Ukulele & accordion is fast becoming the new ukulele & kazoo. This week’s contribution to the combo comes from Les Poupées Gonflées (literal translation = The Swollen Dolls – that has to be a French euphemism).

Also this week, Seeso has moved all his covers to a new channel and has bravely reupped his cover of the Red Hot Chunky Puppies (it’s now illegal to use their name on the internet). Other performers in this week’s selection include gentle-folkie Anna Ash, noise-merchant Williwaw and The Polyjesters with a song about Mrs Nahasapeemapetilon.

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Another new uke and another new wood for Kala with the Kala Butterfly. MGM refers to it being made from bicote. He might mean bocote – the heavy grain certainly looks a lot like bocote. Either way, I don’t think it’ll make its way on to my shopping list.

Two lovely vintage Favilla ukuleles: Favilla Teardrop and a Favilla Wimbrola modified into a four string ukulele.

My favourite uke of the week: Kamaka Tiple.

Ukulele Ventures tab book from Japan. I wonder if that’s what U900 used.

Ukulele in a canoe.

Diverting backside.

Check out the Stackridge podcast on Monday for a ukulele special including George from the UOGB co-present and tracks including Uke Hunt faves the Bobby McGee’s and Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer. And there’s a performance by Fairport Convention.

I’ll be heading off to Ukelear Meltdown this weekend. If you see me, say hi. I won’t bite.* Other festival possibilities include Wukulele (they’ve only announced one act, but that act is Bob Brozman), the Belper Ukulele Day and, of course, Donington. Let there be rock.

DFW have a series of posts on the uke starting here and taking in why people took up the ukulele.

Photos: Joe Strummer on ukulele (Thanks to Will who has many more famous ukers here), Ralph Shaw busking, Harold Walden, Herman gives Roger a ukulele and tells him that the only way to diffuse the Marshmallow Man’s anger is to play music.

tUnE-YaRdS 4AD session (via Bossarocker

Ukulala is back after a long break.

Michelle Blades is a synesthete.

Ukulollo shares his fancy video technique with Armelle.

MP3s: Blind Pilot did a ukulele version of 3 Rounds and a Sound for Daytrotter, Gorilla vs. Bear has White Hinterland’s highly effected uke.

* I might bite.

Sara Watkins has a few ukulele songs knocking around but this one – from Nickel Creek’s Why Should the Fire Die? – is the standout. The tuning she uses in this one is rather unusual. It’s like a low-G ukulele tuned down two frets (to F Bb D G). I worked out the tune using a baritone ukulele with a capo at the third fret.

I included the shapes for standard tuning in the chord chart. Here are the chords for her weird-ass tuning.

Twiddly Bits

Here’s the little riff she plays through most of the song:

If you’re using standard tuning, you can get away with playing it like this:

Suggested by Ashley and Frank

You may have noticed this is my seventh post in the space of six hours. It’s all part of the overhaul of the site that will be taking place soon.

With over 1,000 blog posts on Uke Hunt and a bunch more in the other sections, it’s getting impossible for people to find what they’re looking for. So these posts are designed to guide people towards the stuff that they’ll find most useful.

The first set of ‘lessons’ are divided by difficulty with a couple more focusing on styles (fingerpicking – which needs a bit of filling – and blues).

If you’ve got a suggestion for a section or something that should be included in a section, let me know in the comments.

For Beginners

Learn:

– How to read chord charts.
– Songs using only basic chords.
– Strumming technique.
– Essential equipment.

Click here for beginner lessons.

For Improvers

Learn:

– Barre chords.
– Songs with more jazzy chords.
– How to get a good sound.

Click here for improver lessons.

For Intermediates

Learn:

– To read tab.
– Useful licks.
– Guitar riffs for ukulele.
– Scales.

Click here for intermediate lessons.

For Advanced Players

Learn:

– Advanced techniques.
– To combine single notes and accompaniment.
– How to make your own arrangements.
– Fingertwisting tunes.

Click here for advanced lessons.

Blues Lessons

Learn:

– Blues scales.
– Blues licks and riffs.
– Solo blues tunes.

Click here for blues ukulele lessons.

Fingerpicking Lessons

Learn:

– Basic fingerpicking technique.
– Fingerpicking tunes.

Click here for fingerpicking lessons.

A few posts to help you get going with one of the most popular non-traditional ways to play the ukulele.

For this section you’ll need a good understand of ukulele tab.

Step 1: Basics

Blues Scales:

– Minor pentatonic scale
– Blues scale

Five steps to blues mastery

How to Play Blues Ukulele – ebook covering blues licks, riffs and soloing.

Step 2: Blues Riffs

Mannish Boy
Cream – Sunshine of Your Love

Step 3: Robert Johnson

They’re Red Hot
Walkin’ Blues
Come On In My Kitchen

Step 4: Blues Tunes

Neal Paisley – Gossip
Mississippi Blues

Extra Credit: Bored of using your fingers? Check out How to Play Slide Ukulele for a new perspective.

Fingerpicking Basics

Fingerpicking First Steps

Easy Fingerpicking

Playing one note at a time.

Stephin Merritt – Smile
Earlyguard – Busy Bee
Silent Night
Oh Christmas Tree

Moderate Fingerpicking

Introducing chords and melody notes.

Hawaii Five-O
Indiana Jones
Super Mario Theme
Godfather Theme

Tricky Fingerpicking

Introduction to campanella playing

You can use the campanella technique to play tunes like these:

John King – Larry O’Gaff
Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla
Baby Elephant Walk
Davy Graham – Angi
Upstairs, Downstairs Theme
Avett Brothers – Murder in the City

Once you’ve got to grips with the tabs in the intermediate section, it’s time to move up to playing some full tunes.

Step 1: New Tabs and Techniques

Strum blocking
Fingering and repeats
Advanced strums and rhythms
Hammer-ons and pull-offs
Slides
Advanced repeats, accents and trills
Vibrato, grace notes and bends
String bending tips

Extra Credit: Harmonics on a ukulele

Step 2: Full Tune Tabs

Theme tunes to films, games and TV shows provide a great test for your tab playing abilities and give your something instantly recognisable to play for friends and family.

Indiana Jones
Super Mario Theme
Godfather Theme
Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Office

Extra Credit: Get more tab arrangements for more popular instrumentals in the ebooks How to Play National Anthems and How to Play Ukuleles for Peace.

Step 3: Make your own arrangements

Once you’ve got the hang of other people’s arrangements of tunes, have a go at making your own.

– Here’s my tutorial for While My Guitar Gently Weeps in the hopes that you’ll work up your own rather than apeing Jake’s.
– Combining melody and chords.

Extra Credit: Learn how to read sheet music to expand your repetoire.

Step 4: Finger Twisters

Tricky tabs:

Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla
Sailors’ Hornpipe
In the Mood
Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Music for a Found Harmonium
James Bond Theme (difficult version)

More tricky ukulele tabs

Nightmare tabs:

Iron and Wine – Naked As We Came
Nick Drake – Cello Song
Radiohead – Street Spirit

More Nightmare tabs

Extra Credit: Check out John King’s Classical Ukulele, Mark Nelson’s Fingerstyle Solos for ‘Ukulele and my ebook http://howtoplayukulele.com/how-to-play-classical-ukulele/ for some fingerpicking challenges.

The improver section will have set you up with some serious chops. Now it’s time to start digging into tab and really showing off.

Step 1: Learn to Read Tab

– Frets and Strings
– Rhythm
– First ukulele tabs. A few short and simple but highly effective bits of tab:

WIUO – It’s A Heartache Introduction
Postcards from Italy Introduction
Kings of Leon/WIUO – The Bucket
Black Sabbath – Iron Man

Extra Credit: Follow the fingerpickinng lessons.

Step 2: Useful Licks

Hawaiian turnaround
Outros
Essential snippets to amuse your friends.

Extra Credit: Play a bunch of blues licks, riffs and solos in the How to Play Blues Ukulele ebook.

Step 3: Thumb-Only Tunes

Tabs for tunes that combine melody and chords but can all be played with just your thumb on the picking hand. So you can concentrate on the fretting hand without having to worry about complicated picking.

Patsy Cline/Willie Nelson – Crazy
Pua Lililehua
Waltzing Matilda
Christmas Time is Here
Whiskey in the Jar

Extra Credit: Get more tab arrangements for more popular instrumentals in the ebooks How to Play Christmas Ukulele, Christmas Ukulele 2 and

Step 4: Theory

– Learn some scales:

Minor scales
Major scale
Minor pentatonic scale
Blues scale

– How I work out chords
– Playing slash chords on the ukulele

Extra Credit: Harmonizing a melody

Step 5: Get a Solid Ukulele

Once you’ve reaching this stage in your ukulele playing, you’ll have put in many hours of practice. Before you get much further it’s time to get yourself a really nice, solid-top ukulele. Ohana and Kala both have solid ukuleles at affordable prices. If you budget stretches a bit further, take a look at KoAloha and Pono.

Now head to the advanced section and prepare to blow people’s mind with your mad-skills.

If you think there’s a post that deserves a link here or have a topic you’d like me to cover in this section, leave a comment.

Following on from the beginner lessons, you’re rocking through the easy chords, have your strumming down and learnt some fundamentals. In this section we’ll kick it up a notch with some more advanced chords.

Step 1: Barre Chords

– Barre chord playing tips
– Barre chords and inversions
– Songs with barre chords:

Ingrid Michaelson – You and I
Creep
I Heart You Online
Death Cab for Cutie – I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Step 2: Polish Up Your Technique

– Get good tone
– 10 ways to play an E chord – get to grips with the most loathed chord on the ukulele.

Step 3: Learn Some Jazzy Chords

Songs with fancy diminished chords, 6 chords and other oddities:

Flight of the Conchords – Mermaids
Priscilla Ahn – Way Back Home
Sophie Madeleine – Take Your Love with Me
Erika Eigen – I Want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper

Extra Credit: Learn the fundamentals of chords, which chords go together and why in my ebook How to Play Ukulele Chord Progressions.

Step 4: Make Sure You’ve Got a Decent Uke

To get this far you’ve shown some dedication. If, like me, you started on a really crappy ukulele, you’ve earned yourself a nice uke. Kala make some nice ukuleles and Lanikai both make good ukuleles at reasonable prices.

By now you’ve probably read quite a bit about the ukulele so take a look at ten things you hear about the ukulele that might be bollocks.

Now you’ve got your chord chops down head over to the intermediate section to get stuck into tabs.

If you think there’s a post that deserves a link here or have a topic you’d like me to cover in this section, leave a comment.