The second in the ‘What ukulele do they play?’ series. The good news: if you want to play the same ukuleles as Zach Condon, you won’t have to spend anywhere near as much as if you wanted Jake Shimabukuro’s ukulele. They’re actually fairly bog-standard ukuleles, not that expensive and would be a good choice for […]

Having founded the New York Ukulele Ensemble and the New York Ukulele Festival, Uke Jackson is a bit of a ukulele legend. His latest project is the musical Sex! Drugs! & Ukuleles! written with Ragtime musician and historian Terry Waldo. I drilled him for more info. Where did the idea for a ukulele musical come […]

COMPETITION CLOSED I’m jumping on the ukulele giveaway bandwagon and starting up a competition. The prizes are: First prize: A Kala Pineapple soprano courtesy of ukulele for sale. Ten Runners Up: One of my ukulele ebooks (your choice). Everyone Who Enters Gets: Tab for my solo arrangement of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up […]

To go along with the ukulele songs list, I’ve put together a list of the instrumental ukulele tunes that are most associated with the ukulele here: Ukulele Music The list was a bit harder to get together than the ukulele song list, but I think it gives a good overview of the instrumental side of […]

Happy Birthday Uke Hunt! A year ago today was this blog’s first ever post. I thought I’d take the opportunity to be completely self indulgent and have a look back at the first year. Most Popular Posts 1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps Tutorial My plea for people to stop aping Jake’s version and come […]

Here’s a random selection of emails I wake up to in the morning: – What type of ukulele does Jake Shimabukuro play? – What sort of uke is that Jake uses in While My Guitar Gently Weeps? – Where can I buy a ukulele like Jake Shimabukuro plays? OK, I’m exaggerating. But I get enough […]

I’ve written up a page about Ukulele Songs: songs that are heavily associated with the ukulele. They’re the ones that people who know nothing about the ukulele will ask you to play, the ones you’ll see hundreds of ukulele versions of on YouTube. It’s quite interesting to note that most of the songs are from […]

All to often, the ukulele is dismissed as a toy instrument – not capable of real musicianship. So I was delighted to find out the Victoria College of Music (VCM) will be offering exams in the ukulele up to grade 5 from this summer. I tapped the man writing and arranging the ukulele exams, Colin […]

I love Google. It’s about the most fantastically useful product there is and it’s free. And it sends me more people than anyone else. AND it keeps coming up with little gadgets that I can’t help but test out. The latest one I’ve taken advantage of is Google Custom Search to create this: Google Ukulele […]

If you’re reading this by email or feedreader, you might want to haul ass to the website and check out the brand spanking new look. The front page of the site is now a lot less bloggy. But if you prefer the old layout, you can still read it as a blog here. Take a […]