Uke Hunt’s Rag Bag is a new page I’ve put up of tab and chords I’ve done but not posted (yet). There are various reasons why I haven’t posted them, so you’ll just have to take your chances.

Let’s Play Ukulele is a really interesting new site. It takes chords from guitar sites and adds uke chords to them. The site is still in its early stages of development, but it’s well worth checking out. Particularly fun is its integration with Last.fm. You put in your username and it’ll show you chords for songs you’ve been listening to. If you’re a fan of The Pipettes or Half Man, Half Biscuit, you won’t be able to get away from me.

Ukulele Underground will be running a draw this month to win yourself a Kala Soprano. All you have to do is sign up for their forum and leave a message in the Ukulele Giveaway Thread. If you do, I’d appreciate it if you put, “I was referred by Uke Hunt,” or words to that effect, because I want to win too.

Two ukulele festivals for the price of one. Attend the Stockholm Ukulele Festival, join all the ukers on the official uke cruise, then visit the Finnish Ukulele Festival. This is part of the new Nordic Ukulele Alliance intended to encourage more ukulele players to tour the region. If you’re interested in the festival or performing up there get in touch with Juha.

Australia’s North Coast Ukulele Collective has a bunch of song sheets available for download. One of their number, Michael Connor is a luthier and makes some gorgeous ukes. Go and check out his site.

Jason at Ukulele for Sale has been writing some interesting and indepth reviews of some of the Rigk Sauer’s video report of the NAMM Show.

The Word elects Victoria Vox, “the ukulele lady we would most like to date.” I’m sure there’s a lengthy discussion to be had on that topic.

Ladies, worried about breaking a fingernail while strumming? Jeff sent me this photo with the perfect solution.

Watch the debut perfomance of Taimane Gardner (after a bit of Jake). “She’s somewhat of a ham,” no kidding – don’t miss the moonwalk at the end.

Sex, Drugs, and Ukuleles: A musical comedy by NY Ukes‘ Uke Jackson.

Ukulele the film. “How far can the love of a man and his ukulele go?”

World’s second richest man attempts to avert a recession by playing his ukulele at a stockholders’ meeting.

La vidéo Ukulélé du jour has a fantastic version of AC/DC’s Back in Black on Tahitian ukulele.

Germany’s Got Talent – and a headache I should think.

The uke that’s most tempting me to reach into my pocket at the moment is the Kelii Koa Pili Koko. The ukes are solid wood and, while not actually koa, are made from a close relative of the koa. They’re as pretty as koa and sound very similar judging by this video by musicguymic.

But the most attractive thing about them is the price:$219 for the soprano, $249 for the concert and $289 for the tenor. You’d be hard pushed to find a better deal than that on a solid wood uke.

Another new Flea design: the Ivy Flea Ukulele.

There are plenty of pictures of Lightspeed Champion with a ukulele but it’s not often you see him playing the ukulele. I was hoping there’d be a little uke on his new album, but no such luck. So, I’ve written up his latest single Tell Me What It’s Worth.

The only potential stumbling block with the chords is the Fmaj7. You can make it easier to get to in the chorus by fretting the C chord with your index finger rather than the ring finger. But that’s not going to help you in the middle section where it goes from G to Fmaj7. If you find it too big of a jump, play the standard F chord there (you can use the standard F chord in the chorus too, it’ll sound right).

The song’s guitar solo sounds really good on the uke if you use the re-entrant string and let the notes ring into each other like this:

This creates a cascading effect. Much more interesting than the boring guitar way of doing it:

I’ve just released a brand new ebook called, “Ukulele 101: 101 Things Every Ukulele Player Needs to Know.”

When I’ve been looking through beginners ukulele books, I’ve always been a little frustrated about the things they leave out. They teach you to strum and play a few chords, maybe play a nursery rhyme or too, but leave out so many things. These might not be about physically playing songs on the ukulele, but are essential knowledge for people wanting to get the most out of the ukulele such as which ukulele to buy, how to look after it, the best ways to practice. In particular, books rarely even mention all the ukulele related resources that are online.

Ukulele 101 is intended as kind of a Ukulele Beginners Book 2.0. It fills in the blanks that other books leave.

You can read more about it and buy it here.

Some of the information in the book has been rejigged from posts on my blog (and some of it will turn up there in future) so if you want a taste of the book, check out my how to read tab series.

The book answers a hundred and one questions (questions people have asked me, questions that often crop up in forums etc.), these questions, to be exact:

Buying a Ukulele

1. Where should I buy a ukulele?
2. Which Size Ukulele Should I Buy?
3. How Much Should I Spend?
4. What’s the best ukulele for under $50?
5. What’s the best ukulele for under $100?
6. What should I bear in mind when buying on eBay?
7. What sort of wood should a ukulele be?
8. I’m left-handed, do I need to buy a left handed ukulele?
9. What’s better geared or friction tuners?
10. Should I buy a banjo ukulele?
11. Should I buy an electric ukulele?
12. What’s a ‘low-G’ ukulele and should I buy one?

Strings

13. Does it matter what strings I use?
14. Which strings should I buy?
15. How do I replace strings?
16. How often should I replace strings?
17. Do I need different strings for different sizes of ukulele?
18. Do I need different strings for C-tuning and D-tuning?
19. Can I use guitar/mandolin/banjo strings on a ukulele?
20. How do I make strings last longer?

Ukulele Online

21. Where can I find tab and chords online?
22. Where can I learn chord shapes online?
23. Where can I find ukulele lessons and tutorials online?
24. What ukulele forums are there online?
25. Where can I hear ukulele music online?
26. How can I pick up a bargain on eBay?
27.What ukulele blogs are there?
28. Which YouTube channels should I be watching?
29. Where else can I find ukulele videos?

Making A Good Sound

30. How can I hear how I sound?
31. How should I hold the ukulele?
32. Where should I strum?
33. Can I use a guitar pick?
34. How can I look after my uke?
35. Why won’t my ukulele stay in tune?
36. What should I wear when I’m playing the ukulele?

Recording

37. What’s the best portable recorder?
38. What microphone should I get?
39. What software should I use?
40. How far from the mic should I be?
41. How can I put my music on the internet?
42. How can I sell my music on the internet?

Fonts, Software and Other Downloads

43. How can I put ukulele chord charts in word processing documents?
44. How can I make my own ukulele tabs?
45. How can I get in tune with my computer?
46. Where can I get a metronome online?
47. How can I improve my ear?
48. Where can I get ukulele icons?

Adjusting Your Ukulele

49. That sounds scary, should I do it?
50. What is intonation?
51. How can I measure how good my ukulele’s intonation is?
52. How can I improve my ukulele’s intonation?
53. How can I stop my ukulele buzzing?

Ukulele Accessories

54. How can I plug my ukulele into an amplifier?
55. Do I need to buy a tuner?
56. What’s a capo?
57. Do I need a strap?
58. Can I play the ukulele with a guitar pick?
59. Should I buy a metronome?

Practicing

60. How often should I practice?
61. Do I need to warm up?
62. What’s the most important thing when practicing?
63. How can I play faster?
64. Do I need to use a metronome when I practice?

Chord Charts

65. How do you read ukulele chord charts?
66. Why are there different chord shapes for the same chord?

Tab and Techniques

67. How are strings tabbed?
68. How are notes tabbed?
69. How is a sequence of notes tabbed?
70. How are notes that are played simultaneously tabbed?
71. How are chords tabbed?
72. How are strums tabbed?
73. How are rhythms shown?
74. How is rhythm shown in tab?
75. What are bars/measures?
76. How is fretting hand fingering shown?
77. How is picking hand fingering shown?
78. How are repeats tabbed?
79. What are tremolo strums and how are they tabbed?
80. How are rasguados played?
81. How do you play dotted notes?
82. How do you play tied notes?
83. What are triplets?
84. What is swing time?
85. How do you play hammer-ons?
86. How do you play pull-offs?
87. Can hammer-ons and pull-offs be used together?
88. How do you play slides?
89. How are shift slides different from normal slides?
90. How are slides into and out of a note tabbed?
91. What are all those crazy squiggles on the tab?
92. How are accented notes shown?
93. How do you make dead notes?
94. How do you play trills?
95. How do you produce vibrato?
96. What are grace notes?
97. How do you bend a note?

Easier Chords and Chord Changes

98. What’s the easiest way to play a D chord?
99. What’s the easiest way to play an E chord?
100. What’s the easiest way to change from F to Fm?

101. Your own question.

Buy it here for $9

Dream a Little Dream of Me has been covered by many people since it first appeared in 1931, but it’s best remembered in the version by Mama Cass of The Mamas and the Papas.

I was discussing this song with UkeJill and we decided that the version on Ukulele Boogaloo wasn’t quite right, so I set about working out a version myself.

The most important chord I added in is the E7 just before the ‘stars fading…’ part. The verse section of the song is in C but changes to A for this part. The E7 acts as a pivot between the two keys. E7 is the V chord of the key of A and leads you into it. It’s very common to use the V chord to lead into the new key and to stop the two keys jarring against each other.

The chords to this song are a little tricky, but if you’ve got them down you might like to try this little variation.

After the C note lead-in, this follows the melody of, “Stars shinning bright above you.” For the last two strums in the first bar, I strum down on the top the strings with my index finger, then follow through with my thumb on the bottom two strings.

You can catch UkeJill’s version of the tune here. And you can watch the version Pete Doherty and Carl Barat performed when they reunited last year.

Midi

Like every great American comedy TV show the BBC gets its hands on (Seinfeld, Larry Sanders, Curb Your Enthusiasm), the BBC schedulers seemed intent on stopping people watching it by buffeting it around the late night, digital TV schedules. I presume they do this so we don’t realise how awful Brit-com shows like My Family are, but even broadcasting footage of a slowly rotting dog turd for the other twenty three and a half hours of the day wouldn’t make My Family seem funny.

Anyhoo, as well as being witty and enjoyable, Arrested Development had a theme tune played on the uke. The original version has been expunged from YouTube, so the video is a Family Guy parody of the theme tune but it has the same music.

The theme was written by David Schwartz (who also wrote music for Deadwood and Northern Exposure) and you can download a version without Ron Howard yammering over the top on David Schwartz’s website.

The main part of the theme is played on Tahitian ukulele. It’s tuned differently to your average uke so this isn’t a direct tab. It’s moved up the neck to give it the requisite plinkiness.

Watch my favourite recent ukulele videos including The East Boston Make-Out Club Band, sweetafton23 and The Fabulous Heftones my clicking ‘More’. Read the rest of this entry »

Uke Hunt gets called ‘ace’ in the NME.

James Hill and Chalmers Doane’s new website, Ukulele in the Classroom, is up and running. The site promotes their new series of books aimed at school teachers and pupils. There’s a resources section which includes flashcards and quizzes for you to test your music reading abilities, and a forum. If you want to buy the books, you’ll have to take a trip back to 1997, print out an order form and mail it off.

Amy Crehore’s Tickler Ukulele t-shirts are now up for sale. It’s already been mentioned on Boing, Boing, so buy one while they last. I’ve ordered mine already.

CNN covers the UK ukulele craze.

Tiki King visits the NAMM show and brings back pictures of a solid body electric Fluke, a new style 3 Cherry Martin and a pink Flea (which I reckon will be a big seller).

New website for Brüko including a downloads section with wallpapers and tips for beginners.

Ukulele/Tom: new website with indie ukulele chords.

Sex exploitation political and emotional ambiguity: an art ukulele.

Bear Headed Ukulele.

Ukulele Hero.

Cutting your teeth on the ukulele.

How to get beaten up Uke style.

Protests over George Formby’s home being turned into a hotel.

Indulge in the ukulelists favourite sport of guitarist baiting with this hilarious video.

The head-doctors said it wasn’t possible, but I’ve fallen in love. Here she is: 20s/30s Martin 3K. Bids start at $1,600.

If you want a bit of Martin magic but can’t afford that, you might like to check out this battered and bruised Martin ukulele. Full credit to the seller for the extensive and very clear pictures of the damage. The number of bidders that item has had just goes to show that being completely upfront about damage is the best way to go. Compare it with the pictures for this style 3 Martin. The seller says the cracks on the back have been fixed, but the blurry picture half way down the page raises some questions. Unsurprisingly, no bids so far.

If you’re after a Martin, it’s often worth looking carefully at any Oliver Ditson ukuleles that come up. Martin made a large number of ukes for Oliver Ditson. You can check out the picutures on this page (including a Ditson Style 0 next to a space age meat grinder).

If you’re looking to practice your uke repairing abilities, this whole pile of clapped out koa ukuleles should give you plenty to go at.

Potential bargain of the week: Slingerland MayBell banjo ukulele. It’s in a pretty messy condition, but there are currently no bids and a $25 opening bid. Because of the typo in the title of the listing (uklele) it might be that people are going to miss it. Has to be worth watching.

On a more modern note, this Custom Pahu Kani Super Tenor Ukulele makes me giggle every time I see it.

I’m going to get so much comment spam on this post.

Since I tabbed out Scotland the Brave for Burns Night (I’ve updated that post with a longer tab), I thought I’d also do an actual Burns song. Cock Up Your Beaver is, apparently, a call to raise your hat. I’m a little skeptical as to whether there’s no pun intended. Particularly after reading the lyrics to songs like this one and those in the pdf on this page.

Whatever the truth, the song is popular with a modern audience. The version of the song in the player is the one played by Camera Obscura for a Burns Night Peel session in 2004.

The chords are dead simple – just A and D – leaving you plenty of brain space to concentrate on keeping a straight face. If you want to fancy it up a bit, you can play this to ape the guitar part:

Midi

After playing Whack-A-Haggis for far longer than any sane man should, I decided to work out the tune: The Sons of Eilean Donan by Gayle Ellett. Here’s a rough tab of the melody.

The Sons of Eilean Donan (Tab)

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