I never thought it would happen but there’s a ukulele cover of The Beatles I like. But you still won’t find it in this week’s roundup as she also has a heartbreakingly brilliant original song. As much as I like light-hearted ditties about facial hair and bunnies, I love it when people sing a song and really mean it. Read the rest of this entry »
With all the excitement over the new Flea and Fluke designs last week, I completely the missed the new mahogany Flea and Fluke ukes.
I don’t know why more people don’t include sound and video clips in their uke sales. It certain helps if you’re a shit-hot player: it must help Jake Wildwood – add him to your favourite sellers – who does it with his items (and the quality of his pictures are a lesson to all eBay sellers). Two instruments taking advantage of having talented owners at the moment are this Martin Taropatch demonstrated by Aaron Keim and this Martin taropatch put through its paces by ukulelezaza.
The new f-hole Eleukes have turned up on eBay UK. Including the rosewood model which I hadn’t noticed before. [UPDATE: No wonder I hadn’t noticed it before. According to Ken, these are imitations. Which makes the listing very misleading. I’ve contacted the seller and BugsGear and I’ll let you know if I hear back.][UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: BugsGear have confirmed it’s all on the up and up. Clearwater are an OEM.]
There are plenty of copies of the Roy Smeck Vita Uke around, but here’s an original.
Can the ukulele be sexy? I think this will answer your question.
You can listen to excerpts from James Hill’s upcoming album True Love Don’t Weep on his website.
Chalmers Doane has posted all nine of his and the Halifax’s uke albums on his site. And the music is as kitsch as the covers. (Via HUG).
And related to both those, the new edition of Ukulele Yes! is up. (I wish they’d put up an RSS feed. I completely missed the last one. And I’m still not subscribed despite numerous attempts and assurances from the man himself).
Ukulele Cosmos has been shut down by its host for using too much bandwidth. Stay away from Bluehost and scammers who recommend it. They’re a notoriously crappy host but they’re very generous to affiliates.
Des Cordes et Dubois has a very challenging tab of Allegretto Op. 30 by Mauro Giuliani.
Jimmy McGee tells us how to be annoying with a ukulele yet fails to mention the most annoying song to play on the ukulele.
Ukulele spotting: Phil Jupitus and Lauren Laverne uke it up in a caravan – at around 5 and 9 1/2 minutes (thanks to Andy for that). The Saturdays break out the uke for Comic Relief at 1:50 (should I be worried that I find the uke the most exciting part of that video?).
Jake Wildwood‘s other half, Bonnie, has these cute banjolele-playing gnome doodads for sale (it took me a while to realise that’s a pipe rather than some Gene Simmons gnome action).
Taking the Flying V concept one step further.
Baby Bosko. Awww bless.
The Beastie Boys’ Fight for Your Right is pretty much the first bar of Smoke on the Water over and over. They’re all power chords, so you can play them on all four strings or, if you want to keep it simple, just on the G and C strings like the Smoke riff.
A link section of the site is probably long overdue. I was working on the assumption that I could just mention interesting sites as they came along. But I’ve been convinced of the benefit of something more permanent where people can go to find out what’s worth reading on the web.
With that in mind I’ve set up a Ukulele Links section. You can add your own site to it on an ‘I link to you, you link to me’ basis (which does mean you can’t add MySpace/Facebook and the like with their ‘You do know you’re leaving MySpace/Facebook, right? If you do you’ll probably get robbed and punched,’ pages).
Which is another reason why I did it. People were demanding a link in my sidebar in exchange for a link from their site. And I don’t just give those away. I’m really choosy about those links and their only really for people who inspired me to start the site and help be right from the beginning. So that part of the site should keep those people happy too.
There’s also a facility on there to submit articles. So if you’ve got something pressing to say – a gig or uke review, some playing tips – feel free to submit it. If it’s good stuff, I’ll certainly be linking to it from the main blog. You can also include a link or two to wherever you like with your article without the need for a link back.
The part of the site is brand new and is based on software I’ve never used before. So there’s a good chance you’ll come across a bug. If you do, I’d appreciate it if you let me know (in the comments or by contacting me). You can also suggest any categories you think should be there.
Time for another series of guitar riffs for the ukulele. The idea with these riffs isn’t to play the whole song, but to throw them in to your playing for a bit of light relief (like the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on Orange Blossom) or just to prove that the ukulele can do more than just strumming Tiptoe Thru the Tulips. The riffs are arranged in the key that I find easiest to play on the uke, so aren’t necessarily in the same key as the original.
This set of riffs is a bit more heavy on chord riffs. Since they tend to work better on the uke, they’re a bit more suitable for full uke covers. And The Hives’ Hate To Say I Told You So works great on the uke in the original key. The only other part in the song is the G in the chorus.
Hot Potato Syncopators – I’m in the Mood for Love (MP3)
Hot Potato Syncopators – Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head (MP3)
Hot Potato Syncopators – Bye Bye Blues (MP3) via their website.
Some traditional ukulele fare from the Hot Potato Syncopators. The Hot Potato’s Duke Marmapantz is something of a ukulele legend being an occasional stand-in uke for the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and mentor to Jimmy of the Bobby McGee’s.
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – Blue Smoke (Chords)
Lest you think ukuleles and New Zealand are a new phenomenon, the first record entirely produced in New Zealand, Blue Smoke, was a uke-featuring hapa haole song recorded when the technology was just reaching New Zealand way back in 1993 (you can read the full, and more accurate, story here). And a slimmed down version of the WIUO recorded it at the Ukulele Cabaret
Suggested Strumming Pattern
Blue Smoke is in waltz time (3/4) so here’s a strumming pattern that suits it:
d – d u d u
WIUO/Desmond Dekker – Israelites (Chords)
The ukulele seems to be a big hit with the ad makers at the moment. A few that leap to mind are McDonalds, Travelocity, e.on and, of course, the Hawaii Chair. And the Wellingtons have got in on the action providing tunes for a series of Whitcoulls ads (including Ruby and Israelites). But Israelites is already seared into brain from another advert. So much so I always find myself singing What ‘m I gonna spread on my toast?.
Suggested Strumming
For the reggae strumming, make sure you keep the chords short and sharp. And emphasise the 2 and 4 beats. Here’s a simple strum you could use.
– – d u – – d –
Twiddly Bits
There’s this little run after, “… the Israelites.”
Which gets expanded with a few bends for the solo section where this is repeated:
New videos from the Corner Laughers, GUGUG, The Sweet Hollywiians’ Tomotaka Matsui on lap steel ukulele and plenty more. Read the rest of this entry »
