The Saturday UkeTube

Bret McKenzie uking it up with his old group, sweetafton23, Taimane, Des O’Connor and plenty more. [Read more]

Flight of the Conchords - Mermaids

Flight of the Conchords - Mermaids (Chords)

I woke up this morning to an excited email from Uke Hunt’s official FotC correspondent Jenny Flame telling me that last Sunday’s episode featured a ukulele song. I immediately dashed over to YouTube, stole the lyrics and started working out the chords.

After Jemaine’s appearance with a ukulele earlier in the series, it was the turn of Bret “Bret Bret” McKenzie (also of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra) to strum the uke. Although he didn’t bother playing the uke with his left hand (I assume it’s a parody of something).

Once you get passed the intro, the song itself only has two chords. The chords have names that sound like a chemical compound but don’t let that put you of. To play a Bm7, you bar your finger across all the strings at the second fret - make sure your thumb is behind the fingerboard to give you something to press against. The Amaj7 is like a normal A chord but with the g string played at the first rather than second fret.

Once you’ve got that chord change down, the only challenge is singing the song without bursting out laughing.

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Friday Links

Uke Hunt has a MySpace. Friend me up and join the Uke Hunt endorsed Ukulele Nation.

Lyle Ritz and Roy Sakuma chat on NPR (via Ukulelia).

The C-FleaPO & R2-Flea2 Flea ukulele doesn’t exist. But Darth Vader plays uke.

Howlin’ Hobbit is dishing out bi-weekly uke tips.

An ukulele has finally made an appearance in Flight of the Conchords during the song Goodbye Leggy Blonde.

Short lived cartoon character Crazy Ike and His Uke.

A short clip of Aldrine Guerrero in the studio on DoctorTrey and a podcast with him here.

Old Blue Bus has Hawaiian tracks and WFMU’s Beware the Blog has an interview with Tiny Tim (thanks to KDUS).

Another art uke.

Naked ukulele in New York.

Be careful how you type ukulelehunt.com.

The chords for 100 Hawaiian songs.