I’ve been meaning to tab this one out since I did Ukulele de Chocobo. It has a lovely Hawaiian flavoured tune and works very well as a solo ukulele piece (even to those who have never ridden a bright yellow, overside galliforme).
It is possible – and more technically correct – to fingerpick this tune with your thumb on G, index on C, middle on E and ring on A throughout. However, I like to move everything up a string (thumb on C, index on E, middle on A) for bars like two and four.
Breaking the habit of a lifetime and including a Jake cover this week. There are a couple of differences from the usual Jake fare: it’s one of his less famous tunes and it’s backed by an orchestra. Other videos this week include Damien Rice, The Be Arthurs and a new version of my favourite Phredd song. Read the rest of this entry »
Dedicated ukulele stands a few and far between. Usually you have to make do with a mandolin stand. But now there are these ukulele cradles. They are more expensive than any ukulele I own. But, still, very pretty.
If you’ve got a few low level luthiering skills, this set of five Bushmanbaritone ukuleles could be a good investment. They’re factory seconds and are just the body. But stick on a bridge, a nut and tuners and you shouldn’t have trouble selling them on for a profit.
Despite some ferocious bidding, this Custom Martin Style 5 failed to reach its reserve. It’s very unusual: mahogany, black and monogrammed.
I’m not a big fan of pictures on ukuleles. The obvious exception is the ultra sexy Le Domino. But sometimes they work when they’re hilariously naff or on the back (as with this Gibson Royal Flush).
Ukulele Kitsch of the Week is a fiercely fought title this week. Any other week the ukulele sushi set and the Hawaiian Santas would have triumphed. But there’s no competing with a necklace covered in pink flamingos playing the ukulele.
Frank Skinner pulled out his banjolele for a quick rendition of the Indiana Jones theme on Graham Norton. And he’s not the only comedian at it: Lee Evans. But when it comes to offensive ukulele comedians there’s no beating the Americans: Hawaiian Death Folk Presents.
With the How to Play Blues Ukulele ebook being harder to finish and a much bigger hit than I had expected, October has been a bit of a crazy month. I’ve decided to take a little rest from the blog, so after today there won’t be any more posts until next Friday.
The Online Ukulele Tuner has got a new design. Looks a whole lot worse, but it lets you select different tunings for individual strings. Although not, strangely, common uke variations like low-G and baritone tuning (you can find those on my ukulele tuning page).
Tom Jones and Colin Murray do a ukulele version of It’s Not Unusual (download part 5). It is quite unusual.
Steve Earle, Eric Drew Feldman and some people who I must admit I’ve never heard of join the Million Ukulele March. Only 999,952 to go (would have been 999,951 if they’d bothered to accept my add). And Ukulala finds what looks like a non-photoshopped picture of Obama with a uke.
The chords and strumming pattern for Rocksteady are fairly simple. The strumming is just down on every off-beat (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and).
The biggest challenge is to make sure you keep the strums short and sharp. There are a couple of parts to this. Once you’ve strummed the chord, release your fretting hand. This will stop the fretted notes. You can use this technique alone if you use chord shapes where all the strings are fretted such as this inversion for A minor.
The second part is do dampen the strings with your strumming hand just after playing the chord. I do it by carrying the strum though and bringing the palm of my hand to rest on the strings.
For a bit of variation on the chords, I really like the sound of Dm7 and Em7 in this progression.
If it hadn’t been introduced by the incredibly irritating Grimshaw I might have given this song a long enough listen to realise there’s a cute little ukulele riff in it. As it is, it’s not until now – months later – I realized it was there and got round to tabbing it up.
It sounds like it’s being played with a pick – ugh.
I first ran across Welsh indie rockers Toy Horses on YouTube. Suitably impressed, I badgered band ukulelist Tom into answering a few questions.
Your ukulele playing in Toy Horses is very different from the usual uke fair. How did you develop your style?
I started playing the uke a couple of years ago after hearing George Harrison’s Brainwashed album. I’ve always played the guitar previously so I kind of thought of it as a mini guitar and played it like that. In fact I’ve never really played much lead before but when you’ve only got four strings it’s easier to get your head round! I think it’s such a great songwriting instrument too. I have written many songs on the ukulele that I would never have written on the old six string.
What’s in your ukulele collection?
Not a lot!! My electric Risa which I love to bits. I had such feedback problems with my acoustic uke, also it’s a bit of a talking point at gigs. Not many people know what it is. My only other uke is a Vineyard, it’s pretty good instrument but does start to go out further up the frets. Actually I lied ‘cus I do have a third, the trusty £10 mahalo, that’s the one that got me started on this uke trip!
What can we expect from Toy Horses in the future?
Toy Horses have only been going since last December but we’ve had a great run of luck. As well as quite a bit of radio play we are in the final of the Intel unsigned bands competition in Camden in November. We are also off to Clonmel in Ireland for the final of a songwriting competition which features my uke heavy tune ‘But What About The Future’
In January we head off to Nashville to record a few tracks with Ken Coomer(Wilco) and in breaking news we’ve just found out that we are playing SXSW in Austin Texas next March!
Where can people get their hands on Toy Horses stuff?
MySpace. We currently put our songs up as and when we record them and let people download them for nothing! ( there does seem to be a problem with the myspace player at time of writing this) This is subject to change of course if we become global superstars!!!! :o)
Anyone who likes our stuff is welcome to leave heaps of praise on the myspace page. We love that!!!
On a semi-related matter, does anyone know what happened to MySpace downloads? Ever since they changed to the new player, I haven’t been able to get anything.
