Make Your Own Ukulele Chord Solos: Interview

Arranging tunes for the ukulele is obviously a subject close to my heart so when Michael (who you may know as LStrachey and reyalpEleluku on YouTube) asked me to look over the draft of his book Make Your Own Chord Solos I jumped at the chance. It’s now available and it’s an excellent little guide to the process and well worth looking at if you want to start making your own arrangements. I asked Michael a for a few pointers on arranging for ukulele.

What is your number one tip for creating ukulele chord solos?

Number one for me is: The notes of a tune are usually contained in the chords. For example, suppose a ‘C’ chord is the chord for a section of a tune. Play the chord one string at a time. On a ukulele, this chord will give you three different notes (ok, four different notes if you count the low and high C notes as ‘different’). It is very likely that this section of the tune consists of some or other of these notes from the C chord. For each note in that section of the tune, aim to play that C chord in such a way as to emphasise (in the correct order and time) the melody notes of the tune.

This is why I’ve included in my little book a page that gives tabs for all the notes of all the strings of a ukulele that is tuned G C E A. I’ve also included a number of pages that give a few different forms of selected chords. For each of these chords, I’ve shown the notes on each string in note form and tab form. I’ve also provided the chord diagrams as well.

For someone who has never arranged a tune before, what’s the best way to start

My advice would be to start with a simple tune that you know very well. Use only a few chords, and use single notes between chords to fill out the tune.

One of the first tunes I arranged was a real oldie by Harry Akst (1925). There are all sorts of wonderful jazz chords that might be used to play it. I just use two forms of the F chord and two forms of the C7 chord with a bit of fiddling in between. If you know the tune, you’ll recognise ‘Dinah’ when I play it.

After I could play Dinah easily, I found that I had a head-start for other tunes with similar chords. I could transfer techniques that I learned arranging ‘Dinah’ to make an arrangement of ‘Whoopee’ (a more modern tune from 1928).

How much music theory do you need to know to start arranging?

It depends. If you have natural talent, genius and perseverance, you don’t need any. Some great musicians knew/know little formal music theory. The great vaudeville ukulele instrumentalist, Roy Smeck, only learned to read music after his professional performing days had ended. He only did it so he could begin teaching.

Ok, if (like me) you are to start with nothing but perseverance, I’d say you’d need to know what standard musical notation looks like and have some idea what each bit means. Stuff like key signatures, the different durations of notes/rests, sharps, flats, accidentals, repeat signs, etc.

This might seem like a lot to know, but some of this is not needed if you know the tune – the timing and the duration of the notes are in your head already. Other parts of the theory can be side-stepped for a beginning arranger if you happen to have a page that gives tabs for all the notes of all the strings of a ukulele. With such a device you can see where a G# (for example) can be played, without necessarily knowing that it is a G#.

In my little book, I’ve explained the basics of music theory simply in only six pages – and there is lots of white space.

What’s the biggest challenge in making chord solos and how do you overcome it?

For me, the ‘big challenge’ changes from tune to tune.

Sometimes it is working out which key to play the song in. I had given up on the old standard ‘It had to be you’ (1924), because I couldn’t see how to play it comfortably in the key of G. Then, one day, I thought – try transposing the tune to another key – Bb – which met with almost immediate happiness.

Other times it is getting my hands to do what I’ve written in the tabs. When faced with this, I either practise till my family petition to have ‘ukulele playing’ made a capital offence, or I modify what was written in the tabs (after all, it was only me who put them there). If I like a tune and play it often, I notice that my way of playing it develops (mutates?) over time.

How can people get hold of your book?

I sell my book as a hobbyist, and information about the book (and how to buy it) may be found here: The Backwards Ukulele Player

I ask $16 (Australian dollars) for the book, plus postage and handling. P&H to UK, USA, and Canada works out at $9 (Australian dollars) – for other places, please ask.

How to Read Ukulele Tab Part 9

A recent comment from George made me realise that I’d completely forgotten to include rests in the How To Read Ukulele Tab series. So here it is. Better a year and a half late than never.

Rests indicate that there shouldn’t be anything playing at all. That means if there was a note played before you should stop it ringing. Rests look different depending on how long they last.

Whole Note/ Semibreve Rest

Half Note/ Minim Rest

Quarter Note/ Crotchet Rest

Eighth Note/ Quaver Rest

Sixteenth Note/ Semi-quaver Rest

You’ll sometimes see rests with a dot after them. This means you should increase the length of the rest by half (e.g. a minim rest with a dot after it would last for three beats).

This series was derived from my ebook Ukulele 101: 101 Things Every Ukulele Player Needs to Know.

Read the full series here: How To Read Ukulele Tab.

Practice Tips: Record Yourself

I tried a bit of archery recently. The best part of learning to shoot projectiles is that you get instant feedback on how well your doing. If you’re getting it wrong, you know about it straight away and you know how far off you are.

It’s much trickier to do that when you’re learning an instrument. It’s difficult to play and listen objectively at the same time. If you regularly record yourself and listen back you’ll have a much clearer idea of what you can work on to improve how you sound.

Ideally, you’d tape your entire practice session and listen to it back. But that’s not really practical. I usually record myself playing a couple of times through the tune I’m working on at the end of a session and make a few notes on what I need to be practising.

Since you’re only listening to it yourself, it doesn’t have to be great quality. A cheap desk mic and Audacity will do the job fine.

Things to listen out for:

Tempo – Does it sound rushed? This is one thing I’m always getting wrong. I tend to rush ahead of the tune and speed up as I go along.

Bum notes – Are you getting the same part/chord change wrong over and over? Focus on that bit by itself. Slow it down completely and practice it in isolation.

Dynamics – I.e. loud and quiet bits. Does it sound the same all the way through? Varying the intensity of your playing can make things more interesting. For example, if you’re playing the same line twice you could play it loud the first time and softly the second (creating a type of echo effect). You can also slow the tempo at certain parts to add more interest.

Emphasising notes – Can you hear the melody? If you’re playing a piece that includes melody and accompaniment it’s important that the melody notes stand out against the backing.

How to Play Ukulele Strums – Last Chance

The How to Play Ukulele Strums ebook has been a big hit with people. It’s already sold over 250 copies. And if you want to get your hands on it, don’t hang about because the price goes up from $14 to $17 at the end of tomorrow (Wednesday 22nd July).

Here’s what people have been saying about it:

Thorough and thoroughly fantastic book! Thanks as always.

I’m sure my flatmates will be very grateful for it as well. With time, my practicing will (hopefully) sound like actual music rather than the sort of abstract noise that it was before and my flatties can stop voluntarily banning themselves from home until it’s clear that I’ve moved on to another task for the day.

In all seriousness: the book is wonderful, Thorough, easy to understand, and funny (as always). I am completely indebted to you for saving me from the depths of ukulele despair.

- Carrie Griffin

I shall be recommending the ebook to our Monday Ukearist ukers as I know many of them are interested in improving their strumming. I’ll also be unashamedly stealing your mnemonic way of teaching!

- John Hobson

Al’s topped himself this time which I wouldn’t have thought possible after the blues book.

This is a great read for beginners, but there are some strumming patterns at the end that are brilliant and will take some work to get the hang of.

When I started playing four years ago, I had no idea there would be such a great wealth of information available. Al’s books, in my opinion, are better than anything I’ve found elsewhere, as far as written instruction goes. And, he is rather hilarious when he wants to be.

- Lonna Brockway

I’ve already read this ebook more than 6 times and found something new with each read. A very important aspect for me was that the book covered basic things essential for strumming that are left out in other ukulele methods, such as rhythm and time signatures.
The examples and the videos are really helpful and you can even test out your newly acquired sense of rhythm through the exercises.
If there one book to buy on ukulele strumming, then it is definitely this one.

- Armelle

Read more and buy it here.

Learn Ukulele With The Bobby McGee’s

Jimmy has upload a bunch of ukulele advice videos teaching you how to be a Bobby McGee’s style ukulele hero in the way that only he can. Here’s a selection and you can watch them all on his YouTube Channel. [Read more]

Uke Hunt Retrospective

I do sometimes have it brought home to me that not everyone hangs on every single word I say. Hard to believe, I know. So here are a few things that are popular, good or over-looked that might have slipped by you.

The Most Popular Tabs and Chords

Well, it’s all fairly obvious stuff. Exactly what you’d expect.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Beirut
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Wait! What? Yes, Daft Punk is the fourth most visited tab/chord post on the blog. No, I don’t know why.

My Favourite Tabs and Chords

James Bond Theme – I think it’s the best arrangement I’ve done. Other people tend to think it’s…
Baby Elephant Walk – I like this one but it needs some work.
Sophie Madeleine – Take Your Love With Me – Just a brilliant chord progression.
Davy Graham – Angi
Naked As We Came – yeah, it was only yesterday. But I like it.

I Should Have Just Stayed in Bed

I toiled for hours. Deep into the night I sat playing. Sweat dripping from my brow. Blood dripping from my fingers.

Bollocks to you James Earl Jones. Sometimes you build it and no-one comes.

Carl Ray Villaverde’s version of Tears in Heaven
Chopin’s Funeral March
Mara Carlyle’s Baby Bloodheart

The How to Play Ukulele eBooks

I’m reliably informed by proper internet marketing people that I should sell my ukulele ebooks a lot harder than I do. Because most people visiting Uke Hunt would have no idea they existed – I’m sure quite a few regulars might not know – and those that do know they exist might not know that I’m the one who wrote them.

I don’t want to go all hard sell on them, but I will make them a bit more obvious. Because I think they’re really good and I’m proud of them.

The Interviews

Most viewed:

Rod Thomas – this one has been viewed over 10,000 times. I couldn’t be happier to give him any exposure I can – he’s the nicest guy in the world. And I have a man-crush on him.
Kate Micucci – is also very sweet. But I don’t fancy her as much as I do Rod.

My faves:

Gus from GUGUG
Dean ‘Minor Constellations’ Engle and Madeline Ava – Both insanely talented young lyricists. Dean has released a new album which you can download free on Rack & Ruin Records (click the album cover). Madeline’s stuff has disappeared from the interwebs along with CLLCT (*sobs*). After reading about her on here, Dean asked Madeline to marry him. I’m still hoping it’s going to happen – it’d make me the happiest blog-pimp in the world.

Useful Stuff

Slash chords – People are always asking, “how do you play B/C on a ukulele?” or some such. I think part of the problem is that people don’t know what to Google when they have that problem. So if you don’t know what a slash chord is, read the post now.
Blues scale and Pentatonic scale – essential if you ever want to do any improvising and solo shenanigans.
10 Reasons You Need to Buy a New Ukuele – psychologists say that people buy based on emotion then search for logical reasons to justify it. That’s certainly true of a lot of uke purchases.

Some Things Just Don’t Catch On

Me (in August 2007): Hey, here’s an idea. Why don’t I do a post with photos of me making stupid faces? And I’ll have a little test-what-you’ve-learnt bit at the end. Wow, everyone’s going to be really engaged with this post. I should do this all the time.

The Internet: Zero comments.

10 Things I Wish I’d Known About Ukuleles (Before I Bought One)

Jemsite has been doing a series called 10 Things I Wish I’d Known About Guitars (Before I Bought One) and I know a good idea when I steal one. The concept: if you could hop into your DeLorean, whack it up to 88 mph and visit yourself when you were buying your first instrument, what advice would you give?

In about 50 years’ time I imagine myself sitting in a comfy chair and my grandkids scurrying up to me in their space-pyjamas and asking, “Granddad, what was life like before the internet?” And I’ll say, “Put down your hoverboards, jump up on my knee and I’ll tell you.” Then I’ll twirl my mustachios wistfully and reply, “It was FUCKIN’ AWFUL!”

Back when I got my first ukulele – during my teenage guitar obsession – there were no internets, YouTubes or blogs to teach a boy anything. I didn’t know anyone who played ukulele. I’d heard George Formby and one other song with a ukulele once. I didn’t have a clue. As a result, it took me many years to see the potential of the uke. So here’s what I’d tell the fat, ugly, stupid, teenage me as he wandered into Bakewell Music Shop to buy a ukulele.

1. The strings don’t go fattest to thinnest.

Just to prove how ignorant I was, I actually tried restringing it the ‘right’ way. It didn’t occur to me that the people who made it might have had a better idea of how to string it than I did. I did have a book. But it was a very slim, old one. I either didn’t read it or it failed to mention this fairly important detail.

2. Good ukuleles exist. Your local music shop doesn’t have one.

Bakewell is famous for it’s tarts (and they are exceeding good). It’s not famous as a centre of outstanding luthiery. The uke I bought was complete junk. I didn’t even know there were better ukes. I think this is the main reason I rarely played the uke for many years.

Message to me: buy a Martin ukulele or six. They might seem expensive now but you ain’t seen nothing yet.

3. Good ukulele strings exist. Your local music shop doesn’t have them.

The same goes for the strings. In fact, I don’t remember them selling strings at all. I don’t know where I would have been able buy good strings. God, I love you, internet. I’m going to miss you come the post-apocalyptic Mad-Max world.

4. Tighten the screws. It might stay in tune.

I think I did eventually work this one out myself. But only many months after giving up on ever getting it to stay in tune.

5. Ukuleles are not little guitars.

I started figuring this one out pretty quickly. After trying to strum it with a plectrum for 3 minutes I realised that clearly wasn’t the way to go. It took me much longer to figure out that the high-G string could be a help rather than a hindrance (partly because it took me a while to figure out it was a high-G string).

6. Eventually, you won’t want to play the guitar any more.

Actually, I might gloss over this fact lest it puts me off picking it up in the first place.

7. Fewer strings means harder, not easier.

Not entirely true, I know. But it is more of challenge to play difficult pieces on the uke. And more rewarding.

8. Don’t steal plutonium from the Libyans.

9. In about 15 years time ukuleles are going to be the coolest thing in the world and you’re going to be writing about them every day. You should practice more.

There’s no getting round the fact I’m a mediocre player. It might be the fact that I’m not naturally musically talented. But more practice certainly couldn’t harm.

10. You like her. She likes you. Just ask her out you useless, spotty idiot. And sell your sister to organ harvesters and put the money into Google and Microsoft.

No, it’s nothing to do with ukuleles. But if I’m time traveling here, I’m not going to spend all ten on ukuleles.

What do you wish you’d known about ukuleles before you bought one?

Ukulele Strumming Notation

I’ve had to come up with my own method of writing up strums both for the blog and for the How To Play Ukulele Strums ebook I’m working on. I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

d : indicates a down strum.

u : indicates an up strum.

- : indicates a pause or missed strum i.e. moving your hand either up or down but not hitting the strings.They are most useful to give you an indication of the timing of the strums.

x : indicates a chnk. Strumming down and following through so the underside of your hand lands on the strings creating a ‘chnk’ sound.

(d) or (u) : A muted down/up strum. Strumming as normal but with your fretting fingers resting on the strings to stop them ringing. It sounds like a chnk but you can do them with strums in either direction.

d or u : when in bold that means the strum is emphasized (i.e. give it a bit more welly).

TTT : triplet strum. There are plenty of ways to do these. My personal favourite is down with middle and index fingers, up with index, up with middle. Here’s Jake discussing his preferred method. Or you could be a complete flash-Harry and use a fan stroke.

Ukulele Strumming in Tabs

You’ll also see strums written up in tab form. Here an up arrow indicates a down strum and a down arrow indicates an up strum. (Make sense? Good.)

So a down, up, down, up… strum looks like this.

A less common method – but quite a neat one – is to use guitar pick direction tab for strum directions.

A down strum looks like this:

And an up strum looks like this:

So a down, up, down, up… strum would look like this:

If you want to learn more about the subject, take a look at my ebook on Ukulele Strumming

10 Ways to Play an E Chord on the Ukulele

The E chord – the bete noire of all ukulele players. Trying to cram all your fingers into a tiny space on the fretboard. Impossible. So here are ten possible ways to play the E chord. Try them out and see if you like any of them (I don’t).

1) The Way the Books Tell You

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Middle finger – G string 4th fret
Ring finger – C string 4th fret
Little finger – E string 4th fret

Disadvantages: A lot of fingers to fit into a small space.

2) The Double Up

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Middle finger – G and C strings 4th fret
Ring finger – E string 4th fret

Disadvantages: Takes some practice to get the hang of.

3) The Treble Up

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Ring finger – G, C and E strings 4th fret

Disadvantages: You need to have your ring finger leave the strings at a difficult angle so you can still hear the A string.

4) The G-String Block

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Middle finger – Muting the G string (stopping it from sounding by resting against it rather than fretting it)
Ring finger – C string 4th fret
Little finger – E string 4th fret

Or with your thumb.

5) The Treble Up and Block

Ring finger – G, C and E strings 4th fret
A string muted with any finger (including the underside of the ring finger).

If you stop the A string ringing in the triple-up, you will still have and E chord as the G string is giving you the same note. You can use individual fingers along with a mute to make this chord.

6) The Fourth Fret Lay-Across

Index finger – Barre across all strings at the 4th fret.
Little finger – A string 7th fret.

Like a C chord moved up four frets. It’s one of my favourite ways to play it.

Disadvantages: The barre takes some practice. Can be a big jump to and from open chords.

7) The Blocked E7

Index finger: G string 1st fret
Middle finger: Muting C string
Ring finger: A string 2nd fret
E string open

Like an E7 chord with the middle finger muting the C string rather than fretting it. Or you could use the underside of your index finger to mute the string.

Disadvantages: Sounds a bit nasty as you have a big ‘thunk’ in the middle of the chord.

8) E5

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Ring finger – G string 4th fret
Little finger – C string 4th fret
E string open

Disadvantages: No major third note so it’s not a major chord. In some songs this it doesn’t really matter.

9) Up the Neck

Index finger: E and A strings 7th fret
Middle finger: C string 8th fret
Ring finger: G string 9th fret

The Bb chord shape moved up the neck.

Disadvantages: A long way to travel if you’re playing open chords.

10) Thumb Lay-Across

Index finger – A string 2nd fret
Thumb – G, C and E strings 4th fret

Disadvantages: Makes changing to and from other chords difficult. Almost always sounds horrible.

Amy Crehore, Yo-Yo Ma and 12hr Beatles

You can get a sneak peak of Amy Crehore’s next show Dream Girls and Ukes on her Flickr and find out more here.

“”The ukulele is already a magical instrument, but there’s something about his playing and being that is other-worldly.” Yo-Yo Ma discusses working with Jake Shimabukuro.

Roger Greenawalt will spend 12 hours performing every single Beatles song on the ukulele. But it’s for a good cause. All the money raised will be going to Warren Buffett.

4th Peg Forum closes.

I’ve been slowly working up a tab for Roy Smeck’s Music Box Waltz, and Dav on the KDUS forum has beaten me to it.

“How do you relax? This might sound slightly ridiculous but I play the ukulele for at least an hour a day and I find something really blissful about it.” Frank Skinner in The Guardian.

Anyone know who this is in the Dutch T-Mobile ad? (Thanks Martin)

Death Cab for Cutie and All Time Quarterback on Uker Tabs.

Bette Midler ukes it up on Ellen (head for around 6:30).

Peter and the Wolf and Amanda Palmer do Black Cab Sessions.

Get Del Ray or Terry Kinakin to play in your living room.

Jeffery Holland’s using-the-uke-to-pick-up-chicks technique in You Rang M’Lord?. Dangerous tactic, though, because apparently playing the ukulele means you’re an “eccentric nice girl who only pretends to be interested in sex.”

Julia and Wade display mad skillz. It’s a bit depressing watching Julia fans getting her CD. They get so excited they make me wonder if I’m living in an emotional coma. I wish I could get that excited about anything, never mind a CD. (And that’s not me picking the strangest two videos – that’s a random sample).

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