Click here to see my pick of the week’s ukulele videos. Read the rest of this entry »
Themed list of the best ukulele videos by Lars Larsson.
George Formby / When I’m cleaning windows
GF / Auntie Maggie’s Remedy (Banjo Uke)
GF / She’s got two of everything (Banjo Uke)
Roy Smeck / 12th Street Rag & Interview
RS / Tap Dancing on the Uke
Vincent Cortese (student of Roy Smeck) / Tribute to Roy Smeck
Musician, teacher, and author Vincent Cortese performs an impromptu ukulele solo at the Lewis
Playhouse in Rancho Cucamonga, California (on a borrowed ukulele). Mr. Cortese was a student,
friend, and the biographer of legendary vaudevillian musician Roy ‘Wizard of the Strings‘ Smeck.
Cliff Edwards / Hang on to Me (1935)
CE / That’s My Weakness Now
CE / Fascinating Rhythm
There’s a great web site for Cliff Edwards at Red Hot Jazz.
Ming & Toy / (1936) Vaudeville (Warning: Strong Stereotype)
The Duke of Uke has set up a webstore. Either it’s still in the developmental stages or you can pick up a uke for £1.
New Craig Robertson CD That Dress released.
Two new ukulele blogs: Monsieur Berger’s Ukulele Blog has beginner’s video lessons and Jeff’s Ukulele Ramblings has video as artist bios.
R Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet performed in its entirety on ukulele. Their was a repeat performance yesterday. Anyone see it?
A set of steamy photos of Sweet Soubrette by Emily Rawlings.
Oasis’s Gem Archer spotted with uke in their new video Lord Don’t Slow Me Down (I quite like the song too).
Ukulele Ray’s new Warhol ukulele.
Ukulele makes it to Second Life thanks to someone with an octopus head.
Nina Coquina dishes out some sound advice on buying ukuleles on eBay that’s well worth a read. It amazes me what some people think they can get away with. Like this guy trying to sell a “Vintage Martin ukulele” for $1,500 on the basis of one line and three dark photos. He should look at the photos for this Gibson ukulele and this Martin (both attracting plenty of bidders).
Curio of the week has to be this Swagerty Singing Treholipee as played by GUGUG. The brochure alone went for $45 so there’s obviously a big demand for it.
No surprises that the Black Bear Cigar Box ukulele is a cut above the standard cigar box uke.
The Ashbory Bass is a strange beast. It’s a bass guitar the size of a baritone uke. It sounds good next to a ukulele as well.
One day I’m going to get myself a National Reso-phonic ukulele.
This is one of those rare occasions when you can use a guitar pick without me telling you off. There are many notes doubled up in this riff. One option is to make ‘running man’ shapes with your index and middle fingers. However, if you want to keep the muted the strings (by resting the edge of your picking hand lightly on the strings just above the bridge) your only option is to use a pick.
If you decide against the pick, you might prefer to play it this way:
Requested by Ray
This spooky little riff which was used as the theme tune to The Exorcist fits very nicely on the ukulele in the original key.
The biggest challenge in playing it is the time signature. I’m not even sure I’ve tabbed it right, but it makes most sense to me as three bars of 7/8 followed by a bar of 9/8. However you choose to count it, it’s difficult to keep track of. But it’s worth sticking with because it sounds great on the uke.
Suggested by West
The Misfits – Halloween (Chords)
It’s not quite Halloween season yet, but I’m kicking off my Halloween series of posts to give you plenty of time to practice ready for the big night. Although you probably won’t need three weeks’ practice to get this tune up and running.
There’s only one band that could kick off Halloween season. The Misfits dedicated their entire career to writing songs based on low-rent horror films. They even went so far as to write two songs called Halloween – so I didn’t have much choice but to write up the better Halloween song.
The chords are fairly simple. The main challenge comes in the instrumental section in the middle. There are some quick moves from E to F, so I’d recommend using the same chord shape for both – sliding it up and down – rather than trying to switch to the open F shape.
There’s a very good chance The Misfits will crop up again in this series, but if you can’t wait there are loads of Misfits chords here.
Suggested by Maduke and indigo jones.
Big things are happening in the world of Uke Hunt. In the near(ish) future Uke Hunt will have a baby-sister website. This website will be home to a range of new ukulele ebooks I’m working on – the first two of which are nearing completion – and am hoping to sell.
It’s an exciting time to be part of the ukulele world. New people are coming to the ukulele all the time from a wide range of genres. Players are pushing the boundaries and expanding what the ukulele can do. But still, with a few honourable exceptions, it’s still the same tired old instruction books that are being flogged. So, I’ve taken it on myself to write something new for people who want to improve their ukulele playing.
If you want to be first to get the news, sign up to my new mailing list. As well as getting updates, you’ll get exclusive extracts and a introductory video course on fingerpicking ukulele. (This is different to the ‘Get Uke Hunt by email’ list in the sidebar – you won’t get the stuff on the mailing list anywhere else)
The course will be a series of five emails giving you tips on using fingerpicking for accompaniment and a number of patterns to try out.
To get all this, just fill in your email address here:
Sorry, mailing list currently closed
I do solemnly swear, by God and the King, that I won’t spam you. The emails are delivered via iContant and you can read their strict anti-spam poicy here. The email list is a double opt in, so once you enter your address you’ll get an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Then you’re away.
This is all very new, so if you have any trouble with it drop me an email or leave a comment.
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Meet Me In The Garden (mp3)
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – When You Were Mine (Prince Cover)(mp3)
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele – Howard (mp3) via MySpace
‘Magnificent Ukulele’ is no idle boast; Dent May is my new favourite ukulele songwriter.
Irresistible 60’s melodies and harmonies, 80’s ‘bumblebee in jam jar’ keyboards, a uke strumming away and a MySpace plastered with Jacques-Henri Lartigue photos. There’s nothing about him I don’t love.
Except his website consists of one line of Times New Roman. But that’s promised to change as he’s going to be giving away his EP A Brush With Velvet. I’m going to be checking back there regularly and I suggest you do the same.
Update: You can download Dent May’s EP, A Brush With Velvet, from his MySpace.
Oingo Boingo – Mary (Chords)
Probably the strangest chord progression I’ve put up so far. There’s a chord at every fret between B and D. It’s so strange I kept going back to check I hadn’t got the chords completely wrong (and I’m still not sure I haven’t).
I’ve written out the chords for a uke with a capo at the first fret. It seemed to make most sense that way. But there are still some tricky chord changes to navigate along the way.
You can listen to some of the song in this video and you can get a few more Boingo chords here.
