The fake strum is a simple technique that I use a lot in my arrangements. So it’s about time I gave it a post of its own.

It’s used in fingerpicking pieces to play full chords. It sounds like a strum but it’s just done by picking individual strings in sequence.

Here it is played twice slowly then up to speed.

Why bother?

Instead of doing this, you could just strum the strings and get the same effect. However, doing it this way keeps your fingers in position for picking individual notes. Making for much easier and smoother playing.

Here’s a quick video combining picking and fake strums.

In Tab

There isn’t any established tab for this as far as I know. I haven’t been distinguishing between fake and real strums in the past. But from now on I’ll be representing fake strums with a wiggly line like this:

You can do fake up-strums as well (although it’s more tricky and I can’t remember ever using one). But if one crops up I’ll be tabbing it like this:

You might remember a few weeks months ago I wrote a post about Sophie Madeleine looking for people to perform You Are My Favourite for her next video. The video is finished and you can watch it and grin here.

You can also buy it together with bonus gubbins and a new song. With half the money going to MacMillan Cancer support.

On to this much requested, innuendo laden song from Rocky and Balls. The chords for it are pretty simple. The only thing to watch out for is the big boy-band key change in the middle.

Suggested Strumming

For the first bar:

d – d u – u d –

Then in the bar with the quick Asus4 do:

– u d – d – d u

With the Asus4 being the first ‘d’ only. You can miss the first ‘u’ if you like.

On the A – E7 – A you can go with one down strum each.

The Bb section is the same strum with the chords just moved up one fret.

Buy it on Bandcamp

Requested by pretendings, Molly, Kim and possibly some others.

A rare occurrence this week: three videos from the same person. You may as well just visit Lila Burns’s channel this week rather than reading the post because I’ve also nicked two of the videos from her favourites.

One of them is Ólöf Arnalds for whom I’m stretching the rules (she plays charango). When you hear her I’m sure you’ll realise why. If you want to hear more, there’s a charango song she did with Bjork on Pitchfork.

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Unusually, it’s a rather unshowy and understated ukulele that’s got me interested. A Ken Timms Martin Style 0 copy. Looks great and sounds lovely too.

On the more showy side is a Black Bear Lyon & Healy 5K Shrine copy.

A couple of bobby-dazzler banjo ukuleles on eBay UK: Crown Ludwig, Gibson UB-2.

So transferring the site turned out to be something of a disaster. If you emailed me on Tuesday/Wednesday (including about the podcast) there’s a good chance I didn’t get your email. So I’m not blanking you, just email again. Some comments are currently missing – I’m trying to recover them. And if you missed it you might want to find out more about the upcoming Uke Hunt podcast. At least the site is up more often than Twitter.

The story to go along with last week’s flapper drawing. Along with the evolution of a ukulele.

Google ‘ukulele’ and you will find a strange red shoe world.

Craig Robertson has the most accurate theory about the ukulele.

Tri-Tabs has a bunch of new tabs for beginners.

Leona Lewis and Matthew Morrison (off of of Glee) do a ukulele duet) and John Hawkes (off of of Lost and Deadwood) records a ukulele song for the soundtrack of his latest film.

The Daily Growl is offering up a couple of mp3s from Meursault.

Another annoying ukulele boy.

Pictures: Portland buskers (if anyone knows who those guys are, I’d love to know), Sniffs, Celebrating Spontaneous Creativity

Why are all ukulele players gay?

I’ve made a pact with myself that I’m going to buy a tenor KoAloha Sceptre at the next available opportunity. I don’t care how ridiculous they are, or how little I need or deserve another uke. Of course, I make that pact and the next Sceptre seller refuses to ship outside the US.

A big part of the reason I want one is that Alvin Okami is just such a great myth-maker. How could you resist after watching this extra nugget from The KoAloha Story?

He ends the section with a lovely version of This Is My Song by Charlie Chaplin (it starts at about 12:30) and it’s that version that I’ve written up. There are a bunch of useful chord variations and inversions in the arrangement that are well worth making note of.

If you want to be part of the follow-up to The KoAloha Story, you can have your own KoAloha story told in Gary San Angel’s next project.

In a further attempt to spread my tentacles over the internet (I said tentacles) and rake in the payola, next month is going to see the launch of the Uke Hunt podcast.

Obviously no one wants to hear my surly grunting, so at the helm will be Bossarocker.

It’d be great to have loads of people who read the blog on the podcast. So if you want to get your music heard you can submit your tracks for consideration by uploading them to SoundCloud (no covers songs please – unless they are public domain). Be sure to include a bit of information about yourself when you do.

You can also get in touch and share your music, ideas or opinions by emailing podcast@ukulelehunt.com.

I’m not sure if I should admit I’ve never seen an episode of The Sweeney. I know the show invented the ‘I don’t play by the rules’ cop show but it’s such a cliche now it’s hard to watch. Unless they just go hilariously over the top as Luther did.

Anyway, on to the theme tune. The original version is in the uke-friendly key of Em so I’ve been able to keep the same key for this version. The main feature of the tune is the chromatically descending notes on the C-string. You have to keep this sounding strong while you play the melody notes against it.

For most of the tune I’m using my fingernail as a pick (holding it between my thumb and middle finger more firmly than I do for strumming). I chose to do this so I could get plenty of attack but also have more control over the single notes than you get with straight forward strumming. I only bust out the fingerpicking for the melancholic ending.

Requested by Bosssarocker

While I’m spending the weekend rocking out at Download (METAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!), you pansies can enjoy some la-di-da ukulele music including Bess Rogers, another ukulele playing ninja and a song about rain from, official International City of Rain 1987-2008, Manchester..

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Mid-East‘s range of folk-instrument inspired ukuleles have shown up on eBay. Currently there are the Baroq-ulele, Balalaika ukulele and lute ukulele. No sign yet of the sitar-kulele which is slated for later this year.

A couple of Sam Chang ukuleles up right now. Don’t see them very often.

I’m all for using videos and soundfiles in listings, but if you’re going to start bids at $7,000 it’s probably worth finding someone who can show it off.