Tracklist
Claire Hastings and Grant Dinwoodie – Wild Mountain Thyme
Sho Humphries – Tears in Heaven x Blue Roses Falling
Desirée Dawson – Hey Brother
Nicolas Fingerstyle Ukulele – Wave
The Avett Brothers – Locked Up
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – The Lovecats
Natasha Ghosh – Dust In The Wind
Herman Vandecauter – 6 valses Felix Horetski
Listening
– Matt Kresling has released the ukulele soundtrack to his outstanding Madagascar Journals travel documentary and you can download it free on Bandcamp.
– A new release from The Front Bottoms Ukulele Versions.
– The Staves performed a live show from home in aid of Tiny Changes (ukulele action starts at about the 42 minute mark).
– Legendary rock journalist and uker, Sylvie Simmons has announced a new album of Joni Mitchell covers.
Learning
– Free collection of Children's Songs in the Key of C.
– Turns out you do need a license for that.
Window Shopping
– Kanile’a Kane’ohe Bay.
– The super furry animal: Kanile’a Manako Ukulele.
– Collings UT3.
Patreon
A massive thanks to Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers. And double thanks go to June’s Tenor backers:
– Ashley Hassman.
– Craig Mills.
– Dan.
– Fiona Keane.
– Joseph Freeman.
– Katherine Penney.
– Nancy.
– Pauline Leblanc.
– Potatoemagic.
– Sandi Clement.
– Trevor Mccravy.
Patreon posts in the last month include:
– Hank William’s I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
– And June’s exclusive for Concert level and up backers: Daft Punk’s Get Lucky
Dua Lipa – Don’t Start Now (Tab)
About once a year a pop song manages to pierce my grumpiness and make me grin. This year it’s been Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now.
There’s a lot to recommend the song: the jazzy chords, the funky bass, the cowbell. But my favourite aspect is the one-note chorus. Adam Neely recently made an outstanding video about the worst solo of all time that’s a must-watch on this subject.
Contrary to whatmorons like Ben Shapiro will tell you, not having a melody doesn’t mean it isn’t music. The static A note (in this arrangement) adds a different flavour to each chord. So it changes the Em into Emadd11, the C into C6 and G into Gsus2.
It also means there’s more room to play about with other aspects of the song. So there’s a little chromatic run-up to the root note of the chord (inspired by the bass line). And, in the second chorus, I throw in some harmonics on the E-string 5th fret to imitate the cowbell. I don’t think I entirely pull it off but it is fun.
Links
I ventured into TikTok the other day to find out what the kids are into. Turns out they love hyper-literal dance moves, handing over their data to the CCP, syncopation and jazz chords. I’m entirely on board with those last two. So here’s a selection of songs that became popular on TikTok.
Doja Cat – Say So
The chord progression of this one is tasty. It’s Em7 – A7sus4 – Dmaj7 then adds B7sus4 – B7 the last time around. The strumming pattern is also interesting. The odd bars are strummed directly on the beat and the even bars have a syncopated strum.
Dua Lipa – Don’t Start Now
I’ve got a full version of this coming up tomorrow.
Megan thee Stallion – Savage
Similar to Say So in that it shares the minor 7 chords and has the same syncopated rhythm (albeit shifted in the bar). But uses them in a more punchy way to produce a more aggressive sound.
Doja Cat – Freak
A very old-school chord progression thanks to a sample of Paul Anka’s Put Your Head on My Shoulder.
Jason Derulo – Savage Love
Proud Mary/Midnight Hour (Tab)
One of the joys of lockdown has been watching rockers replace their bands with their kids. Best of all has been John Fogerty blasting out the hits with his family. So here’s a uke version of one of those hits paired with another sixties banger from Wilson Pickett (who covered Proud Mary).
As well as sharing the same level of verve, both these tunes use an F to D move (in this key) in their turnarounds. A move that John Fogerty was inspired to make by the opening of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.
The arrangement is mostly strumming basic chords with melody notes thrown in. So it’s a good one to bash out without worrying too much about exactly what you’re playing.
Links
Midnight Hour on Amazon
Proud Mary on Amazon
More 60s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon
Tracklist
Sarah Marie Young – Have You Ever Seen the Rain
Ukulele Death Squad – Drunken Lullabies
Swingy – I Will Wait For You
Zoë Bestel – Don’t Know Why
Kenta Ebara – Heavenly Island via @ukeist
Vanessa Ding – Might as well
blackstem – Hard Times
Polo G x Einer Bankz – 33
Arko Mukhaerjee – Nepali Folk Jam
The Oh Yeahs – Rainbow Connection
Martha and the Vandellas – Dancing in the Street (Tab)
A particularly relevant Motown classic today to express my solidarity with my American friends fighting for justice.
The arrangement is based primarily on the Martha Reeves version. But I do slip in the bass riff from the Bowie/Jagger version which first pops up in bar 4. It helps to break up the long G chord that last the entire verse.
Don’t worry about hitting every note in the tab perfectly. So long as you’re holding the right chord and hitting the melody notes it should work.
Links
Time for the Uke Hunt Annual Chord Quiz. Test your chord knowledge, theory knowledge and musical ear. The method is as low-tech as ever.
– Grab a pen and paper.
– Answer the questions (using a ukulele to help you is entirely allowed and encouraged).
– Check the answers here (no peeking).
If you’re reading by email or feed reader you may need to click through to the post to see everything.
Chord Diagrams
Name the minor chord from the chord diagram.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Chord Flavour: Diagrams
All these are F chords but are they D, Dm, D7, Dm7, or Dmaj7?
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Chord Flavour: Listening
All these are A chords but are they E, Em, E7, Em7 or Emaj7?
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Chord Makeup
Each of these triads of notes makes up a major chord (e.g. the notes of an A minor chord are A, C and E). Which one? (The notes are listed in alphabetical order starting at C to make it harder.)
16. C, E, G
17. C, F, A
18. D, F, Bb
19. C#, E, A
20. D, F#, A
Chord Progression
Match the MP3 to the chord sequence:
a) A – E7 – A – E7 – A
b) A – E7 – D – E7 – A
c) A – D – A – E7 – A
d) A – F#m – Bm – D – A
e) A – Em – Bm – G – A
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Links
Big Chord Quiz 1
Big Chord Quiz 2
Big Chord Quiz 3
Big Chord Quiz 4
Big Chord Quiz 5
More ukulele quizzes
Tiny Tim – Tiptoe Through the Tulips (Tab)
I was very snooty about Tiny Tim back in the day. But, now my brain has gone soft in old age, I’ve developed a fondness for him. The more the ukulele world has become populated with people with good hair and nice teeth the more I appreciate him making the ukulele an instrument for weirdos and outcasts.
So the latest stop in my Jazz Odyssey is the song famous by Tiny Tim with his deeply unsettling ukulele version.
And there’s lots to love about this song. I particularly enjoy the chromatic rise of the chords in the chorus. I’ve tried to emphasise that in the arrangement. The intro and the solo are almost all notes in the chords plus chromatic notes leading into or out of a chord. I’d encourage to have a play around and insert some of your own ideas in those.
Links
Blind Willie Johnson – The Soul of a Man (Tab)
Today’s post was prompted by Douglas and Stephen who requested a bit of slide ukulele. I was trying to think of which song to do when I watched the new Assassin’s Creed trailer that features a cover of Blind Willie Johnson’s Soul of a Man and immediately got to work on it.
Slide playing is noisy at the best of times. I wrote a whole ebook about playing slide, but the number one tip for slide playing is to mute everything you’re not playing. Mute everything behind the slide with your index or middle finger (or, even better, both). And mute any string you don’t want to hear with your picking hand.
It’s mostly standard slide playing. But there is a little trick in bar 4. There, you need to angle the slide so you’re playing the A-string at the 10th fret and the C-string at the 11th. Mercifully, the vibrato there means you’ve got a bit of leeway in hitting the notes.
Links
Buy the song
How to Play Blues Ukulele
More blues tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon
