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).

Oh, the long, lonesome nights spent at sea blowing the sailor’s hornpipe.

Brian Hefferan (of The Fabulous Heftones) has for the last few months been uploading some staggering finger-picking uke pieces on YouTube. I couldn’t resist trying to work some of them out. Here, with the help of the man himself, is the first tab.

Read the rest of this entry »

As someone who doesn’t dare uncork a wine bottle without an emergency helicopter and a skilled team of physicians on standby, I have great admiration for anyone who can start with a few lumps of wood and end up with ukulele. I’ve found it fascinating to follow luthier Pete Howlett’s blog as he sets about construction.

If you’re heading off to see the Philadelphia Phillies this Sunday and you’re under 14, make sure you pick up one of these promotional figurines of some sportsman or other. Although I can’t quite fathom why a dashboard ornament is only available to under 14’s.

Uke playing is becoming a bit of a fad amongst Hollywood stars of a certain age. First William H Macy, now Jeff Bridges is getting in on the act. At the end of the soon to be released animated film Surf’s Up he sings and strums a ukulele. The film also features ukulele evangelist Zooey Deschanel.

Musicguymic‘s eBay store is almost enough to make me wish I hadn’t spent all my money on hookers and ice cream. I can’t think of a single justification for not owning a ukulele with a huge horn attached.

Tell your enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our free stuff.

10. Ukulele Icons – A batch of cute little ukulele icons in .ico and .gif formats.

9. Uke-4-U – it’s exceptionally ugly, but it teaches beginners their first few chords and lets you strum along with a few simple songs. Read the rest of this entry »

“People say, ‘Do these books have any messages for young people?’ And I say, ‘Of course, it’s one of the most important lessons in all literature. The lesson is: if you see Count Olaf, scream and run away. You don’t get that from CS Lewis’.”

After I posted Smile, I was overwhelmed by a flood of/floored by a barrage of/inundated with two requests for more. In the face of such an outpouring, who am I to deny it? Particularly when I can’t get enough of these songs myself.

Although there is no uke on Scream and Run Away the chords fit very nicely. But, if you’re desperate for a little ukulele oompah action, you could try playing this:

I plan on transcribing more of the songs from this album in the near future. So, if you don’t want to miss them, make sure you subscribe.

Buy Tragic Treasury – UK US

Shigeto Takahashi – Goofus (Links fixed)

Shigeto Takahahi – Peanut Vendor

Shigeto Takahashi went down a storm when he played the New York Uke Fest this year. Michael DaSilva was so impressed that he has decided to sponser him with a DaSilva soprano.

After I mentioned him in an earlier post, Shigeto got in touch with me and was kind enough to point me towards his mp3s and to answer a few questions.

What made you want to play the ukulele?

The famous Japanese comedian Takagi Boo played ukulele. The pure sound moved me and I started playing ukulele to share the sound many people.

Who are your musical inspirations? Which ukulele players do you admire?

My ukulele and life mentor is Takuji Mori. His teacher is Haruhiko Haida from Hawaii. My favorite musician is Japanese pianist Fujiko Hemming and my ukulele hero has been Herb Ohta for 15 years.

Haruhiko Haida, it should be pointed out, almost singlehandedly introduced the ukulele to Japan and was the first person to record Herb Ohta.

Did you enjoy playing at the New York Uke Fest?

I enjoyed playing at NYUF very much. I also performed in a cafe and in the NY street too. Some people just passed without me, some people smiled and said, “Thank you,” to me, some gave me tip. When I played the old American song Goofus, an old couple stopped and gave me a tip. I saw the tears in the lady’s eyes. She said they ware musicians too. I was so impressed. I’ll never forget them: her tears.

You can hear more of Shigeto’s music, as well as see pictures and videos, here

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (midi)

As well as inspiring a gaggle of ukulele orchestras, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain also have a habit of inspiring reviewers. The Independent called them the, “anarcho-syndicalists of the ukelele world,” and John L Walters referred to them as a, “band that appeals to the dispossessed, alienated audience stranded between the Scylla of crass commerciality and the Charybdis of half-baked obscurantism.” No wonder the audience are stranded; neither ‘the Scylla of crass commerciality’ nor ‘Charybdis of half-baked obscurantism’ could be found by my SatNav.

The UOGB’s performance of Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly appears on their live DVD Anarchy in the Ukulele. I haven’t tabbed out the tune exactly as they play it – I felt you might not have half a dozen uke players and a bassist to hand. This version is arranged for solo ukulele.

The most challenging part of the piece is bars 19 and 20. The version I’ve gone with in the tab is the one I like. It sounds great (I like close harmony notes ringing into each other) and is the smoothest transition down the neck. But it isn’t easy. The fingering suggestions under the tab should help you out a little.

A (slightly) easier way to play it is this:

It’s still tricky.

Buy Anarchy in the Ukulele

My favourite ukulele videos uploaded to YouTube in the past week.

Taimane Gardner

Taimane recently turned in a suitably barnstorming performance at the memorial concert for Don Ho; with whom she had been playing since the age of 14.

Here, at a family reunion, she is markedly more restrained and relaxed than she is in most of her performances.

Takashi Nakamura

Albert Hammond, Jr – In Transit

With The Strokes taking a year off, guitarist Albert Hammond is focusing on his solo career. In it’s original version, this song featured I’ll forgive the use of a plectrum in this case.

Ukulele-Coolia – Tequila

Gus and Fin – California Sun

Ukulele + wooble board = fun.

John Culshaw thinks Yorkshire and Lancastrian accents sound the same? Poncy Southern get. But full marks to him for noticing that Arctic Monkeys are the true heirs to the Formby throne and seeing that their songs are perfect for the uke.

Suggested Strumming

For the main strum you can use Strum #6 from the Strum Bible:

d – d u – u d u

Do that twice for every chord except in the bridge. There you can do it once for each chord until the last line where you do one down-strum per chord.

Twiddley Bits

The intro to Despair In The Departure Lounge is easier to play on the uke than on the guitar. Not only that, but the short piano solo in the middle of the song fits perfectly too. I’ve included just the piano notes in the chord sheet. But you can also combine it with the chords like this:

Links

Buy it on iTunes
Fluorescent Adolescent chords
AM Medley tab

Thessaly ‘UkuLady’ Lerner has been banned from her regular gig at Canter’s Deli for being loud and annoying. As much as I love her, it’s not the most surprising news I’ve ever read.

ChiyoDad discusses the impact of the new Koalana Concert Uke.

How do you tell someone you love them? Say it with flowers? Over a candle lit dinner? Hire a mariachi band and serenade them? Or take out an eBay ad for a non-existent vintage ukulele and refer to you loved one as ‘Captain Sunshine’ in front of the entire ukulele playing population of the planet?

There are a surprisingly high percentage of people from Iceland doing Google searches for ‘ukulele’.