Whether it was the wartime rationing, it’s phallic nature, or the fact that bananas have no bones; the banana was something of an obsession in wartime songs. If you hadn’t guessed by the title, the hat and the mid-YMCA pose, this is a novelty song. As with any good novelty song, this burrows into your head so deeply it would take a drill to get it out. And after having it rotate in my brain for an hour today, the drill option looked quite appealing.

In the verses, it’s worth emphasizing the melody notes of the chords (usually the note on the highest string) and you might need this little beauty:

Requested by Bromley Plonker

The ukulele – thanks to it’s naturally comedy – has cropped up a fair few times on The Simpsons Principle Skinner, Krusty the Clown, Martin and Moe have all been seen strumming the ukulele on one occasion or another. Last week, Zack Kim post this eye-popping version of The Simpsons theme. I’m assuming that, unlike Kim, you don’t have two guitars, eighteen fingers and six brains. So I’ve tabbed out a much simpler version for the uke.

This version, not in the same key as the original, starts with ‘The Siiiimmmp-sooons‘ and cuts to the final main phrase (the way it is on the Simpsons episodes that are so crammed with gags they have to cut the intro short).

I’ve already mentioned how much I enjoy Earlyguard’s tunes. He has a very distinctive style (added to by his RISA solid) which is relaxing and hypnotic. So, when I heard him complain that he hates tabbing in his explanation of this piece, I felt I had to give it a go.

The tune follows the same simple picking pattern though out: starting on the forth string and picking through each string individually. Earlyguard uses his thumb to pick all the notes which gives it a warm, rounded tone. However, you might find it easier to pick each string with a dedicated finger (4th string = thumb, 3rd string = index finger etc.).

The risk with this piece is that, if you don’t put enough feeling into it, it could sound like a practice piece. To avoid this, you need to play with the speed of the piece and with the dynamics – which Earlyguard does wonderfully. For example, you could play the first two bars of the tune strongly and the second two more quietly – creating an echo effect.

I plan on tabbing more of Earlyguard’s tunes so be sure to check back here.

I highly recommend you check out Earlywolf – Earlyguard’s collaboration with fellow UkeTuber WS64.

At last, a tab I can get right (sort of)

Henry Mancini is probably the most famous writer of TV and film scores. Many of his themes are so memorable as to outlive their original source; such as Baby Elephant Walk (from the forgotten film Hatari) and Peter Gunn (from the hipster detective series of the same name).

Mancini’s theme for the Pink Panther films (and later TV show) strikes the perfect balance between detective intrigue and humour. My version of it – which slips into another Mancini detective theme A Shot In The Dark – was developed from a guitar arrangement by Colin Reid.

The main trick to get right in this tune is the balance between the melody and the chord accompaniment. You should concentrate on keeping the melody strong and at the forefront while while the chords are more soft and only played between the melody notes. I’ve tabbed the chords very loosely as I usual improvise the rhythm for the accompaniment. For expert use of this style check out Ohta-San.

Tricky sections of this piece are bars 9 and 13. Although these bars are essentially the same, you need to finger them differently or you’ll come unstuck. I’ve put the left hand fingering I use in these section underneath the tab and done the same for the run in bar 20. I should say that, even though I don’t do it in the video, it would be best to repeat the first section of the tab as it is the most recognisable part.

The tune finishes on the ‘International Man of Mystery Chord’. This chord is an Am7M. It contains a minor third but a minor seventh giving a double identity which has made it almost ubiquitous in spy and detective themes.

One final consideration: it’s absolutely essential that you play this tune on pink strings.

Requested by Fran.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain’s new album, Precious Little, is available from their website. You can download a track from the album – Joni Mitchell’s (He Played Real Good) For Free – on Horse Latitudes.

Bake yourself a Cakelele. Aloha-licious.

All four presenters of Resonance FM‘s ‘perfect accompaniment to a chocolate Hob Nob or recreational self abuse’ Glue Peter are learning the uke and indulging in all things ukulele. Their last ukulele special featured, Duke of Uke mainman, Matthew Reynolds and live music from Hefner‘s Darren Hayman. I’ve been promised more uke content in the future. Listen online at 3.30pm (UK time) every Saturday.

Amanda Palmer is playing Creep again. This time with The Gossip’s Beth Ditto and a puppet. (DailyMotion seems to be down at the moment – there’s a shorter, lower quality version here)

Play the Lilo and Stitch air ukulele.

How to settle a ukulele fight.

The best of the week’s ukulele videos after the cut

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Lire ceci en francais(Google Translate).

Bonjour et bienvenue a La Chasse a Uke. There has been a big surge in the popularity of the ukulele in France in the last couple of years. The amount of hits this blog gets from France is topped only by the USA (thanks in no small part to King David Ukulele Station). This is set to continue with Julien Dore winning the French version of Pop/American Idol. Already, friend of the blog, nobo has been telling me that every time he takes out his uke he is met with shouts of, “Oh, like Julien from Nouvelle Star.” With his good looks and interesting voice, it’s not hard to see how he won. But his ukulele could do with a good tune up.

Cet Air-La was originally recorded by Ye-Ye girl France Gall, but the version Dore plays is much closer to that by April March (who will hopefully get the recognition she deserves after featuring heavily in the soundtrack to Tarantino’s latest flick). The simple chords and relaxed tempo make this an ideal piece for beginners. Those wanting to stretch themselves a little more can try the chord solo in the outro.

This creates a few large stretches. Although Dore, plays the first bar of this by placing his second finger on the 3rd fret, I strongly recommend you use your first finger. It makes the leap up to the 7th fret and back much simpler.

Thanks to nobo for pointing me in the direction of this clip

There are a great many ukulele blogs out there, it’s tough keeping track of all of them. That’s why I’ve saved you a great deal of trouble and combined them into a single Yahoo pipe:

Ukulele Blog Pipe

This clubs together:

4th Peg, All Things Ukulele, Chiyodad, Doifter, Dominator, Eastern Ukulele, Fretboard Journal (uke posts only), Heftone, King David Ukulele Station (Babelfish translation), musicguymic‘s world, Nalu Music, UK-Ukes, Ukecast, Uke Hunt, UkuLady, Ukulele and All That Jazz, UkuleleLand and Ukulelia. If there are any more that deserve to be on there, please let me know.

Unless there’s a post about being ’13 ans’ and living in La Rochelle, I can’t understand a word of King David Ukulele Station. So I’ve also set up a pipe delivering just King David Ukulele Station in English. Although this is Babelfish English so far from perfect. Also the feed seems to revert to French if you try to subscribe to it (in Bloglines at least). Pipes is still in Beta so hopefully this will be resolved.

Since the number of French visitors I get is topped only by the USA, I’ve also set up a feed of Uke Hunt en Français. It would be interesting to know how good the translation is.

Finally, Brian Hefferan has also set up a pipe. His includes new Flickr photos and YouTube videos amongst other delights.

I’ve finally got round to uploading a couple of videos to YouTube. I’d resisted previously due to my embarrassement at the hideous facial gurning I do when playing. But there were a couple tunes that required more than an mp3 to get the full effect.

I had to demonstrate the KoAloha Pink Crystal Colored Ukulele Strings generously given to me by the lovely Jenny Flame. And, well, you can see for yourself why the Smeck tribute above had to be a video.

Let me know what you think.

“Play something I’ve heard of,” a cry I often hear from elderly family members who are less than impressed with my Roy Smeck imitations. The fact is, no matter how technically adept you are, most people want to hear something they’ve heard a million times before. I suspect that, after ripping through the 24 caprices, Paganini’s grandma screeched, “Play that one off the cigar advert. You know the one.” Luckily, everyone recognises Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer.

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