Pictures from the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii’s 2016 event. If you’re looking for something to get me for Christmas, TheUkuleleSite.com is selling a few of the ukes that were on show including:
– Beau Hannam cedar/rosewood
– John Kinnard sycamore/spruce
– Little River koa “Aloha”
– Rebel Elysium
Wilfried Welti has a new ebook of classical ukulele tabs. It contains 15 pieces from Tielman Susato’s Danserye. Wilfried’s tabs are always great and at €5 you can’t go wrong.
David Glyn Jones has digitised and uploaded a bunch of clips of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain from the late 80s and early 90s including their first filmed performance, a 1987 rehearsal, Cecil Sharp House in 1990 and behind the scenes at Pebble Mill.
One of the victims of the Oakland warehouse fire was 21 year old ukulelist Jenny Morris.
New Zealand parliament closes for Christmas with a ukulele song.
Through the Valley (Tab)
The trailer for The Last of Us: Part II has me very excited. Not least at the prospect of another outstanding score by the genius Gustavo Santaolalla. He plays the ronrocco which, like the ukulele, is petite and has a reentrant tuning making them very suitable for ukeing. I tabbed up the Last of Us theme here.
The trailer itself provides another musically treat in the form of Ellie covering Through the Valley by Shawn James. The song is so perfect I assumed it had been written for the trailer.
I cobbled my version together quickly. I started as soon as I saw the trailer and recorded the video the next day. So it is a bit all over the place. The plan was to put the melody firmly up front and put the picking in softly between melody notes. And it mostly works that way. The notes on the g- and C-strings are played with the thumb, the index finger handles the E-string and the middle finger the A. The only exception is when all the strings are plucked at once.
Backing Picking Pattern
Through the Valley (Backing Tab)
If you want to sing the song, here’s a simple version of the picking and strumming you can use as backing. To play along put a capo on the first fret. It sounds like this:
Links
Buy the Shawn James version
The Last of Us
The Last of Us Theme (Tab)
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.
If you’re reading by email or feed reader you may need to click through to the post to see everything.
Name the Chord
All the chords are either major, minor or 7. Nothing more complicated than that.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Name the Brand
Click for a bigger version.
6.
By WFIU Public Radio
7.
By WFIU Public Radio
8.
By Tim Walker
9.
By O OrimO
10.
By Aaron Warren
Name the Cover
Who first released the songs these ukulele orchestras are covering?
11. Nottingham Ukulele Orchestra
12. Macclesfield Music Centre Ukulele Group
13. Otley Ukulele Orchestra
14. Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra
15. Grand Old Uke of York
Name the Celeb
16. 
a) Seth Myers
b) Conan O’Brian
c) Jimmy Kimmel
d) Jimmy Fallon
17.
a) Green Day
b) Blink 182
c) Fall Out Boy
d) Sum 41
18.
a) Pooh
b) Tigger
c) Roo
d) Eeyore
19.
a) Georgia Engel
b) Virginia Madsen
c) Dakota Johnson
d) Flo Rida
20.
a) Tom Felton
b) Tom Hiddleston
c) Tom Hardy
d) Tom Hanks
Name the Lyric
Which songs – oft covered on ukulele – are these lyrics from?
21. Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
22. Wise men say / Only fools rush in
23. I came along / I wrote a song for you / And all the things you do
24. Well, sometimes I go out by myself / And I look across the water
25. Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Check the answers here
Past Quizzes
Ukulele Quiz 2015
Ukulele Quiz 2014
Ukulele Quiz 2013
Ukulele Quiz 2012
Ukulele Quiz 2011
Ukulele Quiz 2010
Ukulele Quiz 2009
Elvis Costello – Good Year for the Roses (Chords)
When I was thinking of a song to sum up 2016 the title of this one immediately popped into my head. It was first a hit for George Jones but I’ve written up is Elvis Costello’s cover.
The version above uses a capo at the second fret to make things easier. But if you have no fear of the E chord you can play it this way:
Good Year for the Roses (No Capo Chords)
If you want to play along with the George Jones version just capo two frets higher. There’s only one other difference at that comes in the strumming.
Suggested Strumming
For the main strum you can use this good old standby:
d – d u – u d u
Intro: Main strum four times.
Verses: In the first two lines do the main strum twice on G. Then d – d u on G again and d – d u on C before returning to the main strum on G twice. Here’s how that sounds:
On the second two lines do the main strum twice for each chord.
Chorus:
For the first two lines use the main strum once for the first two chords and twice for the last.
The third line is the same but inserts a 2/4 bar of d-d- on the second C chord. And the last line ends with a series of d-d- strums on the G-C-G-D. The last two lines sound like this:
The George Jones version doesn’t have that bar of 2/4. The first half of the bar is d-d- on C and the second is d-d- on G.
Twiddly Bits
Here’s a little lick based on the lap steel riff:
Here’s how that sounds:
If you’re playing without a capo you can take advantage of the open strings and play it like this:
Links
Buy the George Jones version.
Buy the Elvis Costello version
Shipbuilding Tab
Videos
– Helen Arney updates Tom Lehrer’s The Elements to include the four new additions to the periodic table.
– Folk guitar legend Martin Simpson discusses playing the ukulele (I tabbed out the tune he talks about and noodles with back here) (Via @ukeist).
Ukes
– aNueNue’s Koa Bird ukulele is very stylish.
– As is the Rebel Elysium.
New Releases
– Ben of Ukulele Road Trips has a new Christmas album out.
– Craig Robertson has recorded an incredible 30 albums since 2003. And just announced his 31st is coming out in January.
Congratulations to Robin Evans who successfully set a world record by playing ukulele for 30 hours straight.
X-Factor brouhaha over “stolen” ukulele version of Toxic. We all know Molly Lewis’s version is the real ukulele Toxic.
If your club is looking for some handsome music stands UK-based Pickallwood (of Uke on the Brain) are offering uke clubs 20% off their personalised music stands.
Norah Jones – Don’t Know Why (Tab)
What a great melody this is. And it’s matched with some juicy jazz chords. Making it perfect for a ukeing.
In case you’re not familiar with the repeat markings I use, you play up to “D.S. al Coda” go back to the squiggle in bar five, play up to “Da Coda” then skip to the target in bar 23.
Links
As a companion to the “Songs with Chords You Know” post I thought I’d put together a list of posts for people just getting started learning fingerpicking, tabs and solo playing.
Tutorials for Tabs and Fingerpicking
I’ve written a nine part guide on how to read tab. But you don’t have to read them all before getting started. But I’d recommend being familiar with:
– The basics of tab
– Reading rhythms
When you start tackling fingerpicking have a look at these fingerpicking patterns and familiarise yourself with:
– Thumb and two finger picking
– One finger per string picking
A couple more tutorials you might find helpful for solo playing:
– Fake strums
– The easiest ways to improve your ukulele playing.
One Note at a Time Tabs
These are a good place to start reading tab and playing them. If you want to keep it simple you can pick them all with just your thumb. Or if you’re practicing your fingerpicking you can use the thumb and two finger picking method. Some of these contain both full arrangements and “one note at a time” versions so you might have to scroll down to find some of them.
Canzone Danza
Moon River
O Christmas Tree
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
Pi
Sherlock theme
Silent Night
Thumb Only Solos
These arrangements all combine chords and melody in one part. You do that by holding a chord shape then strumming your thumb down the strings up to the melody note.
Away in a Manger
Hanging Tree
Happy Birthday to You
Little Drummer Boy
Pua Lililehua
Sakura Sakura
Smoking Gun Bleeding Knives (Ryan Gosling)
Waltzing Matilda
We Shall Overcome (Pete Seegar)
We Three Kings
Fingerpicking Backing
Here are some pieces that use fingerpicking patterns as backing.
Moon Song (Karen O) (Picking Version)
Smile (Stephin Merritt)
Somewhere Only We Know (Keane)
Turn to White (She & Him)
Easy Fingerpicking Tabs
Finally, here are a few pieces that use fingerpicking patterns of the basis or have very easy to play arrangements.
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Lorde)
Horn (Nick Drake)
Paul’s Dance (Penguin Cafe Orchestra)
Walking Dead Theme
Year of the Dog (Matt Kresling)
Nick Drake – Horn (Tab)
It’s not often I break with my schedule but Nick Drake’s Horn popped into my ears this morning and I felt compelled to get my own up.
It also fits well with the real post today about pieces suitable for solo ukulele beginners. It’s the sparsest track on Drake’s sparsest album. For my version there’s just a droning open C-string (plucked with the thumb) and the slow melody mainly on the A-string (middle finger) and occasionally on the E-string (index finger).
The only downside is that it requires a ukulele with at least fifteen frets. If you don’t have one you can play this version in G:
Horn (Tab in G)
This moves the drone to the g-string. Making it an octave higher (unless you’re using low-G tuning). So it doesn’t fit perfectly but it does still work.
