It’s been another golden year for the ukulele. Time to wrap it up with some of my favourites. Let me know yours in the comments. Particularly if it’s something I’ve missed.
Bud Sugar’s “Cod Head Skank” mix of ska, beats, ukulele shenanigans and infectious pop melodies on their debut EP has managed to buck up my mood many times this year. Also essential is Stan’s (the band’s uker) own YouTube channel EatMyUke.
I don’t hear much from the Argentine ukulele scene. But what they lack in quantity they certainly make up with in quality with fiery swing of La Familia de Ukelele.
Ben’s an incredible player. So much so he’s now regularly appearing with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Somehow this video only has 14 views as I’m writing this. I blame myself for not finding it earlier.
Raiatea Helm must have the world’s purest voice. It’s like washing your hair in a mountain stream (or like washing your beard in a mountain stream in my case). Her previous albums have been a bit over-produced for my taste but her latest, He Leo Huali, retains the crystal clarity without losing any warmth.
This is the perfect game for me. I love puzzles. I love sneaking around undetected. I love hanging around in fancy locations. I love murdering people in bloody, convoluted ways.
Runners Up Firewatch: The best soundtrack for a game this year. Looks amazing and the storyline has stuck with me more than any other game. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture: I can understand people who hate this game (I wasn’t a fan of Dear Esther at all). But I love wandering around this valley and there were moments in the game that were so beautiful they blew me away.
A new tab from David Beckingham and a change from his usual jazzy tunes. This time it’s Johann Strauss II’s Blue Danube. Famous for being performed at Vienna’s New Year’s Eve concert. Which gives you about a week to master the tune, get to Austria and join the Vienna Philharmonic.
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.
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:
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.
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:
