MP3

Well, the new episodes of Red Dwarf stank to high heaven. Even the presence of Big Suze didn’t help. I do hope there’s some sort of Royal wipeout and we end up with Queen Big Suze.

As you might have noticed, I’ve done a video for this one for the first time in about two years. I think the low quality audio, weird light and facial gurnings should answer everyone who’s asked me why I don’t do videos more often. But it does serve to illustrate a few points in the tab.

The intro is played campanela i.e. letting the notes ring into each other as much as possible. The trickiest bit is getting the end of the first phrase to sustain over the echo part (I did a much better job of making it sound like an echo in the mp3).

I considered arranging the vocal version of the tune but I couldn’t resist the tasteless guitar-widdling version (it’s a trick the piece’s composer Howard Goodall also used in the titles for Blackadder II.

The trickiest part of this section is bar 11. I did try playing it like this for a while:

Which is much easier to play but sounds too wimpy.

In the ‘fun, fun, fun’ bit (someone should make that into a ukulele song) I’m using my favourite triplet strum: down with middle and index fingers, up with index, up with middle.

One thing I struggle with in this tab is the time signature. There are parts that don’t seem quite right. I looked at some guitar tab and they had it in 12/8. But that makes even less sense to me.

Requested by Jimmy (so long ago he’s probably forgotten by now).

I haven’t been paying as much attention as usual over my break, so I’ve probably missed something. But what I did find is excellent. The most exciting discover came when I went to see Peggy Sue (and the Pirates). I like them so much I did a Monday Exposure on them even though they didn’t play ukulele. But now they do – as you can see in a fairly badly recorded video.

I would have included this song from Marie Darling but I can’t get Dailymotion videos to embed.
Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s must have is one – oh, what the hell – both of these Kaumalae ukuleles: Kumalae 1, Kumalae 2.

It seems like there are an increasing number of ukes around with inlays on the soundboard. The most stylish has to be the Ana’ole. Ohana go for a floral design. This bocote wood ukulele keeps it’s show piece for the back. And this one is an all out cheese-fest.

LOCALS ukulele is a new name on me. They’re Hawaiian made and solid koa. They also claim to be the same quality as Kamaka and Martin at half the price. Hmmm…

If the name Tombo Ukulet isn’t reason enough to buy this, it also looks great.

If you want your Kala archtop to look even more like a Gretsch, get yourself one of these pickguards.

Classy Keech banjolele.

Ukulele photo of the week.

The London Uke Festival 2009 will be held on 20th June. They’ll be attempting to break the world record for most ukuleles played at the same time. You can read more about it in this PDF and register on their website.

More festival news: the Milwaukee Ukulele Festival will include Victoria Vox, The Fabulous Heftones, Boulder Acoustic Society and Lil Rev.

Amy Crehore’s Ticker #2 ukulele is revealed. More pictures on Flickr.

Armelle is posting videos of ukulele songs in different languages (and part two is here and part 3 here). If you know of any others let her know.

The tragedy of the T-Rex in t-shirt form.

Ken Middleton has a new job: Official European envoy for Ohana Ukuleles.

Watch the KoAloha Story here – worth signing up to the site for. But skip about the first 1/3 of the main film and go straight to the animation.

Rod Thomas’s award winning song Same Old Lines is now being used in a DFS ad. And Mr Kazookeylele flogs Doritoes.

Trying to win Zooey Deschanel’s heart by building her a ukulele.

‘Ukelele’ spells trouble for Clint Eastwood.

Ukulele Mike sees himself as the Susan Boyle of the ukulele. He also seems to be spamming the hell out of Twitter in the hopes that Perez Hilton and Jessica Alba are fans in the making.

Greenman.

I’m taking a blog break and I’ll be back on the 8th May.

I’ll be trying to get How to Play Ukulele Strumming written. So far it’s been an absolute nightmare. I have to get it done because if I don’t Armelle will kill me. Hopefully a couple of weeks focusing on it will get me somewhere.

If you are missing me already, you can read an interview I did for Live ‘Ukulele. I hope you like it more than they did. Btw, I would never write, “an ‘ukulele,” (unless it’s preceded by the words, “I would never write…”).

Videos this week include Black Kids doing a ukulele session for KEXP (not as spunky as the full-on version but enough to feed my craving for songs with girls shouting numbers), Ukulele Loki, a particularly fine version of St James Infirmary, WS64 ripping through a couple of rock and roll classics (now go la-da-dow) and Kalei Gamiao getting smooth. Read the rest of this entry »

Oscar Schmidt go one louder with the OU7. It looks cool, but if they’re going to keep jacking up the price they’ll have to switch to solid ukes pretty soon.

A ‘deluxe’ and ‘limited edition’ Ohana TK-70CG. Sexy cutaway, but not sure about the pink tuners (and I usually love pink).

One uke that might want to think about adding a cutaway is this Mike Chock Mango ukulele. What’s the point of 23 frets if you can only reach 12 of them? But I do quite like the pear shape.

Every time a vintage Martin 5K crops up on eBay I do a quick ‘pros and cons’ list of selling one of the kids. And in this case the uke has a lovely battered case – making the list dangerously close to even.

We’ve been total idiots. Practicing when all we had to do was learn to play the ukulele subliminally.

Easel style ukulele stand: classy solution.

The response to the Slide Ukulele ebook has been great – far better than I was expecting. So it’s going on permanent sale at the new price of $7.

Pick up Madame Pamita’s new album Wax Works on a ‘pay what you like’ basis. It’s an excellent album. All recorded on wax cylinders without using electricity. Essential tracks: Do Whatever You Please, Madame Pamita’s Theme Song, Malaria. And she’s touring the UK in May.

The Ukulele Shop is no more. And Ukulele Ireland is spreading the rumour that the Duke of Uke is heading the same way.

In more sad news, Chicago’s Windy City Uke Fest won’t be going ahead this year. But it’ll be back for 2010.

And yet more sad news: Tab-U-Learn has shut its doors.

Ken Middleton’s new site including his tabs.

Uketopia is an excellent new(ish) ukulele podcast with songs, instrument reviews, interviews and various uke chatter. And there’s also the Stretchlinks Podcast from “America’s haymakers of jocularity.”

How to get sopranino tuning on your soprano ukulele.

Ukulele news in Spanish.

Make your own ukulele chord sheets with the help of Kiwi Ukulele

The Baby McGee’s are the cutest thing ever. And the full size version are releasing a 7″ single ahead of their new album in June.

Jack Kirby style ukulele by Ben Towle.

On Flickr: Another ukulele playing monkey, ukulele lamps, Mon ukulele enfin fini

I almost skipped straight past this song on YouTube because I was familiar with Lou Christie’s version of the song and absolutely hated it. But I’m glad I didn’t because Melissa and Yonder Yore‘s version shows it works great on the uke. It’s similar to Over the Rainbow musically and pretty much identical lyrically.

One thing I left out of the chord chart for simplicity’s sake: there’s a passing Eb note (C string third fret) between the Am and D in the, “…only begun,” and, “…beautiful day,” bits

Buy Melissa Polinar on Amazon.

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.