Almost all the ukulele tuning notes online seem to be for standard tuning. So I thought I’d knock together tuning notes for some more out of the way tunings.

Re-entrant C-tuning

g,C,E,A

Sometimes referred to as standard tuning. It’s the most common ukulele tuning.

Re-entrant D-tuning

a,D,F#,B

Used to be more popular than it is now. Most of the old song sheets from the ukulele heyday are in D-tuning. Nowadays, the only place I really see it used often is with Formby acolytes.

Low-G Tuning

G,C,E,A

This tuning (with the g string an octave lower than in standard tuning) is becoming more popular – particularly with Hawaiian players. It offers a greater choice of base notes which can fill out the sound when you are playing solo ukulele. This tuning is most often used on tenor ukuleles.

Watch this video of Carl Ray Villaverde to hear how effective it can be.

Low-A Tuning

A,D,F#,B

Should probably be called the ‘Canadian tuning’. It’s used extensively by James Hill and Chalmers Doane. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember it being used anywhere else.

Slack-Key Tuning

g,C,E,G

The tuning is most often used in the slack-key style of playing (from Hawaii). The A string is tuned down a whole step to G. This produces a C chord when all the strings are played open. The G string can be either low or high (in this case, it’s high).

Baritone Tuning

D,G,B,E

The baritone ukulele strings are usually tuned the same as the top four strings as the guitar: with the strings going from low to high. It is possible to buy strings for baritone ukulele that allow you to play in re-entrant tuning with a high-D

B-Tuning

The standard C-tuning with each string tuned down half a step (one fret). It’s particularly useful for playing in uke unfriendly keys like B and E which often crop up in guitar-based songs.

C#Tuning

The standard ukulele C-tuning tuned up half a step (one fret). So it’s half way between C and D tuning. You can recreate this tuning on a C-tuned uke with less hassle by putting a capo on the first fret.

Other Tuning Methods

Using a Tuner

If you don’t trust your ear to tune the uke (or you want to check you’ve got it right), you can use a tuner.

If you’re tuning at your computer, you can download the AP Tuner free and it will tell you the pitch of each string as you play it. The readings should be this for standard tuning:

G = G4
C = C4
E = E4
A = A4

Don’t worry about being bang on 00.0. One or two either way doesn’t matter much.

For tuning away from the computer, you can use a ukulele tuner. You can find out more about them here: ukulele tuners.

Tuning to Pitch Pipes

In days of yore, when dragons roamed the earth, there was no such thing as computers, intertubes and digital tuners. In order to tune their ukuleles, our forefathers had to toot on an ancient whistles known as pitch pipes. They work like a harmonica and a have on hole for each note of the ukulele. You blow the note and tune to it. Dead simple and they break down a lot less often than fancy digital tuners.

Tuning to a Piano

The C string of the ukulele corresponds to the middle-C of the piano. This video should help you find middle C.

Here are the other notes you’ll need:

From left to right: C, E, G, A

Tuning to a Guitar

If you’re playing with other instruments, you have to make sure you are in tune with them. Even if you’re both out, so long as you’re out by the same amount, it’ll sound right.

For standard, re-entrant tuning, you can find the tuning notes here:

G = E-string (high E-string) third fret.
C = B-string first fret.
E = E-string open.
A = E-string fifth fret.

Tuning the Ukulele to Itself

Sometimes, you’ll have nothing but your ukulele. On these occasions, you’ll have to tune the ukulele to itself. This might mean that the strings aren’t exactly right. However, so long as the strings are in tune with each other (all of them out by the same amount) it’ll sound right.

Start with the C-string. So long as it sounds like it’s in the right range, use that as your base note. Play the C-string at the fourth fret and tune the E-string to this note.

Play the E-string at the third fret and tune the G-string to that.

To get the note for the A-string, you can either play the E-string at the fifth fret, or the G-string at the second fret.

Strum through a few chords and if all sounds well, you’re good to go.

I never thought I’d be putting this song on the blog. But, when I realised even Simon Cowell isn’t too hard-hearted and cynical to be won over by a song’s charm, I reconsidered my position. Despite the obligatory American Idol warblings, I thought Jason Castro made a pretty good stab at the song.

His version of the chords are simpler than Brudda IZ’s – particularly since the intro is missed off – which makes it ideal for beginners. The strumming pattern varies throughout the song, but good starting place is:

Down, down (pause)
Up, down, up
Up, down, up
Up, down, up

All that for each chord.

To answer Julie’s question it’s an Oscar Schmidt ukulele. I’d guess it’s an Oscar Schmidt OU5. One thing it’s definitely not is a guitar. Bloody Paula Abdul.

A big thanks to Jeff for alerting me to this performance.

UPDATE: A very IZ-inspired ukulele version turned up on Glee last night. Here’s a video:

Listen to the song on MySpace.

Van Morrison picking up the ukulele for his latest album isn’t quite as incongruous as the likes of Portishead and Panic at the Disco using the uke, but it’s certainly an unexpected development.

True to the title, Van keeps this song simple. Lyrically, it’s the same old, “Walking down the street, Waaaa-hoor-hoor-king dooooown the street, ba-dap-dum-dee-dup,” he’s always been doing, and musically, the chorder is very simple. For the most part it’s just switching between F and Bb.

For the introduction, this little part is picked out (and repeated with various slight variations):

MJ Hibbett – A Million Ukeleles (MP3)
MJ Hibbett – I Did A Gig In New York (MP3) via MySpace

MJ Hibbett has spent most of his musical life knocking out Billy Bragg/Half Man Half Biscuit type punky numbers on mundane aspects of English life (particularly football and antiquated digital technologies) with his band The Validators. But he’s gone solo and picked up the uke for his most recent album A Million Ukeleles (sic). The album comes complete with ukulele chords for all the songs which you can download here.

Mark was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.

Q: How long have you been playing the uke and what made you take it up?

It’s been nearly two years now, as I got my first one as a birthday present. I’ve always liked the idea of them, probably due to a season of George Formby films that were on one year during the school holidays, which me and my brother lapped up when we stayed with various Nans! I also read an article online which gave some brilliant advice for playing uke – if you can’t play a chord, play an easier one, and if you can’t play an easier chord just stop playing and sing louder. That’s how i play the guitar anyway, so I thought the uke might be the instrument I was meant to play all along!

Q:What made you decide to make a solo album? How’s it different from the Validators stuff?

I always write a lot more songs that we manage to record with The Vlads, partly because we’ve all got proper grown-up lives these days and don’t have as much time as we’d like to get together to do stuff, and partly because they don’t like some songs as much as others! We were talking about this in the pub after a practice one night, and as I’d been doing some demoes in a proper studio (just round the corner from my work) Tim, our drummer, suggested that I put them out as a solo album. I think he meant it as a way of stopping me nagging them to play certain songs! I leapt on the idea, but rather than release those demoes I used it as an excuse to buy myself a new four-track!

The title track of A Million Ukeleles is the triumphant story of a teacher who sets fire to the school’s recorder collection, replaces them with ukes and sets off a country wide ukulele obsession.

Q. What’s the story behind the song A Million Ukeleles?

The idea to write it came from reading a succession of articles about how easy and fun it is for children to play the uke, combined with my own experience of playing it and loving it. The actual content, though, comes from years and years of me getting wound up about Traditional Music Teaching. When i was at school music lessons seemed to be more about dissuading kids from music – we playing boring songs on recorders and glockenspiels that made a horrible dreary noise, were forced to learn music theory and classical instruments, and if anybody stuck with it they were made to play the violin, a ludicrously difficult and unpleasant sounding instrument for a child to try and
play!

Because of that it was years and years before i discovered that, actually, making music is a piece of piss and doesn’t require a classical education. It’s EASY to make music, and the easier it is the more fun it is, and it struck me that all the difficult language, the over-valuation of technical virtuosity and sneering and rudimentary players is designed to stop people from having any fun, and keep the joy of music contained within a small elite. I know this is hardly an original observation, every ten years ago punks or rockers or whoever come out with it again, but when I started playing the ukelele and discovered how much fun it is, and also how much “serious” musicians sneer at it, it struck me that the humble uke is an ideal symbol of the power of fun, easy music making.

The song most associated with MJ Hibbett and the Validators is probably Fair Play Trophy. A song regularly updated to document the travails of the England football team in major tournaments. For those of you sensible enough to follow such happenings, England failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup.

Q: Does the lack of English involvement in the World Cup mean no new versions of Fair Play Trophy this year?

For me, that’s the only good thing about it! I’ve re-written that song about eight times now, for various championships, and to be honest I’m heartily sick of it, so when we failed to qualify I was one of the few people in the country who were actually relieved!!

Q: Can we expect to hear more ukulele stuff from you in future?

Very much so, yes. In the past The Validators have been a bit wary of
ukelele songs, but recently Tim and Emma’s daughters discovered them,
and this weekend Frankie, our bass player, bought one of those Flying
V ukes, so we may have a full set of converts one day! There’s also
some ukelele on the new band album which we’re recording at the
moment, and in February I wrote a whole album’s worth of songs for
February Album Writing Month (FAWM.org), many of which were PACKED
with ukeleles!

A Million Ukeleles is available (in a more hi-fi version than those above) from the evil iTunes and the saintly eMusic. You can buy a Million Ukeleles t-shirt on his website. And you can buy the latest single from MJ Hibbett and Validators, Do The Indie Kid here.

I think The Godfather would have to be my favourite film score of all time. In terms of recognisability, The Godfather theme is second only to Star Wars. The piece (also known the Love Theme and Speak Softly Love) crops up in all three Godfather films in a wide variety of guises. It was written by Nino Rota who also wrote most of the music for Fellini’s films.

By far the most difficult part of playing this tune is teasing out the melody from the backing. You don’t have to worry about it too much in the first few bars – the only accompanying notes are the 3 – 2 – 0 at the start of the third bar. But once it gets into bar six, they switch between melody notes and accompanying notes regularly. Make sure you listen carefully to the original so you know what’s what.

You should probably brush your teeth after watching this week’s crop of videos featuring Sweet Soubrette, Sweetafton and Sweet Georgia Brown.

At the behest of Howlin’ Hobbit, I’ve added in links to the videos themselves.

Sweet Soubrette – Cut-Up Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not often I get to do a ‘where are they now?’ on a ukulele I’ve featured in this section. A few weeks ago, I was admiring this Weissenborn ukulele on eBay. I’m happy to report it’s found a good home. It was bought by luthier Scott MacDonald. He’s patched up the uke’s rope binding and it looks good as new. You can check out the renovation on his blog.

Currently, I’m browsing for fretboard stickers. The fret markers on my BugsGear are less that dazzling. There are a couple of choices on eBay: turtles or diamonds. I think diamonds might be the better choice.

Enough with items within my budget. What I’m really lusting after is what is referred to as a Kanile’a Sound Monster Curly Walnut Soprano Ukulele. Great name and looks good enough to eat. In fact, I could murder a box of curly walnuts right now.

The Pahu Kani Superconcert is certainly the most visually arresting ukulele on eBay at the moment. It’s done up like the Hawaiian flag and has soundholes in the shape of the Hawaiian Island. Which would be handy if you happen to get lost there.

In the ‘can it really be worth that?’ file is this 1916 Martin 2M ukulele. It’s early, it’s got very white binding but the fact the seller was most keen to show off is that the stamp inside is sideways. Apparently, that makes it worth $4,000.

The New York Uke Fest is officially up and running. You can check out the running order here and read a dubious letter of welcome from the Mayor of New York here.

I’ve mentioned a few times that WeePOP! Records is officially my favourite record label at the moment. So it’s sad news that their podcast blog Not Quite Rocket Science is closing for business. If you hurry, you might be in time to cath the Ukulele popcast.

Speaking of WeePOP!, foggy ruins of time has an mp3 of Jacob Borshard’s tribute to the movie Cocktail.

Craig Roberson’s latest CD Houdini’s Perspective is out now.

seattlepi interviews Howlin’ Hobbit.

Ukulala adds to the ukulexicon.

Download Zach Condon ukeing out with Alaska In Winter on Let’s Sexy Fighting and Matt the Electrician on songs:illinois.

Why does the Church of Christ prohibit ukuleles in their song services? Amos 6:3-7 “Woe to you who put far off the day of doom… who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, and invent for yourselves musical instruments like David; who drink wine from bowls, and anoint yourselves with the best ointments, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives, and those who recline at banquets shall be removed.” I knew I didn’t like that God dude.

“So if your looking for impress your BFF wow that’s really cool kinda thing then I suggest “Fender” TM” electric guitar NOT a uke.”

Stairway to Heaven is undoubtedly the worst Led Zeppelin song there is and a strong contender for worst song of all time. “If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow don’t be alarmed/It’s just a spring clean for the May Queen.” Nevertheless, everyone has to learn to play the intro. I think it’s in the Bible. Or maybe the Bhagavita. Something like that.

There are a few low-G versions of the tab around like this version on ukulele tabs. That version works pretty well on re-entrant and has the advantage of being in the original key. The downside is that playing it on a high-G ukulele shifts some of the notes up an octave – it still sounds OK but Stairway is so well known, it’s difficult to get away with. For my version, I’ve transposed the tune up three frets (from Am to Cm) to accommodate the notes.

I assume you only want to play the intro, but you can pick up the chords for the song on Ukulele Boogaloo. Those chords are in the original key of Am. If you want them in the same key as the tab, a quick auto transpose and you have the Stairway chords in Cm.

I’ve been bashing away at this blog for 11 months now. In that time I’ve amassed around 350 posts. That’s way too many for people to sift through, so here’s a quick list of my most popular posts (and after that some posts for people who are new to the uke as well as to the site). For long term readers, I’d love to hear what you think people should read when they first pitch up here so I can add it to the list.

Posts for First Timer Visitors

About page

Get up to speed on the blog. I’m completely OCD on posting the same thing on each day of the week. The about page will let you know what to expect when.

Tab & Chords pages.

This is what most people come here for. The chords start on this page and the tabs start on this page. Whatever your tastes, you’ll probably find something that takes your fancy.

Perennial favourites include Beirut (whose entire back catalogue I’ve put up), While My Guitar Gently Weeps (my entirely ineffectual plea for people to come up with their own version rather than parroting Jake Shimabukuro), and Sweetafton23’s cover of Britney Spears’s Toxic (YouTube classic). More recent hits include Yael Naim’s New Soul, Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger and Antsy Pants’s Vampire (from the Juno soundtrack).

If you’re desperate for more, check out the Rag Bag for some works in progress (sometimes glacially slow progress).

Guitar Riffs for Ukulele

Rock out with the world’s greatest guitar riffs arranged for ukulele.

Once you’ve gorged yourself on the archives, you can be sure of getting new stuff by putting your email in the doo-hickey at the top right, subscribing to the RSS feed by clicking here, or getting the latest posts on my Twitter feed.

Posts for Beginners

There’s plenty of stuff on the blog that should be helpful to the noobiest of ukulele noobs.

There’s a whole section of ukulele songs suitable for beginners. These songs usually contain just a few of the basic chords. To go along with that, the Ukulele 101 category covers the sort of uke knowledge that beginners should find helpful.

If you haven’t even got your hands on your own uke yet, you might want to check out this post about buying your first ukulele. It has a Christmas emphasis, but it still applies.

One post to check out is Ten Tips for Ukulele Beginners and if you want more tips, try my Ukulele 101 ebook.

If you’ve yet to learn, there’s a post here on how to read ukulele chord charts. A lot of the pieces on the blog are written in ukulele tablature. There’s a guide on how to read ukulele tab here.

Anything that I’ve missed?