Top of the crop this week are two videos from Mathias ‘The Burning Hell‘ Kom’s Spring Breakup. Also up is a stunning Tongan send-off, Bartt and Ukulollo ripping it up, a band that bears a passing resemblence to The Folksmen and, horror of horrors, a football song.
I promised delivery on July 1st and here it is. But it almost killed me and I’m not sure how I’m going to pull off writing How to Shred the Fuck… by November. I’m on a time-consuming, top secret project that can only be referred to as Operation Exploding Carrats. Sorry about the name, my first three choices – Operation Woodshed, Operation Frequent Wind and Operation Beaver Cage – were taken already.
Anyway, I’m supposed to be selling you stuff, not rabbiting on. The Grand Poobahs of internet marketing are right, I’m hopeless at marketing.
Your Rugged Good Looks and Easy Charm Have Convinced Me Already. How Do I Buy It?
Click the ‘Add to Cart’ button below and hand over your money. The final price will be $9 but there’s a $2 early-bird discount for you folks (until Friday 9th July).
After you pay you’ll be taken to the download page and get it sent to you by email.
What’s In It?
You get tabs for 7 classical tunes arranged for re-entrant ukulele:
Blue Danube – Strauss
Bridal Chorus – Wagner
Elephant – Saint-Saëns
Gran Vals – Tarrega
Orpheus in the Underworld – Offenbach
Pizzicato by Delibes
Toreador Song – Bizet
The focus is on tunes that you’ll have fun playing and that people will recognise and be impressed by. The focus isn’t on good classical technique or faithful recreations of the original works (in some of them I’ve sythed out the less famous sections).
You get individual pdf files of each of the tabs along with an ebook (fancied up by Ben Lew) with my usual blathering and a few general pointers on playing. It’s not a full on guide to classical technique, more along the lines of the stuff that usually accompanies tabs on here. It’s all delivered digitally. Check out FAQ for more info.
I’ve decided just to go with the YouTube videos this time round. It cuts down on download size and technical problems. So there are no videos or MP3s included in the download. Just links to the YouTubes.
Why You Shouldn’t Buy It
In the spirit of bad marketing, you might not want to buy it if:
- You’ve never done any fingerpicking. There’s a variety of difficultly but none of them are suitable for beginners.
- You’re looking to develop classical technique.
- If you play soprano only: Some of the tunes use frets above the 12th.
What If I Get It And It Sucks?
As with all my stuff, if you don’t like it let me know within 7 days (with the email address you used to pay with) and I’ll send you full refund. No questions asked or seething resentment.
I Hate PayPal
Me too sometimes. So now you can pay without jumping through the PayPal hoops. Go to the shopping cart and you should see a button for paying by card.
I Can Now Look Past Your Ugly Face and Repugnant Personality. How Do I Buy It?
Click the ‘Add to Cart’ button below and hand over your money. The final price will be $9 but there’s a $2 early-bird discount for you folks (until Friday 9th July).
After you pay you’ll be taken to the download page and get it sent to you by email.
I Have A Question
If you have any questions, queries or problems you can email me at ukulelehunt@gmail.com or contact me here.
A rare occurrence this week: three videos from the same person. You may as well just visit Lila Burns’s channel this week rather than reading the post because I’ve also nicked two of the videos from her favourites.
One of them is Ólöf Arnalds for whom I’m stretching the rules (she plays charango). When you hear her I’m sure you’ll realise why. If you want to hear more, there’s a charango song she did with Bjork on Pitchfork.
Mid-East’s range of folk-instrument inspired ukuleles have shown up on eBay. Currently there are the Baroq-ulele, Balalaika ukulele and lute ukulele. No sign yet of the sitar-kulele which is slated for later this year.
A couple of Sam Chang ukuleles up right now. Don’t see them very often.
I’m all for using videos and soundfiles in listings, but if you’re going to start bids at $7,000 it’s probably worth finding someone who can show it off.
Videos this week include the Wellingtons with Bret taking the lead on a Randy Newman song (subscribe to their new channel), a snippet Martina ‘used to sing with Tricky’ Topley-Bird and her ukulele playing Ninja (see him more clearly here) and Ukulollo being hilarious.
But my faves this week are a couple of originals from 4DJB25 and Myriam Parent.
I pilfered no less than three of this week’s videos from Jeff’s sites Humble Uker and Humble Baritonics. He’s been turning up some great videos recently so you should subscribe to both blogs.
Hot on the heels of Billy Corgan is another 90s hero converting to uke: Trent Reznor. The uke crops up in the latest track from his new band, How to Destroy Angels. It’s safe to say he hasn’t been converted to Hawaiian music.
Also this week are the Naive Thieves displaying the two ends of facial-hair fastidiousness spectrum, Crooked Still and Coralie Clement.
You might have already had a sneak preview of this post, but here’s the finished article.
Today’s tube includes Ukulollo with Siwar from Ukuleles for Peace. They’re currently offering a pineapple ukulele for the best ukulele song. You can find out more in this video.
Also featured is Miss Jess. Her fantastic EP, Jammin’ at Jacksons, is now available on iTunes so you have no excuse for not picking up at least a couple of tracks (Philadelphia and Finally Mine are indispensable).
Also up is Salwa Azar, Zooey Deschanel, some blinding bluegrass and plenty more.
I’ve probably missed a bunch of videos while I’ve been away on holibobs so I hope you’ve been following UkeToob.
There’s another video you should be aware of: Eliza Doolittle’s Skinny Genes. Looks like she’s being set up as the English Miley Cyrus.
Bossarocker is doing a ukulele show for Chorlton Arts Radio (a non-profit community radio station) and is looking for people to contribute their ukulele tracks to be played on the show. If you want to be featured, you can find more details here.
Classical ukulelist Herman Vandecauter has started a blog where you can find MP3s and such. Although not, as yet, his neighbour’s self portrait.
PBS special on Kamaka ukuleles.
Podcast of the SXSW Ukulele for Geeks talk.
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain are rather annoyed at the United Kingdom Ukulele Orchestra.
Mary Lou Dempler is looking for donations of (used or new) instruments and books for Boys’ Haven. If you can help out, contact her here.
Lil Rev will be releasing a new book titled 101 Licks for Ukulele according to the Humble Uker.
Mia Farrow ukes it up in Woody Allen’s Purple Rose of Cairo (thanks to Joe Zane for the correction on that).
I’m not quite sure what’s going on with Le Soir’s Ukulele Sessions. The old site disappeared. A new one has reappeared here. But I couldn’t get any of the videos to work.
Got a Ukulele isn’t impressed with the Duke of Uke.
Listen to a full James Hill show.
A mind-map of famous people who uke.
MP3s: Pegasus Bridge do a couple of their tunes on uke, Mad Mackrel has an MP3 from Lille, Stereogum has a track from Buke and Gass.
Photos: Mighty Boosh ukulele, Mallardy.
In the emails: In response to the birthday post, Dave made a great suggestion: “A uke ‘learning’ community / forum”. I think it’s a really interesting idea to have a forum that’s solely based on helping people play better but I’m not sure if it would take off. I’d love to know what you think of the idea in the comments.
90s flashback this week with videos from Billy Corgan and Eddie Vedder (channeling John Lennon for the benefit of Conan O’Brien). Also this week, a new song in the UOGB repertoire, a Neutral Milk Hotel ukulele cover band, Taimane in her back yard (she’s so great when she’s not trying so hard) and plenty more.
I’ll be off on holiday by the time you read this. And not one of those fake holidays where I just stop blogging and spend every day laying in bed. A real holiday where I go somewhere. So after tomorrow’s videos there won’t be any posts for three weeks.
Jim D’Ville’s Play Ukulele by Ear is now now available for download (for $18). You can read my review of it here.
Assuming the ash air transport authorities come to their senses and hire Kate Bush and Donald Sutherland to sort out the ash cloud, the UK will soon be playing host to a full Beatles Complete on Ukulele show in London in July. And the Corner Laughers are coming over in May.
Eliza Newman teaches Al Jazeera how to say the name of that volcano by the medium of song.
Two acts have been posting chords to their songs (something which should be heartily encouraged) Howlin’ Hobbit and Craig Robertson.
Head to Finland and learn to build ukuleles with Pete Howlett.
Raul Malo and his fans are impressed with his new UBass.
Armelle discusses the Paris Ukulele Bazaar.
In the comments: Lizzie got me thinking about chord notation. If you’ve got any thoughts on the best way to indicate chord inversions, let me know.
