You’re a fan of an Icelandic psychedelic-folk ukulele trio who released one album in 1964 and promptly split up. They had a stunning uke song that you have to play. The band and their oeuvre are entirely unknown to Google and the massed ranks of Intertubeland. What do you do?

I’ve been asked about this by maduke and there have been discussions about how to work out chords for the ukulele on Ukulele Cosmos and 4th Peg so I thought I’d weigh in with my 5 steps to working out chords.

Step 1. Don’t play your ukulele: At the risk of winning the Ric Olia Award for Pointing Out The Bleeding Obvious, it’s difficult to transcribe a song if you don’t listen to it. Firstly, listen to the structure of the song: where the chords change, where bits are repeated. Try picking out whether chords are major, minor, 7ths.

See if you can recognise a chord progression from a song you know. A huge proportion of songs will include the Louie, Louie chord progression. Not necessarily those chords, but the same relationship between the chords (the I-IV-V progression). If you recognise that progression, you’ll easily be able to work out about half of all songs. Read the rest of this entry »

The Magnetic Fields – If I Were A Rich Man (Chords)

Many of Stephin Merritt’s songs have a strong musical theatre style to them. He has put out an album of showtunes and has said that he wants to write 100 Hollywood musicals. So it’s no great surprise to hear The Magnetic Fields covering a song from Fiddler on the Roof.

The scratchy out of tune uke on this song gave me a few problems transcribing it. I’m fairly sure he’s playing with a capo on the third fret or tuned to Eb (Bb Eb G C), but I’ve written the chords out for standard C-tuning. If you want to simplify the song, feel free to play the open chord positions.

Requested by maduke

Buy Knitting on the Roof US

The Moonlighters – My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now (mp3)
The Moonlighters – Hello Heartstring (mp3) via blissblood.com

As much as I enjoyed Bust Magazine’s uku-ladies, there was a glaring omission. Writing about female ukers and not mentioning Bliss Blood is like listing the chalcogens and not mentioning tellurium – unforgivable.

Bliss Blood sings in a dizzying array of retro-groups including The Cantonement Jazz Band and Delta Dreambox along with guest appearances with the likes of Angels of Light. As wonderful as these groups are, the real thrill is seeing her busting out the uke with The Moonlighters or on her lonesome (such as in these recent videos on MUD filmed in front of the tomb of Rustie Lee). Since forming in 1998, they have become something of an NY fixture and they have even, thanks to their foot-long necks and monocles, been immortalised in New Yorker cartoon form.

The Moonlighters recreate the music made in the 20s and 30s by mainland US musicians influenced by Hawaiian music. I find the music created when two cultures mix to be fascinating. Many of the greatest musical genres arose a decade or so after guitars entered a culture (blues, African rhumba and, indeed, Hawaiian music). The mixture of ragtime/early jazz bands and Hawaiian music certainly produced its share of great songs which The Moonlighters perform beautifully. Many of the songs they play are penned by Blood but you wouldn’t notice as they fit in seamlessly.

As well as Blood, at various times Moonlighters have included former Squirrel Nut Zipper Ken Mosher, Henry Bogdan formerly of hardcore metal nutjobs Helmet and Mike Neer.

Download the entire show from which the video comes at mikeneer.com.
Download more Moonlighters tracks and other Bliss Blood projects here.

Buy Hello Heartstring US

Jake Shimabukuro‘s version of George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps is deservedly the most popular ukulele video on YouTube. It accounts for three of the top five most viewed videos. Unsurprisingly, this has lead many others to record their version of the tune. Which would be great if they didn’t all try to ape Shimabukuro’s version – even the sections which are obviously improvised. None of these come close to Jake’s. So, in the hope that you’ll use it to come up with your own interpretation, I’ve tabbed out a basic chords and melody arrangement for you to spruce up however you see fit.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps – Bare Bones Version (MIDI)

The first difference you’ll notice between this and the Jake version is the key. I worked this out in the original key of Am on a d-tuned ukulele (so it’s in Gm on a c-tuned uke) whereas Jake’s version is in Cm. Feel free to transpose it into any key you like.

The first way to start making the tune your own is to harmonise the melody. You can use thirds, fifths or any note that you like the sound of from the G minor scale for the first section and G major for the second. For example:

Example 1 (MIDI)

Or you could go all out and start using more unexpected notes:

Example 2 (MIDI)

The simplest way to do this is to use chromatic notes to move between chords (such as in bar 3 of this example). Unexpected notes add a sense of tension and movement to the tune but they have to be used carefully. Be sure to always resolve to a vanilla Gm chord at the end of the phrase or the progression will feel like it’s still moving.

You may want to add a strummed section to the song. There are plenty of chord inversions to choose from. Here are a couple:

In both these examples I’ve used Ebmaj7 for the final chord. This means that three notes are ringing through the chord changes while just one is descending.

My favourite way to arrange a tune is to image it played in a different style. The version I’m working on has a sort of bluegrass banjo style. Here’s the opening section of it:

Example 5 (MIDI)

I hope that this has given you a few ideas for your own arrangement of the piece. I doubt there’ll be a ukulele version of this song that doesn’t owe something to Jake’s version – even my bare bones version borrows elements – but giving it your own twist will lift it above the second-rate Shimabukalikes.

Buy Gently Weeps US UK

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Head over the fold to watch this week’s best ukulele videos.

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Moonlitkitty of the essential ye-ye girl blog Spiked Candy got in touch with me today to let me know that Bust Magazine has an article dedicated to the distaff side of ukulele. It features a number of acts that are well worth checking out:

Lady Carol (of the Moon): I’ve already featured Lady Carol and it’s great to see her getting more attention.

Miranda Mahalo:I’ve been a fan of Miranda for a long while. It was clear from the MySpace videos she made just a few weeks after she learnt to play that she was talented.

Paper Dolls: Trio featuring Uni and Her Ukelele that, “know every song ever written except three.”

Rose Harting: I must admit a completely new name to me and one I’m very happy to have discovered.

Sweet Soubrette: If you haven’t seen her MUD videos yet, get your arse in gear.

400 kids and Jack Johnson attempt to break the record for most ukuleles played at once. See the video evidence here. The record may not last long. From what I can make out, the Yokohama Hawai’i Festival are planning to have 1,000 people ukeing at once this weekend. Someone should tell the San Diego Ukulele Festival – they’re attempting to break the same record but only had about 300 visitors last year.

Oscar Schmidt (Washburn) are releasing six new ukuleles including this reproduction of the 1920s bell ukulele.

A review of Beyond the Break (7 Dances for Ukulele) which features music from Jake Shimabukuro. The ukulele outshines the dancing. “For though plenty of excitement came out of the speakers, there was little fizz in the dancing. Make that no fizz. “While Shimabukuro was tearing up his tiny strings… the eight dancers in assorted slacker-wear moped about in a laconic fog.”

whiteboydancefloor has a track from the forthcoming album by Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala and a cover of Agnetha ‘ABBA’ Faltskog.

Join the campaign to get a Hollywood star for Ukulele Ike.

Hear a 13-tone equal-temperament ukulele i.e. the octave is divided into thirteen equal frets rather than twelve.

Tanguy Ukulele Orchestra has three new computer game related tracks.

Ukulele brings politicians together.

Transsexual escort‘s tale of new ukulele acquisition.

I ran across the chords for Popeye the Sailor Man on Alligator Boogaloo and decided I had to work out the tune. This is the easiest way to play it:

But if you play it like this:

You can mix it up with this tune and everyone who hears it will instantly fall in love with you.

The art ukulele by Amy Crehore that I mentioned on Friday caused a bit of a stir on the intertubes after it was picked up by Boing Boing, so I thought I’d take a look at some of the other b-uke-iful creations out there.

My personal favourite is this uke by Christoph Mueller. Hank Williams III calls Mueller’s art, “bad ass work,” and I can’t help but agree. Be sure to check out his Flickr and Saatchi Online.

Flea Market Music’s art gallery features a selection of ukes including one of Peter and Donna Thomas’ ukulele books.

Duane Hielman’s Picasso style uke is a thing of wonder. He also makes many high quality conventional ukuleles as Black Bear.

Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center display a gallery of painted instruments including this uke.

Fluke ukuleles seem to have inspired many artists and the Fluke Museum has a number of examples including this carved koa fluke.

Ron Phillips makes Deco inspired resonator instruments such as these drool-worthy ukuleles.

Ukuleles and smiles are so often seen together such as on this uke.

Update: Robert Armstrong has created a number of painted ukes and has some creative uses for soundholes – such as the yowl-a-lele.

I’m sure there are plenty I’ve missed. Let me know your favourite.

A huge thanks to the awesome Jenny Flame of Ukulele Nation for her help putting this post together.

Whenever I spot Gus and Fin in my YouTube Subscriptions I get as excited as a sack full of hyperactive puppies. They are certainly the most punk ukulele players around. As well as the fantastic sound they make, the editing of the videos adds another dimension. So much so that it’s not surprising that Angus McIntyre (the one without a beard) is a TV producer in his civilian life. Given that he produces for the BBC, you have to wonder if he even owns a ukulele or if it’s all cleverly edited scam.

The story of this song has spread itself over many wars. Mel Tillis was inspired to write the song by a true-life paralysed World War II veteran and his frustrated wife. The setting was updated to the Korean War for the song. It became a hit for Kenny Rodgers during the Vietnam War.

The song uses chords straight out of Baby’s First Uke Chords. Don’t be panicked by the Fmaj7; on the uke it has exactly the same shape as an Am. The only thing that might confuse you is that in the GUGUG version the ukes are tuned up a semitone to g#C#FA#. So if you want to play along you’ll have to do likewise or use a capo. I’ve written the chords as they would be in standard C-tuning to avoid confusion.

Buy the Kenny Rogers version