That’s it from me for this year (other than the ebook for new ukers). I’ll be back at the end of January 2018 (year of the impossible F chord for people with gigantic pinkies).
New Releases
– I’ve been collecting all the ukulele stuff I’ve come across on Spotify in the Ukulele 2017 Spotify playlist. If there’s something I’ve missed, do let me know.
– WS64 is one of the original YouTube ukers having covered every Beatles song on ukulele. Now he’s one half of La Wolf and they’ve just put out their album On Our Own.
– Tiki garage rock from The Mangonuts.
– Opera-lele have a new one out A Life of Broadway.
This is probably completely meaningless to anyone outside the UK (and largely meaningless to those in it). The Trivago woman is a ukulele player (and the skipping rope player it seems). Which means I have to switch allegiances away from the Trip Advisor owl who is too busy lounging in his robe to learn an instrument.
Since it’s Christmas, I’m breaking my no Beatles rule to do this one I’ve had a fair few requests for over the years.
I’ve kept the arrangement as simple as possible. After the fingerpicking in the first bar it’s all strumming and lots of familiar chord shapes. And the melody is recognisable you don’t have to worry about emphasising it all that much. I’m using a capo at the first fret which puts it in the same key as the original. But you can just play it open if you prefer.
The only thing that might trip you up are the extra beats that he throws in. There’s one extra beat in the middle of the verse and two extra at the end.
In case you’re not familiar with the Italian repeats in the tab. You play through as normal up to the “D.S. al coda” in bar 29. Then you go back to the squiggle in bar 13. Play through to the “Da Coda” in bar 23. Then skip ahead to the target symbol in bar 30.
Time for the annual Uke Hunt Christmas time-waster.
– Grab a pen and paper
– Display knowledge.
– There might be spoilers in the comments.
– Check the answers here (no peeking).
– Return in triumph or despair and share you score in the comments.
Julian Casablancas – I Wish it Was Christmas Today (Chords)
Christmas songs are often so stupid they’re beyond parody. A point that was proved when Julian Casablancas turned SNL’s I Wish It Was Christmas Today into one of the best Christmas songs in the last decade.
I’ve arranged this with a capo on the third fret to move it to the key of C. But if you want to play without a capo you can replace C, F and G with Eb, Ab and Bb respectively.
Suggested Strumming
I use this strum twice for each chord the whole way through.
I’ve combined chords and the riff because they fall very nicely. If you prefer to play single notes just play the highest note (the note on the A-string until right at the end where it switches to the E-string).
There are a couple of variations in the riff from the SNL version. The tastiest is the A-string, 2nd fret (a flattened fifth against the F chord). It sounds very Strokes-esque.
Same as for the Casablancas version, this twice for each chord:
d – d – d u d u
Twiddly Bits
A rare easy transposition from guitar to ukulele. Everything is played on the high-E string of the guitar. So you can play it exactly the same way on the E-string of the ukulele.
Contests
I don’t usually cover contests but there are two at the moment that have good aims:
– Rachel Manke is giving away a customised Ohaha and all you have to do to enter is give to the ukulele charity of your choice.
– The Levy Sheet Music Collection is running the Save our Songs Contest. To enter you record a version of any of the songs in their collection. There are hundreds of with ukulele chords to choose from.
There’s nothing massively challenging in this arrangement but there are a few leaps up and down the fretboard. You can make things a easier with a bit of planning though. In bars 10 and 12 moving your hand up so you play the 3rd fret with your index finger makes it a much easier transition into the next bar.
Malcolm Young´s unmistakable groove and what you can learn from his style for your playing
To all of you who haven´t heard of Malcom Young, let me give you a short introduction: He was one of THE most important and influential rock guitar players on this earth. With his younger brother Angus he formed the band AC/DC – who played a leading role for me and millions of other kids in term of musical rock-education.
Sadly, Malcolm passed away on the 18th November 2017 after suffering from a stroke and a following dementia.
So this was more than enough reason to once again put on all those classic LP records. Malcolm´s rough style shaped the band’s sound so elementary. He had always been AC/DC´s rocking and pounding heart. He had always been the pulse, the unyielding rhythm and the foot on the rhythm.
So let us take a closer look at what Malcolm’s style has to do with playing the uke.
Actually his style was more or less the essence of what you should be aiming for as a ukulele rhythm player, who accompanies songs. Malcolm carried the songs with his riffs, he was the driving force, the rhythmic skeleton and the band´s spine. Holding everything together without losing flexibility.
Isn´t that exactly what you are supposed to do? You and I know the answer is YES! Thou shalt groove!
If you have ever tried to hold a song together with just a simple sounding rhythm and a few chords you might already know that results can vary. You are too fast, your chord changing is too slow, your speeding up the chorus and whatnot.
And then those rests! So many students seem to forget how important good sounding rests are. Yep, I´m talking good sounding rests! There is more than on possibility to make a rest sound crappy. It may be too long. Or too short. Or your hand produces noises while lifting it off the strings.
Bottom line and also significant for Malcolm’s playing style: rests. Work your rests, kids!
So let´s take a closer look at some riffs, that display the unique force that the right notes at the right time can produce. Play tight, play good sounding rests, play a lot of downstrokes.
Example 1
Slow:
Fast:
Classic AC/DC. Put some power in your downstrokes, let the rests breathe and feel them pumping. They are an essential part of this groove.
Play everything very slow at first, so you can get hold of the little licks at the end. Especially the 16th rest is a little bit tricky.
Example 2
Slow:
Fast:
More rests! This is a perfect example of an early 70´s AC/DC groove.
The ukulele pushes and shoves the whole riff through the accents. Take a careful look where the hits are on the beat and where they are in between. Once again this is supported by the rests that you should execute with your right hand.
Also use downstrokes only – this adds to the power and driving of this riff.
Example 3
This riff showcases how Malcolm could hold the entire band together: this kind of playing is like superglue for rocksongs. The palm muted 16th notes tighten the whole arrangement and keep everything in place.
Really dig into this groove – this is my advice. Do it slowly and keep an eye on the tied 16th notes. You don´t want to ruin a great groove by playing it sloppy, do ya?
Also if you want to spice things up, try to palm mute the whole sequence. It´s a typical rock guitar technique that muffles the sound a bit.
Just put your right hand´s palm on the bridge on top of the strings. They should still vibrate a bit (you can feel a light buzzing on your palm), but the sound goes from clear to muffled or muted.
Example 4
Here the focus is on the typical shuffle feel that this chord progression has.
Like many other greats of that time, AC/DC were heavily influenced by Blues and Rock´n´n Roll artists like John Lee Hooker or Chuck Berry.
Throughout Malcolm career he always came back to songs and riffs that had this bouncy feeling. It was AC/DC version of the Blues – just with a lot bit gain and a tad more volume.
Example 5
Let´s end it with rests :)
We ´re back to the typical 8th beat rock feeling and you will want to take some time for the following riff.
Why you wanna do that? Because you want to make it sound goooood! In this small part there are so many details – don’t just overlook them.
It starts with the first chord: let it ring for a quarter note. Not longer, not shorter.
Then be alert when playing the Csus4 and Gsus5 – both chords start on an „+“. The better the hit, the better the overall sound.
Last but not least: the staccato notes (the one with a dot on top). Play them really short and powerful – they drive the riff forward. Often the devil is in the details but it´s definitely worth the effort.
?Okay rockers – that´s it for today!
I hope you learned a valuable thing or two about rests and powerful rhythms. And please don´t just leave the rests to this rock context. Remember using them in your own patterns and songs. Try them every time you think of using yet another chord in your arrangement. You will be astounded how grown up and cleaned up your songs can sound!
Any further questions left or advice needed? Write it in the comments!
Mahalo for reading! Keep ukin`
Daniel
Thanks very much to Daniel. You can find more of his work at Daniel from AlohaAkademie.de
