Here it is. Due to popular demand (i.e. to stop people requesting it). And also due to the fact that the other versions on line keep it in the original key of B. It makes more sense, for beginners in particular, to move all the chords up a fret so it’s in the more uke-friendly key of C. So if you want to play along with the original, tune down half a step.

I’ve based the chords and tabs on the version in the video (which seems to have survived the cull). It’s very similar to the album version but there are some differences in the intro (and the lyrics but it’s not like they were the world’s ‘bestest’ to begin with).

Suggested Strumming

The strumming in this version (and Aldrine’s version) goes like this:

(d) (u) d – (d) (u) d –

With the strums in brackets being muted strums.

But that’s a little sparse if you are playing the uke by itself. So you could go with.

d u d u d u d u

Emphasizing the second and fourth beats.

Twiddly Bits

Here’s the intro as it’s played

But if you’re doing a solo version it’s easy to fill in the chords in between these parts.

I’m Yours

A very tough job sticking to my 10 video maximum this week. Those that the survived the ruthless cull include The Bobby McGee’s, a couple of performances from the NY Uke Fest, Sara Watkins and Tom Allalone.

You might notice Zoe and Jodi wearing prototype Ukulele Hunt shirts. They’re still at the testing stage – I don’t even have them myself yet. Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s ‘it’s so ridiculous I must have it’ is this Pono double neck ukulele (an eight string and a four string). Rather than being fully attached, they’re arranged as a Venn diagram of ukuleles.

It’s so rare to see a Kalaka ukulele that I – like Google – presume it’s a spelling mistake. As I understand it, Kalaka is the label slapped on by the importer. So I’m curious about who made them. The headstock and binding are very similar to the early Kamakas.

Whoever put together this turtle shell ukulele dohickey must have been inspired by the armadillo shell charangos. There’s some very fancy work on the back of that neck. Not sure I’d want to play it, though.

Ukulele kitsch: Hello Kitty cuddly toys.

Ukulele photo of the week: party girls.

Ken Middleton has released his first ukulele ebook: 12 Tunes for Bluegrass Ukulele. If you’ve been following his videos and his tabs, you’ll know he makes great arrangements and this ebook is definitely no exception.

Last chance to sign up for my How to Play Fingerpicking Ukulele mini-course – it’ll be taken down tomorrow (Saturday).

Jake Wildwood has a new album out and you can download it for free on his website.

The London Uke Festival people are keeping tight-lipped about who’s on the bill. They have a couple of acts listed here. My team of private investigators reveal the expected presence of The Bobby McGee’s, Joe Brown, The Re-Entrants, The Sugarsnap Sister (including Tricity Vogue and Cousin Alice) and a “smattering” of the UOGB. But the most interesting part for me is that I’ve always felt there’s a big disconnection between the London ukulele scene and the online ukulele scene. So it’d be nice to get together and be one big family. Or, failing that, have a Sharks-vs-Jets style dance-fight. If you’re feeling generous, you can sponsor my part in the festival here.

If you missed Dent May’s debut EP first time around, you’ve got a second chance to download it here. And you can watch a performance and interview from SXSW.

Armelle’s fascinating trip around the world of ukulele languages continues with Girls Aloud in Latin and a trip to Oceania. You can catch up with the full list here.

At the risk of starting a bidding war between Emily and Zoe, last week’s moustache ukulele is available to buy here.

This new uke website has popped up. Not much there yet but thought I better mention it before I forget.

Build your own ukulele speakerdog (via Ukulelia).

KDUS has animals doing people things – including playing the uke.

I usually only link to photos I can say something droll about. But I’m linking to these because they’re rather beautiful and they give me a light boner*: You might sleep, but you’ll never dream, Untitled, Ukulele.

*Yes, that link is safe for work. What’s going on in your head?

The second part of Captain Obvious Week and it’s Ben Gibbard again. A very different sound to last time but some very similar chords.

Suggested Strumming

For the verses you can go with:

d – d u

All the way through. But you have to hold some chords longer than others. For the verse you do it four times for F, Dm and Bb. Then twice for F and C.

The intro and choruses are a bit more tricky. Do it twice for Dm, F, Bb. Once each for F and F7M. Two for Dm and F again. Four for C. Two for Dm, F, A. One for Dm, Dm7. Two for Bb and Bbm. And four for F.

I hope you followed that. I never know how much detail to give for the strumming.

I’ve had to come up with my own method of writing up strums both for the blog and for the How To Play Ukulele Strums ebook I’m working on. I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

d : indicates a down strum.

u : indicates an up strum.

– : indicates a pause or missed strum i.e. moving your hand either up or down but not hitting the strings.They are most useful to give you an indication of the timing of the strums.

x : indicates a chnk. Strumming down and following through so the underside of your hand lands on the strings creating a ‘chnk’ sound.

(d) or (u) : A muted down/up strum. Strumming as normal but with your fretting fingers resting on the strings to stop them ringing. It sounds like a chnk but you can do them with strums in either direction.

D or U : when in bold and/or capitalised that means the strum is emphasized (i.e. give it a bit more welly).

TTT : triplet strum. There are plenty of ways to do these. My personal favourite is down with middle and index fingers, up with index, up with middle. Here’s Jake discussing his preferred method. Or you could be a complete flash-Harry and use a fan stroke.

Ukulele Strumming in Tabs

You’ll also see strums written up in tab form. Here an up arrow indicates a down strum and a down arrow indicates an up strum. (Make sense? Good.)

So a down, up, down, up… strum looks like this.

A less common method – but quite a neat one – is to use guitar pick direction tab for strum directions.

A down strum looks like this:

And an up strum looks like this:

So a down, up, down, up… strum would look like this:

If you want to learn more about the subject, take a look at my ebook on Ukulele Strumming

This week is officially Captain Obvious Week. Covering non-uke songs that seem to be done over and over on ukulele. Strangely enough, two of them are from Ben Gibbard.

The electronic blips on bloops make Such Great Heights a fair unlikely obvious ukulele song, but plenty of people have taken it on (my favourite being Amber Nash). I suspect the Iron & Wine version pushed it much closer to ukulele territory.

If you’re going to tackle the Postal Service version, it helps to make it a duet – like the Witchger Boys did – to handle the vocal overlaps and the…

Twiddly Bits

Here’s what I made of the intro – arranged for two ukuleles. It’s very tricky – particularly if you’re trying to play it the same tempo as the original. As you can hear, I haven’t quite got it down.

MP3

The little piano bit – try to let the notes ringing into each other as much as possible:

And the solo- dead easy:

Matt Kresling – The Beast That Swallows It’s Young (MP3)
Matt Kresling – Upside-Down Boat (MP3) via mattkresling.com

I’m a little amazed that anyone bothers paying any of their debts any more. After all the bailouts financial institutions don’t have a great deal of moral authority to draw on. But Matt Kresling was ahead of his time in calling for self-bailouts back in the carefree, long-ago days of June 2008. And he’s now made the whole album available for free download on YouTube.

Visit mattkresling.com

MP3

I think I mentioned before, I don’t own a TV any more. But I might get a TV license anyway just to support the BBC’s new ukulele orchestra. One member of the group is Radio 4’s Kathy Clugston (from off of the shipping forecast) and she recorded a jazzy version of this tune and inspired me to knock up my own version.

I’ve taken more liberties with this tune than I usually do. There are a lot of strings swirling around in the original that needed simplifying. I’ve also slowed it down and given it a strong 3/4 feel. In other words, it bears very little relation to the original at all.

The most interesting video this week is of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain being joined by Yusuf ‘Cat Stevens’ Islam for a version of Peace Train. You can watch the Uke’s other performance on the show here.

Also this week are GUGUG, Ukesysteemi (the 14-year old, Finnish, slightly fuckin’ awesome version of GUGUG) and the usual mix of old friends and new favourites.

One video that didn’t make the cut is this one by me. I’m all excited about going to see Imelda May tomorrow so I knocked out some rockabilly cliches and pulled some stupid faces. Read the rest of this entry »