Big things are happening in the world of Uke Hunt. In the near(ish) future Uke Hunt will have a baby-sister website. This website will be home to a range of new ukulele ebooks I’m working on – the first two of which are nearing completion – and am hoping to sell.

It’s an exciting time to be part of the ukulele world. New people are coming to the ukulele all the time from a wide range of genres. Players are pushing the boundaries and expanding what the ukulele can do. But still, with a few honourable exceptions, it’s still the same tired old instruction books that are being flogged. So, I’ve taken it on myself to write something new for people who want to improve their ukulele playing.

If you want to be first to get the news, sign up to my new mailing list. As well as getting updates, you’ll get exclusive extracts and a introductory video course on fingerpicking ukulele. (This is different to the ‘Get Uke Hunt by email’ list in the sidebar – you won’t get the stuff on the mailing list anywhere else)

The course will be a series of five emails giving you tips on using fingerpicking for accompaniment and a number of patterns to try out.

To get all this, just fill in your email address here:

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I do solemnly swear, by God and the King, that I won’t spam you. The emails are delivered via iContant and you can read their strict anti-spam poicy here. The email list is a double opt in, so once you enter your address you’ll get an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Then you’re away.

This is all very new, so if you have any trouble with it drop me an email or leave a comment.

Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Meet Me In The Garden (mp3)
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – When You Were Mine (Prince Cover)(mp3)
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Howard (mp3) via MySpace

‘Magnificent Ukulele’ is no idle boast; Dent May is my new favourite ukulele songwriter.

Irresistible 60’s melodies and harmonies, 80’s ‘bumblebee in jam jar’ keyboards, a uke strumming away and a MySpace plastered with Jacques-Henri Lartigue photos. There’s nothing about him I don’t love.

Except his website consists of one line of Times New Roman. But that’s promised to change as he’s going to be giving away his EP A Brush With Velvet. I’m going to be checking back there regularly and I suggest you do the same.

Update: You can download Dent May’s EP, A Brush With Velvet, from his MySpace.

Probably the strangest chord progression I’ve put up so far. There’s a chord at every fret between B and D. It’s so strange I kept going back to check I hadn’t got the chords completely wrong (and I’m still not sure I haven’t).

I’ve written out the chords for a uke with a capo at the first fret. It seemed to make most sense that way. But there are still some tricky chord changes to navigate along the way.

You can listen to some of the song in this video and you can get a few more Boingo chords here.

Buy Boingo

Click here to watch the best of the week’s ukulele YouTube videos. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, the Berkeley Ukulele Club message board disappeared and took along with it the excellent list of the best ukulele videos in various categories. The list was compiled by Jeff West of the Berkeley Ukulele Club, the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz and the Deutscher Ukulelenclub. He’s very kindly supplied me with the lists and has let me put them up.

Here’s the first list, dedicated to the distaff side of ukulele.

Alison Young / Satellite

Karen Langlie (w/friend) / Money

Honey with Bosko / Dance with Me

Kelli Rae Powell / Handmedowns

Sweet Soubrette / Tenderness Has Teeth

Ami Worten / Beedle Um Bum

Heather Lev / Ukulele Afternoon

Taimane Gardner / Tico Tico

Meaghan Ferrell / Optimist

Helen Kane / Betty Boop

Mercedezz (Banjo Uke) / I Will Survive

Honey with Bosko / Baby It’s You

Zoe Woodbury / There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Janet Klein / Tonight You Belong to Me

AlliBee / Claire

Victoria Vox / Uking on the Road

Rose Turtle Ertler with B & H

Raiatea Helm / Kalama’ula

Brittni Paiva/ Europa

Revolution is in the air again in Boston. Not content with the seditious act of adding tea to water, Viva La Revo-UKE-tion will be kicking off on Monday with the fantastically named The East Boston Make-Out Club Band, the equally fantastic but more boringly named Michael Wagner, Ed White and Ian Schwartz. All you non-Massachusettsians can check out TEBMOCB’s Davina Yannetty on next week’s edition of MUD. EDIT: I’ve been chided for failing to mention that they’re raffling off a homemade uke.

Win yourself a Bushman ukulele. All you have to do to enter is upload a video of you playing ukulele to YouTube and mention the competition at the beginning of the video. Have a go if you think you can beat this.

Chuck Moore makes some gorgeous ukuleles and lives in even more gorgeous surroundings.

Can anyone on the correct side of the Atlantic tell me what the deal with the Nalts ukulele freak is?

Fin Raucous: not just the toast of the ukulele world.

KDUS does more great work, bringing us Bugs Bunny on the ukulele.

Uke Gal tackles a couple of golden oldies and meets Jake S.

Giggity, giggity, giggity. Just look at those curves. God, I’d love to run my fingers up and down that neck. Those KoAlohas are hot. Oh, and Gina Gershon is in the picture too. (via the New York Post, MANY thanks to Uncle Budd for that one).

Former Test Icicle and current Lightspeed Champion, Dev Hynes with a Mahalo in The Guardian.

Old Blue Bus has mp3s of Miss Ada Powers on the uke and her family.

How do you stop feedback from an ukulele pickup?

No pain, no gain.

Suggest lyrics for a ukulele/fez song and join Howlin’ Hobbit in the Order of the Fez.

Musicguymic boasts that the Kiwaya KTS-7 Mahogany Soprano Ukulele, “has the tone and sound rivaling any Martin ukulele. In fact I think its sounds more like a Martin should than many vintage Martins do.” There’s no doubt it’s as good looking as the Martin Style 3.

Custom uke with a soundhole on the side. I like the look of ukuleles without a frontal soundhole, but how do they sound?

A cavaquinho with a nicely carved head.

Ukulele Tone-Gard: The idea is that they keep the uke away from your body letting it ring out more clearly. They’re more common with mandolins (as their not entirely changed description makes clear).

Ukulele bracelet. How much?

Signed photo of Ukulele Ike. How much?

Here’s the complete lineup of the top 10 (or 11 if you’re going to be pedantic about it):

1. Sweet Child O’ Mine.
1.5 Back In Black.
2. Whole Lotta Love.
3. Paranoid.
4. Seven Nation Army.
5. Smoke On The Water.
6. Sunshine of Your Love.
7. Le Freak.
8. Satisfaction.
9. Gay Bar.
10. Iron Man.

I had fun putting this list together and people seem to have enjoyed it so I’ve decided to do 20 – 10 in the near future. Get your nominations in now.

Next up is spooky Halloween songs. If you’ve got any suggestions, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

Sweet Child of Mine midi

Even on guitar, this riff is a real finger-twister. Even Slash himself had trouble with this one. It took him a number of retakes in the studio before he could get it right.

Transferring it to the uke certainly doesn’t make it any easier. Gio Gaynor struggles with it in his version and I’ve struggled to play it too. I’ve tried to minimise the amount of jumping around you have to do but it’s still very tough to play.

Best of luck to you if you decide to take it on.

Suggested by West

Back In Black midi

AC/DC are the gods of riff. They’ve continually churned them out over their 70-year long career and this riff has to be the best of them.

The opening riff, I’ve tabbed in the key of A (it’s the same shapes as the original transposed onto the uke).

Not content with one outstanding riff in a song, they decided this song deserves two. Most bands would base an entire career on a riff this could but AC/DC threw it away as a middle 8.

I’ve tabbed this riff in C (just to confuse/annoy you). The fingering gets a little tricky when the riff moves up to the fifth position. An alternative to the way I’ve tabbed it is to barre across the fifth fret throughout and play it the same as the open riff. Try out both and see which you prefer.

I heartily recommend you check out Baron Von Uke‘s version of the song.

Suggested by Stewart

Buy Back in Black