele videos of last year. And it was a bumper crop. If you need any proof check out the list of some of the contenders below. And – to be honest – that’s the real purpose of the vote: to get people watching excellent musicians. So if there’s a video you think has been cruelly overlooked, be sure to give it a nomination because I’ll be watching anything I missed first time round.

For the first stage, everyone gets to nominate up to 5 videos – leave them in the comments. From those nominations, I’ll cobble together a list of ten (ish) to go to the big vote.

The rules remain as ramshackle as ever:

– There has to be a ukulele in there.
– Videos must have been recorded and uploaded in 2009.
– Videos must be publicly available online.
– Maximum of five nominations per person.
– Post your nominations in the comments.
– Nominations close midnight Monday 1st February (Hawaii time).
– Ten acts with the most nominations go into the final vote with their most nominated song going forward.
– No prize. Just the love and admiration of the heaving masses.

UPDATE: New rule: no sucking up by voting for me.

Don’t panic if your comments don’t show up right away. When a comment contains a few links it gets held back for spam checking.

My Nominations:

John King and James Hill – Larry O’Gaff & Swallowtail Jigs
Sophie Madeleine – Take Your Love With Me
Peggy Sue – Lover Gone
The Bobby McGee’s – Go, Tiger, Go!
tUnE YaRdS – “Hatari” Part I – Pastport Office

Others you might like to consider:

Michelle Blades – Rie Rio
U900 – Diamond Head
Miss Jess – Philadelphia
Rocky and Balls – I Heart You Online
Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer – Chap-Hop History
Arborea – Beirut
Gensblue with Bosko and Honey – Earthquake
L’Uke and GUGUG – Girl U Want
Kalei Gamiao – Mach 4
Honeycomb – Cough Syrup
Craig Robertson – Wrong’s What I Do Best
Todd Baio – No Tears in Heaven
Dent May – Meet Me in the Garden
Victoria Vox and Boulder Acoustic Society – America
Ukulolo – Ravel’s Bolero
Garfunkel and Oates – Present Face
Tiny McItchyFace – I’m Yours
Agathe and Fine – Pirate’s Gospel
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – Dreaming of You
Elliott Brood – Valley Town
Ukulelezo – Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun