I get quite a few requests for tabs, but not so many are made by via the medium of blog post. So when Jason requested this tune in his blog, I couldn’t resist.

Yo Ho (A Pirates Life for Me) was written by George Bruns specifically for the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride in Disneyland (video and mp3 of the full story of the ride and song here). The ride inspired the film franchise of the same name (the first theme park attraction to do so since Barry Island: The Lucky Penny picked up four Oscars in 1973). Inevitably, the success of the film meant a redesign of the ride. You can see Johnny Depp taking the new ride and playing with himself here.

The tune itself is a camped up version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s already fairly camp Dead Man’s Chest. PotC did, however, inspire a more musically worthy project. The film inspired Depp and, director, Gore Verbinski to put together an album of modern interpretations of sea shanties called Rogue’s Gallery.

It’s quite a tricky tune to play. You have to play the same note over and over quite quickly. It makes it easier if you divide up the notes between strings (picking the G-string with your thumb). There are a couple of ways to approach it. You could strum the chord with your index finger (and pick the A-string with it too) or you could give each finger a string and pluck them all together (so your ring finger would be picking the A-string). The second option gives you more control but the first will give more rasp to the chords.

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Watch my favourite ukulele videos of the week after the ‘more’ tag including Joe Brown’s appearance on Jools Holland. Read the rest of this entry »

Uke Hunt has made it to the top spot of Boat Paddle Ukulele’s Top 50 Ukulele Sites. A huge thanks to everyone who has read, commented and email. I’m chuffed.

John King takes a quality over quantity approach to his blogging. He’s just put up his seventh post in a year: A Strum Through Ukulele History. As you’d expect, this is no run of the mill, “Ukulele means ‘jumping flea’ in Hawaiian,” junk. It’s a fascinating, well research story of the ukuleles development with names, dates, places and faces. It’s a must-read.

Download a hat full of versions of Ukulele Lady on Dr. Forrest’s Cheese Factory.

Jake Shimabukuro interview and performance on The Bob Rivers Show and on Ukulele Spotlight.

Play ukulele with Jonathan Coulton.

The Colorado Ukulele Festival kicks of this Saturday.

AT&T uses the ukulele to spread the message of love (and buying useless tat) on Valentines Day.

Too Much Apple Pie offers up an mp3 of Phranc’s ukulele cover of Mrs Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter and alerts me that the song was written by the bloke from Vicar of Dibley.

Julia Nunes gets her hands on the prize and she’s not the only one.

Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra interviewed.

Some loosely ukulele related hilarity: Ukulele complaint helpline, Trixie Tangway, America’s Ukelele Sweetheart voiced by Kristen ‘Mel from Flight of the Conchords’ Schaal (you have to sit through an ad before you can see that one), Hawaii Chair.

Thanks to ukulele news-hounds Jenny, Andy and Amber for their contributions.

Ovation’s Applause ukuleles are probably the most popular electric ukes around. Ukulele4u are currently selling the new Applause Tenor ukulele. Personally, I much prefer the natural wood look of these ukes to the black finish of other models.

On the Martin front, there’s a Martin 2K and a Martin Tiple.

The most unusual uke up for grabs this week is the Harp Ukulele. As well as the four standard ukulele strings, it has four bass strings (intended to be tuned to an open chord). You can read more about this and other harp ukuleles here, see the photos of the first family of harp instruments the Knutsens, and watch Andy McKee pwning the harp guitar (as I believe the kids are saying nowadays).

Ukulele built by Leonardo Nunes son of ukulele pioneer Manuel Nunes.

Roland Ordonio Supreme Curly Koa ukulele: “Don’t sell out for a “dime-a-dozen”, factory, overseas made ‘ukulele like Pono, Lanikai, Oscar Schmidt, Kala, Applause…Buy Hawaii!” Meow!

If you want to play Street Spirit on the ukulele, just forget it. Impossible. Can’t be done. Having said that…

…if you make enough changes, you can move it from ‘impossible’ to the merely ‘too difficult to bother attempting’. With that in mind, I’ve tabbed out a difficult version based on the guitar part and come up with an easier version which fits more comfortably on the uke.

Difficult Version

For the ukulele version, I’ve transposed everything up 3 frets (so it’s in C minor rather than A minor). Here’s the first, and most played, riff in the song:

Part 1 midi

For the right hand picking, I use my index finger on the E-string, middle finger on the A-string and thumb to cover the other two. I’ve also put some fretting hand suggestions in the tab. Strictly speaking, the second note of this tab should be the G-string open, but this makes the right hand picking much more tricky.

The second little riff (“All these things…”) is a little trickier.

Part 2 midi

The G at the beginning of the bar is an octave above where it should be. Try to bar your little finger across the E and A strings for those notes at the tenth fret. Otherwise, it’s a big jump down to the sixth fret.

And the tab for the chorus:

Part 3 midi

If I was attempting this song (which I’m not, because it’s impossible), I’d just play the chords for this section (Eb, Gm, Cm) even in the hard version.

Easy Version

This first part of the song is derived from the vocal melody and the picking pattern.

Midi

If you wanted to make it even easier, you could strum out these shapes. So it would be 0033 for the first half of the first bar, then 0233 for half a bar, 0333 for half a bar and so on.

For the next section, I hold down a Gm chord shape and pick with one finger for each string (thumb on the G-string, first finger on the C-string etc.

Midi

For the chorus, take a breather and just strum out the chords Bb, Gm, Cm.

Here’s a pdf of all the tabs:

Street Spirit (Tab)

Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs

Hammer-Ons

Hammer-ons are produced by plucking a note on the uke then ‘hammering on’ a finger at a higher fret – making the sound of the higher note without picking it. You can watch this being done here.

Example 1

In tab, hammer-ons are shown by an arch between the two notes (with the second note always being higher than the first). These arches can appear above or below the notes themselves.

Here the string is being played open, then the middle finger hammers-on at the second fret (without the string being repicked).

Some tabs will represent a hammer-on with an ‘h’ between the notes.

Pull-Offs

Pull-offs are the opposite of hammer-ons. They are produced by playing one note then lifting your fretting finger off the string so that a lower note sounds. You can watch it being done here.

Example 2

The tab for pull-offs is also the opposite of that for hammer-ons. Again, there is an arch between the two notes but this time the first note is higher than the second.

Here the string is being played second fret, then the middle finger pulls-off the string (without the string being repicked) to let the open string sound.

Some tabs will represent pull offs with a ‘p’ between the notes.

Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs

You can have a combination of hammer-ons and pull-offs in a single run. In this case, there is an arch over all the notes that are produced by hammering-on or pulling-off rather than being picked.

Example 3

Read the rest of the series here: How to Read Ukulele Tab.

This series was derived from my ebook Ukulele 101: 101 Things Every Ukulele Player Needs to Know.

Colbie Caillat – Tied Down (Chords)

With its laid back island vibes, it no surprise that Colbie Caillat‘s summer hit Bubbly inspired plenty of ukulele covers, despite using the term ‘bubbly face’ as a compliment.

Her album also features a similarly laid back catchy tune played on uke: Tied Down. It’s also very simple to play. Most of the chords will be very familiar to you (F, Am, G, C). You might not recognise C6 but it’s just all the strings open.

The strumming pattern is also pretty simple. Strum up, down, up four times for each chord. After the second up strum, stop the strings ringing by bringing your picking hand down on the strings – or do a chnk.

Interestingly, the chords in the live version are slightly different. Instead of F and C6 in the verse, it’s F6 and C. Well, it’s interesting to a nerd like me.

I’ve gone and set up a community to run alongside Uke Hunt.

It’s called (rather cheesily, I admit) YouKulele. It’s got a bunch of web 2.0 type features. You can see them in action on my profile here. You can upload mp3s, videos and photos, blog and make friends. The message board, and this is my favourite part, lets you record videos or mp3s as a reply. Which could come in handy in musical discussions.

Go here to sign up and get your own profile.

Once you’ve uploaded your mp3, you can embed it pretty much anywhere you can put html code thusly:

.
.If you’re reading by email or in a feed reader, come over to the site to check it out.

You can also embed videos and various ‘widgets’. Head over and see what you think to it. And don’t forget to friend me up.

Ukulele de Chocobo (Chords)

Final Fantasy is one of those games that completely passed me by and I’ve never actually played any of the Police Academy sized oeuvre. What didn’t pass me by is the fact that ukuleles crop up in the ninth version of the game. Ukulele de Chocobo is the tune that starts playing every time you jump on board a Chocobo (like getting a piggy back from Big Bird). You can hear it in the game itself here. That clip also has Aloha de Chocobo – another uke tune which I’ll probably work out sometime.

I’ve written up the chords in tab form – to give you a better idea of where the changes come. In the original key, the melody goes a little too high for comfort on the uke:

Ukulele de Chocobo (Tab)

It’s much more comfortable if you shift it down five frets:

Ukulele de Chocobo (Tab in G)

If you want to play the accompaniment to this version, you’ll have to transpose the chords from C to G.

Far too many videos this week. A couple of Hawaiian masters, a ukulele/melodica cover of Beck, GUGUG, a bit of English folk music, loads of other stuff. Click More to see them all. Read the rest of this entry »