USA and Canada

18th ‘Ukulele Festival of Northern California

Location: Chabot College Performing Arts Center, 25555 Hesperian Blvd., Hayward, CA 94545
Date: April 1, 2012 10:00am – 5:30pm
Performers: TBA
Website: http://www.ukulelefestivalnorcal.org
Local Amenities: Map

The Fourth Annual Reno Ukulele Festival

Location: John Ascuaga’s Nugget Resort
Date: March 30 – April 1, 2012
Performers: The Quiet American, Gerald Ross, Lil Rev, Dominator.
Website: http://renoukefest.com
Local Amenities: Map

Gorge Uke Fest ’12

Location: Hood River, OR
Date: March 2 – 4, 2012
Performers: Boulder Acoustic Society, Lil Rev, Victoria Vox.
Website: http://www.gorgeukuleles.org/
Local Amenities: Map

Midwest Uke Fest

Location: Folkcraft Instruments wood shop in Woodburn, Indiana
Date: August 4-5, 2012
Performers: TBA
Website: http://www.midwestukefest.com/
Local Amenities: Map

Mighty MO Ukulele Festival

Location: Cedar Creek Conference Center, Olive Road New Haven, MO 63068, United States
Date: July 20 & 21
Performers: Cali Rose, Flea Bitten Dawgs, Craig Bandeau.
Website: http://www.mightymoukefest.com/
Local Amenities: Map

The Vancouver Ukulele Festival 2012

Location: Vancouver, Canada
Date: February 25th & 26th 2012
Performers: Ralph Shaw, The Ukesters, Guido & Daphne.
Website: http://vancouverukulelefestival2012.eventbrite.com/
Local Amenities: Map

Hawaii

6th Annual Maui Ukulele Festival

Location: Maui Arts & Cultural Center – Kahului, Maui
Date: Sunday, October 14, 2012. 1:00 – 6:00 pm
Performers: TBA
Website: http://www.ukulelefestivalhawaii.org/en/maui.htm
Local Amenities: Map

12th Annual Waikoloa Ukulele Festival

Location: Queen’s Marketplace in Waikoloa
Date: March 3, 2012 2:00 – 7:00 pm
Performers: TBA
Website: http://www.ukulelefestivalhawaii.org/en/waikoloa.htm
Local Amenities: Map

Oahu – 42nd Annual Ukulele Festival

Location: Kapiolani Park Bandstand in Waikiki, Oahu
Date: July 22, 2012 9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Performers: TBA
Website: http://www.ukulelefestivalhawaii.org/en/oahu/index.htm
Local Amenities: Map

United Kingdom and Ireland

Ukes for UNICEF – Ukulele Festival

Location: Berkhamsted Civic Centre
Date: March 3, 2012 – 11:30 to 17:30
Performers: Ken Middleton, Krabbers!, Keef Jackman.
Website: http://www.ukesforunicef.com/
Local Amenities: Map

Ukulele Festival of Great Britain

Location: Cheltenham
Date: June 1st – 3rd 2012
Performers: Gerald Ross, Nico’o, Manitoba Hal, Re-entrants, Winin Boys, Ukulollo, and more
Website: http://www.ukulelefestival.co.uk
Local Amenities: Map

Europe

Festival International de Ukulele de Lerrain

Location: Lerrain
Date: June 22, 23, & 24, 2012
Performers: TBA
Website: http://fiul.weebly.com/
Local Amenities: Map

Australia and New Zealand

Blue Mountains Ukulele Festival 2012

Location: 68 Lurline St., Katoomba
Date: February 3 – 4, 2012
Performers: Bosko and Honey, Bella Hemming, The Blue MUGs
Website: http://www.bluemugs.com.au/
Local Amenities: Map

2012 Cairns Ukulele Festival

Location: Cairns, Australia
Date: July 6, 7, & 8, 2012
Performers: Manitoba Hal, Aaron Keim, Paul Hemmings.
Website: http://cairnsukulelefestival.net/
Local Amenities: Map

Canberra Ukulele Festival of Fun 2012

Location: Tuggeranong Arts Centre
Date: October 27th 2012
Performers: TBA
Website: http://ukelyptus.com.au/index_files/CUFFs.htm

Melbourne Ukulele Festival 2012

Location: Melbourne
Date: March 8 – 11, 2012
Performers: Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Ralph Shaw, Bosko and Honey, U.K.E., Benny Chong.
Website: www.muf.org.au
Local Amenities: Map

Asia

Thailand Ukulele Festival 2011

Location: Parc Paragon, Siam Paragon
Date: February 25 – 26, 2012 11:00 – 21:30
Performers: Aldrine Guerrero, Kalei Gamiao, KYAS, Shigeto Takahashi, Kimo Hussey, Lula, Sungha Jung.
Website: http://www.thailandukulelefestival.com/
Local Amenities: Map

Current high-flyers are Lisa Hannigan, LP and Eddie Vedder. If you think someone else deserves a look-in head over to the post and make your nominations in the comments.

With that out the way, here’s this year’s quiz.

Instructions:

- Grab a piece of paper
- Display your uke knowledge
- Check the answers here (no peeking)
- Leave your score in the comments along with your dangs/woohoos.

Name That Chord

What chords are these on a standard C-tuned (gCEA) ukulele?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Name That Celeb

Which famous person is ukeing in these pictures?

6.

7. Half a point each.

8.

9.

10.

Name That Singer

Who is singing these ukulele songs? (Looking too hard at the black boxes is officially cheating)

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

Name That Ukulele

What brand are these ukuleles? (You don’t have to name the model but I’ll be suitably impressed if you do)

16.

Photo by: Monsieur Gordon

17.

Photo by: Metal Chris

18.

Photo by: TEDxHonolulu

19.

Photo by: Vicki and Chuck Rodgers

20.

Photo by: cartoixa

Name That Note

In tab for standard C-tuning (gCEA) what notes are these? (e.g. C, D, Eb)

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

Name That Cover

Which act are these ukulele orchestras covering?

26. Baines Ukulele Orchestra

27. Ukulele Orchestra of the Western Hemisphere

28. Hull Ukulele Group

29. Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra

30. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

Go here and check your answers.

Past Quizzes

Ukulele Quiz 2010
Ukulele Quiz 2009

The guy playing ukulele in this clip is Benny Wenda. He’s also a leader of the movement to free West Papua from Indonesia.

He’s been living in the UK since 2003 when he was granted asylum after escaping arrest and torture in Indonesia. He now faces arrest and deportation after the issuing of an Interpol red notice.

On Radio 4′s Today program an Indonesian ambassador claims he’ll get a fair trial. Which doesn’t seem likely judging by Amnesty International’s report on Indonesia. The Indonesian government accept that torture takes place and calls it, “unprofessional”.

I heard about Benny from Jimmy off of the Bobby McGee’s:

I met Benny on a bus in Brixton coming back from a gig about three years ago. He had two beautiful little girls on his knee and a ukulele tucked under his arm. I had mine on my lap, we nodded in some kind of uke brotherhood recognition and we started talking.

Benny told me that he was a tribal leader in exile from West Papua, that he had been forced to flee the country under increasing fear for his life from the Indonesian government.

He had been recording a CD of ukulele freedom songs, “everyone plays ukulele over there!” he told me. We had lovely chat, He seemed like a lovely guy and when we shook hands and said “bye” at Victoria, he gave me a leaflet about his “Free Western Papua” cause.

Six months later, totally unrelated, at a music festival on the south coast I met a young lady who came over and started talking to me about my ukuele. Her neighbour played and had shown her how to play. In the silly serendipitous way the world works it turns out her neighbour was Benny and we spoke about him and his daughters and his story, we’ve been friends ever since….

Today I heard on BBC Radio 4 that Indonesia were putting pressure on the British Government to have Benny extradited. According to the Indonesians he is a wanted criminal, an arsonist and murderer.

I don’t believe them.

I don’t know the ins and outs of his case and I certainly don’t know enough to pontificate on the situation in West Papua. But I do know it’s wrong to threaten to send a guy back to a police force that tortured him and continues to torture others.

You can find out more about Benny and Free West Papua on FreeWestPapua.org. And you can follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

A couple of weeks ago the BBC aired Frank Skinner’s documentary about George Formby. You watch the full documentary on YouTube and it’s well worth it. I enjoyed it and learned a fair bit too.

In the clip at the top, Frank visits Karauke in London to find out why modern ukers don’t play Formby songs. And it’s certainly true that most of the ‘new wave’ don’t play Formby songs. So I thought I’d go into some of the reasons why I think they don’t.

1) The Songs are Outdated

Comedy songs tend not to age too well and Formby’s songs haven’t aged well at all. What you could and couldn’t say then is very different what you can and can’t say now.

Now you can be as sexually suggestive as you like in a song so the sexual innuendo doesn’t really work. Whereas some of George’s songs lack the cultural sensitivity you’d expect today. It’s clear from the documentary that George wasn’t racist, but right thinking people today aren’t comfortable singing lines like, “If you’ve got a chink in your window/You’ll have another one at your door,” with a wink and a grin.

2) We’re Sick of George Formby Already

If Formby is under-appreciated, he certainly isn’t under-acknowledged.

It’s impossible to find an article in the UK press about – or even mentioning – the ukulele that doesn’t drop the F-bomb at one point (usually the first paragraph). There’s no getting away from it no matter how far removed the music is from Formby. Take this piece on Eddie Vedder and this one on Amanda Palmer.

And then there’s the stream of requests for When I’m Cleaning Windows that ukulele players get.

All of which get very tiring and pushes away all but the most ardent Formbyites.

3) He Wasn’t That Great A Player

This is the argument Frank puts forward in the clip: that some Formby solos are great. And they are. George did one thing and he perfected it. He played rip-roaring solos packed with split strokes. But there’s not a lot of emotional range in Formby’s playing.

His solos are a lot of fun and no doubt challenging but that’s not enough for him to stack up against the truly great musicians that have played the ukulele.

4) Imitating Him Is Missing the Point

The great thing about Formby is that he was one of a kind. The Formby fans love him for his unique and individual playing and singing style. Which is why they try to be exactly like him.

I think one of the reasons Formby songs sound so outdated is that they’ve never developed. No one has reinvented Formby songs and made them sound new. Or brought out hidden depths in them. They’re always sung in exactly the same way they’ve always been done.

Examining the minutiae of solo and trying to recreate it is interesting and worthwhile. But at some point you have to break away from that and do things in your own unique way if you’re going to make music worth listening to.

The natural heirs to George Formby aren’t the impersonators but, comic actors and singers of sexually suggestive ukulele songs, Garfunkel and Oates.

So if you don’t play George Formby songs, why not? And if you do, why? Leave a comment.

But it’s obvious the writer most fond of the ukulele (and Hawaii) was Jack London. And it seems to have been reciprocated. Nalu-Music recounts how Ernest Kaai performed the Jack London Hula in his honour.

Here are some extracts from London along with tales of villainous ukulele-factory owners being foiled by folding-ukulele makers, boys referring to head-lice inspection as ‘playing the ukulele’, picking up chicks and rendering the twilight hideous (as if Twilight wasn’t hideous enough already).

The Valley of the Moon – Jack London

“The golden koa, the king of woods,” Mercedes was crooning over the instrument. “The ukulele–that is what the Hawaiians call it, which means, my dear, the jumping flea. They are golden-fleshed, the Hawaiians, a race of lovers, all in the warm cool of the tropic night where the trade winds blow”…

Little traffickings began between the two women. After Mercedes had freely taught Saxon the loose-wristed facility of playing accompaniments on the ukulele, she proposed an exchange. Her time was past, she said, for such frivolities, and she offered the
instrument for the breakfast cap of which Saxon had made so good a success.

The Turtles of Tasman – Jack London

There were days when Tom could not go out, postponements of outdoor frolics, when, still the centre, he sat and drowsed in the big chair, waking, at times, in that unexpected queer, bright way of his, to roll a cigarette and call for his ukulele sort of miniature guitar of Portuguese invention. Then, with strumming and tumtuming, the live cigarette laid aside to the imminent peril of polished wood, his full baritone would roll out in South Sea hulas and sprightly French and Spanish songs…

On an afternoon in the late fall all were gathered about the big chair and Captain Tom. Though he did not know it, he had drowsed the whole day through and only just awakened to call for his ukulele and light a cigarette at Polly’s hand. But the ukulele lay idle on his arm, and though the pine logs crackled in the huge fireplace he shivered and took note of the cold…

His voice ceased utterly, though his lips still moved. A look of unbelief and vast surprise dawned on his face. Followed a sharp, convulsive shudder. And in that moment, without warning, he saw Death. He looked clear-eyed and steady, as if pondering, then turned to Polly. His hand moved impotently, as if to reach hers, and when he found it, his fingers could not close. He gazed at her with a great smile that slowly faded. The eyes drooped as the life went out, and remained a face of quietude and repose. The ukulele clattered to the floor. One by one they went softly from the room, leaving Polly alone.

Sympathetic Magic – Paul Cameron Brown

Spanish ivy
is the pastrami
of this terrace –
thick, white walls,
Hispanic style,
unite with prim elasticity
to quicken
Picasso’s sunshine
like a ukulele
strumming the grave.

More ukulele poetry here.

Hints to Pilgrims – Charles Stephen Brooks

Then we have a kind of Peter Pan grown to shiny middle life, who makes ukuleles for a living. On any night of special celebration he is prevailed upon to mount a table and sing one of his own songs to this accompaniment. These songs tell what a merry, wicked crew we are. He sings of the artists’ balls that ape the Bohemia of Paris, of our genius, our unrestraint, our scorn of all convention. What is morality but a suit to be discarded when it is old? What is life, he sings, but a mad jester with tinkling bells? Youth is brief, and when dead we’re buried deep. So let’s romp and drink and kiss. It is a pagan song that has lasted through the centuries. If it happens that any folk are down from the uptown hotels, Peter Pan consents to sell a ukulele between his encores. Here, my dear pilgrims, is an entertainment to be squeezed between Ziegfeld’s and the Winter Garden.

Biltmore Oswald – J. Thorne Smith, Jr.

After supper we went up to another place for coffee, a fine little place for sailormen, situated on the south side of the square. Here we were received with winning cordiality and Fogerty was given a fried egg, a dish of which he is passionately fond. But even here he got into trouble by putting one of his great feet through a Ukulele, which isn’t such a terrible thing to do, except in certain places.

The House of Torchy – Sewell Ford

Well, everybody showed up. And as it happens, it’s one of the big nights at the Purple Pup. The long center table is surrounded by a gay bunch of assorted artists who are bein’ financed by an out-of-town buyer who seems to be openin’ Chianti reckless. We were over in one corner, as far away from the ukulele torturers as we could get, while at the other end of the room is Rupert with his two. I thought he looked kind of pallid, but it might have been only on account of the cigarette smoke.

Babbitt – Sinclair Lewis

Ted had collected fifty or sixty announcements, from annual reference-books, from Sunday School periodicals, fiction-magazines, and journals of discussion. One benefactor implored, “Don’t be a Wallflower – Be More Popular and Make More Money – YOU Can Ukulele or Sing Yourself into Society! By the secret principles of a Newly Discovered System of Music Teaching, any oneóman, lady or childócan, without tiresome exercises, special training or long drawn out study, and without waste of time, money or energy, learn to play by note, piano, banjo, cornet, clarinet, saxophone, violin or drum, and learn sight-singing.”

Possessed – Cleveland Moffett

This story presents the fulfillment of an extraordinary prophecy made one night, suddenly and dramatically, at a gathering of New Yorkers, brought together for hilarious purposes, including a little supper, in the Washington Square apartment of Bobby Vallis – her full name was Roberta. There were soft lights and low divans and the strumming of a painted ukulele that sang its little twisted soul out under the caress of Penelope’s white fingers. I can still see the big black opal in its quaint setting that had replaced her wedding ring and the yellow serpent of pliant gold coiled on her thumb with two bright rubies for its eyes. Penelope Wells! How little we realized what sinister forces were playing about her that pleasant evening as we smoked and jested and sipped our glasses, gazing from time to time up the broad vista of Fifth Avenue with its lines of receding lights.

The Smiling Hill-Top – Julia M. Sloane

Now, if years had not taught me some fundamental facts about my limitations, I should probably render twilight hideous with a ukelele, for a ukelele goes a guitar one better, and Aloha Oe wailed languorously on that instrument would make even a Quaker relax.

Missy – Dana Gatlin

The ukelele under his fingers thrummed out a soft, vibrant, melancholy accompaniment. It was divine! Here surely was a “harper passing all other!” Mr. Saunders looked something like a knight, too – all but his costume. He was so tall and dark and handsome; and his dark eyes were bold, though now so soft from his own music…

She took the ukelele from him. He showed her how to place her fingers – their fingers got tangled up – they laughed…

“The ukelele. Yes, Saunders is a wizard with it. But in spite of that he’s a good fellow.” (What did “in spite of that” mean? Didn’t Uncle Charlie approve of harpers?)

Merton of the Movies – Harry Leon Wilson

The girl seemed to be unaware that she had lost his attention. “And you see the villain is very wealthy; he owns the largest ukelele factory in the islands, and he tries to get me in his power, but he’s foiled by my fiance, a young native by the name of Herman Schwarz, who has invented a folding ukelele, so the villain gets his hired Hawaiian orchestra to shove Herman down one of the volcanoes and me down another, but I have the key around my neck, which Father put there when I was a babe and made me swear always to wear it, even in the bath-tub, so I let myself out and unlock the other one and let Herman out and the orchestra discovers us and chases us over the cliff, and then along comes my old nurse who is now running a cigar store in San Pedro and sheó” Here she affected to discover that Mr. Henshaw no longer listened.

The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai – Anonymous

The boys in a certain district school on Hawaii call the weekly head inspection “playing the ukulele” in allusion to the literal interpretation of the name for the native banjo.

It is still sort of gettable. If you’re willing to spend £300 on eBay. And there is a 48 page songbook with the vinyl version which, I believe, contains the uke charts. There has also been a PDF that was for sale (containing the pertinent uke stuff but not the photos) but I’m not clear on where or if this is still available.

What You Get

A 100 page hardback book.

A two page introduction to playing the ukulele.

Chord charts (no tab) for ukulele above standard notation of the melody for all the songs on the album. The book lists Jim Beloff as the, “songbook consultant and editor.” If you’ve seen any of his chord books before, you’ll be familiar with the layout. The only exception to the ‘no tab’ is Waving Palms – the short instrumental – which has tab for a single ukulele.

Lots of very nice pictures of Eddie and his ukuleles.

A copy of the album.

The Good Stuff

It’s gorgeous: It is by far the most lovely songbook I’ve ever had. Even if you didn’t play uke, this would make for a very nice coffee-table book.

It’s a dedicated ukulele book: And there aren’t many around for contemporary stuff. I had a lot of fun playing along with the album. It’s a big relief not to have to work stuff out myself or try to find something accurate on the internet.

It’s accurate: It all sounded pretty good to me. Only two things didn’t sit right with me. In Longing to Belong it shows F rather than Fadd9 – I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure there’s a G in there. The other is the tab for Waving Palms which I had trouble matching up with the song.

The chart for Hey Fahkah

The Not-So-Good Stuff

There’s a lot missing: It is – apart from Waving Palms – just chords. That means a bunch of stuff gets missed out. There’s missing fingerpicking patterns in Broken Heart and Satellite. Missing filigree such as the solo in Longing to Belong.

There are some weird-ass chord names – which is mostly forgivable because Eddie uses some weird-ass chords. The strangest choice is the use of slash chords. Not really applicable at the best of times, but baffling to refer to 0010 as Fadd9/C (when C is in Fadd9 anyway) and 0220 as D/G (when G isn’t the lowest note).

It’s too nice to use: Being a hardback book, it doesn’t stay nicely flopped open on the selected page. If you want to get it to stay open, you’ll need to do some hefty palm-flattening. I couldn’t bring myself to do it and just used the PDF whenever I wanted to play stuff.

Overall

The book makes for a fantastic souvenir. I’m very glad I pre-ordered it. Not sure I would have been so willing to pay crazy eBay prices. But as a tool for learning it falls short.

About three years ago I put together a tab ebook to benefit Ukuleles for Peace with the help of some friends. Since then it’s raised over $3,500 for them. It’s done so well that Ken Middleton has put together a follow-up featuring tabs from me, Colin Tribe, Michael ‘Ukulele Mike’ Lynch, Herman Vandercauter and Ken himself. It also features a foreword from James Hill.

It’s priced at $15 (that’s 75c per tab, that’s about 50p in the UK and 50 Euro cents). You can pick up a copy on Ken’s site for $15. Or just click this button:

What is Ukuleles for Peace?

Ukuleles for Peace brings together Arab kids from Tira and Jewish kids from Hod HaSharon in Israel. They learn ukulele, sing songs (in Arabic, Hebrew and English), gig and have get-togethers. The aim is to create ties between the Jewish and Arab communities in Israel.

Take Siwar Mansour. In 2007 she was the strumming hand in this pair. Now she’s the only Muslim in a Jewish high school and has rocked up a storm with Ukulollo.

Find out more on their website.

What’s in the ebook?

20 tabs (all shown for both C and D tuning – two designed for low-G/A) in an ebook with a foreword by James Hill and an introduction by Paul Moore.

The tabs are for:

Al Wood
- Banana Boat Song (Day-O) (traditional)
- Bean Setters (traditional)
- Hard Times by Stephen Foster

Colin R Tribe
- Malaguena (traditional)
- Misirlou (traditional)
- Morning by Edvard Grieg (this is the one I’ve been practicing since getting my hands on it)
- The Flea Bites Back by Colin R Tribe

Michael Lynch
- Cherry Blossoms by Michael Lynch
- Finlandia by Jean Sibelius
- Keyport Rag by Michael Lynch
- The Rose Garden Serenade by Michael Lynch

Herman Vandecauter
- Andante Vivace by Francesco Molino
- Anglais (anon)
- Chacarera (anon)
- Savillana (traditional)

Ken Middleton
- Willson’s Wilde by John Dowland
- The Sky-Divers’ Waltz by Ken Middleton
- Blackberry Blossom (traditional)
- Worried Man Blues (traditional)
- The Water Is Wide (traditional)

How do I get it?

The ebook costs $15 and it’s delivered by download. You can buy it on Ken’s site or by clicking here:

Once you’ve paid via PayPal or credit card, you’ll go to a page with the download link (the money goes directly to Ukuleles for Peace’s PayPal account). You’ll also get a email with the download link in it.

Quick warning if you’re on iPad/iPhone etc: You won’t be able to download the file directly. You’ll have to download to a computer, unzip the file, and transfer it.

If you’ve got any questions, ask in the comments or contact Ken Middleton.

Helen Arney – Festival of the Spoken Nerd and Alchemy

Comedy ukulele nerd and star of Uke Hunt podcast #8, Helen Arney will doing a whole bunch of shows at Edinburgh including a two-off show Festival of the Spoken Nerd with Blue Peter spod Steve Mould and maths stand up Matt Parker.

She’ll also be doing AlchemyEH1 (“new sketches and songs in a secret off-Fringe venue”) and gigs with MJ Hibbett, Tricity Vogue and, fellow uncaged monkey, Robin Ince (who you should definitely catch if you’re there – I saw one of his preview shows and it was hilarious).

You can find everything Helen is doing on her website.

Tricity Vogue

Tricity Vogue is going to have a busy time at the fringe. She’s doing both her Blue Lady Sings Back show and her free, bawdy and guest-packed Ukulele Cabaret. Guests so far have included Ria Lina, Helen Arney and Amanda Palmer.

Jo Stephenson – Can You Dig It?

Jo Stehpenson is teaming up with Dan Woods for vegetable-based songsmithery in their show Can You Dig It?.

Book tickets here

Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer

Mr B will be chap hopping the fringe in his show How I Invented Hip-Hop and Other Faux Pas.

Buy tickets here.

Emily Scott

I was completely unaware of Emily Scott before seeing her Edinburgh listed. But after seeing a few of her videos I’m very interested in hearing more. And her Edinburgh show will feature a classical string trio.

Book tickets here.