One of the joys of the ukulele is that you can play it anywhere. Often times you’ll find me on a Hawaiian beach serenading dusky maidens by firelight. But, while I take my portable ukulele everywhere, I often leave my portable brain at home. All of a sudden the girl’s adoring gaze will turn to the look of disdain and pity I have grown so accustomed to. The reason? I’ve forgotten how to play a C#m add9.

Luckily for us all, ChordGenie displays any chord you might wish on your mobile phone. Making dusky maiden mockery a thing of the past.

My mobile phone is too ancient to support such a feature (the phone company have been offering me an upgrade to a piece of string with a tin can at either end) so if any one has tried it out, let me know if it’s any good.

Download ChordGenie free trial.

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In the past uke-playing hunks like George Formby and Tiny Tim have been cruelly overlooked in ‘world’s sexist men’ lists. No Longer.

French Elle’s list of the 15 sexiest men (or palmara¨s des quinze hommes les plus sexy if you prefer) was topped by uke-playing star of France’s Pop Idol Julien Dore. He managed to beat off Jude Law, Brad Pitt and Justin Timberlake without even being old enough to grow a proper beard.

His list of musical influences is much more interesting than most of the people who appear on these shows. He name-checks Herman Dune, BRMC and Jonathan Fire*Eater but, of course, most of the songs he performs are rather less interesting.

Here’s a question for you: who’s the sexiest uke player? I’m voting for the geek chic of James Hill.

This week there have been some worthy additions to stuff I’ve already mention with more videos from the Belgium UkeFest and Taimane at her family reunion. But this week has been notable for two strangely compelling performances.

f3rt – 4:33

A note perfect rendition of John Cage’s defining work. The tune reaches a dizzying crescendo at 3:31 when he sighs a little. I love this tune so much I have it as my ringtone.

Ukulelia – Gsoffa wird halt Aberall

It takes either bullet-proof chutzpah or staggering ignorance to call yourself ‘Ukulelia’. When I listened to this the first time it was painful. Then I couldn’t resist listening again. I spent the rest of the day walking around singing ‘Suda, Norda, Osta, Westa‘.

Victoria Vox – Peeping Tomette

This clip has been up on MUD for a while now but it’s always worth listening to a mouth trumpet solo.

Amanda Palmer – Creep

Final proof that I am visiting the wrong bars. In all my years of bar propping I’ve not once seen a goth-girl with a flower in her hair stood on the bar strumming a uke. The closest was a senile farmer with sheep-dip in his hair who sang It’s A Long Way to Tipperary while lying on the pavement.

The Shane Victorino ukulele figurine I mentioned last week inspired him to great things. He hit a walk off homer at the bottom of the ninth (I have no idea what any of those words signify but that appears to mean that he did good). I hope you took my advice and grabbed an armful of them as they are currently going for anything up to $100 on eBay. Making the plastic figures far more valuable than the entire Fillies team.

Old Movie Section is a blog dedicated to charting the complete history of 1930’s Hollywood. It recently covered the divorce of Ukulele Ike and (just two weeks and a short scroll later) that of Jack Pepper from Ginger Rodgers. It looks like I was wrong to talk of Pepper’s charm.

Miss Rogers nee Virginia Katherine McMath, told a story of alleged abuse and misrepresentation on the part of her husband.

Ukulady tries to cheer up Paris Hilton.

Tofu Hut plays Jake Shimabukuro to a number of school kids. General consensus: boring.

Session tracks and chat from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on Radio Foyle.

Joanna Newsom – Peach, Plum, Pear (Chords)

All this talk of freak folk has put me in the mood for some Joanna Newsom. The harp is my second favourite instrument. In fact, if my parents had been immensely rich you’d be reading a harp blog right now. Come to think about it, if my parents were that rich you’d be looking at a blank page while I drove around Monaco wearing a money suit and munching on golden eagle eggs.

This tune is in the uke unfriendly key of C#m so I had a hard time working out the best way to play it. It is (just about) possible to play in standard uke C-tuning using these chords:

You can tune down half a step (to F#BD#G#) and use the following chords (I’ve left the names as they are in standard tuning to try and cut down confusion to a minimum). You could, of course, just play these shapes in standard tuning if you aren’t playing along with the record.

But my favourite, and the only in the pdf, is to use the D-tuning (aDF#B) and these chord shapes:

These shapes allow the top string to ring open through the chords creating a pivot note. It’s also these reason I chose this shape for C#m rather than just barring across the second fret.

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It was only a matter of time before someone on the freak-folk/naturalismo scene picked up on the ukulele. Last month saw the debut release by baritone ukeist Rio En Medio (aka Danielle Stech Homsy). The album features some of the cream of the movement including Devendra Banhart, Andy Cabic (Vetiver) and David Coulter

David Coulter deserves not just a blog post to himself, but an entire blog. He plays a vast array of instruments including ukulele and a quite terrifying electric saw which you can hear on his MySpace. Recent projects include Musical Supervisor of Damon Albarn’s opera Monkey: Journey to the West and guest appearances with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

With a friends like that, it’s no wonder Rio En Medio’s makes some beautiful, chilled and trippy folk music.

MySpace
YouTube
Sample mp3s
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It’s rare you seen charm in comedians anymore. Usually, they’re either spraying vomit and mocking mental disability or inflicting genital torture. Jack Pepper was a man with charm. So much charm that he managed to marry Ginger Rodgers (he was her first husband of five) despite having a face like grinning frying pan.

Of course, what woman could resist uke playing like this? Add to that the sexually charged, arms to the side, leg-bending dance and all women would have been putty in his hands.

I can’t discuss Stephin Merritt songs without it descending into me reeling out quotes from the song. So, I’m not even going to try to resist.

Shipwrecked with you/I can’t think of a single thing I’d rather do/and that’s why I decapitated the crew

You needn’t do much, just sit there and flirt/and if it looks drizzly, I’ll build us a yurt

As the album version doesn’t have any ukulele, I’ve tabbed the live version (from the show you can download here. If you want to play along with the album version, put a capo on the second fret, tune up to aDF#B or transpose the chords up two frets.

Requested by Susan Tobacco

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New rave and ukulele: go together like a horse and marriage. I’m a firm believer that if a song has chords and a strong melody it’ll work on the ukulele. Golden Skans is a case in point.

You can even play the ‘ooo eee ooo eee ooo eee ooo ee ooooh ahhhh’ part:

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A bumper crop of YouTube videos this week. It was tough narrowing it down.

Wilfried Welti – Elspeth of Nottingham

Welti plays with a restraint and clarity that’s rarely seen on the uke – suiting the classical pieces perfectly. You can download some of his tabs and mp3s here

Jake Shimabukuro – Orange World

This isnt’ the first time this clip has been uploaded but it’s well worth watching again.

TT Cafe – In The Mood

A battle between uke and accordion complete with Angus Young/Arnold Schwarzenegger style heal kicks.

Ukulelezaza – Rockin’ The Uke

It’s heartening to see Uke Fest spreading around the world. This week has seen clips uploaded from the Swedish Ukulele Festival (featuring an impressive young banjo-uker) and the Ukulele Festival of Belgium (from which this tasty piece of strummery comes).