What’s she doing with a bloody mandolin? There’s already enough mando/uke confusion out there. Luckily, most commenters were distracted by the drummer.

Suggested Strumming

This will see you most of the way:

Twice for D, once for G, once for D.

For the A – G – D – A chords and the end of each verse just do the first half of the bar (four down strums) for each chord.

Chord Inversions

With the song just being 3 chords, it’s a great place to start playing with chord inversions (playing the same chord in a different way) and chord substitutions (playing one chord in the place of another).

A dead easy chord substitution you could use in this song is to use 7 chords (D7, G7, A7). And of course, you’ve got inversions of the 7 chords.

Put these together and you could play a verse like this:

Verse with inversions (MP3)

She didn’t request it, but this one is for Ida.

Sliding into a well-known song to perk up the audience in the middle of a song no-one knows is a cliched, shameless trick. And I love it. This week Tom McRae and Matt the Electrician pull it out. With Matt the Electrician’s choice resulting in a bubble-riot amongst the 4 year olds in the audience.

Also this week another one from Secret Home Party (who I bullied into setting up on YouTube so comment, rate and subscribe), a clip from UOGB’s Ukulelescope show and Sara Watkins should wear those glasses all the time.

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Le Domino banjo ukulele – haven’t seen one of those before.

A few more Ohana resonators up including my favourite, the Vita.

Little boy plays ukulele.

Videos from the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii Exhibition 2010 including a close look at the ukes. There are also some pictures on Ukulele Me Crazy.

Kala have a new look website. As do UU.

Long-time friend of the Hunt, Jenny has is blogging Hot Girls with Ukuleles which is not safe for work. At all.

New friend of the Hunt, Lorraine Bow gets interviewed by the Guardian.

Rivers Cuomo’s opinion of Fender ukuleles seems to be similar to that of many commenters (if you feel different you can win a Weezer signed ukulele here).

Ukulele murder.

Pictures: Ukulele Underground, Antique Muse (NSFW), the running man with a ukulele.

MP3: Indie Music Database has one from The Chord and the Fawn.

What it’s really like to work in a music store.

In the comments: The best comment ever, “many of these people seem to stroke your dick which is obviously bigger and more important than your ear you deaf bastard.” Yes, my penis is bigger and more important than my ear. And everyone wishing to stroke it should form an orderly queue.

Emily suggested the Countdown theme should be on the essential snippets post. And she’s quite right.

It’s another classic from Alan ‘Grange Hill‘ Hawkshaw. The tune is in C and fits very nicely on the ukulele. The only odd thing is that the theme is repeated 5 times – presumably to make up the 30 seconds.

I’ve finally accepted that I’m not going to convince the world of the vast superiority of campenella, so this one is very straight forward.

Links

Buy the original version
More TV theme tabs
Alan Hawkshaw’s Grange Hill Theme

I’ve had a few people ask me what I use in my playing and in putting together the site. So I thought I’d list everything I’ve been asked about (and a few I haven’t). And I’d be interested to know what you use: to record audio, make videos and, of course, what your favourite ukulele is. So do leave a comment.

Ukuleles

What size/make ukulele do you play?

I’m a fully paid up tenor-man these days. My favourite at the moment (by some distance) is my KoAloha Sceptre. But I still have a soft spot for my Ohana which I use regularly.

For quiet and electric playing I use my RISA. My EleUke sucks giant monkey-balls.

Accessories

What tuner do you use?

Mostly my ears but sometimes a Kala KC-02 clip-on tuner

What strings do you use?

Aquila.

What capo do you use?

Shubb mandolin capo. But be warned, it’s not suitable for smaller ukes.

Do you use a loop pedal/effects pedal?

I have a Boss GT-10 which does a whole mess of crap.

Tabs and Chords

What do you use to make your ukulele tabs?

Guitar Pro 6. I’m also using Sibelius (for the top secret Operation Exploding Carrats) which is massively over-priced and complicated for ukulele tabs. I’m beginning to loath it with every fibre of my being.

What do you use to make your chord charts?

I make chord diagrams in Guitar Pro. Then I put together the chord sheets in OpenOffice. I also use OpenOffice for the ebooks but I’m thinking of switching to iWork for both.

Recording

What mic do you use?

The most recent ones have been done with a sE Electronics USB2200a. I’m not a big audio guy so I want something I can just plug into the computer and have it work. This mic is great for me. Pricey but it sounds good and is very easy to use.

Before that I was using a Zoom H2 which is handy for away from the computer recording, equally suitable for use by idiots and much cheaper.

What software do you use to record?

GarageBand. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best book/place to learn this (and iMovie)? I’m still a Mac noob. Before that I was using Audacity.

What do you use to make videos?

I’m not qualified to offer anyone advice on this. I just use the camera in my iMac and iMovie.

Blogging and Site

What software do you use for blogging?

The site is powered by WordPress. It’s hard to think of a reason why anyone would blog using anything else.

Who designed the site?

The site and logo were designed by Ben Lew. Who did a great job. The theme before that was one of the Revolution themes. If you’re really hard core, the theme before that was Cutline.

What do you use to sell your ebooks?

I use eJunkie to sell my ebooks. They’ve been really great. Cheap, monthly flat fee and I’ve never had a serious problem (I can’t even think of a minor one). I started out with ClickBank and they really sucked. It was expensive and I didn’t want to be associated with the junk products that mostly use it.

Misc.

Things that no one has asked about and don’t have an obvious effect on the site but without them the site would suck or possibly not exist.

Online Storage

DropBox A must for anyone who uses more than one computer and finds themselves endlessly uploading to thumb drives. And free (up to a point).

Reading

I reread these regularly to make sure I never do something stupid like getting a job.

Seth Godin The Dip
Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance
Anneli Rufus Party of One
Steve Pavlina 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

Listening

This American Life

Watching

TED
Ira Glass on Storytelling Part 3 is essential for anyone who makes anything they care about (and dovetails with The Dip

A song to support the embattled ukulele brother Billy Corgan. I think he was remarkably restrained. I would have Axled the guy.

Besides that, it’s an incredible song. And a complicated one. No two verses, chorus or bridges are the same. Getting it to sound right on uke takes some finangling. So the pdf is a bit messy and it’ll require some explanation.

Tuning

Even the tuning isn’t straight forward. It’s tuned down, but not quite half a step. Here are some tuning notes.

Tuning Notes

Intro

For the intro I’ve written it up as the full guitar part – with the occasional added C note on both the G and Em chords. If you’re playing along with the song, you can just play straight G and Em chords. Which is what I’ve written up when this section pops up later in the song.

Intro

Main Riff

A fun little fingerpicking riff to play. I’m picking with thumb covering g and C; index finger on E string and middle finger on the A string.

Main Riff

This is Riff 2 in the tab. Riff 1 is just the first two bars of this.

Bridge

Not too much to worry about here. But watch out for the final C chord. In the first bridge it lasts two bars, in the second it lasts one bar.

Chorus

In the chorus I’ve thrown in the string part as well. It is slightly tricky to play. If you want to avoid it, Am would seem like the obvious choice. But, and I can’t explain why, G sounds like the best chord to me.

Chorus

And I think that covers it.

Favourite video this week comes from Secret Home Party (with guest appearance by Danielle’s moon). And I like the idea of them being a group of talented buddies who get together occasionally to make music and have a laugh. I want to be in that band.

Enough of the fake Ukulele Orchestra, from now on only the real guys; this week covering one of my favourite songs of all time. Also this week: Neutral Uke Hotel (going by The Motion Uke) covering one of their own songs, Uketreehugger (brace yourself for some drunken shouting around the 1 minute 40 mark) and the return of Sebi’s Monkey Island themes and ginormo-bass.

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Kala’s roundabout ukulele amps are now up for sale. They’re only 10 Watts so you’re not going to be playing Carnegie Hall with them. But it’s certainly plenty for a practice amp, making yourself heard with a guitarist, or letting the flash Harry louder than the rest of the ukulele group.

Most interesting uke this week is this 1930s electric Rickenbacker ukulele. It has to be a one off. The price and rarity makes it collectors only, but you have to read the eBay description. Interesting, informative and with a yarn in there.

If you happen to be in Honolulu this weekend, the ‘Ukulele Guild of Hawai’i are having their annual exhibition at the Hawaii All-Collectors Show. Sure to have a number of weird and wonderful ukes. Also present: Imperial Storm Troopers.

Beltona resonator – I shall watch and despair as the price on that one rises.

Nice unmarked 20s ukulele.

Not exactly ukulele related but Aardvark Manifesto.

Pretty good article on the uke resurgence on SFGate (via Ukulelia). The usual stuff but done more intelligently. Can anyone enlighten me as to where in I’m Yours this ukulele that everyone talks about is?

Jim D’Ville asks National Reso-Phonic three questions.

Acilius did such a good review of the UOGB re-releases I don’t think I’ll be able to do one myself.

The Guardian lists John King’s Partita No. 3 as one of the best reworkings of Bach.

Spare a thought for Ukulele Ike.

Maccaferri plastic guitar catalogue.

As a proud Yorkshireman, it’s good to see the Yorkshire/ukulele connection getting recognised: Ralph Shaw spreading the Yorkshire aloha and H.U.G. will take part in Sunday’s Yorkshire Day Symphony.

Familiar voice on the LV ad.

Ukulele lessons help teacher walk again.

MP3s: You have to listen to and download Craig Robertson’s version of I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You.

Photos: UOGB take a dip, find the queen without a king, meff ‘n jojo’s Tiny Instrument Revue, Nice hat, dear (NSFW and you have to be logged in to see it), Seductive like an orangutan

In the comments: Can anyone give Uke-Less-Liv advice on how to manipulate her parents into getting her a uke?