Having got my hands on my new ukulele (I went with the Sandalwood Bugsgear EleUke), my UAS has temporarily abated – I give it about six minutes. However, thanks to Heather sending me a scan of her copy the sheet music to Play A Little Low-Down Tune, my eye has turned towards ukulele song sheets.

A particular favourite theme of mine is sultry 1920s girls with great hair. Most are stylish and simple drawings like those featured on I’ll See You In My Dreams and I Ain’t Gonna Play No Second Fiddle. Some are more realistic such as Swanee Butterfly. And a few have real life flappers on (looking a little more dumpy and a little less glamorous than their fantasized counterparts) such as Roll ‘Em Girls.

Ukuleles and grass skirts abound on hapa haole sheet music: My Waikiki Ukulele Girl.

If you’ve ever wondered where the striking picture on Richard Gillman’s page came from, take a look at the cover of Crazy Words, Crazy Tune Vo-Do-De-O. You can also see it peeking through in this job lot of sheet music (which has got a few other gems in).

You can also pickup vintage ukulele instruction books such as Hawaiian Songs and Hulas from the 50’s and Rapid Ukulele Method from the 60’s. But the real gem is The Kamiki Ukulele Method from 1917. You can read the whole book on ezFolk.

My UAS has just returned. The culprit is the Arthur Godfrey Flamingo plastic ukulele.

A batch of ukulele albums at various stages of release:

– Jacob Borshard has just started recording his third album A Glow in the Dark, which should be available before the end of the year. To keep you happy until then, you can download four tracks that didnt’ make the cut on his MySpace. He also has a range of rather fetching t-shirts available.

– Janet Klein‘s latest album Ready for You will be released next week.

– The UkuLady has released her debut album Banned From Canters.

Interview with Uke Jackson about the New York Ukulele Festival in the New York Times.

This week on Uker Tabs: A-Punk – Vampire Weekend, Tree Hugger – Kiyma Dawson and My Name is Monkey.

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain interview and performance.

Only a few days left to win a Flea and a bunch of other stuff in Ukulele Review’s Play it forward video contest.

Liz and Jim Beloff interviewed on Ukulele Spotlight (link to mp3).

Sixeyes has an mp3 of a Little Bird by Scott Matthew.

You’ll have to prise it out of my cold, dead hands.

Robo-lele.

Does anyone know the name of this song performed by Priscilla Ahn? Any idea where to get an mp3 or some sort of spinning disc of it?

I must admit, I’d never heard of Phosphorescent when Justin asked me about the chords to this song. It turns out they’re one of those downbeat-country bands There’s no uke in that video, but there’s plenty on the album version which you can stream on their MySpace or download on Stereogum.

The song is in C#, so it’s one of those ‘capo on the first fret’ jobs. Once that’s out the way, it’s a simple chord progression.

Strumming

The song is in Waltz time (3/4). Which means you count 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. You strum down on the first beat of the bar and hold it for a beat and a half before strumming up, down, up. At that point, you change the chord and strum down for a beat and a half and so on.

Requested by Justin

A couple of weeks ago Mike asked me for one or two tips for ukulele beginners. My brain went whiring into action (actually, is was more a nasty screetching and cracking of gears). I ended up with a big list of stuff. So here, in their original, un-rewritten and bloated form, are all of them.

1. Record yourself playing and listen back to it. It’s difficult to play and listen to yourself at the same time. Quite often just noticing what you’re doing wrong is enough to fix the problem. It also gets you used to playing infront of the mic – making it less of a big deal when you want to record yourself properly.

2. Much to the RIAA’s disgust, you can’t sue someone for stealing a chord progression. Although Metallica tried to sue the band Unfaith for changing from F to E. If you hear something you like, work it out and steal it.

3. Practice so slowly you can’t possibly make a mistake. If you make the same mistake over and over again, it’s incredibly hard to get rid of it. It’s much easier to start slow, get the tune under your fingers and gradually speed up. If you’re more consciencious than me, you’ll use a metronome while you’re doing this sort of thing.

4. Learn how to read ukulele tab. There are plenty of people around who can play the ukulele without learning to read tab. But there’s so much ukulele tab around on the net now that it’s really going to increase the speed that you can pick up new tunes.

5. Once you’ve decided you enjoy the ukulele, get a nice one. Almost everyone starts of playing on a very cheap ukulele. These ukes are fine for deciding if playing the ukulele is for you. But once you’re into it, get yourself a decent quality ukulele. It’ll be easier to play, sound better (so you’ll be more pleased with the way you sound), and will give you more impetus to practice.

6. The type of strings you use can make a big different to the sound of your ukulele. The strings you get with your ukulele are likely to be cheap and nasty. It’s worth replacing them with higher quality strings such as Worth or Aquila.

7. Don’t hold your ukulele too tightly. The ukulele is small and it’s very easy to smother the sound out of it. Don’t hold it too tightly or you’ll lose a lot of volume and tone. Watch how masters like Jake Shimabukuro and hold the uke.

8. Listen to lots of ukulele players. The more you listen, the more you’ll get a feel for the ukulele and the way it sounds. It will influence how you play subconsciously.

9. Take the time to tune up properly. The ukulele isn’t the easiest instrument to get in tune and keep in tune, but it has to be done. If your ukulele is out of tune, you WILL sound terrible. I’m looking at you, Mr Merritt.

10. Enjoy yourself. The big appeal of the ukulele is that it is the most fun instrument around. People try to denigrate the ukulele as a toy. I think calling the uke a toy is a huge compliment. Toys are fun to play with and so is the ukulele.

If you want more beginners’ tips, you can find 101 of them in my ebook Ukulele 101.

Hellogoodbye’s Oh, It Is Love is a very popular tune with uke players. There are a bunch of ukulele covers of it on YouTube. There are many instruments moving in and out of the tune including banjo and mandolin, which are in ukulele territory.

I got a request, ages ago, from Emily asking for tab of the twiddly bits in the song. So, here’s a few.

This is the high part played on the mandolin in the first few lines:

The part that accompanies the verse is played slightly differently by each instrument. This is a sort of uke-ified version of it:

Midi

If you’re feeling adventurous, using those higher versions of the B, Bbm and Am7 chords in the verses sounds very effective.

In the first little instrumental interlude, that part is followed by the mandolin going like this first time (but an octave lower):

Midi

And this the second time:

Midi

One last bit, for good measure. This little mando lick occurs at around 1:30

Midi

Even if you’re not planning on learning the song, it’s definitely worth taking a look at that last lick as it’s a bit of a cliche and can be used in many situations.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a short film about ukulele obsession. Obviously, it piqued my curiosity. The film’s co-writer and director Wade White was kind enough to answer a few questions.

Q: What’s the film all about?

“Ukulele” is a story about a man (Herbert) who inherits his father’s beloved ukulele. It’s a prized symbol of who his father was to the whole family and Herbert sets out to learn how to play in honour of his father’s memory. It becomes such a central part of his life, however, that it very quickly begins to encroach on his other relationships, most notably with his wife. It becomes an obsession, and things eventually come to a head. I won’t give away the ending, but needless to say it’s memorable.

Q: What made you want to make a film about ukulele obsession?

The original idea for the script actually came out of a writing exercise as we prepared for a competition called the Toronto 24 Hour Film Challenge. The idea of the competition was to write, shoot, and edit a film all in just 24 hours, so we knew our schedule would be tight. In preparation we decided to write a couple of sample scripts with a two hour time limit, to sort of put ourselves through the process. One of the scripts we produced was “Ukulele” (inspired by Tim’s son’s ukulele which happened to be in the living room at the time). We ended up using the script for the cast rehearsal for the competition and everyone really enjoyed it, which got us to thinking that it was a viable story in its own right. A little bit of editing and a whole lot of preparation later and we starting shooting the film.

That covers the ukulele part. As for the obsession part, I think that’s mostly because it’s something we can all relate too. I suspect everyone at some point in their lives has become overly enamoured with something: a person, an object, a creative endeavour. It sort of creeps in and starts taking over, all your time, all your concentration. You begin to eat, drink, and sleep it. So although in this case it’s an obsession over a ukulele, I think it reaches beyond that and speaks to something we all experience (to lesser or greater degrees) in general.

Besides, if you are going to write about obsession over a musical instrument, I can’t think of a better one to go with.

Q: Does any of the film come from personal experience?

Hmmm, I’m not sure how much I should confess here. I actually learned the ukulele way back in school in grades 4 through 6, though I don’t believe it ever become quite the obsession it does for our film’s protagonist. And I guess I’m currently a bit more of a guitar player when I do sit down to play something. But I have had other things in my life (for example, filmmaking), which have at times tended to take over. When you get involved in something very creative it can often be hard to reign things in and know where to draw the line. Other parts of your life don’t receive the necessary time and effort they deserve. Of course, “Ukulele” is a comedy and so we exaggerate that aspect of the character to good effect. So I guess in the sense of one’s artistic and creative endeavours encroaching on the rest of life, I would have to say, yes, personal experience did come into play.

Q: How did Ralph Shaw come to be involved?

Well, once we knew we were going to actually shoot the film, we very quickly decided that it was going to have a ukulele soundtrack. I mean, how can you have a film about a ukulele and not have a ukulele soundtrack, right? So with the exception of one piece, everything is ukulele-based. Our lead actor even learned a few chords and strums to lend some authenticity to the part. We discovered Ralph Shaw more or less just through searching around on the internet. We had come across some very interesting sites and contacted a few other musicians, but once we landed on Ralph’s website we more or less knew this was a guy we wanted onboard, in whatever capacity. We contacted him, told him about the project, let him read the script and the rest, as they say, is history. Ralph was very generous with both his time and music, especially considering we were a smaller operation. But he was totally on board with the idea and has been great at promoting the film now that it’s done and available on DVD.

Q: When’s Ukulele going to be available for download?

Hopefully soon. The DVD is available now of course, and we’ve signed the necessary forms that allow them to make the film itself available for download, so it’s just a matter of them transferring the film to the proper downloadable format(s). Apparently they’re still working out the few remaining kinks in having the download option in general available on the site, so when they have everything working to their satisfaction I’m sure Ukulele will be ready for download in short order. We’ll let you know as soon as we know.

If you want to get a flavour of the film, you can watch the hilarious animated introduction here.

You can buy the DVD from Film Baby.

It might just be me that remembers Freaks and Geeks, and I was mostly there for Linda Cardellini and the theme tune. As I understand it, the series didn’t even make it to the end in the US. But we got the whole thing here in the UK. Apparently, it’s now a cult hit. There are certainly plenty of people involved with it who went on to bigger things. Most notably, it was the first time actor Seth Rogen and director Judd Atapow worked together (going on to make The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad together).

The theme tune to Freaks and Geeks came from the days when even the punks wore shoulder pads and is fantastically catchy. And it has the best guitar solo shout out since, “Go, Nigel, go”: Pedal boys!

The tune is perfect for a bit of punk uke and would make a great uke club song (oh God, I’d love to hear GUGUG do this song). I’ve made the chords a little more uke club friendly by shifting them up from B to C. If you want it in the original key, you’ll have to shift everything down a fret (or tune down half a step).

For the first half of the song, the chords are C, F and G. Then there’s a key change to D and everything shifts up two frets (to D, G and A). The strumming shouldn’t trip you up either. Down, up, down, up should do you fine most of the way through the song.

As well as the ukulele festival videos from Paris and Taunton and parts three and four of Bosco and Honey’s Ukulele Safari, there were plenty of other top uke performances this week including the ever growing ukulele tribute to The Cure. Read the rest of this entry »

The must see ukulele of the week is the this pre-ukulele machete (or brahuinga) that musicguymic has for sale. It dates from the dark, dark days before the ukulele was invented and comes from a Portuguese luthier called OJ Nunes (apparently, a forebear of ukulele innovator Manuel Nunes). It’s been in a Viennese museum, so it looks to be in tip top condition considering it’s a century and a half old. A bargain at $10,000.

Until recently, you could count the number of female ukulele luthiers I was familiar with on the fingers of no hands. But, I’ve just stumbled across one on eBay. She has a couple of very fetching looking ukes up for sale at the moment: imakeukuleles.

I’m a complete sucker for rope binding, and this Mele concert ukulele has some sexy roping going on.

Ukulele Festival videos from Paris and Taunton.

Kainoa at Easy Ukulele has been uploading a bunch of ukulele tutorial videos this week. Particularly interesting are the lessons on Chord Bending and Reggae Strumming.

Jen Kwok has made it to the last ten of the Comedy section of Famecast. With plenty of uker solidarity, she has an excellent chance of winning. All you have to do is register here. Then bookmark this link and click it once a day. EVERY DAY.

Last week, I mused out loud that I didn’t think there were any ukulele groups in Ireland. Tony got in touch and told me that he’s in the process of setting one up. If you’re interested, you can get Tony’s email address here.

Ukulele mp3s up for grabs: ilovefizzypop has Portishead’s familar sounding Deep Water, and Heartache with Hard Work has an adorable uke song from The Sinister Turns.

Theme from the Littlest Hobo on Uker Tabs.

World’s smallest ukulele T-shirt.

This week, Ukulelia mentioned the Kani Ka Pila Klip – a music stand that clips on to the end of your ukulele.

Karaoke + ukulele = Karauke.

Mel Torme on ukulele (he crops up at about 2:20).

Ukulego (thanks to Andy for that one).

Baby Blues Ukulele: Part 1 Part 2.

Improve your instrument with a vibrator.

Internet coincidences creep me out.