With there already being plenty of Beatles ukulele material around, I tend to avoid adding to the pile. But I couldn’t resist having a go at adapting the gorgeous picking of Blackbird for ukulele. I love the rising and falling lines. Particularly the chromatic rise and fall on the E-string in bars 5-8 of the tab.
It’s a challenging piece to play on the uke. There’s plenty of movement up and down the neck and some tricky picking. There are also loads of time signature changes in the song. But none of them are jarring. So if you know the song well they’re going to feel natural.
– The pattern in bar 1 alternating index and middle fingers (picking the E- and A-strings respectively) and the thumb picking the g-string.
– The pattern in bar 2 where the thumb alternates between the g- and C-strings.
There are 2 big exceptions. One is the picking is in bars 6 and 21. For those I’m alternating by thumb between the g- and E-strings. the other is bars 32-34 where I switch to strumming.
For a few years now I’ve been collecting people’s ratings of their ukuleles on the review section of Uke Hunt. It’s been interesting watching the list of the highest rated ukes take shape. Now that there are plenty of ratings I thought I’d take a look at those at the top.
The list is determined by a Bayesian average of ratings submitted to the site (that means the number of ratings as well as the average of the ratings is important). So if you think your uke deserves to be on the list you can help get it there by rating it. There are links to ukulele makers here and luthiers here.
There are two notable trends. The first is how many of the top five are very much family owned and run concerns. The other is that four of the top five all start with K. There must be something special about K.
Top of the list is the oldest surviving ukulele maker Kamaka. They were founded in Hawaii in 1916 by Samuel Kaialiilii Kamaka. Kamaka’s most enduring innovation was the introduction of the pineapple ukulele. Kamaka realised that ukuleles have no need for the figure-8 shape (they’re just mimicking larger instruments that need to accommodate legs and arms) so you could significantly reduce the time and cost of ukuleles by making them oval shaped.
Sam Jr and his brother Fred continue to stick by Sam Sr’s warning: “If you make instruments and use the family name, don’t make junk.” Their ukuleles are the top of the field and clearly loved by their owners including their biggest endorser Jake Shimabukuro.
Currently only 0.01 of a star behind Kamaka comes another of the famous Hawaiian K Brands: Kanile’a. Kanile’a was set up by husband and wife team Joe and Kristen Souza in 1998. They make their ukes in Kane’ohe, Hawaii.
As well as their top end ukes, they have the more affordable Islander ukuleles made in Asia.
The youngest company on the list and another husband and wife team: Gordon & Char Mayer. They exploded onto the ukulele scene in 2008 rapidly attracting high praise and a stellar list of players including Eddie Vedder, John Paul Jones, Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling and Jerry Douglas. Their process is slow and meticulous. Making each ukulele to order and checking for quality at every stage.
If this has whetted your appetite and you’re hoping to buy one then tough titties. They’ve announced they’ll stop making ukes in June 2018 and are completely booked out until then.
At the opposite end of the spectrum are Kala who pump out ukuleles by the barrowload. They’ve ensured that there’s been a supply of cheap and reliable ukuleles all through the ukulele boom. As time has gone on they’ve moved up the price range and released higher and higher quality instruments.
As well as the standard ukulele, Kala have had huge success with their bass ukuleles. And have recently launched a line of high-end ukuleles made in their hometown of Pentaluma, CA.
The third for the big three Hawaiian K brands, KoAloha. KoAloha were established in 1995 by the Okami family and have been releasing, in my opinion, the most beautiful ukuleles around.
KoAloha’s chief designer is Alvin Okami. His innovative and sometimes outlandish ideas are showcased in KoAloha’s Signature Series ukes including the Pineapple,Juke-a-lele, sceptre“>Sceptre, and Gambalele.
Quintessential ukulele: KoAloha Sceptre whose unusual body shape apparently came to Alvin Okami in a dream.
Six to Ten
6. Cordoba: A bit of a surprise to see them on the list. You don’t hear much about Cordoba’s ukuleles. But their showing here has got me interested in giving them a go.
7. Gretsch: Best known for their guitars, Gretsch have also been putting out ukuleles since the 50s.
8. Pono: I’ve long been tempted to buy myself a Pono. Their ukuleles look and sound great.
9. Luna: Mostly known for their highly patterned guitars, Luna moved into the ukulele world a few years ago and have picked up plenty of fans.
10. Martin: A legendary name in ukuleles who have been in the game since 1917. Their vintage ukuleles are treated with something approaching reverence. But their more recent attempts have been more hit and miss.
Who knew we’d have to dust off Woody Guthrie’s old anti-Nazi songs. Looks like Billy Bragg and Wilco did since they recorded a rollocking version of it a few years ago. Bragg rejiggered the song as part of the Mermaid Avenue project. But I’ve written up the Guthrie version that he apparently only recorded in a radio session.
Suggested Strumming
I like to use this strumming pattern all the way through:
d – d – d u d u
In the intro I’ve spaced out the chords into bars. So you play the strum twice for each chord with a big gap. Then the two chords with a small gap (C and G) you play it just once. It’s the same pattern in the verses. And in the chorus it’s just twice for each chord.
Austin, Texas guitar and ukulele maker Bill Collings died this week. Collings began making guitars in the 1970s and launched a line of beautifully made ukuleles in 2009.
Jon was kind enough to let me post one of the tabs from his book and I picked Raggle Taggle Gypsies. The tune is a big favourite of mine with my favourite version being Martin Carthy’s. I recorded my own version based on his tab making a few changes to suit my style.
Muted strums are a useful tool to have in your repertoire. They can add percussion and syncopation to an otherwise boring strum.
You perform them by resting a finger or fingers from your fretting hand on the strings. You need to hold them down enough so the strings don’t ring open but not strong enough to hold them down. If you just rest them against the string without applying any pressure it should do the trick.
There are a few different ways you can perform them:
– One/Two finger mute: Relax the chord you’re holding, lay pinkie or ringer finger or both across the strings. The advantage of this is that you keep your fretting fingers in the chord position. So it's useful for mid-strum mutes.
– All-finger mute: Rest all your fingers across the strings. This produces a very solid mute but does mean your fingers are out of position for chords.
– Chord release mute: If a chord has you fretting all the strings you can create a mute just by releasing pressure with your fingers just enough to stop the chord sounding. The advantage with this technique is you can very quickly switch between muted and open strums.
A Chnk Alternative
The most obvious way to use muted strums is as a substitute for chnks. They provide a similar percussive sound but are easier to pull off.
Here’s a typical chnk strum played with one finger muted strums. Slowly then up to speed.
d u x u d u x u
The main advantage they have over chnks is that they can be played on up-strums as well as down-strums.
d u x x d u x x
Nirvana Style Mutes
Another common place to use them is between chord changes. Most famously used in Smells Like Teen Spirit.
In this example I’m using all-finger muting.
d – d – x x x x
Niles Rogers Style Mutes
The speed you can apply the chord release muting makes it perfect for funk and disco chord vamps. The great part is that you can just strum down-up-down-up and switch between muted and unmuted strums to create the rhythm.
In this example I’m playing and muting a G9 chord 4555.
Picking Hand Muting
You can also mute the strings at the strumming end of the uke by resting the side of your hand on the strings just in front of the bridge. That dampens the string while still letting you fret the strings and produce a note. You can do this while strumming but it’s even more effective on single notes.
Here’s a little riff on the C-string just switching between the third and fifth fret. I play this with fingerpicking but this technique works well if you’re using a pick and is easier that way.
I did Loudon’s ukulele song way back and it’s high time I did one of his classic songs.
I’ve written the chords up with a capo on the second fret. That’s the easiest way to play it and without the capo it’s the same key he plays it in live.
You can use this simple strum all the way through:
d – d u
Do that once each for the G – C at the beginning. After that do it twice each time you see a chord name (note: there are two E minors back to back in the write-up).
In the original version Martha slides a D chord up five frets to get a G chord with a D in the base. I’ve gone with the spirit of that by sliding the D chord up and leaving the A string open (creating a Gadd9 chord).
Since the Em only crops up next to the G chord I’ve used the no hassle version of the change by keeping the G chord held and adding my pinkie on the C-string, fourth fret.
