As well as being the obvious choice for a Tom Petty tribute, Free Fallin’ works very well on the ukulele. So well you only have to bother changing your fretting on the g-string. The C, E and A strings all ring though the chord changes.

The only bit that doesn’t translate so well is the section with chugging power chords towards the end. But the underlying chord changes there are exactly the same as the rest of the song. So you can just playing through that section as you have been.

Suggested Strumming

Intro and verses: You can keep it very minimal and just do one down-strum per chord.

Chorus: Because the chords change in unusual places the strumming is a little tricky. Here’s how I play it:

Which sounds like this:

Strum

Chugging section: This part I play with all down-strums while resting the side of my strumming hand lightly on the strings (more on picking hand muting here). The pattern is: three on F, six on Bb, two on F, five on C.

Chugs

As I said, you can just keep playing the chorus pattern through this section if you prefer. Or if you really like it you can play the chugging for the rest of the song.

Twiddly Bits

Just one little twiddle in the song: the guitar part in the break. Here’s how it sounds on the uke:

Lick

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More rock tabs and chords

Full Playlist

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I’m delighted to report that the Survivor Girl Ukulele Band smashed through its goal just an hour after the blog post about them went up. And they’re still going strong having passed $10,000. A huge thanks to everyone who pledged. And if you still want to pledge you can do so until 2nd October.

Recently a huge batch of old 78s have been expertly digitised and put up on Archive.org. As you might expect there’s a healthy selection of ukulele records amongst them (and “ukelele” records). A favourite of mine is Charles Kama and his Moanan Hawaiians.

Ukulele ASMR. Weird even by ASMR standards.

Window Shopping

– 8-string roto-uku | The Concept Guitar Project (via Ukulelia)
– 2010 Phil Collins Koa Concert Ukulele. Not that Phil Collins.
2013 Collings UC2 Custom Walnut Concert Ukulele.
– Ohana New Products 2017 round up.
– A couple of unusual electric ukes: the Astro ukulele and a HiGuitarsUK soprano.

Ernest Hogan – La Pas Ma La (Tab)

Great news for those of us who are big fans of David Beckingham’s tabs: he’s recently retired and is hoping to make even more of them. Congratulations to Dave and I hope he has a blast in his retirement.

He’s sent me two new tabs. The first is the ragtime tune La Pas Ma La by Ernest Hogan. Hogan was the first African-American entertainer to produce and star in a Broadway show (The Oyster Man in 1907).

Enya – Watermark (Tab)

The second tab is a bit of a departure from David’s usual stuff. It’s the title track of Enya’s 1988 album Watermark. It’s a beautiful piece and works surprisingly well on the ukulele in my opinion.

Links

Buy Enya’s Watermark on iTunes
David Beckingham on YouTube
More David Beckingham tabs

There’s a lot of talk about the ukulele making the world a better place. But one person who is really walking the walk is Laurie Kallevig. She set up and runs the Survivor Girl Ukulele Band which works with survivors of human trafficking in India.

They’re currently Kickstarting a CD. The Kickstarter ends on the 2nd October and at the time of writing they’ve raised $6,400 of the $8,500 they need. If they don’t hit the goal they don’t get any of the money. So please do back them here if you can.

I caught up with Laurie to find out more about the project.

UPDATE: I just got this message from Laurie: “Just in, an anonymous donor will match all new and increased pledges on survivor girl ukulele band — the cd kickstarter up to $1000!!!” So if you get in quick any amount you pledge is going to be doubled.

What inspired you to start the Survivor Girl Ukulele Band Project?

Years ago I was traveling in Nepal and learned that each year thousands of rural village girls are tricked into leaving home with promises of a good job in India only to whisked across the border, sold into a brothel, and forced into prostitution.

This really bothered me, but I didn’t have any way to get involved. Years passed but often I thought of those girls. Then in the middle of the night I woke up with the words “rescue and restore” in my head, and I knew I had to get involved.

I went to India and volunteered in the communications department of a number of organizations. And then one day I brought a guitar out to the field. What a blast! We sang a few songs and then the girls rushed up to hold the guitar, to strum it, and to ask how it works.

I knew I couldn’t teach those small girls how to play a big guitar. So I decided to get a ukulele, learn how to play it, and then bring a bunch of ukuleles back to India and start a survivor girl ukulele band. And that’s what I did!!

My main goal is to show these girls love. And ukulele is a great vehicle for that love.

Can you tell us a little about the problem of human trafficking in the area and what the girls have been through?

The average age of a trafficked girl is thirteen. And the numbers are staggering in India, where an estimated 500,000 underage girls have been forced into the commercial sex trade. There are many ways girls are tricked and forced into prostitution. Often they sold by family member or friend.

The most vulnerable come from poverty and have very little education. Some girls have been abandoned or orphaned. Some girls are HIV positive. Some girls are aggressive. But they all need love and opportunity.

One student said to me, “In my life, nothing good has ever happened to me. And then you came. Why didn’t you come sooner?”

What impact does learning ukulele have on the girls?

There are so many positives in learning ukulele. They learn how to keep a beat, how to play with a partner, and to play in a group. All the while, they are learning how to learn.

And these girls, who are often seen as the bottom of their society — when they learn something new, and practice and practice, and then get to perform it for an audience, wow! it’s so uplifting and empowering. After a big performance, one of the girls said, “I’m not alone anymore. I’m part of a band!”

Where can we learn more about your project?

There are some great stories and photos at my blog, workingdraft.me, and there’s a lovely article written by Audrey Colemen in the Winter 2016 issue Ukulele Magazine.

What are your plans and wishes for the future of SGUB?

I’d love to have ukulele people from around the world learn about Survivor Girl Ukuele Band Project — and join the baaand!

Right now I’m focusing on “Survivor Girl Ukulele Band — the CD”, and have brought about fifteen of my students in to the recording studio in Kolkata to record ukulele and vocals for four original songs. Sounds simple enough, but it was really really a challenge on so many levels. And so if we can get that funded and completed — it will serve as a huge accomplishment for the girls who have participated and also as a major inspiration for new students.

In addition, this last spring, I hired a former student to expand Survivor Girl Ukulele Band Project to two small shelter homes in Kolkata. This is her first real job, and she’s my first employee! And next year I hope to expand the project to another large shelter home in Kolkata and maybe hire another former student.

I’d love to keep expanding the project through former students who then become teachers. My plans and wishes include launching girls who have almost no education into dignified and creative and fun careers — bringing restoration and hope to other survivor girls through the healing power of music and love. Wouldn’t that be awesome?!

You can find out more about the Survivor Girl Ukulele Band at SGUB.org and, even more importantly, help them out and back their Kickstarter here.

Charles Bradley – Dusty Blue (Tab)

I had to make a change to the scheduled chord post to pay tribute to the incredible soul singer Charles Bradley who died last week. Bradley spent most of his life in complete obscurity as the singer in a James Brown tribute act until the incomparable Daptone Records picked him up and released his debut album in 2011 at the age of 62. The album contained some of the most powerful and heartfelt soul music of the decade and made him an almost instant soul legend.

But most pertinent here is the ukulele track Dusty Blue from his second album with the Menahan Street Band (a track that later popped up on Suits). It’s one of the few ukulele-led soul tracks out there. If you watch careful you can see the studio ukulele in the Charles Bradley documentary Soul of America.

I recorded a version of Dusty Blue a few years ago but never got around to posting the tab. So here, at last, it is.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More soul tabs and chords

Full Playlist

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More sad news, I’m afraid. Singer and ukulelist with Those Darlins, Jessi Zazu has died of cervical cancer at the age of 28.

New Releases
– Wilfried Welti has just released a new tab ebook of tunes by Renaissance composer Tielman Susato.
– Phredd has another barrel-of-fun kids’ album out Ukulele Awesomesauce.
– The Burning Glass Happiness is Egg Shaped.

Kickstarting
– Tyrone and Leslie are raising funds for a new album Optimism.
– The Survivor Girl Ukulele Band is an excellent charity teaching ukulele to young survivors of human trafficking in India. You can back the Kickstarter for their album.

Burning Man had its own emergency ukulele station with a familiar looking logo (via Ukulelia).

Continuing this week’s Kitty Lux tributes with a live UOGB favourite: The Dam Busters March by Eric Coates. This isn’t a direct tab of their version but is heavily influenced by it.

I’ve divided up the duties in the piece so that each ukulele part has a different skill level. If you’ve got more players in your group you can divide these up further or devise your own complementary parts.

Lead Ukulele

Dam Busters March (Lead Tab)

A load of tricky sections in this part (yet somehow it was the easy section at the end I managed to screw up in the video). The hardest section are the rapid-fire notes and moves up and down the neck in bars 40-44. But all the way through the first half there are bits that might trip you up. Luckily, things are much more stately in the second half.

I’m using fingerpicking to play this part. But it’s arranged in more of a UOGB than my usual style so it’s easier to play with a pick.

If, like me, you have no friends here’s a backing track to play this part along with:

Backing Track (MP3)

Baritone Ukulele

Dam Busters March (Baritone Tab)

The baritone tone is a little easier than the lead part. It’s mainly a simplified version of the lead part played an octave lower. The biggest challenges are the descending runs in bars 13 – 16 and bars 40-44.

Again, I’m playing this with my fingers but it’s arranged so it’s easy to play with a pick too.

Rhythm Ukulele

Dam Busters March (Rhythm Tab)

I’ve kept this part as simple as possible. It’s all played with down-strums and it’s almost all beginner level chords.

There are a couple of slightly unusual sections where I’m just playing the top three strings. I’m playing these by strumming down with my thumb to give them a softer, rounder sound. But you don’t have to do that. And if you want to play all the strings it happens to be the second fret on the g-string that’s missing in every case.

Guitar/Bass

Dam Busters March (Guitar/Bass Tab)

I’m playing this part on guitar but I’ve only used the bottom four strings so you can transfer it directly to bass if you prefer.

Here you’re playing staccato quarter notes almost all the way through. The one challenge is the descending run in bars 13-16.

Links

Buy the UOGB version
More UOGB tabs and chords

The death of founding Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain member Kitty Lux leaves a huge hole in the ukulele world. The UOGB set the template for the current ukulele revival 25 years before it started. As well as establishing the ukulele as a sociable, group instrument they expanded the uke’s repertoire to include everything from classical to funk. As well as carrying on the tradition of the likes of Ukulele Ike and George Formby by combining a respect for musicianship with keen sense of the ridiculous.

Lux’s music career started when she was art student in Leeds. She was a member of various punk bands including Sheeny and the Goys (whose song Ever Such Pretty Girls the UOGB recorded for their album of punk covers) and the excellently named Severed Head and the Neck Fuckers. And went on to post-punk band Really with original UOGB bassist Dave Bowie (not that one) and later UOGB co-founder George Hinchliffe.

When Lux and Hinchliffe formed the UOGB 1985 the ukulele was as far from popularity as it would get. When Marty McFly travelled back to 1955 he’d be able to watch Arthur Godfrey teaching ukulele on primetime TV. When he went forward to 2015 he could walk into a pub and seen a room of people Johnny B Goode-ing it up on the uke and find the ukulele LaserDiscs piled high out back. But in 1985 the only ukulele was barely known outside of Hawaii and the George Formby Society.

The Orchestra’s membership shifted around through the 80s and 90s as the group developed a repertoire of covers and original material. You can hear many Lux/Hincliffe originals on the 1989 album Hearts of Oak. Including some revealing in the Uke's artsy side like the slide ukulele and poetry number Anything is Beautiful Which.

But it’s for their covers that they UOGB are best know. Kitty described what made a good song for the Ukes like this:

We say that the ukulele is a good bullshit detector, if a song is weak then the ukulele reveals this. A bad song can be dressed up and made to seem good with lots of effects and a big production but the ‘stripped down’ ukulele treatment let’s you know if the song is good musically or not.

As the band’s lineup settled in the 90s their popularity increased and they were soon performing all over the world. Culminating in record-quick sell-out performance at the Albert Hall as part of the usually high-brow and serious Proms. A performance Lux gave only shortly after receiving a kidney transplant.

In a band often known for its comedic moments, Lux’s performances provided a beautiful counterpoint with her warm, earnest singing. She particularly shone on traditional songs such as those on the much underrated collection of traditional songs The Keeper.

The ukulele has benefited from the support a long line of women musicians. From Queen Lili’uokalani, through Mae Singhi Breen and Tessie O’Shea. Kitty Lux joins these legends with her contribution to reminding people of the music that can be made on the uke and the fun that can be had with it.