If you haven’t already, make sure you get your nomination in for the Ukulele Video of the Year 2011.
Current high-flyers are Lisa Hannigan, LP and Eddie Vedder. If you think someone else deserves a look-in head over to the post and make your nominations in the comments.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who cringes whenever they hear unimaginative use of ukuleles on TV. So Rob Manning’s score for Channel 4’s Girls on the Pull a refreshing change (if you’re unfamiliar with 4’s naming tactics it’s a documentary about compulsive hair-pulling).
Vanilla Ice plays ukulele for hipsters (seems like the video only works in the US though), Warren Buffett ukes for the Chinese, and The Rock plays to promote his film.
Makers of the film The Descendants attempt to bribe Oscar judges with a ukulele. Although Brett McKenzie is the true uker’s choice for an Oscar.
The Ukes for UNICEF festival takes place in Berkhamsted (UK) on the 3rd March and features Uke Hunt friends Ken Middleton and Krabbers and plenty more.
Coverage of the industry-fest NAMM on Ukeeku and Ukulele Underground.
On Uker Tabs: Coheed and Cambria, Bombay Bicycle Club and Charlie McDonnell.
Pictures: Taylor Swift in Vogue, mustachioed paper valentine ukulelists.
How to learn the ukulele well enough to (almost) get you laid.
There’s a lot to love about the BBC’s updating of Sherlock Holmes (and a few things – like all the tilt shifting – to hate) and one of the parts I love most is the music (by David ‘James Bond’ Arnold and Michael Price).
It’s interesting to hear how similar the score for Sherlock is to the music for the film version of Sherlock Holmes by Hans Zimmer despite the music for the TV version being written before the film came out.
My version of Sherlock’s Theme is all done with fingerpicking. After the intro, it’s all:
C-string = thumb.
E-string = index finger.
A-string = middle finger.
Make sure the melody stands out from the backing (the notes in brackets)
My arrangement of the tune is quite tricky. So here’s the plain melody for the tune (without the intro). You can play it as it is or jazz it up in any way you see fit.
Download Podcast #13
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Podcast #13 in your face.
The January 2012 podcast features an interview with Lila Burns (where everyone finds out they’ve been pronouncing her name wrong) and plenty of excellent tracks.
Tracklist
1. Lloyd Gabriel – Unhook Your Heart
2. Kiwafruit – Alone And Thinking Of You
3. Megg Farrell’s Whiskey Social – O’ Fear Nothing, Ms Bennet
4. The Great Sebaldo – Man On The Train
5. Sara Dennis – Lost Times
6. Lila Burns – Witching Hour
7. Lila Burns Interview Part 1
8. Lila Burns – Again and Again
9. Lila Burns Interview Part 2
10. Lila Burns – Timeline
11. Spoon Blind Williams – Oh! Wow
12. The K – Unusual Possibilities
13. Manitoba Hal – Down In Pubnico
You can get in touch and submit tracks for consideration if you follow the rules (particularly the one about file format) via:
I’ve had a bunch of requests for Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know since the five people on one guitar version went viral. Inspired by the success of that they attempted the same thing with a ukulele. And they do successfully play ukuleles sometimes.
Use this once for every chord:
D – D U
The only exception is the C5 in the last verse. Play the same pattern loads of times (16 at my count).
Pay attention to the dynamics in this one. Start quietly and bash it out in the choruses.
You can play the ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ intro like this:
And the bridge bit like this:
Walk off the Earth have certainly had a good start to 2012. Their five-people-on-one-guitar Gotye cover hit it big and they had plenty of other excellent videos to back it up. Including some uke action.
Also new since I last posted, Supercute! rope in Kate Nash and Andrew WK; David Wax Museum rock a jarana; drinking songs from The Sprialtones, Howlin’ Hobbit and Gerald Ross; and loads more besides.
This weekend is NAMM (the orgy of musical instrument makers) and this year the CEO of NAMM is putting his money on ukuleles. Follow the action on Ukeeku including Mahalo’s attempt at making a ukulele worse than the flying V and whatever the hell this is.
The big curiosity on eBay at the moment is this huge collection of ukuleles. Looks like an interesting set of ukes but the $55,000 price tag and the seven-word description are off-putting.
Strange ukulele-ish instrument.
Ipana Tooth Paste: protects gums and makes you play the ukulele weirdly close to your face.
Doll outfits are more expensive than all my clothes put together: Barbie’s Ken A Go-Go
After years of being promised, the Jake Shimabukuro tab book is finally on the way. It’s for his latest album, Peace, Love, Ukulele, but does have his arrangement of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Jontom has released a new ebook 50 Licks for Ukulele.
Ukulele juggling (via @WillGroveWhite).
Pierce Brosnan endorses Kamoa (via Ukulovely).
The Netherlands has a new premier ukulele outlet The Jumping Flea Market run by The Uke Box.
Trying to make conversation at the Corktown Ukulele Jam (via loriroberge).
New releases: Manitoba Hal’s Flirting with Mermaids, Kahiwa’s Love Story, MeggFarrell’s Whiskey Social, The K’s Simple As That
Lou ‘Bossarocker off of the podcast’ Armer is promising one new song a week in 2012.
There are plans for building this five-string ukulele at the bottom of this page (via Herman Vandecauter).
Springsteen on Vedder and the ukulele.
The great strumming pattern video list.
Amongst the works that would have entered the public domain on 1st January under the law in 1978 is ukulele-club favourite Folsom Prison Blues. As it is, it is going to be under copyright until 2051.
Not ukulele related, but check out Sorie Kondi on Kickstarter. He’s a musician from Sierra Leone. He’s been invited to play at South by Southwest but needs to raise the money to make the trip. From his Kickstarter page:
Being born blind in such a poor country and never receiving any formal education would seem like enough hardship by itself. But then his life was uprooted in 1996 when civil war forced him to leave his home and seek refuge in Freetown. Despite the ongoing war, he began recording his first album there in 1998, and finished it after 4 months. But on January 6, 1999, the rebels staged a brutal assault on Freetown called Operation No Living Thing. Almost all the city’s residents fled to the bush. Sorie was abandoned, forced to hide inside his house for 5 days while much of the city was looted and burned down. When the dust settled, the master tapes had been lost and his career plans derailed. He decided to remain in the capital city, in a neighborhood called Fourah Bay, renting a one-room shack perched on a dangerously steep hill (dangerous, that is, even for a sighted person).
This video went up yesterday and I’ve already had a deluge of requests. Including three from one person. So I’ve set aside my holiday shenanigans (and my irrationally intense dislike of JGL) and put it up in time for New Year’s.
It is a really lovely song with some nice jazzy touches. Like the I-II7-iv-V7 turnaround and the G#7 leading into the middle.
If you don’t fancy dashing up to the 6th fret for the F#7 you can play it this way.
For intro you can do this for the first three chords:
d – d u
And a down strum for the E7.
And you can do just down strums for the main bit of the song too.
In the verse: four down strums for the A and G7. Two each until the B chord (four for that) then back to two each.
In the middle: four down strums for the C#m and two each for the others in the first two lines. In the third line, six down strums for the C#m and two for the F#7. Then four each in the last line.
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.
So, to save you from the social disgrace I experienced, I’ve put together a 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 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
You can download it free by clicking here:
And get playing by following the beginner ukulele lessons.
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