Three cheers for the credit crunch. Hip, hip. Hazzah!. Hip, hip. Hazzah!. Hip, hip. Hazzah!.

While the papers are full of doom and gloom about job losses and repossessions, the real story of the credit crunch is that eBay is crammed with people selling off their vintage ukulele collecions. Duane Hielman is selling off a pile of vintage ukes from a private collection. All ukes start at $1. Pick of the current crop are a LeDomino and an unnamed koa concert ukulele.

This seller is also selling off the family jewels including a Kumalae 3K.

This seller is flogging a friend’s instrument collection. A number of tenor Martins have already been and gone, but there’s a soprano and a baritone still left.

Of course, if the credit crunch isn’t biting you at all, you could spend a few hundred dollars on a Hello Kitty ukulele. How can they charge that much?

You don’t see K Wave ukuleles on eBay very often, but there’s one up for sale right now here.

Mike’s ukulele book Kiwi Ukulele is out now. You can buy it here. The book has endorsements from Age Pryor and George from the UOoGB, to which I can add my whole hearted supported (more on that in the not too distant future).

ezFolk has a new blog look. As an aside/hissy-fit, is it just my self interest speaking or is it a bit off that general sites like ezFolk and Curt Sheller are included in the Top 50 Ukulele Sites list?

First ever Wine Country Ukulele Festival in Napa Valley featuring workshops and performances from the likes of Herb Ohta, Jr., Keoki Kahumoku, Ralph Shaw, and James Hill.

HawaiiMusicSupply has just put up a selection of ukulele tutorials.

Does anyone know anything about Oly Arkle? His From Paris to Barcelona is rather magnificent. All I’ve been able to find out is that he’s French and he looks like this.

I long ago gave up reading ‘news’ pieces about Jake Shimabukuro, they all say the same thing. Luckily, Gary is far more diligent than I am. He found out that Jake’s new album will include a uke/cello duet and a ukulele string quartet. Speaking of Jake, Cover Me has an mp3 of his version of Time After Time.

If you’ve been watching closely, you’ll know I’m a fan of Poopy Lungstuffing. It turns out that she was a sort of proto-Avril Lavigne with the band Rosebud. This was the song as it was and here it is now. A big improvement I’d say.

The Offspring’s Original Prankster on Uker Tabs.

Take care of your hands.

Ukulala gets his make-out socks on for the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

I’m Yours on the world’s smallest ukulele.

Boodle Am Shake was written by Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams in 1926 and has been covered by a number of people since including John Fahey and The Grateful Dead. Lil Rev recently put up a ukulele version that works really well for ukulelists looking to get more familiar with chords further up the neck.

It’s well worth taking a note of the different chord inversions that crop up in the tune: the C7 played at the fifth fret (at the beginning) and the 1st position (at the end of the verse); and the G7 played open and at the 7th fret. When you’re chord soloing, you can create something much more interesting with these variations to hand.

In the instrumental section, he substitutes this descending part for the chords:

Visit Lil Rev’s Internet Junction and don’t miss his article on the ukulele and old time country music.

Compared to tabs, reading standard notation is a complete pain in the arse. For some reason, there are a few ukulele books that use only standard notation (such as the Jumpin’ Jim books and some of the Ukulele Masters series). I thought I’d knock together a short post in the hope of making all those squiggles and splatters a little more decipherable.

There are certain similarities with tab such as rhythms and repeats (there’s a full guide to reading ukulele tab here). So I’m just going over how musical notation indicates pitch.

Like tab, there are a bunch of horizontal lines (known as a stave), but that’s where the similarity ends. Notes are indicated by the position of the dots: the higher up the stave a dot is, the higher the note. The dots can appear on the lines or between them. Each time you shift up a position, you go up to the next white key on the piano (C,D,E,F,G,A,B etc.)

Here are the notes as they compare to the tab

Whether the stems of the notes go up or down doesn’t make any difference at all.

The notes that fall in between the lines spell “FACE” from bottom to top.

The notes on the lines spell “EGBDF”. If you’re not familiar with the word ‘egbdf’, there are plenty of mnemonics to remember it such as Every Good Boy Deserves Football (or any other f-word you think a boy might enjoy).

On the uke, there are two notes that fall below this: C and D. The D hangs underneath the stave, and the C is on a line drawn underneath it.

Like tab, you read music left to right with notes that are vertical are played at the same time e.g.

You might have noticed that none of the notes we’ve discussed are sharp or flat. Sharps and flats are indicated with a sharp (#) or flat (b) before the note like this:

When it comes to the ukulele, standard notation has some serious shortcomings. For one, it can’t tell you which string you’re supposed to be playing a note on (a big drawback since the uke has so many options for playing the same notes). For instance, Example 1 could equally be played like this:

Or any of a whole array of other ways.

Zach Condon quite often finishes off Beirut gigs with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Although his version is closer to Jeff Buckley’s (one of the best cover versions ever recorded).

The chords are fairly simple. One thing he does a few times in the song (and loads of times in his own songs) is play the F chord with the G string open, then hammer on at the second fret. He does a similar thing with the G chord. This time the A string is left open then hammered on.

I’ve included two versions of Am in the song (one with the A string open and one with it at the third fret). He always uses the third fret version on the C – Am change that you hear at the beginning. He throws in the easier version on a few occasions towards the end.

Kudos to Leonard Cohen for making my job easier by describing the chords in the lyrics. Why can’t all songwriters be so helpful?

Suggested Strumming

Any simple 3/4 pattern will see you through. A good one to start out with is:

d – d u d –

Links

Buy it on Amazon
More Beirut Tab and Chords
Instrumental tab for Hallelujah

You probably already familiar with Aldrine Guerrero from his YouTube videos and his lessons on Ukulele Underground. Aldrine has just released his debut CD, Suite 409, and Ryan from UU (the album’s Executive Producer) was brave enough to send me a copy for review.

The Good Stuff

Bandito Tyler (Unplugged): A phenomenal tune. A stone-cold ukulele classic. It’s played with real force and energy. It fizzes out of the speakers.

The album contains two versions of Bandito Tyler: a solo version and a band version. The solo version is by far the most exciting. The tune is so strong and forceful that the band dilute it rather than add to it.

The Instrumental Tracks: As well as having impeccable technique, Aldrine has a way with a tune. The instrumental tracks are instantly catchy.

They’re also nicely varied. Schizophrenic Snowflakes is light and atmospheric. Uke on a Stick is great fun. It starts out as a 21st Century Greensleeves, kicks into some Dick Dale tremelo, launches into Santana-style soloing and recalls the solo from Hotel California before it’s done. Cecilia is steady and meditative. Each of them a huge success on their own terms.

The Not So Good Stuff

The Vocal Tracks: In contrast to the variety of the instrumental tracks, all the songs are mid-tempo, easy listening RnB. Whether he’s lonely (Buttercup), in seduction mode (Red and Silky with Danyo Cummings and Ariki Foster), or resigned (Ducky Adores Me), it never really shows in the songs. Lyrically, the songs don’t ring true. It feels like he’s holding back most of the time.

Listening to the songs made me feel like the girl who feel for the cock-strutting MoFo of Bandito Tyler and ended up with the limp lothario of Red and Silky. I wanted the same passion and honesty of the instrumental tracks in the songs.

Overall

Suite 409 announces Aldrine Guerrero as a serious contender in the ukulele world – up there with the very best. If he can get the same passion that he has in his playing into his songs, he’ll be unstoppable.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Chords)

Boo to you, Major League Baseball. BOOOO!!!

Baby Ruth held a contest to celebrate the 100th birthday of Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Entrants sent in their rendition of the song and the winner was decided by public vote. Obviously, the winner was a ukulelist, Adam Wilber. The prize was to sing at the MLB All Star Game. But, Gary pointed out that the ukulele was banned and he had to sing along with a belching organ. Shame on you MLB. Give the public what it wants: ukes by the barrel-load.

I suggest your protest by grabbing these chords and playing it outside the offices of the MLB in protest. If it helps you to get as drunk as Eddie Vedder when you do it, I have no objections.

This week’s UkeTube is nothing but the girls (ah-ah-ah-ahh-ah-ah-ah). Including Anna Van Riel, Julia Nunes, Brittni Paiva and plenty more.

Click ‘more’ to watch them. Read the rest of this entry »

Duane Heilman of Black Bear has made some strange ukuleles in the past, but he’s completely lost his mind with his latest ukulele. Inspired by the equally nutty Novax guitars, it’s a tenor scale ukulele on the upper edge of the fretboard and concert scale ukulele on bottom. I hate to think of the maths involved in that.

Relatively tame by comparison are an electric Blue Star Konablaster, and a Flying V made by Bob Hurney. I’ve no idea who Bob Hurney is, but the turtle shaped hole makes guess he’s something to do with Kanilea (who use a very similar turtle design).

A couple of National Ukuleles: This rather lovely Koa National has already been sold, but there’s a banana hued National still up for grabs.

Sweetest ukulele this week is this Kamaka soprano.

The baritone ukulele site Buke has been shut down. It did have a note saying it was for copyright reasons (which makes me nervous). I tried to email Roger to find out more, but his email wasn’t working. It’s a real shame to see it go. Anyone know any more?

With the recent UKEit festival, it’s clear good things are happening with the ukulele in Italy. You can pick up a CD of Italian ukulele acts. And there’s an Italian blog with uke chords here including Pink Martini and Hank Williams (don’t scroll too far down if you want to keep things entirely work safe).

A batch of Bluegrass ukulele tabs on Uker Tabs from Ken Middleton.

Treat yourself to a Ukulele Hero T-Shirt (or a Kazoo Hero T-Shirt if that’s more your speed).
UPDATE: Thanks to Jan for pointing out you can get a 25% discount if you sign up on this page (plenty more ‘Hero’ style tees on there too).

Nellie McKay plays her ukulele for TED (Thanks to Paul, Garatth and Catherine from SUJ).

Friend of Uke Hunt, Heather will be hosting a ukulele special on her show on CJSR tonight at 6 p.m., MST. You can listen live here or listen again here (find Q Transmissions).

Hoosierhiver tells you why your ukulele won’t stay in tune.

Mirah‘s new album, The Old Days Feeling, is more than a little bit brilliant. There are three uke tracks (Dreamboat, Take Me Out Riding and Birthday Present) and you can download Lone Star free on Amazon.

Map of Bosko and Honey’s Ukulele Safari.

Mike McCready (of Pearl Jam) has a page of ukulele tabs on his site including Soon Forget and The Who’s Blue, Red, Grey. (Thanks to Daniel)

Cool Hand Uke’s iPhone ringtones.

MP3s: New track, Megaman 9, from Tanguy Ukulele Orchestra, Allo, Darlin on Indietracks, Herohill has Jon and Roy’s High on a Hill.

This might be the reason God made sure there was plenty of distance between Hawaii and Australia.