Watch on YouTube
Tracklist
Bridge City Sinners – Dungeon Song via @ukeist
Ukeba Squad – Tetap Semangat
Wild Child – Hold On, Hold You
Bilgen Korzay & Erkin Soylu – Fark Etmeden via @ukeist
Holden Rivera – Without Breath
Svavar Knútur – Morgunn
Ukulele Overnite – Dirty Love
Garfunkel and Oates – What's Gonna Happen to Chris?
New Releases
– Festival Of The Spoken Nerd have a new show out You Can’t Polish A Nerd. Containing the usual spoddy fun and ukulele songs from Helen Arney including an updated version of Tom Lehrer’s Elements. Plus it’s available on floppy disk.
– 12 Days of Christmas campanella tab ebook.
– New EP from Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer Paper Plates.
– MARLOWE’s collection of uke instrumentals Moments
Window Shopping
– The soundholes on this R&L ukulele look fantastic but structurally terrifying.
– London uke shop, Duke of Uke have launched their own line of ukuleles.
– No.6 Rebel ukulele.
– RIGuitars ukulele version of Brian May’s Red Special
It’s impossible to get away from this song around this time. And this blog isn’t going to give you any respite. But it has been 10 years since I posted the chords so it’s about time for the tabs.
This arrangement starts off with pretty simple with a loose fingerpicking arrangement. After that it’s strummed with a few notes picked and a lot of string muting until a return to fingerpicking right at the end.
In case you’re not familiar with the repeat markings, You play straight through to “D.S. al Coda” the first time. Then you go back to the symbol that looks like a drunk dollar sign in bar 23. Play up to where it says “Da Coda” then skip ahead to the target in bar 59.
If you’re looking for more holiday tabs my Christmas tab ebooks are three for the price of two.
Time for the annual Uke Hunt Christmas quiz time-waster. The rules are as retro as ever.
– Grab a pen and paper
– Display knowledge.
– 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.
What chord are these? (All the chords are either major, minor or 7. Nothing more complicated than that.)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Click the photo for a bigger version.
6.
Photo by Austin Public Library
7.
Photo by Bureau of Land Management
8.
Photo by Mick Jeffries
9.
Photo by Charles Mims
10.
Photo by Charles Mims
Who first released the songs these ukulele orchestras are covering?
11. Roundhay Ukulele Group
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12. Trellebelle Ukulele Orchestra
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13. Ukulele Orchestra jako Brno
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14. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
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15. Grand Old Uke of York
.
Which celebrity is displaying their uke?
16.
a) Sylvester Stallone
b) Arnold Schwarzenegger
c) Jason Statham
d) Dolph Lundgrun
17.
a) Charli XCX
b) Demi Lovato
c) Dua Lipa
d) Selena Gomez
18.
a) Kristen Wiig
b) Amy Poehler
c) Tina Fey
d) Emily Blunt
19.
a) Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Kline
b) Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Costner
c) Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Keegan
d) Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Bacon
20.
a) Michael Jordan
b) Dennis Rodman
c) Shaquille O’Neal
d) LeBron James
Which songs – oft covered on ukulele – are these lyrics from?
21. When the night has come / And the land is dark / And the moon is the only light we’ll see
22. What’s it like in New York city? / I’m a thousand miles away / But, girl, tonight you look so pretty
23. Two drifters, off to see the world / There’s such a lot of world to see
24. He didn’t walk up with that “how you doin’?” (When he came in the room) / He said there’s a lot of girls I can do with (But I can’t without you)
25. Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me / I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed
Past Quizzes
Ukulele Quiz 2017
Ukulele Quiz 2016
Ukulele Quiz 2015
Ukulele Quiz 2014
Ukulele Quiz 2013
Ukulele Quiz 2012
Ukulele Quiz 2011
Ukulele Quiz 2010
Ukulele Quiz 2009
Today I’m writing up Parada de Tettas by The Vengaboys. But then again, no. I’m doing this year’s John Lewis ad Elton John’s Your Song.
The arrangement uses a capo on the first fret to make things easier. But it’s still not completely plain sailing as there are some smart chord moves. The best being the use of F# minor and F# major. Being in D, the F#m fits with the harmony you’d expect. So the F# spices things up and lifts the progression after melancholy descending Bm move in the previous line.
You can use this strum once for almost chord:
d – d – d u d –
The only exceptions are the Asus4 – A and Dsus4 – D moves. There you play the first half of the bar (d – d -) on the sus4 then switch the to major chord for the rest.
This version of the intro uses some artificial harmonics (the notes with A.H. above them). These are tricky to play. So here’s a version with the capo on the third fret. It’s easier to play but the capo is on a different fret to the chords.
Tracklist
Tyrone and Lesley – Ukulele Sunrise
Vinícius Vivas – Tico-tico no Fubá
Feng E – Uptown Funk
The Ladybugs – Save The Bones For Henry Jones
Andrew O'Neill & Amanda Palmer – Anti-Ukulele Anthem – YouTube
Le Temps d'une Étincelle – L'endroit d'où l'on vient
Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer – Paper Plates
Mike Holland – El Testament d’Amelia via @ukeist
Dej Loaf x Einer Bankz – Who Gon Stop Us
Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans. And happy No-Americans-on-the-Internet Day to everyone else. Today I’m thankful for baritone ukuleles. They may be inferior to real ukuleles but sometimes they’re the best tool for the job. Such as for this latest tune from Lana Del Rey.
The picking pattern in the verse and chorus is based around Travis picking (i.e. thumb and two finger picking with the thumb alternating between the D and G strings). But because the G-string is needed for some of the melody notes there are a few exceptions. The trickiest is pair of notes on the G-string, 7th fret in bar 10. Here the first is plucked with the thumb and the second with the index finger.
In the middle section I switch to mostly one finger per string picking.
We’re about a month out from Christmas so time to start polishing up the festive tunes and learning a few new ones. Here’s a rundown of everything Christmassy on the site.
I’ve written 3 collections of easy Christmas tabs: How to Play Christmas Ukulele, Christmas Ukulele 2 and Christmas Ukulele 3.
You can pick up all three for the price of 2 by buying the whole Christmas Trilogy at once.
12 Days of Christmas
2000 Miles – The Pretenders
A Christmas Duel – The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
All I Want for Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
Chiron Beta Prime – Jonathan Coulton
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
Christmas for Cowboys – John Denver/Ballard C Boyd
Christmas in July – Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick
Cold Outside – Julia Nunes & Wade Johnson
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
Fuck Christmas – Eric Idle
Give the Jew Girl Toys – Sarah Silverman
I Wish it Was Christmas Today – SNL/Julian Casablancas
It’s Cliched to be Cynical At Christmas – Half Man Half Biscuit
iPod X-mas – Hello Saferide
Let It Snow
Lumberjack Christmas/Christmases Past – Sufjan Stevens
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight) – The Ramones
Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade
No Christmas – Zee Avi
Present Face – Garfunkel and Oates
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Run, Run Rudolph – Chuck Berry
Santa Baby
Santa Will Find You – Mindy Smith/Tripping Lily
Silver Bells – She & Him
Somewhere Only We Know – Keane/Lily Allen
Space Christmas – Allo Darlin
Suddenly it’s Christmas – Loudon Wainwright III
The Christmas Song – Weezer
The Christmas Song Song – Rocky and Balls
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Year End Letter – Garfunkel and Oates
You’re a Mean One Mr Grinch
Away in a Manger
Carol of the Bells
Christmastime Is Here (from Charlie Brown)
German Christmas Carols
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Instrumental)
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bells
Little Drummer Boy
Mele Kalikimaka
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
O Christmas Tree (Single Note Version)
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Silent Night (Harmonics Version)
Silent Night (Single Note Version)
Sleigh Ride – U900 / The Ventures
Various – Wilfried Welti’s Musikalisches Naschwerk für Solo Ukulele
We Three Kings
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
I’m mostly into St Vincent for the wild guitar playing and shuffle dancing. But this beautiful, straightforward ballad immediately struck me as prime for a ukeing. And other than a few big pinkie-stretches it works very neatly.
I’m mostly playing this very loosely without any strict pattern. In the first and third verses I throw in a lot of index-finger flicks where – rather than picking the note – I’ll flick my index finger upwards to catch the melody note and one or two other strings. This helps fill in the sound a little. In the second verse I switch to full strumming to get an even larger sound.
The only part that requires strict one finger per string picking is the rapid picking in bar 7 which is extended in the coda. Other than that you can play it however you feel it.
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