This week’s must have is one – oh, what the hell – both of these Kaumalae ukuleles: Kumalae 1, Kumalae 2.

It seems like there are an increasing number of ukes around with inlays on the soundboard. The most stylish has to be the Ana’ole. Ohana go for a floral design. This bocote wood ukulele keeps it’s show piece for the back. And this one is an all out cheese-fest.

LOCALS ukulele is a new name on me. They’re Hawaiian made and solid koa. They also claim to be the same quality as Kamaka and Martin at half the price. Hmmm…

If the name Tombo Ukulet isn’t reason enough to buy this, it also looks great.

If you want your Kala archtop to look even more like a Gretsch, get yourself one of these pickguards.

Classy Keech banjolele.

Ukulele photo of the week.

The London Uke Festival 2009 will be held on 20th June. They’ll be attempting to break the world record for most ukuleles played at the same time. You can read more about it in this PDF and register on their website.

More festival news: the Milwaukee Ukulele Festival will include Victoria Vox, The Fabulous Heftones, Boulder Acoustic Society and Lil Rev.

Amy Crehore’s Ticker #2 ukulele is revealed. More pictures on Flickr.

Armelle is posting videos of ukulele songs in different languages (and part two is here and part 3 here). If you know of any others let her know.

The tragedy of the T-Rex in t-shirt form.

Ken Middleton has a new job: Official European envoy for Ohana Ukuleles.

Watch the KoAloha Story here – worth signing up to the site for. But skip about the first 1/3 of the main film and go straight to the animation.

Rod Thomas’s award winning song Same Old Lines is now being used in a DFS ad. And Mr Kazookeylele flogs Doritoes.

Trying to win Zooey Deschanel’s heart by building her a ukulele.

‘Ukelele’ spells trouble for Clint Eastwood.

Ukulele Mike sees himself as the Susan Boyle of the ukulele. He also seems to be spamming the hell out of Twitter in the hopes that Perez Hilton and Jessica Alba are fans in the making.

Greenman.

I’m taking a blog break and I’ll be back on the 8th May.

I’ll be trying to get How to Play Ukulele Strumming written. So far it’s been an absolute nightmare. I have to get it done because if I don’t Armelle will kill me. Hopefully a couple of weeks focusing on it will get me somewhere.

If you are missing me already, you can read an interview I did for Live ‘Ukulele. I hope you like it more than they did. Btw, I would never write, “an ‘ukulele,” (unless it’s preceded by the words, “I would never write…”).

Videos this week include Black Kids doing a ukulele session for KEXP (not as spunky as the full-on version but enough to feed my craving for songs with girls shouting numbers), Ukulele Loki, a particularly fine version of St James Infirmary, WS64 ripping through a couple of rock and roll classics (now go la-da-dow) and Kalei Gamiao getting smooth. Read the rest of this entry »

Oscar Schmidt go one louder with the OU7. It looks cool, but if they’re going to keep jacking up the price they’ll have to switch to solid ukes pretty soon.

A ‘deluxe’ and ‘limited edition’ Ohana TK-70CG. Sexy cutaway, but not sure about the pink tuners (and I usually love pink).

One uke that might want to think about adding a cutaway is this Mike Chock Mango ukulele. What’s the point of 23 frets if you can only reach 12 of them? But I do quite like the pear shape.

Every time a vintage Martin 5K crops up on eBay I do a quick ‘pros and cons’ list of selling one of the kids. And in this case the uke has a lovely battered case – making the list dangerously close to even.

We’ve been total idiots. Practicing when all we had to do was learn to play the ukulele subliminally.

Easel style ukulele stand: classy solution.

The response to the Slide Ukulele ebook has been great – far better than I was expecting. So it’s going on permanent sale at the new price of $7.

Pick up Madame Pamita’s new album Wax Works on a ‘pay what you like’ basis. It’s an excellent album. All recorded on wax cylinders without using electricity. Essential tracks: Do Whatever You Please, Madame Pamita’s Theme Song, Malaria. And she’s touring the UK in May.

The Ukulele Shop is no more. And Ukulele Ireland is spreading the rumour that the Duke of Uke is heading the same way.

In more sad news, Chicago’s Windy City Uke Fest won’t be going ahead this year. But it’ll be back for 2010.

And yet more sad news: Tab-U-Learn has shut its doors.

Ken Middleton’s new site including his tabs.

Uketopia is an excellent new(ish) ukulele podcast with songs, instrument reviews, interviews and various uke chatter. And there’s also the Stretchlinks Podcast from “America’s haymakers of jocularity.”

How to get sopranino tuning on your soprano ukulele.

Ukulele news in Spanish.

Make your own ukulele chord sheets with the help of Kiwi Ukulele

The Baby McGee’s are the cutest thing ever. And the full size version are releasing a 7″ single ahead of their new album in June.

Jack Kirby style ukulele by Ben Towle.

On Flickr: Another ukulele playing monkey, ukulele lamps, Mon ukulele enfin fini

I almost skipped straight past this song on YouTube because I was familiar with Lou Christie’s version of the song and absolutely hated it. But I’m glad I didn’t because Melissa and Yonder Yore‘s version shows it works great on the uke. It’s similar to Over the Rainbow musically and pretty much identical lyrically.

One thing I left out of the chord chart for simplicity’s sake: there’s a passing Eb note (C string third fret) between the Am and D in the, “…only begun,” and, “…beautiful day,” bits

Buy Melissa Polinar on Amazon.

The E chord – the bete noire of all ukulele players. Trying to cram all your fingers into a tiny space on the fretboard. Impossible. So here are ten possible ways to play the E chord. Try them out and see if you like any of them (I don’t).

1) The Way the Books Tell You

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Middle finger – G string 4th fret
Ring finger – C string 4th fret
Little finger – E string 4th fret

Disadvantages: A lot of fingers to fit into a small space.

2) The Double Up

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Middle finger – G and C strings 4th fret
Ring finger – E string 4th fret

Disadvantages: Takes some practice to get the hang of.

3) The Treble Up

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Ring finger – G, C and E strings 4th fret

Disadvantages: You need to have your ring finger leave the strings at a difficult angle so you can still hear the A string.

4) The G-String Block

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Middle finger – Muting the G string (stopping it from sounding by resting against it rather than fretting it)
Ring finger – C string 4th fret
Little finger – E string 4th fret

Or with your thumb.

5) The Treble Up and Block

Ring finger – G, C and E strings 4th fret
A string muted with any finger (including the underside of the ring finger).

If you stop the A string ringing in the triple-up, you will still have and E chord as the G string is giving you the same note. You can use individual fingers along with a mute to make this chord.

6) The Fourth Fret Lay-Across

Index finger – Barre across all strings at the 4th fret.
Little finger – A string 7th fret.

Like a C chord moved up four frets. It’s one of my favourite ways to play it.

Disadvantages: The barre takes some practice. Can be a big jump to and from open chords.

7) The Blocked E7

Index finger: G string 1st fret
Middle finger: Muting C string
Ring finger: A string 2nd fret
E string open

Like an E7 chord with the middle finger muting the C string rather than fretting it. Or you could use the underside of your index finger to mute the string.

Disadvantages: Sounds a bit nasty as you have a big ‘thunk’ in the middle of the chord.

8) E5

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Ring finger – G string 4th fret
Little finger – C string 4th fret
E string open

Disadvantages: No major third note so it’s not a major chord. In some songs this it doesn’t really matter.

9) Up the Neck

Index finger: E and A strings 7th fret
Middle finger: C string 8th fret
Ring finger: G string 9th fret

The Bb chord shape moved up the neck.

Disadvantages: A long way to travel if you’re playing open chords.

10) Thumb Lay-Across

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Thumb – G, C and E strings 4th fret

Disadvantages: Makes changing to and from other chords difficult. Almost always sounds horrible.

Before we get down to business, a little time-sensitive news: The Ukulele Shop is having a closing down sale. It’s a bit of a disaster for UK ukers, but you can pick up a few bargains on the site for now.

orlandosoyyo did some chords up for this on Uker Tabs. It’s a good write up, but I had the chords slightly different so I thought I’d put mine up as well.

One point I differ on is the last verse which, unlike the previous verses, starts with a G chord. It makes for a very pleasing transition from the A7 chord at the end of the middle section (which contains a G note). I was all ready to declare it a genius piece of songwriting. Except she has what might be a ‘wait, am I playing the right chord?’ look on her face at the time.

You can buy this song on BandCamp.

More Sophie Madeleine

Sophie Madeleine interview
Rocky and Balls – I Heart You Online (Chords)
The Stars (Chords)
Take Your Love With Me (The Ukulele Song)(Chords)

Kate Micucci is a busy bunny. There’s the TV shows, the solo music, the theatre show, the movies, the duo, the web series and the sandcastles. But I managed to find the time in my busy schedule to ask her a few questions.

When and why did you first pick up a ukulele?

I got my first uke when I was living with my aunt, uncle, and grandpa in Hawaii. It was pretty awesome. Every night I would sleep in a giant chair on the porch. And because I’ve been a piano player all my life, I was really missing playing an instrument, so my grandpa took me to the local music store and bought me a uke. Then I bought a book of old standards and learned a Gershwin tune.

How did you and Riki get together for Garfunkel and Oates?

Riki wanted to write some songs together to make a musical short she wrote called Imaginary Larry. In the short I play Riki’s imaginary friend. And so it made sense that we would sing some songs together. We wrote the songs so quickly and it was really fun. It just seemed like we were on to something.

Any plans for a full length version of Imaginary Larry?

Well, right now they are still in the process of finishing the short. The movie is getting rotoscoped. My character is going to be completely animated. It looks amazing!

Is that a Martin S-O you’re playing? Do you have any other ukes in your collection?

Yup. That’s a Martin! The Martin Guitar factory is right down the street from where I grew up, so I play it proudly. As for other ukuleles, I still have my first uke, which my grandpa bought me. And I have a few toy ukuleles from the 50s. I used to have a banjolele but I traded it in to help pay for my guitar.

When you were making Bart Gets A Room with William H Macy did you get a chance to uke out together?

We didn’t have any scenes together so unfortunately there were no jam sessions. But I always bring my ukulele to work. There is a lot of down time on a set.

Your role in Scrubs seems perfect for you and your music. Was it written for you?

Yeah, apparently it was! Kinda crazy. Being able to go to work and sing and act on such a fun show. I felt like a very lucky kid.

I’ve heard rumours that there’s going to be a Scrubs spin-off series and that you’ll be in it. Any truth in either of those?

I have heard those rumors too. I don’t know what the chances are of Scrubs coming back for a ninth season. But if it ever did, I’d be happy to play The Gooch again. And I loved singing with Sam Lloyd (Ted the lawyer) and his band. In real life, their band is called The Blanks. They have been special guests in my stage show. And if you ever get a chance to see them live, they are so much fun.

What can we expect from you this year?

I hope to have a second EP out by the summer. A movie I am in called WHEN IN ROME is coming out in August. I continue to do my live show called PLAYIN’ WITH MICUCCI at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. And expect a lot more from Garfunkel and Oates. We are currently recording an album and playing shows in LA.

You can buy Kate’s Songs EP on CD Baby