Ronnie Hazlehurst – Last of the Summer Wine

The Last of the Summer Wine (tab)

The saddest passing of 2007 was that of theme tune legend Ronnie Hazlehurst. He wrote the theme tunes of a great raft of shows from the 70s and 80s (none of which will mean much to you if you live outside the UK). Watch Matt Berry (IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace) talk about him and play a note perfect rendition of the Sorry! theme tune.

Hazlehurst’s theme tune for Last of the Summer Wine is the sound of death to me. The show follows three pensioners as they shuffle around the Yorkshire Dales doing nothing much in particular. It has been shown on the BBC every Sunday evening for the last 300 years. Because of this (and because Hazlehurst did a great job with the tune) the opening credits of Last of the Summer Wine always give me that little-death feeling you get on a Sunday night (and not the sexy French kind) before you have to go back to the grind on a Monday morning.

Thanks to the crawling pace, it’s simple to play. Most of the notes are open or part of the chords (F, Bb, C and Gm). There’s a trip up to the Gm at the fifth fret, but other than that it’s plain sailing.

Ukulele Video of the Year 2007: Sweetafton23 – Tom Cruise Crazy

Jonathan Coulton/Sweetafton – Tom Cruise Crazy (Chords)

Thanks everyone who voted. After a nice, round 200 votes, the winner was Sweetafton23’s cover of Jonathan Coulton‘s Tom Cruise Crazy. A very deserving winner (although if Willa had picked up that uke in her version of Re: Your Brains it might have been another story) and very topical. If you enjoyed TCC, watch MyHope – her own song with some definite Coulton influence.

You can go here to Digg Tom Cruise Crazy.

The chords for this version are a little different from the original. The most obvious difference being the ukulele version is in the key of A rather than E. There’s also this nifty little bit that crops up in the intro and at the end of the chorus.

Tom Cruise Crazy ukulele tab

Buy an mp3 of the original

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Abbott Monarch, Koaloha

Abbott Monarch banjo-uke ukulele Akira TsumuraThe most head-turning uke on eBay at the moment is this 1930’s Abbott Monarch banjo ukulele. It’s pretty much identical to the one made for George Formby and was part of the near mythical Akira Tsumura collection (I’m going to throw a few allegedlies in at this point just to be safe: allegedly, allegedly). Tsumura made his millions selling Kampo medicine and spent a fair wedge of it collecting guitars, banjos and the occasional ukulele. His collection was so valuable, a book of pictures of his banjos sells for $1,250. Unsurprisingly, you’ll need deep pockets if you want this banjo-uke. The last time it came up for auction, bids went as high as $7,500 and it didn’t trouble the reserve.

I’ve never been a fan of the pineapple ukulele shape. They don’t have the same elegance as the standard shape. But one pineapple uke you could never accuse of being inelegant is the KoAloha Pineapple Sunday. The uke is the first of KoAloha’s seven part Masterpiece Signature Series. The $1,500 price tag is worth it just for the grinning photo of Alvin Okami, but if your budget is more limited you could try the standard KoAloha pineapple (but then your back to the inelegant problem).

If you’ve still got some pocket money left after those two, maybe you should fill out your collection with this Custom Moore Bettah ukulele by Chuck Moore.

If you took a shine to the KoAloha super concert ukulele in Jason Arimoto’s Bushman ukulele contest entry, it’s now up for sale on eBay.

I don’t think Ibanez make ukuleles. But, the guy who inspired the company did. And here’s one he made 100 years ago. Not quite as extravagant as some of his guitars.

Friday Links

Ukulele Underground is up and running with monthly lessons and weekly ‘uke minutes’ from Aldrine Guerrero.

Tickler t-shirt ukulele tee Amy CrehoreJames Hill and J Chalmers Doane‘s Ukulele in the Classroom should be out any day now. UPDATE: It’s now up and running.

Amy Crehore will be selling Tickler T-shirts on her site from next week. There’ll also be a new art uke featuring, “mother-of-toilet seat fingerboard.” Please wash your hands.

Ukulala demonstrates Elephant Gun on video.

Listen to tracks from Victoria Vox’s forthcoming album Chameleon on her MySpace.

Ukulele cruise.

Ukelution T-shirt.

Martin 5K on Antiques Roadshow.

Ukulele bitch fight.

Ukulele Player Monkey Print.

Rachel Trachtenburg (of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players) with uke.

Anna Pickard bemoans making herself a ukulele widow in The Guardian. The ukulele player in question, should you be wondering, is her fellow Gruniad journalist Bobbie Johnson.

Lucky Soul – Lips Are Unhappy

Lucky Soul – Lips Are Unhappy (Chords)

Last.fm’s attempt to get Lucky Soul to Christmas number one might have been a compete disaster, but they did produce my favourite album of last year, The Great Unwanted. Lucky Soul are a modish London band who packed their debut album with perfect pop Motown tunes. It’s a relief to listen to a new band that doesn’t try to sound like The Libertines and don’t sound like their making up the song as they go along.

The chords for Lips Are Unhappy fit nicely on the ukulele. In the chord chart I’ve written the C chord as the Bb chord shape (but 2 frets higher). I think this inversion sounds better and it means you can slide up to it from the Bb. But you can use the standard C shape if you prefer.

One thing to notice about the chords is the C6 that crops up. It’s in brackets in the intro because it’s a passing chord – you only strum it once. It’s only there briefly but, since all the strings are strummed open, it’s not difficult to play.

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Ukulele 101: How To Read Ukulele Tab Part 3

Fingering Positions

When the fingering of a certain passage is important, tab will give a guide as to which fingers should be used both for fretting and picking.

Fretting Hand

The fretting hand (the left hand for right-handed players) is indicated by numbers in circles underneath the tab.

left hand fingering ukulele tab

The index finger is 1, middle finger 2 etc. When strings are played open, no finger is indicated.


Picking Hand

right hand fingering ukulele tabThe tab for the picking hand is less intuitive.

T = Thumb
I = Index Finger
M = Middle Finger
A = Ring Finger

The finger names come, apparently, from Latin (indice, medius, annular).

These letters appear under the tab also.

right hand fingering ukulele tab

Repeats

There are a number of ways that repeats are shown in tabs. The main way is with a set of double bar lines (one thick and one thin) and two dots.

When you come across a set of these with the dots facing right, you skip straight past them. When the dots are facing left, you go back to the first set (where the dots are facing right) and play through again. The second time you reach the repeat sign, play straight through it unless it indicates otherwise (by say x3, x4 etc.).

repeat signs ukulele tab

In this example, you play bar one and bar two, then bar two again.

If there is no first set of repeat signs, go back to the beginning and play through again.

Sometimes you’ll see sections at the end of each repeat blocked off like this:

repeat signs ukulele tab

Here you play the bar underneath the 1 section the first time round, follow the repeat sign as normal, then second time round you skip that bar and play the bar underneath the 2 instead.

So, you’d play bars:

1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 5

The section under the 1 can be any number of bars – the idea remains the same.

You can also have any number of alternate bars. If the section is repeated 4 times, there may be 4 different endings written. You just play these in sequence the same way..
.

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.

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Beirut – St Apollonia

Beirut – St Apollonia (Chords)

It probably won’t come as a huge shock to you that I enjoyed Beirut’s Flying Club Cup. Ukuleles, brass bands, pretentiousness; what’s not to love? Better still, it came with a website full of videos of the band performing tracks in various rundown areas.

There are a couple of uke-heavy tracks on the album: The Penalty (you can find the chords for The Penalty here) and St Apollonia.

St Apollonia is structured in quite a strange way. The song starts out with a C major chord, then shifts to C minor for the first and only verse. For the instrumental section, the chords over the verse are shuffled about.

During the song, there are some rapid strums. Because they’re using those horrible rhino’s toenails, they have no option but to strum really fast. If you use your fingers, it’s easier to get this effect using a roll – rasgueado if you want to get Spanish about it. These are produced by flicking downwards with each finger individually. You can watch a good explanation of the rasgueadoes technique for guitar here.

You can find more Beirut chords here.

Review: Michael Conway – Ukulele Mike

It takes a fair bit of gumption to invited comparison to one of the heroes of the ukulele. Luckily for me, Mike was willing to send me a CD so I could check it out.

ukulele mike michael conwayMike’s been playing ukulele for 35 years and had a knack for it from the start. As a lad, he toured with J. Chalmers Doane – the man responsible for Canada’s peerless ukulele program which produced James Hill – as part of the Halifax Adult Ukulele Ensemble (read more about them here). He’s been strumming away since, but has only just put out his debut solo album.

The album is bookended with a couple of rollockin’ ukulele instrumental kicking off with Molly Brown Medley (featuring Freight Train and 12th Street Rag) and ending with Homesick Medley (which you can hear in the above video). In between Mike turns in vocal performances of songs such as Crocodile Rock, Leaning On a Lamppost and I’ll See You In My Dreams along with plenty instrumental versions of popular songs.

The Good Stuff

The Playing: Mike is an incredibly accomplished ukulelist. He produces a crystal clear sound and manages to keep his playing articulately even at great speed. His picking and strumming on a spirited version of, the bossa nova tune, Brazil is breathtaking. If you want you ukulele playing to sound fluid and natural, you need to listen to this track and pay close attention.

Singin’ In the Rain: Mike’s version of this song is insanely infectious. As soon as it can on I had to grab my uke and play this along to it.

singing in the rain ukulele tab

The Not So Good Stuff

Song Choices: I’d love to hear Mike make more adventurous song choices. Some of the songs on the CD (Over the Rainbow, Aloha Oe, Yesterday) have been done to death and these are my least favourite songs on the album.

Production: Nothing wrong with the production if you like crisp and clean, but I prefer a bit of grit occasionally. It’d be great to hear what he can do when he really lets loose.

Overall

There’s some exceptional playing on this CD and any ukulele player would be well advised to sit up and take notice. You can buy the CD at CD Baby or individual tracks for download at PayPlay. Whichever option you chose, your life is not complete without these…

Essential tracks: Molly Brown Medley, Brazil, Polka Medley, Singin’ In the Rain, Homesick Medley.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Redux)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Tab)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (midi)

If you’ve been following Uke Hunt a while, you’ll know I have a love of theme tunes. I’ve also had quite a few requests for theme tunes. So, for the near future at least, Sunday is going to be theme tune day (TV, movies, games).

First off is a theme tune I’ve done already. It was pointed out to me that my first attempt at The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was a steaming pile of Federline, and I have to agree. It was early days.

Anyhoo, the new version is much better. You can grab it up there and read more about it and get a variation on the original post.

Internet Ukulele Video of the Year 2007: Vote

The nominations are in. I’ve weighed and measured them. I’ve made up the rules as I’ve gone along. Here are the nominees:

Bosko and Honey – Fingerpickin’ Love In
Gallier – Bushman ukulelen videocontest
GUGUG – Blitzkrieg Bop
Heftone – The Entertainer
John King – Bach Prelude
John Rockwell – re: Your Brains
Seeso – Waiting In Vain
Sweetafton23 – Tom Cruise Crazy
Ukulelezaza – La Vie En Rose
Waitswatcher – Hoist That Rag
Jeremy Warmsley – Ukulele Session

Vote for your favourite using this form (if you’re reading this via email or a feed you’ll have to come to the site). You only get one vote – use it wisely. Voting closes midnight Friday 18th January (Hawaii time). The winners gets fame, glory and absolutely no prizes with any monetary value whatsoever.

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Results are in, you can find the winner here.

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