Even a chimp can play one

(must be why I figured how to play one...) fantastic pics from the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwestm of Jamie the chimpanzee and her uke!






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Canarian Timple - sound sample and tuning

As promised, after my review of the Canarian Timple, a short video showing the tuning of the instrument and something of a sound sample. Similar to the ukulele, but also so different!

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Johnny Cash - I Got Stripes - Chords

Many thanks to my ukulele jam friend Mike for getting us playing this one. It's a perfect song for a beginner as it only has two (yes, two, count them) chords - Johnny Cash - I Got Stripes.

(Video at the end if you don't know the song)

These chords are in the correct key for the Cash version, though we play it for a slightly higher voice! - Simply swap the D for a C and the A chord for a G.


On a (D) Monday, I was (A)arrested.
On a Tuesday, they locked me in the (D) jail.
On a Wednesday, my trial was (A)attested.
On a Thursday they said guilty and the judge's gavel (D)fell.

 (CHORUS)
I got stripes, stripes around my (A) shoulders.
I got chains,chains around my (D) feet.
I got stripes, stripes around my (A) shoulders,
and them chains them chains are about to drag me (D)down.

On a Monday, I got my stripy britches,
On a Tuesday, got my ball and chain.
On a Wednesday, I'm workin diggin' ditches,
On a Thursday, Lord I'd begged them not to knock me down again

 (CHORUS)

On a Monday, my mama come to see me.
On a Tuesday, they caught me with a file.
On a Wednesday, I'm down in solitary. 
On a Thursday, Lord I start on bread and water for a while.

REPEAT CHORUS x2

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The Kamoa E3E Bass uke

Think the bass uke is an unnecessary addition to the ukulele family? Think again - this video is beautiful.

Check out Sam Bonanno playing Mona Lisa on his Kamoa Bass uke.




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Ukulele News - 25 March 2012

Hello again folks - time for another round up of ukulele news from around the globe!


So, this week, Julia Nunes has become Queen, and Jake Shimabukuro has become God....

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Nice preview to the Cairns Ukulele Festival. (Check out all my uke festival listings here)

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The Opera Director with a  George Formby obsession

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Take your ukulele to work. And why not? I do occasionally!

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A singing nurse played ukulele to newborn babies....

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Jessica Latshaw talks to Urban Twist

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Oh god, ukulele players reported in the auditions for Britains Got Talent.. - that's it, we are all DOOMED.

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Ukulele in the School Of Rock

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George Harrison inspired many to play the uke, but this one was new to me - Mick Fleetwood



More news round ups coming soon! Keep Strumming!

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Ukulele with chopsticks?

Fingers eh? I find they are such useless things.. I mean they just kind of sit there, looking all, well, fingery.. I often wonder about playing a ukulele in other ways when entry stage left, it's the marvellous James Hill playing a ukulele with chopsticks.

This guy never fails to impress..




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My new chords book - a HUGE thank you

Well, whilst I'd had many people suggest a chords book, I really didn't know how it would do. I owe readers a huge vote of thanks though as it seems to have gone down very well!






As I type this it's number 5 in the UK amazon music book chart and top 50 in the USA!

The reviews are also much appreciated. Shame there is a spiteful one which seems to talk about assumed content that isn't actually in the book... (Though the same reviewer also takes it upon themselves to try to speak for the uke community - its not the voice of the friendly community I know and love, so pinch of salt time!)

Anyway, as has always been the offer with my earlier books, I'm free to receive your messages if you want any advice or support whatsoever. When I started the blog that was my aim, to assist and encourage, and that stands to this day. You can email me on the Contact page (see above)

The chord book is on Amazon (and also Amazon UK, DE, IT, FR and ES) and in other formats on Smashwords. In time will filter through to the Nook, iTunes, Sony and Kobo stores too, but for now Smashwords carries those formats but you'll need to transfer manually.

Thanks to all! Keep strumming!

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James Hill at Southern Ukulele Store

This video has bee around a while, but even in this short clip you get a feel for what a talent James Hill has..



Filmed at the excellent Southern Ukulele Store


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Chords That Ukulele Players Really Want To Know - screenshot

Just realised that the Amazon sample feature doesn't give enough of the book to actually show how the chords are laid out on the page (really helpful....) of my new book. Smashwords does show you, but if you dont use that site take a look below.

This is a screenshot of the book on the iBooks app in an iPad. The chord boxes are nice and clear, and look this way on Kindle too.





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Chords for ukulele players - new ebook

Well I did a bit of research with ukulele players and some readers of this website and have been persuaded.  Hot on the heels of my new book ' More Of What Ukulele Players Really Want To Know', I have launched a companion ebook of ukulele chords!

Called 'Chords That Ukulele Players Really Want To Know', the book is available for Kindle and other ebook formats (including epub for the iPhone and iPad), and allows you to have a ready access to some standard chord charts wherever you go - on your phone, on your ereader or on your tablet.

It contains over 300 chord boxes covering all the key chords that beginners will want to try out, and also provides some popular chords for Baritone tuning AND (something I rarely see out there) a set of all the chords in left handed notation!

The book is available on Amazon.com and Amazon UK in Kindle format, and on Smashwords for all the other popular e formats.

I hope it helps you out!

Baz

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Ukulele News - 18 March 2012

After a short holiday break, we now return to a ukulele news round up from the last couple of weeks.


Is it possible to have a news week without a new article telling us that the ukulele is seeing a rise in popularity - Apparently not... (and that is just one of dozens out there this last week).

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In in the same vein, is it possible to have a week without a Jake Shimabukuro article?

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A Noisy ukulele???

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Short interview with Bangkok ukulele tutor, Pennapang Chaydan.

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An interview with George Hinchcliffe of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

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And another Australian article on the UOGB (they are on tour over there)

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Not only did George Formby play the ukulele as part of his act, he played it to serenade his bride.

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Eddie Vedder to play his first ever UK solo shows - with ukulele of course!

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I'm delighted to hear that the Berkhamsted Ukulele Random Players (BURP) concert for Unicef raised over £2,500 for charity.  Great video too featuring Krabbers amongst others. Well done to all who contributed.

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For those in the UK of a certain age, you will know why I feel like Esther Rantzen on That's Life with this next link - a dog who plays the ukulele.....




More news next week!

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Don't be afraid of friction tuners

One comment that I hear a lot from ukulele players, and not just beginners, is that they have a dislike for friction tuning pegs.

I think that is quite a sweeping statement, and personally I actually prefer tuning pegs - I think they are more traditional and just look better. I say "sweeping statement" because like a lot of things in the world of musical instruments, there is good and there is bad.

This blog post is prompted by the fact I changed the friction tuners on my new Canarian Timple from the 'bad' to the 'good', and you can see the result below.

The way a ukulele friction tuner works is that the screw running through the peg tightens the peg itself against the metal collars on either side of the headstock until they grip. With a poor quality friction tuning peg you will find that the action is 'sticky' or jerky and you find yourself moving above and below the correct pitch quite easily. Slacken the screw and the tuners don't hold, tighten too much and you get the jerkiness. Extremely frustrating. The original tuners on my Timple were not absolute howlers (I have seen much much worse) but they were sticky enough to irritate me and I am quite particular about friction pegs.

So, what makes for a better peg? Well, simply, better construction, meaning more parts including washers that assist in making the action smooth whilst still holding tune as a result of the bite the friction brings.  Check out the pictures below to understand that better.

In this first picture I show all of the parts of the original friction peg on my Timple. As you will see there are five parts, and the friction is achieved by nothing more than the plastic of the peg biting into the metal collar on the back of the headstock.

The  next picture shows all the parts of the replacement ukulele friction peg, which as you can see is made up of 9 parts including various washers and sleeves. The result is a really smooth action that still holds tune.

Now these replacements are not top of the line either (and amount to about £3 each) though one can spend an awful lot more on adjustable friction tuners. For me those, this model just work fine and have made a huge improvement to the instrument.

So, therefore, don't write off a ukulele if you see it has friction tuners.  If you are struggling with friction pegs on an instrument you have, consider replacing them, it really isn't all that hard.  A good quality friction peg is a dream to use!

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My new ukulele book - in various formats

Well it always takes a little bit of time from publishing, but the main book stores seem to now be carrying my latest book, and follow up to the original bestseller, More Of What Ukulele Players Really Want To Know

As well as being on Amazon UK and Amazon.com (and Amazon Spain, France, Germany and Italy) in both paperback and kindle versions, it's also now on the following too.

Smashwords - in a host of ebook formats

Barnes and Noble in Nook ebook format and paperback too

Diesel Books - in paperback

Kobo for the Kobo reader

WH Smith - for UK Kobo readers

and in a short period of time, you should see it on iTunes and the Sony Reader store too!

And of course, my original book is available in the same places.

Enjoy!

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Futulele - no thanks

Ok, ok, a lot of people have been sharing this, but I was on holiday. I suppose it deserves a place on Got A Ukulele, but I can't say I'm totally impressed.

The Futulele is and iPad and iPhone app that you can strum like a uke. Own both an iPad and an iPhone and you can fit them together to use the iPhone for the fretting and the iPad for strumming....

So... Erm.... Not really sure what to say... It's a gimmick. There will be no tactile feedback from the strings on either the fretting or strumming, and fingerpicking must be dreadful. But oh well, I'm not totally behind the times. I'm blogging this from an iPad! But please, please, nobody tell me that someone considers this an actual uke, when you can by a Dolphin for $50... Oh, and a real uke doesn't need a battery!





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Video from the Casa Museo Del Timple, Teguise, Lanzarote

A sequence of videos I filmed at the Casa Museo Del Timple on Lanzarote - a cultural museum dedicated to this forefather of the ukulele.

Apologies in advance for my two year old daughter clumping on the wooden floor!  Nice timple playing video at the end!

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Canarian Timple - Antonio Lemez - REVIEW

Back in blighty now, and Got A Ukulele can return to normal service. Time to share with you my initial review of my purchase - a traditional Canarian Timple, handcrafted in Teguise on the island of Lanzarote by luthier Antonio Lemez Hernández.

First a little bit of background to the Timple - this is the traditional folk instrument of the Canary Islands, a Spanish outpost off the western coast of North Africa. Whilst the Timple is played on most Canarian islands, it is considered to have originated in Lanzarote, and in particular in the old capital of the island, the pretty town of Teguise.  The instrument is very similar to a ukulele and is a probably candidate to being a pre-cursor to it.  I say 'probable', as the origins of the Timple on the island are somewhat unclear - being a Spanish dependency, it is likely that the stringed instruments of the mainland were introduced to the islanders. These instruments predated the modern spanish guitar and and its possible that the Spanish themselves brought something similar to Lanzarote, where it developed into the Timple. There are other possibilities though. It is considered that the strung instrument was introduced to Spain by the Moors of North Africa in their long occupation of the south, and as such they should be credited with the introduction to the Mainland. We should also bear in mind that in the 16th Century, pre the Spanish, the first occupants of the islands were from North African or Moorish descent - and as such it may well be the case that they introduced the stringed instrument to the islands directly. Either way, the instrument has it's roots on Lanzarote and has done for nearly 300 years.

The instrument is similar to many other small stringed instruments such as the ukulele, the cuatro, the machete and the tiple. You may have seen my earlier post regarding my visit to the Casa-Museo Del Timple on the island which charts it's history and its wider family, showing of examples of all sorts of similar instruments. The Timple is strung with 5 strings, and tuned gcEAD. In other words, it shares the GCEA of the soprano ukulele on the last four strings (the four strings from the ceiling downwards), but adds another new first string tuned to D.  You will note that I typed the G and the C above in lower case, and that is because they are both tuned re-entrant. The standard tuning for ukulele has the G string higher than the next C, but on the Timple both the G and the C are higher. This makes for an even brighter shriller sound than the soprano ukulele. As such, the string thicknesses are a little different too. As the G and the C strings are re-entrant, it is the E string which is the thickest (unlike the ukulele in which the C is thickest).  Other differences include the naturally wider neck to accommodate the fifth string, a narrower longer body and strange neck design with far fewer frets - the neck is actually as long as a concert but this one only comes with eight frets.  Turning the instrument over however and we see the real difference - the hump! The back on the Timple is hugely rounded to create more sound out of what is a smaller top on the body (and it certainly works).  In the Canaries the Timple has the nickname "Camellito Sonoro" meaning the Sonorous Camel on account of the hump!.

So on to this instrument in particular - having visited the museum we took directions to the workshop in which Antonio crafts his instruments - right in the centre of Teguise itself. They are all handmade from solid woods and the smell of his workshop has come back with me to England via this Timple - the smell from the sound hole is glorious!  Antonio is in his 60's and has been making these instruments all his life. This particular model is a fairly plain one. The top is solid spruce with a very thin matte finish (very thin, I managed to ding it already, sadly - something that is bound to happen with soft spruce), and the back, sides are (I believe) Mahogany or something similar.  The sound hole has some simple inlay and the top is actually in two pieces, nicely book matched.  The sides are nice pieces of wood two in a lighter coloured wood than the back with some nice grain patterns. As you will see, the wood used for the top actually extends up and on to the end of the neck as an extension which I think looks nicely different. Over to the the humped back and this is darker wood, again nicely matched, with a  lighter inlay joining the two halves.

Inside the instrument we see the makers label and what looks to me to be similar kerfling and bracing as that found in a ukulele.

The neck itself is wide and made of two pieces. The main part of the neck and the heel are a single piece of wood, but the large traditional shaped headstock is quite a piece of wood and as such I can see how it would need to be carved separately - the join employs a joint type I have not seen before which adds to its "different" air. The short fingerboard is in a darker wood and mounted on to the neck, and wood binding finishes the edges. The frets look like nickel and are nicely set. The nut appears to be bone and is cut well.

At the other end of the strings, the bridge is traditionally wide, and is a tie bar design. Interestingly there is no bridge saddle and the wood of the bridge itself serves this purpose.  The result of that and the nicely cut nut means that the action is superbly low and easy to play.

Back up to the headstock and this is large piece of wood with a facing cap of the same wood as found on the fingerboard.  The tuners are friction pegs, which sadly are not of the best quality and I will be likely swapping them out for something smoother (I like friction pegs when they are good, but am fussy).



All in all, the instrument is clearly very well made by a craftsman. Whilst not loaded up with bling, he does make higher priced instruments that fit that bill if you want them.  It's nicely balanced and light to hold too.

So how does it sound? High!  It's got such a bright tone to it on account of both that extra high D string, and the re-entrant G and C strings - if anything it makes a soprano ukulele sound like a bass!  The sound produced from such a small little thing is extremely loud, helped along by that humped back, and it has some great sustain provided by the thin solid woods used.  It's different to play on account of that extra D string, but not really complicated, involving only the additional finger on some of the standard ukulele chords. For example the G chord is exactly the same as the uke, but is played on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings. The C however is played the same way but requires a finger on the second fret of the 1st D string.  Strummed or plucked I like the sound, and whilst I am in no way proficient with traditional Canarian song, am having fun with it and will try to get some YouTube sound samples up soon.

SCORES

Looks - 7
Fit and finish - 8
Sound - 7.5
Value for money - 8.5

OVERALL - 7.8

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A visit to the Casa-Museo Del Timple

An unexpected blog post from me whilst on holiday, but had a great day today at the Casa-Museo Del Timple and wanted to share with you.

As I blogged last week, the Timple is an instrument very similar to the ukulele and considered to be one of the many ancestors to the uke, being an instrument taken in to Hawaii by Spanish traders. It has five strings normally, tuned GCEAD and can be found across the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. I am on Lanzarote, and the old capital of the island, Teguise, is considered home to the Lanzarote version of the instrument. In a beautiful old Government building in this cultural capital of the island is a recent and small museum dedicated to the instrument and others in the family.

 There are dozens of instruments on display of various scales, including early examples and some modern Timple's with electrics, or solid bodies much like the Eleuke. I was delighted also to find another room in which there are displays of many other similar instruments such as Charangos, Machetes, Bazoukis and, of course, the ukulele. I was even more delighted that the ukulele they had on display was a concert model Ko'aloha ukulele from Hawaii, with a name card that check Alvin Okami from the company! The ukulele certainly gets around!

 Towards the end of the tour is a small room showing how the instrument is made - very similar to a uke with five strings, but with a very distinctive arched back that helps project a loud sound from its otherwise small body, the neck too is interesting with far fewer frets and a blank space on the fingerboard for strumming over. All other things considered though, this instrument looks and sounds very similar to a ukulele, albeit a very bright one on account of that extra high D string as the first of the five.

 We finished looking around and in a beautiful town with very few English speakers set about trying to find where to buy an instrument using my rather basic grasp of Spanish..., "erm.... Comprar una Timple por favor?... Tienda por la Timple?"... Etc etc. just about getting by we found out there is one traditional luthier left in the town by the name of Antonio Lemez Hernández (at number 8 Calle Las Flores. Teguise if you want to see his workshop as we did!). A particular boutique of local crafts (Artesania) also was proud to stock a range, some costing over €400.

Concerned about damage bringing an instrument home on a flight I went for a basic model. I say basic, it's beautifully made with a solid spruce top and solid mahogany arched back and sides. I'm rather taken with it, and will be putting up a full review on Got A Ukulele when I get back. For now though, take a look at the Museum website Here

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Facebook Got A Ukulele pages

Well, it's fair to say that the new Facebook Timeline layout has certainly divided opinions. I personally like it, and think its clean and easy to navigate.





As such, there is a dedicated Got A Ukulele page on which I syndicate blog posts from here.

Of course I also have FB pages for my ukulele beginners books and you can find those links below.

What Ukulele Players Really Want To Know Facebook page

More Of What Ukulele Players Really Want To Know Facebook page

If you visit the pages, a quick click of the like button would be MUCH appreciated!

Other than that update, just to let you know that I am going on holiday tomorrow for a short break. As such, Got A Ukulele won't be properly updated again until the middle of March. See you all soon!



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To Carrie Fisher With Love

Carrie Fisher? Ukulele? Kazoo? Video all shot in one take? What is not to love?

Big thumbs up to Melissa Cox for this - love it.

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