There’s a Robert Johnson ukulele tab book on the way.

Pictures: Martin factory 1925, Melvin Goaté the ukulele goat, Death Meets Amanda Palmer, Don’t you DARE walk away from me, Nick Nolte on guitarlele, gig bag maker and his mule (thanks to Phredd).

The pUKES have some sixty ukuleles between them and have started reviewing them all here.

Video: The Ukulele Hall of Fame has a lovely silent video including Manuel Nunes, Most Popular Ukulele Videos August, Skyrim dancing ukulele bear

Sophie Madeleine’s second album The Rhythm You Started has been officially released in the US (including a track I don’t think has been released before – annoyingly it’s album only). And here’s an exclusive clip of her in the studio discussing her gear:

The Olympics coinciding with Adele’s maternity leave certainly worked out well for Emeli Sandé.

My mum requested this one. I wasn’t intending to tab it so it’s pretty messy and busked together. I’d recommend you using this as a basis rather than copying it exactly.

Some pointers:

Bars 1 to 4: Picked with thumb on the C-string and index on the E.

Bar 5: For the first three notes here (and in the same phrase in the rest of the song) I’m doing a bit of a triplet strum. I strum down all the strings with my index finger, then I play the g-string with my thumb, then I pick the A-string with my index finger.

Bars 5 to 21: Other than that, it’s almost all down strums in this section. I’m even strumming rather than picking the single notes.

The ones in brackets are backing strums – play them a bit quieter.

Bars 22 to 26: This bit is a nod to the drums-only section of the song. Back to thumb on C and index on E.

Bars 32 – 39: In the, “you’ll find him next to me,” bits of the song I’ve had to fudge the melody on the “next” because it goes down to a B. For this final few bars I take this section up an octave so I can include the B. You could use this version all the way through but I thought the switch in octaves was a bit too sharp to do that.

Melody Version

Here’s tab for the melody along with the chords to help you build your own version. Or just play an easy version.

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Ukulele straps are a bit of a vexed issue. Traditionalists dismiss ukulele straps as being unnecessary. While plenty of people find them essential – with problems varying from boob-interference to the need to play lightening fast licks.

For my own playing, I’m mostly in the traditional camp. I don’t use a strap myself. But I’ve lightened up on straps in general. Particularly since the popularity of tenor ukuleles has exploded.

The big problem is that most ukuleles – even tenors – don’t come with buttons allowing for a strap. And there aren’t many ukulele specific straps so people make do with comically outsized guitar straps.

But people have started tackling these problems in ingenious ways. The latest being the – manga sex pun named – Uke Leash. Lori was kind enough to send me a couple of leashes to check them out. I’m not going to enter the whole strap debate, so this review is mostly going to be covering how well it works and comparing it to standard straps.

How It Works

The Uke Leash only attaches to the headstock of the uke. The other end has a loop that goes on your shoulder (or on your belt if you’ve got plenty of time or on your leg if you want to look a total spanner). That means you still hold it in your strumming arm the way you usually would but your fretting hand is free to twiddle wildly/send an email/slap a small child.

You can also drop the uke entirely and it won’t crash to the floor (although it will smash into any wall or kneecap that gets in its way as it’s penduluming).

There’s two main pieces to it: a long strap with the arm loop and a mini strap that goes round the headstock. The two click together so you can buy a headstock bit for each of your ukes and just attach the main one to whichever uke you want to use.

You can get various adaptors from the website that let you use it with a banjo ukulele and as a normal, guitar-style strap. I didn’t try those out though.

Overall, it works as advertised and does a good job of reducing the fretting hand’s workload. It attached to all my non-ridiculous ukes without any problem.

So this or a normal strap?

Advantages Against a Standard Strap

Non-invasive

The big advantage is that it’s much easier to attach to a standard ukulele than a normal strap. You can put it on and remove it easily and have your uke in exactly the same state it was before.

I also much prefer the way this one attaches to the uke thong – which attaches to the body and therefore dampens the sound. (I also worry about it scratching the body but that’s based on my neuroticism rather than any actual facts or evidence.)

More in-keeping with the ukulele

Having a full-on guitar strap on a ukulele does feel like complete overkill. Using a Uke Leash feels much more natural.

Disadvantages Against a Standard Strap

A bit uncomfortable and restrictive

It’s not a pain to use but I was adjusting it and myself often. And I found it to be more of a faff to put on than a normal strap.

I like to point the uke away from me when I play – much more than most people do. And I couldn’t do that with a tenor while I had the strap. But I was near the top end of the strap size I chose. It would have been less restrictive if I’d skipped up to the next size.

I just didn’t feel right using it. It felt like I was wearing socks with sandals. And, of course, it stops you spinning the ukulele over your shoulder and looking like a rockstar badass as I often like to do.

Still requires body-holding

It is a lot less secure than a full-on strap. Your strumming arm is still going to have to do plenty of holding work. I was quite happy with that but people who rely heavily on a strap and aren’t used to it are going to struggle.

And the holding does mean the soundboard is more muffled. In his review, Ian Chadwick found he was holding it less with his strumming arm and therefore getting a better tone than playing without a strap. I didn’t find myself holding it loosely enough to get any noticeable tone improvement, though.

Am I Going to Keep Using It?

I can see some people enjoying the Uke Leash but it’s not for me. Now that I’m doing reviewing it they’ll packed away and never used again. It doesn’t offer enough stability in exchange for the loss of movement and general feeling of being a socks-and-sandals-wearing twazzock.

Visit UkeLeash.com

Allo Darlin’ are doing pretty well for themselves these days. And this song has picked up a fair few requests.

It’s very straightforward. Just four chords. But does use a capo on the second fret. You can achieve the same thing by using D-tuning. But I’ve kept the chord names in their C-tuning names. If you’re used to D-tuning, the chords are A, E, Bm and F#m.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this pattern all the way through:

u d u x

Four times for each chord. Notice that it starts with an upstrum – you have to play that before the first beat of the bar. Often she’s just playing all the strings open on that upstrum then hammering on the chord.

Twiddly Bits

The bit in the intro uses the same chords but with a little twist. For both the G and Em chords you play the usual chord for one strumming pattern, then take your finger off the A-string second fret and play that open for one go through the strumming pattern. Then repeat that.

So for the G chord you do the standard G then Gsus2: 0230. On the Em it’s the standard Em then Emadd11 0430

She does the same thing on the Em chord throughout the song.

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In this week’s line up: electronic grave-wave sensation Grimes (with whom I share a taste in food), Allo Darlin’ pay tribute to Neil Armstrong, Jake Shimabukuro, Victoria Vox’s new duo, LP does another in her cover series and plenty more.

Full Playlist

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I’ve been underwhelmed by the electric ukes I’ve tried but I’d certainly be willing to give this Pete Howlett Firefly Ukelectic a go.

String Tinkers cigarbox ukes (and other instruments).

Kickstarter for a plastic ukulele. Looks interesting but the minimum is more than I’d lay down on a Kickstarter. Plus it’s got a huge goal and a very long way to go.

A Turturro turnover mandolin ukulele (mandolin on one side, uke on the other) that actually looks in pretty good nick.

Photos: 1943 Camp Shelby, Ivan Petrovitch.

Keyboard baritone ukulele.

Lyon and Healy bell ukuleles turn up quite often but I think this is the first Lyon & Healy Vintage Bell Tiple I’ve seen.

Neil Armstrong: first ukulelist on the moon. You can celebrate the great man with the chords to Allo Darlin’s Neil Armstrong (thanks to Konrad).

New Music: Two solo ventures from band members. Small Fry by Will Grove-White (of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain) and Nocturnal Emissions by Ian Emmerson (of The Re-entrants). Also out is the marvellous One, for Words by Keston Cobblers Club; James Hill influenced uke and bass music 12 Ornli’ Syge Tracks For Ukulele Og Kontrabas by Elof & Wamberg; L’Uke Play Ukuleighties and La Bohème Moderne by MeggFarrell’s Whiskey Social

Further listening: new track from the upcoming Jake Shimabukuro album

New Books: Ukulelezaza Solo Ukulele Book and DVD, Ukulele Bartt’s beginner book and a free chord ebook from Craig Robertson, That Dress Song and Poster Book.

Further reading: Acoustic Guitar: Digital Edition Ukulele Special (Thanks to Ron Hale)

Pictures: Loads of vintage photos and ukuleles on uketeecee’s Tumblr dedicated to Martin ukuleles. Machete museum pieces. Goat ukulele salesman (via beginnersuke)

On Video: Inside Elderly Instruments documentary (via Ukulelia).

On Uker Tabs: Iron and Wine’s The Sea and the Rhythm

Hey girl, the Breaking Bad tab I put up earlier was really short so I made you another one.

This is the ukulele bit in Blue Valentine (and on the DVD menu) that isn’t You Always Hurt the One You Love.

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I’ve been bitching about modern theme tunes for a long time. They all have atmospheric, doom-laden theme tunes you can’t even remember let alone hum in the shower. And the Breaking Bad theme is no exception. But the series is great so I wanted to do a version anyway. And I’m sure the inevitable Badger spin-off will have a great theme tune.

I started off playing this without the slide – which you can do if you don’t play slide – but it didn’t sound quite right. There’s a lot more pointers in my How to Play Slide Ukulele ebook but the main thing is to mute the strings behind the slide so you don’t get any nasty overtones. Other than that, you don’t have to be too careful with your technique. There’s a fair bit of slide noise in the original which just adds to the atmosphere.

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If you’ve been following the blog closely you’ll certainly know Wilfried Welti. I’ve been posting his videos since 2007 and put up his two free tab books: Solo Ukulele für Einsteiger and Weihnachten mit der Ukulele.

If you were impressed by his arrangements you’ll want to get hold of the three ebooks he’s just released. He was kind enough to send me copies of them and they’re excellent. Wilfried has been working on these for years (I know because I’ve been talking to him about them for that long) and it really shows. The arrangements are as clean and meticulous as his playing.

He’s selling them way too cheap so I recommend you grab them before he comes to his senses. Here’s a quick overview of each one. But if you don’t want to faff about go here and add everything to your cart.

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