When I got my first ukulele, I was completely clueless. This was in those dark, long forgotten days before the internet had been discovered. I didn’t even realise that the strings weren’t supposed to go thickest to thinnest and restrung it.
But you can save yourself from the social disgrace I experienced. I’ve put together a free mini-ebook covering the basics that every first time uke owner needs to know. Here’s what it contains:
Five Things to Know
Five Chords to Learn
Five Patterns to Strum
Five Songs to Play
Five Websites to Visit
Five Things to Get Free
Five Things to Buy
Five Videos to Watch
Five YouTube Channels to Subscribe to
That’s it from me for this year (other than the ebook for new ukers). I’ll be back at the end of January 2018 (year of the impossible F chord for people with gigantic pinkies).
New Releases
– I’ve been collecting all the ukulele stuff I’ve come across on Spotify in the Ukulele 2017 Spotify playlist. If there’s something I’ve missed, do let me know.
– WS64 is one of the original YouTube ukers having covered every Beatles song on ukulele. Now he’s one half of La Wolf and they’ve just put out their album On Our Own.
– Tiki garage rock from The Mangonuts.
– Opera-lele have a new one out A Life of Broadway.
This is probably completely meaningless to anyone outside the UK (and largely meaningless to those in it). The Trivago woman is a ukulele player (and the skipping rope player it seems). Which means I have to switch allegiances away from the Trip Advisor owl who is too busy lounging in his robe to learn an instrument.
Since it’s Christmas, I’m breaking my no Beatles rule to do this one I’ve had a fair few requests for over the years.
I’ve kept the arrangement as simple as possible. After the fingerpicking in the first bar it’s all strumming and lots of familiar chord shapes. And the melody is recognisable you don’t have to worry about emphasising it all that much. I’m using a capo at the first fret which puts it in the same key as the original. But you can just play it open if you prefer.
The only thing that might trip you up are the extra beats that he throws in. There’s one extra beat in the middle of the verse and two extra at the end.
In case you’re not familiar with the Italian repeats in the tab. You play through as normal up to the “D.S. al coda” in bar 29. Then you go back to the squiggle in bar 13. Play through to the “Da Coda” in bar 23. Then skip ahead to the target symbol in bar 30.
Time for the annual Uke Hunt Christmas time-waster.
– Grab a pen and paper
– Display knowledge.
– There might be spoilers in the comments.
– Check the answers here (no peeking).
– Return in triumph or despair and share you score in the comments.
Julian Casablancas – I Wish it Was Christmas Today (Chords)
Christmas songs are often so stupid they’re beyond parody. A point that was proved when Julian Casablancas turned SNL’s I Wish It Was Christmas Today into one of the best Christmas songs in the last decade.
I’ve arranged this with a capo on the third fret to move it to the key of C. But if you want to play without a capo you can replace C, F and G with Eb, Ab and Bb respectively.
Suggested Strumming
I use this strum twice for each chord the whole way through.
I’ve combined chords and the riff because they fall very nicely. If you prefer to play single notes just play the highest note (the note on the A-string until right at the end where it switches to the E-string).
There are a couple of variations in the riff from the SNL version. The tastiest is the A-string, 2nd fret (a flattened fifth against the F chord). It sounds very Strokes-esque.
Same as for the Casablancas version, this twice for each chord:
d – d – d u d u
Twiddly Bits
A rare easy transposition from guitar to ukulele. Everything is played on the high-E string of the guitar. So you can play it exactly the same way on the E-string of the ukulele.
Contests
I don’t usually cover contests but there are two at the moment that have good aims:
– Rachel Manke is giving away a customised Ohaha and all you have to do to enter is give to the ukulele charity of your choice.
– The Levy Sheet Music Collection is running the Save our Songs Contest. To enter you record a version of any of the songs in their collection. There are hundreds of with ukulele chords to choose from.
There’s nothing massively challenging in this arrangement but there are a few leaps up and down the fretboard. You can make things a easier with a bit of planning though. In bars 10 and 12 moving your hand up so you play the 3rd fret with your index finger makes it a much easier transition into the next bar.
When I got my first ukulele, I was completely clueless. This was in those dark, long forgotten days before the internet had been discovered. I didn’t even realise that the strings weren’t supposed to go thickest to thinnest and restrung it.
