This week, The Guardian ran a story about the ukulele viciously murdering the recorder in schools. It’s run similar stories before but, for some reason, this one took hold and was picked up by BBC TV and radio, The Telegraph and even made it’s way across the Atlantic to the hipsters at Idolator. Kudos goes to Andy McSmith of The Independent for mentioning living people who play the ukulele.

Speaking of the Beeb, they have a sweet little clip of Ukulele Bob discussing meeting his wife and strumming uke. Non-UK folks will have to content themselves with reading Ukulele Bob putting the world to rights about ukes not being small guitars (and Howlin’ Hobbit setting the world to rights about the different sizes of uke).

Jonathan Coulton buys his first ukulele and puts the Doifter out of a job.

Liverpool may have the world’s largest ukulele, but there’s a new contender for world’s tiniest ukulele. You can follow the progress of this ukulele girl and her magnificent hair, and see some fantastic Tiki carvings, on The Leeward Lounge.

Al Gore may be getting the Peace Prize, but it’s ukers who are really saving the environment.

KPFK have a month show called Ukulele Spotlight. Recent guests have included Uke Hunt favourites Janet Klein and the UkuLady.

Gym Class Heroes drummer Matt McGinley on uke.

If you find that the pink Mahalos just aren’t camp enough, you might treat yourself to a Tiki King designed Cowboy Fluke. Those with more refined tastes might prefer a Curly Mango Fluke (complete with pickup).

Oh Kala, how you tempt me with your good looks and affordable price tag.

The Misfits – Dig Up Her Bones (Chords)

This track is from the later, and some would say crappier, non-Danzig version of The Misfits. But I quite like this song and, with a capo at the first fret, the chords are similar to those used in Halloween.

Download Dig Up Her Bones on Amazon

This is my go to riff whenever something spooky (or just vaguely coincidental) happens.

For once, it sounds great when you use a guitar pick to play it. The pick gives it a harsh, piercing tone. If you want to recreate it with fingers, use you nails and pick close to the bridge.

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The tune itself is so non-scary that The Wiggles would have rejected it as a little pedestrian. If you really want to scare people, play them the MC Hammer version (it’s enough to frighten the parachute pants off even the most superdope of homeboys).

Anyhoo, back to the real thing. If you’re playing the full, the intro goes like this:

If you’re just going to break out the intro, then it’s easier to play it this way:

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I first tackled this tab way back at the beginning of the blog and have long wanted to give it another stab. Now nine years later here’s my attempt. I’ve left the original version below so you can judge for yourself if I’ve improved at all in the last decade.

And if this is your bag check out my classical ukulele ebook.

This work by Ukulele Hunt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

2007 Version

Midi

The main theme starts in bar 9. I’ve arranged this so that all the notes ring into each other and create a spooky Gm9 chord. It gets tricky, suitably enough, in bar 13 when the tune switches up a notch. I play the note at the fourth fret with my third finger giving me just enough time to barre my first finger across the third fret. Moving down is easier; you can use the open string to give you time to get the chord shape ready.

Check out Mary Martin’s version on MUD.

UPDATE:

Conor Brown made this version of the tab:

Click here to see my pick of the week’s ukulele videos. Read the rest of this entry »

Themed list of the best ukulele videos by Lars Larsson.

George Formby / When I’m cleaning windows
GF / Auntie Maggie’s Remedy (Banjo Uke)
GF / She’s got two of everything (Banjo Uke)

Roy Smeck / 12th Street Rag & Interview
RS / Tap Dancing on the Uke

Vincent Cortese (student of Roy Smeck) / Tribute to Roy Smeck
Musician, teacher, and author Vincent Cortese performs an impromptu ukulele solo at the Lewis
Playhouse in Rancho Cucamonga, California (on a borrowed ukulele). Mr. Cortese was a student,
friend, and the biographer of legendary vaudevillian musician Roy ‘Wizard of the Strings‘ Smeck.

Cliff Edwards / Hang on to Me (1935)
CE / That’s My Weakness Now
CE / Fascinating Rhythm
There’s a great web site for Cliff Edwards at Red Hot Jazz.

Ming & Toy / (1936) Vaudeville (Warning: Strong Stereotype)

The Duke of Uke has set up a webstore. Either it’s still in the developmental stages or you can pick up a uke for £1.

New Craig Robertson CD That Dress released.

Two new ukulele blogs: Monsieur Berger’s Ukulele Blog has beginner’s video lessons and Jeff’s Ukulele Ramblings has video as artist bios.

R Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet performed in its entirety on ukulele. Their was a repeat performance yesterday. Anyone see it?

A set of steamy photos of Sweet Soubrette by Emily Rawlings.

many angles of a ukulele.

Oasis’s Gem Archer spotted with uke in their new video Lord Don’t Slow Me Down (I quite like the song too).

Ukulele Ray’s new Warhol ukulele.

Ukulele makes it to Second Life thanks to someone with an octopus head.

Nina Coquina dishes out some sound advice on buying ukuleles on eBay that’s well worth a read. It amazes me what some people think they can get away with. Like this guy trying to sell a “Vintage Martin ukulele” for $1,500 on the basis of one line and three dark photos. He should look at the photos for this Gibson ukulele and this Martin (both attracting plenty of bidders).

Curio of the week has to be this Swagerty Singing Treholipee as played by GUGUG. The brochure alone went for $45 so there’s obviously a big demand for it.

No surprises that the Black Bear Cigar Box ukulele is a cut above the standard cigar box uke.

The Ashbory Bass is a strange beast. It’s a bass guitar the size of a baritone uke. It sounds good next to a ukulele as well.

One day I’m going to get myself a National Reso-phonic ukulele.