It’s Uke Hunt t-shirt season again! Every year around this time I do a run of t-shirts. This year you can buy them from either the US or the UK:

Pre-order now from US

Pre-order now from the UK

I’m using Teespring again this year. It is sort of a Kickstart for t-shirts. So you put in an order for your shirt, if there are enough orders by the end of the campaign the shirts are made and sent out. You’re not charged anything until the end of the campaign (and you’re not charged at all if the shirt doesn’t reach its goal). This way of doing it means all the shirts are printed at once and exactly the right shirts and sizes are made.

So if you want one of the shirts they’ll only be available until Wednesday 26th October. After that you’re all out of luck.

The system has worked well for the last couple of years so I’m sticking with it. My shirt came here (the UK) quickly and without any hassle. It’s nice quality. The one I have is three years old and it’s still in good shape. You can see it on a devastatingly handsome model in my recent videos.

The Shirts

In the US there are two different styles: the standard fit American Apparel crew-neck (at the top of the post) and the v-neck Bella Missy slim fit (directly above).Both are $22 plus shipping from the US

The UK t-shirts are different from last year and should be higher quality. They’re described as “Unisex Organic T-Shirt”. They’re both £22 from the UK including VAT (if you’re in a different EU country VAT should be charged at your local rate).

Pre-order from US

Pre-order from the UK

Delivery

Teespring is based in the US so shipping outside of that is more expensive and will take longer.

United States: $3.99 flat rate, plus $2.00 per each additional item. Your shirt will arrive within 7-14 days from the end of the campaign.

Canada: $11.49 CAD flat rate, plus $5.00 CAD per each additional item. Your shirt will arrive within 14-21 days from the end of the campaign.

International (from the US) £7.99 (€11.49) flat rate, plus £3.50 (€5.00) per each additional item. Your shirt will arrive within 14-21 days from the end of the campaign.

UK (from the UK): £2.75 for the first apparel item and £0.50 for each additional item. You can expect your package to arrive around 5 business days after the campaign finishes printing.

Europe (from the UK): £3.35 for the first apparel item and £1.00 for each additional item.

For more information on the shirts and the system take a look at Teespring’s FAQ.

Links

Buy from US

Buy from the UK

This is one of Waits’s folkiest and most affecting songs. It’s also very adaptable. Making it great for a mixed ability group. And if Tom Waits can sing it anyone can (except me).

I’ve written it up in three levels of difficulty.

Easy Version

Tom Waits – I Hope that I Don’t Fall in Love with You (Easy Chords)

The very easiest way to play it is with just C, F and G. You can also substitute G7 for G if you prefer.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this as the main strum:

d – d u

First two lines: Twice on C and F. Four times on G

Second two lines: Once on each chord until the last G where you play the strum four times.

Last line: One down strum each on F and G. Then back to the pattern until one down strum each on C – G – C – G at the end of the verse.

Together it sounds like this:

Strumming easy version

The last verse does mix up the strumming pattern. But you can easily make it fit the same pattern as the rest of the verses and I recommend doing that if you’re playing in a group.

Moderate Version

I Hope that I Don’t Fall in Love with You (Moderate Chords)

The only difference here is your playing a G7sus4 to G7 move in place of the G at the end of the lines in the easy version. The strumming is exactly the same except on the long Gs you do the main strum twice on G7sus4 and twice on G7.

Strumming moderate version

Tricky Version

I Hope that I Don’t Fall in Love with You (Picking Tab)

This version is based on the guitar picking in the song. I start off using one finger per string picking until bar 7 where I move my thumb to the C-string with index and middle on E and A. Back to one per string in bar 11 before changing again for the run at the end.

Picking Version

Links

Buy it on iTunes
Come on Up to the House (Chords)
Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard (Chords)
Way Down in the Hole (Chords)

Full Playlist

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new episode of my favourite travelogue Matt Kresling’s Madagascar Journals. This time he learns a Malagasy song on his ukulele, chooses between a girl and an exploding mountain and objects to a zebu being sodomised.

This year’s America’s Got Talent was won by 12 year old ukulelist Grace VanderWaal.

Ukulele Go! reviewed my How to Play Blues Ukulele ebook and was very kind:

This is a great ebook that I’d definitely recommend even if you have a passing interest in playing the blues on your ukulele. I wouldn’t particularly consider myself a big blues fan but I got (and still get) a lot from the book. It’s so packed with information and ideas that I think pretty much everyone will find something useful here. A definite buy recommendation from me!

Pictures
– Edna Marion.
– Two sad mice.
– Blue Booby Boogie.
– Tommy Purcell’s signed ukulele.

I do enjoy a good fake-Celtic game tune like Gwent Flute Song from Witcher 3. So when I got a request for this tune I couldn’t resist. I might make it a trilogy and do the Hearthstone theme at some point. Until then I’ll keep brushing up on actual Celtic tunes.

For my version I’ve kept the chords and melody separate. The melody is a good opportunity to use a pick to get a mandolin-ish tone. But I’m using my fingers mostly alternating picking with index and middle fingers.

Here’s a backing track for you to play along with. There’s one bar of Am to count you in.

Backing track MP3

For the backing strumming I’m using a touch strum then a full strum. There’s a full guide to touch strums in How to Play Ukulele Strums but the basics is you lightly hit just the g- and C-strings with your strum.

Links

DragonAge.com
Download the soundtrack here if you own the game
More game theme tabs

I’ve been updating some of the chord posts I did back in the olden days when the internet was in black and white. Updating the chords, adding strumming patterns, videos and audio and whatnot. Check ’em out:

ABBA – Dancing Queen

Arctic Monkeys – Despair in the Departure Lounge

Bon Iver – Skinny Love (Tabs and Chords)

Radiohead/Amanda Palmer – Creep

Oi, 2016. If you could let me go a few weeks without needing a tribute post I’d appreciate it. Cheers.

Prince Buster was the king of ska and a huge influence on the UK ska revival. Madness alone was covered by The Specials, Selecter and, of course, Madness.

Suggested Strumming

You can use the classic ska strum all the way through this one:

– u – u – u – u

Make sure those are chord stabs by stopping them ringing immediately with your strumming hand (there’s a guide to chord stabs and ska strums in How to Play Ukulele Strums). If you use the barre chord version of the chords you can make them chord stabs just by taking the pressure off your fretting hand.

If you’re playing by yourself though it might be worth beefing it up by playing a downstrum on the first beat and not muting it.

d u – u – u – u

Here are both those strums:

Links

Buy it on iTunes

Prince Buster – Al Capone (Tab)

I recorded a backing track for this one. The first uke is an F chord played with a ska strum and the second is muted strums playing this pattern:

Links

Buy it on iTunes

Full Playlists

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Cyprien Verseux and his crew mates successfully completed their year-long isolation as part of NASA’s HI-SEAS experiment with some help from his ukulele.

Dennis Quaid has formed a ukulele band.

Videos
– Stuart Fuchs plays the world’s largest ukulele.
– Flula serenades Michael Phelps.

Pictures
– How to convert a concert into a tenor ukulele.
– Johnny’s got you covered.

Ukuleles
– 1960s Favilla baritone
– Argapa concert
– 1970s Kamaka white label baritone.

I took advantage of my blog break to do a rare guitar tab: Pepe Kalle’s soukous masterpiece Roger Milla.

For my little tribute to Gene Wilder I had to do this beautiful tune by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley.

It’s such an affecting tune it’s a great opportunity to play with emotion. I recommend experimenting with varying the tempo and volume and use vibrato when you play to get the most out of it.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
More movie themes