What amps do I use for Ukulele playing?

It may seem like a silly question, considering that the ukulele is an acoustic instrument, but I thought I would share with you how I like to amp my ukes.  It really depends on the situation though...  In both cases I either use a pickup inside the uke, or I mic the uke with an instrument mic  (I use a Shure SM series mics)

1. If I am playing an acoustic set alongside somebody with a guitar, then I will find that the ukulele needs a little lift - nothing much, but just a little extra oomph to help the uke compete.  In these scenarios I use my small battery powered pignose which is just the job.  Great tone - everyone should own a pignose

More on Pignose HERE


2. If I am gigging solo to a larger crowd, I need a proper amp with me.  I use a Marshall AS50R Soloist - its a beautiful sounding acoustic amp with twin speakers, chorus, reverb and two inputs (including a balanced XLR input for a microphone).  Its a superb amp and can easily fill a village hall with sound.  It also has an output if you wanted even more noise by feeding it to a house PA.  I adore this amp and if you are considering an acoustic amp, I'd struggle to suggest anything else.

The current model is, I believe, called the AS50D

More about the Marshall HERE

So there you have it - horses for courses, but there are always times when a bit of power doesnt go amiss with a ukulele.

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Short ukulele gig report

Another successful uke gig / jam at which we played several of the songs previously reported

A new outing though for some new tracks for ukulele which I list below by way of inspiration for you. They worked well!

- Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen

- I hope That I Don't Fall in love With You, by Tom Waits

- Shotgun Willie and Whisky River, both by Willie Nelson

- Labelled With love by Squeeze

- Watching The Detectives by Elvis Costello

- White Lightning by George Jones


Certainly a bit of a country theme! Three ukes played together, one flea, one fluke and one makala dolphin

More gig reports soon!

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New Mainland plastic backed beginner ukulele

As much as I already love Mainland ukuleles to bits, they have impressed me yet again.

Clearly taking a nod from the success of the Makala Dolphin ukes, Mainland have released a range of plastic backed beginner ukes at the very reasonable price of $79.50

The range starts with a rather girly looking set of pastel coloured ukes called the Gecko

Mainland Gecko

Next comes a Reggae / Jamaican styled gecko uke

Mainland Reggae ukulele

And finally, my favourite, the Chilli Pepper uke

Mainland Chilli Pepper uke

They are laminate spruce top ukes with rosewood fingerboards and ABS plastic backs like the Dolphins, Fleas and Fluke ukuleles.

I am longing to play one, and have fingers firmly crossed that Mike at Mainland can get them into UK stockists

Full details can be found here CLICK

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Fitting K&K Big Shot pickup to Fluke Ukulele

This morning I fitted my K&K Big Shot pickup to my Fluke ukulele - relatively hassle free!

I chose the K&K internal as this is what is fitted by Fluke at the factory.  Its a pad based piezo transducer pickup and this is important as the Fluke has a molded one piece bridge and saddle.  That means that the more common under saddle piezo pickups wont work on a ukulele like this (no saddle to remove to put them under!)

So here are the steps I took to fit the pickup.

K&K in packaging

The pickup arrives with all the bits and pieces you need to install, but I suppose it isnt for the faint hearted, as it requires drilling your instrument.

K&K out of the pack

As you can see above, its a one piece unit with no soldering required.  You need to put the metal jack part through a hole in the ukulele and secure it with a bolt.  The flat disc is then stuck to the inside of the body of the uke using the very thin double sided tape that they supply (thats the brown strip above).  As I say, the jack is secured with a bolt, but also has a strap pin cover.  I dont use a strap on my ukes, so this isnt essential.

To fit, you need to drill a half inch hole in the side of the uke.  Being a fluke, it has a flat base that allows the uke to stand up.  I therefore needed to mount the jack on the side of the uke instead.  When you look at the fluke ukulele body, you will see the ridges that provide strength to the body showing on the outside - I chose to drill between these to make it easier to fit.  I drilled a small pilot hole in the body first, then moved to the larger drill bit to create the hole as shown below.

Hole drilled (gulp!!)

Now for the difficult bit - how do you get the jack through the body of the uke from the inside?  The hole on a ukulele is far to small to get your hand in, so this needed a bit of thought.  What I did was get a thin (ish) barbeque skewer from the kitchen drawer and bent a gentle curve into it.  I threaded this through the hole I had drilled, and with a bit of turning and twisting, out it popped of the sound hole with no pressure on the sides of the uke.  I then put the jack socket on to the end of the skewer and secured it will some sellotape.    A good tip here - I tied some cotton to the piezo pad end - I did this to stop the piezo falling inside the uke when I pulled the jack as this would have been a real pain to fish out of the ukulele body!

Gently pulling the skewer, the jack disappeared into the uke and popped through the hole I had drilled no problem at all.  I removed the tape and secured it with the retaining bolt.  Difficult part done.

Now to fit the piezo.  You are always going to be fairly limited retro fitting a piezo like this because of the size of the hole on the soundboard - you will only get your fingers so far into the ukulele body.  I applied the sticky tape to the face of the pickup and loosened the strings right off - reaching inside I managed to reach a spot on the underside of the soundboard dead centre and just behind the bridge - gave it a press, and it was secured.

All done, and the jack from the outside looks like this

Or like this with the optional strap button

How does it sound - well very nice actually - gave it a run through my Marshall Acoustic amp and its very nice.  Feedback is easy to create if you are too close, and it does require a bit of a turn up on the volume dial as this is a passive pickup - but still, very nice clear sound.  It does pickup a fair bit of body noise, but that is the downside to piezos generally - no matter - it will force me to improve my playing style!

Also helps to give it a bit of bass or roll back the treble a little as it can be a little bright, but thats what your dials on the amp are for!

Quite an easy job on the whole - I'm pleased!

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Ukulele beginners tips - ouch! My fingers hurt!

Probably the biggest barrier to new ukulele players who have never played a stringed instrument before - sore fingers!

Not much I can suggest for the pain. I'm afraid it's something you just have to go through, and its horrible. You will most likely get callouses or blisters on tips of your fretting hand fingers from the pressing of the ukulele strings, and you may also get cramps or aches in your hand from making chord shapes. The latter is also perfectly natural - you are making your fingers make and hold positions they are not used to, you muscles and tendons need to learn and strengthen.

I do have your sympathy, and would urge you to stick at it. It does get easier, and it would be such a shame for a beginner to give up ukulele because of sore fingers alone.

That said, I can provide you with some tips.

1. Practice! Obvious really, keep at it to toughen up those fingertips and strengthen your hand. if the pain is bad, try to practice for shorter periods but more often. Practicing uke only once a week will make it a long hard slog!

2. Find other strengthening exercises - some people swear by those grippy gadgets that mountain climbers use to strengthen their fingers, but those squeezy stress balls work well. Practice your gripping by squeezing these whenever you are not playing your uke. A friend swears by kneading bread dough as a good exercise!

3. Stretches - as well as building strength, you need your fretting hand to be flexible. When ever you are 'not playing your uke, try to introduce finger stretches into your day as often as possible

4. Leave the blisters alone! - you may well get blisters appearing on your fingertips which are both unsightly and sore. Don't burst them or pick them! Players of any stringed instrument build up callouses of harder skin on their fingertips that prevent this happening very often. Resist the urge! A tip I heard on this is to dip your fingertips in surgical spirit a couple of times a day for 10 mins or so- this stuff hardens skin. Also, don't be tempted to apply plasters and then play, they will affect your learning and accuracy in placing chord shapes.

Its really just about breaking through the barrier, and when you do, you will forget the pain and hardly feel the strings as you play.

Keep at it! The ukulele is worth it!

There is a beginners guide to finger stretching exercises - here

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The Divine Miss M plus Jake Shimabukuro

The glorious Bette Midler, accompanied by Jake Shimabukuro on ukulele at the Royal variety performance.

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Going to upgrade my Fluke ukulele

Since posting my extremely positive review of the Fluke ukulele, I got to wondering about upgrading it with a pickup.

Now, yes yes, I know, you can get the Flukes from the manufacturer with pickups installed, but I bought my Fluke uke used and it's just acoustic.

I bit of Googling tells me that you can get Flukes with an internal pickup made by K&K called the Big Shot. Because the Fluke has a one piece molded saddle / bridge, a typical under saddle piezo pickup is not possible, so the K&K works because it's a contact pad stuck on the underside of the soundboard inside the ukulele.

Shopping around my next problem was finding one in the UK. I then found the rather nice site called JP Guitars that stock them (amongst a great range of other goodies)

They are found here, and Jon is super polite and helpful and gets a huge thumbs up from me!
http://www.jp-guitars.co.uk/. He's prompt on email replies and prices are good.

It will arrive soon, but the tricky bit will be installing it internally. It's do-able but going to be fiddly. It will also involve drilling a hole in the side of my ukulele! (gulp!!). I will be photographing the install and will be blogging it for others thinking of doing the same!

Wish me luck!

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Making your own Ukulele song sheets

I was browsing today, as I am looking at a way of creating my own ukulele song sheets for friends that include the actual ukulele chord boxes.

I've done this before using jpg images but its a bit cumbersome.

A friend pointed me towards the Uke Farm site HERE which has a wealth of resources.

On that page they host the little gizmo called Chordette which uploads a massive range of ukulele chord boxes into a font on your system that you can access with keystrokes (or copy and paste from the handy application it comes with)

Its all available for download HERE and I'm going to give it a go.

They also look for donations as this is freeware - I'm a big believer in donating what you can so people like this will continue to develop great stuff.

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New purchase - Orange micro amp

Not totally ukulele related, but there you go.  Just bought an Orange Micro Crush amp - its  a 9v battery powered mini amp for home practice - but I really bought it for our acoustic sessions in the pub - I want to take my Stratocaster with me occasionally for a bit of lead noodling, and a full blown amp would be overkill (and not really in keeping with our sleepy pub).

But then again - I am really looking forward to getting some uke played through it on overdrive settings!

Fuller review to follow.

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New gig report

Another week, another jam session. Again, for inspiration purposes, I will list a selection of what we played. These were both ukulele and guitar songs, but you can play on both!


Folsom Prison Blues
Bad Moon Rising
Have I Told You lately That I Love You
Brown Eyed Girl
One man Guy
St Swithins Day
Great Balls Of Fire
California Dreamin
Dream A Little Dream of me
Wonderwall
Crazy
Summertime
Under African Skies
Labelled With Love
American Pie
Ring Of Fire
Get Rhythm
Your Cheating heart



twas fun!

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Ukulele beginners tips - Ukulele history

So where does the ukulele come from? Many people assume it originated in Hawaii, but is that really true? Read on!

The ukulele is commonly associated with music from Hawaii where the name roughly translates as "jumping flea", due to the action of one's fingers playing the ukulele resembling a "jumping flea". According to Queen Lili'uokalani, the last Hawaiian monarch, the name means “the gift that came here”, from the Hawaiian words uku (gift or reward) and lele (to come). Developed in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on a small guitar-like instrument, the machete (similar to, though smaller than, the modern Portuguese cavaquinho and the Spanish timple), introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Macaronesian (Portuguese and Spanish) immigrants. Three immigrants in particular, Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers. Two weeks after they landed aboard the Ravenscrag in late August 1879, the Hawaiian Gazette reported that "Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts." One of the most important factors in establishing the ukulele in Hawaiian music and culture was the ardent support and promotion of the instrument by King David Kalakaua. A patron of the arts, he incorporated it into performances at royal gatherings.



So, it's actually Portugese in origin, but that said, the ukulele will always, understandably be rooted in Hawaiian culture.

Since it's arrival in Hawaii, it really hit boom time at the turn of the 20th century becoming a staple instrument of variety acts in the US and the UK, with Cliff Edwards and George Formby respectively promoting the instrument either side of the Atlantic.

It then fell out of favour, but has seen an amazing resurgence in the last 10 years. I suspect that Mr Formby would have been staggered to see just how wide ranging the uke now is in popular music, played and loved by everyone from follies to punks, metal fans to the traditional Hawaiian musicians.

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Ukulele beginners tips - How much should I spend on a ukulele?

Okay, you are saying, you have convinced me, I'm going to give ukulele a try, but how much do I need to spend?

This is a very common question and really, the answer depends on your personal circumstances. Even so, unless you are Mr Moneybags, there is little point in spending many hundreds on a first ukulele only to find you don't enjoy it.

At the other end of the scale, whilst it obviously seems tempting to spend as absolutely little as possible, as you are just testing the ukulele water, you should also be careful. As with guitars, if you purchase something so cheap that it is badly made, you will find the instrument working against you from the start. Learning a stringed instrument for the very first time does take some practice and time. Get a super cheap uke that is impossible to tune or has unplayably high action and you are just adding to the difficulty. In the worst case this could put you off forever, which would be a shame as you don't need to spend a lot to get a playable instrument.

Do a search on eBay and you will find a range of ukes in bright colours for anything from £10 to £20. My advice is don't. I've sampled ukes at this low end from the likes of Mahalo and Ashton and the plethora of new Chinese names and they are pretty shonky. I'm not just talking about finish, they can be badly (even fatally badly) put together making good setup nigh on impossible.

As cheap as I would go would be about £35-£40 for the makala ukuleles, particularly the dolphin that I have reviewed on this site. The dolphin is a remarkable uke, which when fitted with Aquila strings is remarkably loud, accurate and good sounding. Avoid trying to shop around at this price to save a couple of quid from a random eBay seller- dolphins need a bit of set up to work well so buy from a store who will set up for you. Highly Strung in Wantage will do this and they are also on the web. In the US places like Mims ukes will give you a setup. Ideally avoid Amazon!!

Moving up into the £50 to £80 range and you are still looking at makala as a great choice. Entry level Kalas appear and also great brands like Baton Rouge.

As you rise above the £80 mark you start to find better ukes from Kala and Ohana appear in your price point. Very good ukes, made in the far east.

Up to this point we are really only talking about laminate ukes only. These are not as sweet sounding as solid wood ukes, but for a beginner they are just fine. In fact, I'd rather a good laminate than a bad solid wood instrument.

About the cheapest quality solid wood ukes are probably the entry models from Bruko. These are (amazingly) handmade in Germany and start at around £100.

If you intend to start ukulele above the £100 mark, things get complicated as the range becomes huge. Sadly there are still plenty of bad eggs so how do you know where to go? Well if you are paying this much, I would definitely try to play before you buy to check intonation etc. If that's not possible, you need to try to play it safe.

About as safe as you can get is to buy a Flea uke. They are, due to their construction, pretty much guaranteed to be set up well and they sound great leaving you no worries and free to start learning. Ohanas and Kalas in this range are good ukes too, but I don't think they are likely to be as consistent as Fleas. Fleas can be found for around £130 ish. I understand that many dont like the look of Fleas though.

If you can push on towards £200 mark I would, without any doubt urge you to look at a Mainland uke. They are widely considered to be about the best value all solid instruments around and they sound superb. Set up is always spot on and they look great too! You can probably find a starter Mainland in the £200 mark

Beyond that you are on your own! Choose carefully, avoid bargain basement and read the ukulele forums thoroughly. They are full of friendly types happy to help.

For more information, I have expanded on this post HERE

Good luck!

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Ukulele Beginners tips- tabs - what are the symbols?

If you have bought yourself a ukulele, you are presumably using the vast resource of the internet to download some songs and chords.

Sheets with words and the chord name above are easy to follow, you just strum the chord shown.  The alternative is the tablature format (or tabs) which show a representation of the neck of the uke, and use numbers on the strings to show which fret to hold when that string is plucked or strummed.

If you are a beginner however, you may find a range of other strange symbols that mean nothing to you.  This guide talks you through the most common ones you will see.





h=Hammer on - this is the action of "hammering down" or in english, putting the finger on a string that has been plucked at another fret without picking it again.  This changes the already vibrating string sound to the new fretted note and is a nice effect.  You may see it written on tabs like this, which means to pluck the string at the 7th fret, and whilst it is still ringing to place a finger on the same string but at the 9th.

e|-------7h9-----------





p=Pull off - this is the opposite of the hammer on, where you release the string that has been hammered on.  You may see it like this, which follows the example above - and it means to pluck the string at the seventh, hammer on to the 9th, and then release the finger from the 9th whilst still ringing, allowing the string to go back to the 7th

e|-------7h9p7-----------






\ or / or s = Slides - this is the action of plucking the string at a certain fret, and then whilst it is still ringing, sliding the fretting finger either up or down the string to another fret whilst it is still ringing.  / usually means to slide up, and \ to slide down.  's' means both.  In the following example it means to pluck the string at the 5th, and whilst its ringing slide up to the 9th.

e|------5/9-------------





b or ^ = Bends.  This is the action of bending the string whilst holding it at a fret to change the pitch to another note.  This is usually shown on tabs by following the bend symbol with the note you are bending up to.  For example

e|--------5b7----------   means to pluck the string at the 5th, and bend the string to the pitch of the 7th fret - you do this by pulling the string across the neck to physically bend or stretch it.




v or ~ = Vibrato - Vibrato is that shimmery wobbly effect you get by effectively shaking the string.  Its usually achieved by holding the fretted string and rocking the finger up and down or side to side.  Its tricky to master but gives a great effect.

An example would be e|-------13vvvvvv---------  and the number of symbols is indicative of how long you should perform the vibrato.



I hope the above are a help, and stop those tabs being quite so confusing.

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Musings on potential new instruments

It's a doomed existence playing musical instruments. Well, I'll correct that, it's a doomed existence playing musical instruments that you can own many of, unlike say pianos for example.

Unless you own a mansion, most people could not consider buying several pianos, but with, say, stringed instruments, things get tricky.

There are a couple of afflictions to be aware of. Firstly, there is UAS, more commonly known as Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome, and there is it's stablemate, the unfortunately named GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome). I have both and I probably need help!

Let's look at the former. In my uke collection I own a Mahalo cheapy, a Vintage cheapy, two Makala dolphins, a Mainland concert, a Flea a Fluke and an Ozark banjolele. Over time I've also owned more but sensibly sold them to fund others. So why would I want any more??

One comment that does annoy me is 'you can't play them all at once'. That's simply because they all sound different, they all have different uses. But I suppose that argument only takes me so far.

You see, I DO want more ukes, more of the same.

Presently I have a strange desire for the following

- a Kiwaya Japanese laminate uke. Pricey but beautiful!
- a Goldtone banjolele with resonator.
- a Kala U Bass.
- a Tanglewood Union series concert
- another Makala dolphin (in black)
- pretty much every other uke in the Mainland line

And that's just the moderately sensibly priced stuff. Give me carte blanche and you can add in high priced Hawaiian instruments that begin with K, a Pono, a Honu, a vintage Martin and maybe one of those carbon fibre body ukes.

It gets worse. I've recently started thinking about a Irish tenor banjo down tuned to GCEA (same as uke tuning you see)

And it goes on....

So, if I buy every one of them, you'd presume I'd get over the affliction? Well no, you see that's not really the point. And because of that, there is no helping me or many like me.

Perhaps it's the smell and feel of a new instrument, perhaps the satisfying pile of cases clogging up the spare room, or perhaps it's just madness.

So there we go, I'm afflicted. I can only try to appease my wife pointing out it's better this than PAS (piano acquisition syndrome)...

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Wow- I want me one of these!

Kala have released a new ukulele amplifier - looks very cool.



Kala Round About Ukulele Amplifier

Sometimes you've just got to have more ukulele so Kala has developed the "Round About" ukulele amplifier. The Round About is designed to provide just the right amount of punch for the ukulele to be heard when playing in circumstances when a little boost in volume is needed.

SPECIFICATIONS
MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT 10 watts
Speaker 5" 8 Ohm
Dimensions 10" in height and from side to side
Power Consumption 12 Watts
Features:
Input Jack
Headphone Jack
Volume (Master)
Treble Control
Bass Control
Power Switch

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Amanda Palmers ukulele love

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Belated uke gig blog report

Played impromptu session again last night at our local hostelry. Well, I can honestly say, winter is on its way - we played outside and by the time the sun went down the fingers were not working too well!

Last night we did something slightly different and had one guitar and two ukes - that meant for a lot of stuff the guitar had to quieten down (and play picking), but equally for some of the faster stuff we had to thrash the ukes within an inch of their lives! (ukes were the fluke and a flea by the way)

Anyway, for inspiration purposes, I list below some of the songs we went with. Some we had never even thought of playing before and were just accompaniment for the guitar - worked well though!

Ring Of Fire
Proud Mary
When I'm Cleaning Windows (oh the shame... just kidding!)
Oh Lord wont you Buy Me a Mercedes Benz
Get Rhythm
You Got A Friend In Me
Under African Skies
Georgia On My Mind
Knocking On Heavens Door
Pennies From Heaven
Summertime
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree
Creep
I Wanna Be Like You


Fun had by all, even the chap who said "hang on, those strings are nylon!"... erm yes? "oh I've never seen nylon strings on a mandolin before"......

That comment only surpassed a little later by the mother explaining to her daughter that we were playing banjos.

Ho hum!

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Thunder Road on uke - just lovely

Jim Boggia playing the Boss!

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Famous ukulele players - part 4

Another update folks!

Jason Mraz

Oliver Hardy

Noah and the Whale

Bette Midler - nice Flea Uke!

JJ from Skins (questionable as to whether really famous....)

if you can help with the next update, please get in touch - I am struggling to find pictures for Tom Hanks, Griff Rhys Jones and Steve Martin playing ukulele (which they do!)

Previous famous player posts below
Famous ukers part 1
Famous ukers part 2
Famous ukers part 3

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Love Will Tear Us Apart - ukulele chords progression

A while ago I posted the wonderful Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley playing the Joy Divison track "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on uke. You can see that HERE

Its a great version, and works surprisingly well on ukulele. What also surprised me was that one of the biggest google searches I see pointing to my site is for the chords.

As I've said before, I am steering away from posting song lyrics due to copyright restrictions, but you can google the words yourself (or if you are a fan like me, you probably already know them!)

Anyway, the ukulele chords progression is really really easy, as its just 4 chords in a loop, namely:

Em(0432)
D (2220)
Bm(4222)
A (2100)

You can also practice the odd hammer on and pull off on the D chord to pick out the melody too.

Have fun

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Ukulele font

Not sure why you would want a ukulele font, but its good to know one exists......

Downloadable from HERE

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Ukulele fun in Norwich

Ukulele revival embraced by City of Norwich

Members of the Norwich Ukulele Society in the city centre raising money for a good cause

Ukuleles are quickly becoming the "cool" instrument with the worldwide success of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and ukes appearing in popular television dramas such as Skins and on tracks by successful indie bands such as Noah and the Whale.

The instrument has also made huge inroads into education with many schools across Norfolk abandoning the recorder in favour of the uke.

In Norfolk, the revival has been embraced by the Norwich Ukulele Society - which meets every other Sunday afternoon at the The Ten Bells pub in St Benedict's Street in the city, and performs throughout the county.

Gemma Cullingford, co-founder of the society who also teaches the ukulele, used to be a member of Norwich indie band KaitO.

She told me how she had got interested in the uke: "I had played bass guitar for years, but started to lose my passion in music. I was getting fed up with lugging a big heavy bass guitar and amp around.

Gemma Cullingford (right) says a uke "never fails to put a smile on the player's face".

"I had thought about learning something new, but wasn't sure I could commit the time and money that goes with learning a new instrument.

"Then I was out with a friend and he pulled out a ukulele from nowhere and played a little tune on it. It sounded so lovely and sweet that I went out the next day and bought my own for £20."

She gradually fell in love with an instrument which she says "never fails to put a smile on the player's face".

Gemma formed the Norwich Ukulele Society earlier this year with friend Amy Wragg earlier in the year and it gone from strength to strength playing festivals, fetes and pubs across the city and county.

Gemma said the group plays everything from "Johny Cash to Kylie, Minogue, Tom Jones to the White Stripes".

"It diverse so that there is something for everyone," she added.

They recently organised the Norwich Ukulele Festival and Gemma hope it can bigger and better next year.

Ukulele banjos are also played in the Norwich Ukulele Society

One of the highlights of the year was an appearance on stage in King's Lynn with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - who recently shared the stage with the Kaiser Chiefs at the Royal Albert Hall.

"At our very first meeting, one of our members Mac mentioned about the fact that the UOGB were playing in Kings Lynn later in the year," she said.

"Next thing we knew he had written to them with a cheeky request asking if we could join them on stage for a song.

"George Hinchcliffe who founded the Orchestra replied and invited us to go on for a stage invasion at the end. So we jumped on stage with them to play the Clash's 'Should I Stay or Should I Go'. It was a great experience that I don't think any of us will forget for a while."

Gemma, who gives lessons on the ukulele, said it is a great instrument for young people to learn.

"The fact that it's so fun to learn makes it addictive to play. Playing with others is really good motivation too, I would love to set up some little groups or orchestras for youngsters," she said.

Her advice to would-be ukulele players is: "Just do it! Don't be scared, anyone can do it. You will be so happy you learnt it."

The Norwich Ukulele Society meets up every other Sunday down The Ten Bells in Norwich between 1700 and 1900 BST (the next meeting is on 10 October). There are also workshops before hand at 1615 BST or anyone that feels they would like to go over the songs more slowly.

The Society is playing the Festival of Five at The Forum in Norwich at 1700 BST on Saturday 9 October and the Norwich Beer Festival at lunchtime on 29 October.

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In memory of John Lennon - Imagine ukulele chords

John Lennon would have been 70 today. In his memory (as the Beatles nut I am) I spent yesterday evening figuring out the chords to Imagine - strangely, a song I had never tried on the uke before.

As I have said before, I refrain from publishing lyrics on this site as some fellow uke playing bloggers have been stung with copyright issues.  I'm sure you know the words though, so can help you out with the chords below.


For the verses, the opening lines "Imagine there's no heaven" etc are just chords C and F repeated.

For the final lines of the verses "Imagine all the people, living for today....", the chord progression for that line is F, Am, Dm, F, G (give it a strum, it will make sense)

You then return to the second verse repeating C and F again.

For the Chorus "You may say I'm a dreamer", and the next two lines, the progression is F, G, C, E7

For the final line of the chorus "And the world will be as one" its just F, G, C, then back to the final verse.

Its very simple really, easy chords too.  Give it a go.


Happy birthday John.

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Ukulele blog Poll - RESULTS

When I started this blog, I set up a poll on the right hand side to figure out what sort of readers I was getting.  Its now closed, and thank you all for voting.



I asked: What Are You?

The results.... (386 people voted)

Don't own a uke, don't want one - 1%
Don't own a uke, want one - 12%
Got a basic uke - 40%
Got a few lower level ukes - 25%
Got some super ukes in my collection - 20%

Results are a great help and whilst the majority of visitors are clearly beginners, there are some good numbers there from people who are collecting ukes, or those who have some stellar instruments.


I have now started a new poll on the right regarding strings - give it a go!

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New strings for Fluke Ukulele

Well I've only had it a day and I couldn't resist.  As I said in my review of the Fluke below - it came with Aquila strings fitted.  Whilst these are a HUGE step up from the rather nasty GHS strings these ukes tend to come with, my experience with the Flea ukulele taught me that Aquilas don't work too well on these plastic backed ukes.

Aquilas are great strings, but you do find people who seem to suggest its them or nothing at all.  I think that's wrong, and you should experiment.

The Fluke with the Aquilas sounded good, don't get me wrong, but certain chords sounded a little muddy, perhaps a little boomy.  This was exactly the realisation I had with my Flea when I put Aquila strings on that.  I think Aquilas are just a little too powerful for what is already a powerful ukulele.

On my Flea I settled on Worth BM's.  I don't have any BM's lying around, but I had a pack of Worth CM's which are pretty much the same string, but clear, not black.

I've strung the Fluke with the Worths and the sound is much better - it has that bell like chime now, and the separation between notes is clearer.  Pleased I made the change and a thumbs up again for Worth strings.

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Fluke Ukulele - Review

Well it arrived!  The other day I pulled the trigger on a Fluke Ukulele on ebay (used).  I have wanted a Fluke for some time, but suppliers in the UK seem to be hard to find.  I already own a Flea (as you will find on my reviews page above) but have always wanted the big brother (or is that sister? ukes are surely female).

Arrived today and its in great condition

Like the Flea it has the unique Magic Fluke Co construction - its a very thin laminate Australian hoop pine top on a bowl shaped polycarbonate back rather like those used on Ovation guitars.    The idea is to help sound projection and this presumably explains why they can get away with a laminated top.  The neck back is maple as is the unusual headstock, but the fingerboard and bridge are moulded polycarbonate as well.  This all makes it sounds like a toy, but it certainly isnt!  As you can see from the picture, I went with the natural finish top which I like.  Some people say it looks like a lute - and I suppose it does in a way.  This is the concert model with 15 frets. It arrived with what look like Aquila strings on.

Check out that flat base too - no need for a stand!

The thing about the one piece poly fingerboard is it is super accurate - there are no seperately fitted frets.  This means that intonation is always gonna be spot on - they are all identically made - a bit of a genius idea in my opinion.   When ordering new from Fluke, you can specify a wood fretboard with metal frets, but I've always thought that was kinda missing the point of these instruments.

Tuning at the unique looking headstock is via friction tuners - I know a lot of people dislike friction tuners but honestly, the ones used on Fleas and Flukes are great.  Frankly, I think that geared tuners would look odd.

So, you are never going to have trouble with set up on a Fluke - really nice instrument, but how does it sound?

Well strings will have a lot to do with it, and as I say above, this came with Aquilas.  I went through a lot of string testing on my Flea and ended up thinking Aquilas were a bit overkill - in the end settling on Worth BM's.  I obviously need to go through same testing with this Fluke, but as it stands now it does sound lovely.

Volume is around the same level as the Flea (I was expecting more), but that is still louder than most ukes.  It really does stand above the Flea though in warmth.  Its got that real characterful Flea chime to the strum, but just has a fuller more complex sound. (not running the Flea down at all there - this is, just, well, better!).  I will be playing around with string options on it though and will report back

So easy to play too, light, nice to hold and the longer neck is noticeable nicer to use.

To top it all off, the Fluke, like the Flea, comes with its own branded gig bag.  The Flea bag is a thin zippered affair - the Fluke gets a funky padded thing that you put the uke in from the top and close with a drawstring - very nice - shoulder strap too!

So, all in all, this is, as I expected, a 10 out of 10 instrument.  Its got bombproof construction, unique looks, great sound - what more could you want.  I am a happy man!




SCORES

Looks - 8
Fit and finish - 20
Sound - 8.5
Value for money - 7

OVERALL - 8.4

Having owned this uke for a couple of years now - you can also read my Long Term Test - does it still stand up?

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Ukulele cake

Further to the post made by Chris on my post about the new Fluke Ukulele, I was intrigued by a ukulele cake.

He came to the rescue - and I give you - Ukulele cake!

I'm so jealous.  I want a ukulele cake...

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Wowzers - great new uke site

I do like Ukulele Mike on YouTube

If you want uke video lessons, you would do a lot worse than visit here!  I love his glasses particularly, (but seriously, the lessons are great)

http://www.ukulelevids.com/

Enjoy.

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Quite Frankly, (Mr Shankly), Johnny Marr should be ashamed...

I adore Johnny Marr, and I know he adores music, particularly in the folk tradition.  Well, Johnny, the folk tradition always nods its cap to those who impersonate, those who take music and make it there own, and those who are prepared to see the funny side.  This next story though is sad.. (courtesy of www.chortle.co.uk)

Harry Hill has been forced to drop a parody Smiths medley from his new album after guitarist Johnny Marr refused to give permission.

The TV Burp comic had recorded versions of the Smiths greatest hits in the ukulele style of George Formby as a hidden track on the forthcoming Funny Tunes. It was even advertised in the track listing.

But now, just over four weeks before release, the track – which mixed Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now, Girlfriend In A Coma and Panic – has had to be dropped.

Hill has previously been hit by problems with the CD’s title. The Beatles’ label Apple Records refused to allow him to call it Sgt Pepper's Vol 2., and Pink Floyd said no to Bright Side Of The Moon.

Read more: http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2010/10/05/11869/that_joke_isnt_funny_anymore#ixzz11W3zsfpM


Shame on you Johnny

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I do hope this doesnt mean Eleuke's are hard to find in the UK

(article courtesy of mi-pro.co.uk)

Sutherland and Eleuke split by mutual agreement

Wales-based supplier and electric uke manufacturer go separate ways after Stringnet begins making acoustic ukuleles

Sutherland Trading has dropped the Eleuke brand, made by Stringnet (the manufacturer of Eleuke), following the diversification of the electric ukulele brand.

Eleuke, known primarily as a brand of solid-body electric ukuleles, recently began producing acoustic ukes, which left Sutherland feeling that this conflicted with its existing distribution agreements with Kala and Lanikai.

Stringnet and Sutherland have agreed not to hold each other to the existing distribution agreement.

Sutherland’s stockholding of the Eleuke brand is minimal and it has ceased to order new stock. Stringnet is now free to find another UK distributor for its Eleuke product.

“Our relationship with Philip Kwak of Stringnet has been excellent and we wish him all success in finding a new trading partner," said Alan Townsend, Sutherland's ukulele product manager. "Any distributor interested in discussing this with Philip should contact him directly."




Bazmaz says - they are great ukes - and I hope this doesnt make them tough to source..

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So, pray tell, what is your new ukulele?

Since posting the sad news that I am selling the Bruko, the reason is I pulled the trigger on another ukulele...

What is it, I hear you cry - well, its not a huge step up, but its a uke I've been after for a while, but just seems to have disappeared from UK stockists..

Its another uke from the Fluke company - and it is an actual Fluke - concert scale in natural finish.

I so love my Flea Uke as you will have read on here, but have always wanted the bigger brother.  They are such great ukes, and perfect for taking to gigs or just down the pub as they are pretty much bombproof.  I found a deal on a used on on ebay, and it should be here very soon.

Its gonna look like this one:

Obviously, full review to follow - but I just know its gonna be good.  They are brilliant instruments.

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Ukulele for sale

Sadly, needs must, but the Bruko Slim is up for sale.

I talked highly about it here CLICK and its in virtually unplayed condition.

Since that review I have toyed with string choices, and its now strung with KoAloha golds, which I think work very well - high quality strings!

It also comes with a Gator brand padded zippered gig bag.

Get in touch via email (DETAILS HERE) if interested.

Sorry - but UK ONLY, I can accept PayPal too.

Delivery would be about a fiver.

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Gus & Fin - Police & Thieves

Another great one from GUGUG

Gotta love Junior Murvin, and you gotta love the Clash.  In fact, knowing that Joe Strummer was a ukulele player himself, I think he would approve of this.

And yes, Gus is playing a plastic uke - I think its a TV Pal!

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Or how about.... oil can uke!

Very cool

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Andy Warhol anyone?

One of the things I love about the uke, is because its such a simple instrument, people have found fun ways to make their own

I like this one in particular - and when you look at how its made, its really pretty simple.  May think about pulling my cheap Mahalo apart and making a biscuit tin uke soon!

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So, what turned this blogger on to Ukulele?

A common question I get asked - particularly when out jamming or gigging with the uke.

Well I've always been musical.  Not accomplished, but adore music and (trying) to make it.  I've been playing guitars (self taught, acoustic and electric) for about 20 years now and love it.  Dont think I'm that great, but I can jam along and contribute.  I play a lot of jam sessions and impromptu gigs with friends on guitars.

About three years ago now I decided to bite the bullet and buy a ukulele ( the wife looked confused).  I had known about ukuleles for a long time, and a hero of mine in particular George Harrison was a huge fan.  I always loved the story about George that he always carried two ukuleles with him wherever he went.  This was so that if he started playing for a friend he could give them one too to join in!  George was often quoted as saying that he loved ukulele above all else, even guitars or his beloved sitar.

Anyway, I think what pushed me over the edge was seeing the Concert for George that was staged at the Albert Hall after he died.  It was a great and emotional show, but the absolute highlight was his old friend Joe Brown coming on at the end and playing "I'll See You In My Dreams" on ukulele, solo, whilst thousands of orange petals fell from the roof and scattered over the audience.  It was a real tear jerker moment - google the lyrics to see just how appropriate that song is.

Shortly thereafter, I (mistakenly) ordered the cheapest uke I could find - a dodgy Mahalo, but it was enough to get me hooked.  Within a month or two I had ordered myself a Flea on the basis that it took away the headaches associated with badly set up instruments - beginners don't need this hassle, and that is why I still say today that if you can afford it and you are serious - beginners should seriously consider these instruments.

Since the Flea arrived, the Ukulele bug bit hard, and I developed the terrible affliction of UAS (Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome....) and now own several more.

I now seem to play the uke more than my guitars - particularly as they are real play anywhere instruments.  I'm typing this in my living room on my netbook and I can see two ukuleles popping their heads up from the side of the sofa...

I've since gigged with them, jammed with them, and have them in most rooms in the house.

I still don't think I'm accomplished, but I play my ukes like I play my guitars - for pleasure.  I can bang out a load of tunes and entertain myself and others.

Its such an easy instrument to get in to, particularly if you come from a stringed instrument background.  Even if not, I guarantee I could teach an absolute beginner a song in 15 minutes.

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