Harry Potter – Hedwigs Theme (Tab)

I’ve done a whole load of tabs of John Williams tunes (Star Wars, Cantina Band, Olympic Fanfare, Indiana Jones). Yet I wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a line up and I regularly get him mixed up with the guitarist of the same name.

This arrangement does miss out a lot of the original. If you can recreate all the swirling strings, you’re a way better player than me. But I have included the two main sections of the piece. The first is a slow waltz and the second a rapid 4/4. The other arrangements I’ve seen miss out the second part – not sure why since it’s much more fun to play. And it’s fairly straight forward – mostly just moving the minor chord shape up and down. The tricky part is the speed so start slowly until you’ve got it under your fingers then build up speed. To give it a bit of variation, I play the first half of this section strumming with my thumb and the second half with my fingers (all down strums in both cases).

I was originally going to post Via Tanya’s video for Wonder Stranger but the version she did for Shoot the Player. Also this week: Sophie Madeleine doing my second favourite song of hers for a Crypt session (watch the whole session in dazzling HD here), Victoria Vox previewing a song from her next album and plenty more.

Via Tanya – Wonder Stranger

Sophie Madeleine – Stars

Anna Van Riel – Einey Meiny Miney Mo

Mood Indigo – Swing Brother Swing

Jeff Warren and Miss Jess – I Ain’t Messin’ with You

Shelley O’Brien – You, Me and the Birds

Brenna MacCrimmon – yagmur yagar tas ustune

Lil Rev and Brian Hefferan Pig Ankle Rag

Victoria Vox – Beautiful Home

live2tivo – Paraskavedekatriaphobia

And ugliest ukes this week have to be the Luna Ukuleles. You have to question the design sensibilities of any company that would use the papyrus font in their logo.

And ukulele I haven’t made my mind up about yet of the week is the Kala Acacia. I haven’t quite come to terms with the open-headstock look and the twirly fret markers are a bit much.

The Kala/EleUke marriage looks to be working well. The new look EleUkes aren’t a whole lot different from the old look but they’re definitely more elegant.

Since I seem to be obsessed with looks this week, cute guy plays ukulele 4 fun.

There have been a few pale imitations since, but the original Ukulele Hero T-Shirt is easily the best – or it was until it was taken off the market. But luckily it’s back and you can buy it here along with the other cowbell, kazoo, bagpipe etc. hero t-shirts.

Ashton Kutcher is a big fan of WS64.

Ukulele Perspective drew my attention to a new iphone/ipod app that lets you cart around your tab.

Jim D’Ville has started a great new series on intervals – a great way to improve your ear.

Shelley Rickey goes ukulele spotting.

MP3s: Good Cop Bad Cop release their, “instrumental ukulele rock opera about the parting of the christian church into the western Roman Catholics and the eastern Greek Orthodox,” (not another one).

Zings Music Group are offering the chance to win a Kala ukulele in return for some Twitter spamming.

Pictures: Cat Green Bike tour poster, dynamic duo, Billie Joe Armstrong and his ukulele.

Budding Amy Crehores can answer the call for ukulele art submissions.

On Uker Tabs: Owls by Cocoon and Funky Tonight and Zebra by John Butler Trio.

In the comments: There was a lot of discussion this week about solid body, electric ukuleles and their relation to guitars both on the Kala solid post (with a contribution from the Wellingtons) and on the RISA post. Something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently and haven’t come to any conclusion on. And Andy has an excellent suggestion for hotels to provide ukulele rental.

Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (Chords)

Another one from the wonderful WIUO. This Prince cover is the standout track on their latest EP The Dreaming. Another good one for ukulele groups – easy chords for the beginners and twiddly bits for the showoffs. The only unusual chord in it is Ab. If you can’t get your fingers around that you can just move the whole G chord shape up a fret and reach your thumb round to stop the G string sounding.

Suggested Strumming

d – d – d u d u

Will see you almost all the way through.

In the verse: once for C, once for G and twice for F.
In the chorus: once for F, once for G and twice for F. Once for the other chords (except the final G – two down strums for that).

Twiddly Bits

There’s a lot going on in the intro. I’ve written it up for four parts:

Your Man (Intro Tab)

And here’s me playing that arrangement slowed down a bit.

MP3

Buy it on Amplifier

More WIUO

Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra interview
Hey Ya
The Bucket
Israelites
Blue Smoke (Chords)

Stats

Construction: Solid walnut.
Fretboard: Walnut 17 frets.
Neck: Solid walnut.
Bridge: Aluminium.
Tuners: Friction
Pickups: Passive Piezo.

Sound

The sound of an electric ukulele is going to have more to do with what you run it through than the uke itself. But here are a few clips of it through a Boss GT-10 to give you an idea.

Clean Tone

MP3

First time: as it comes out of the ukulele. Second time: through pre-amp. Third time: pre-amp, EQ and a bit of reverb. Fourth time: cheesed up (pre-amp, EQ, a bit of reverb, quite a lot of chorus).

Country Slapback

MP3

Rocked Out Widdle-Fest

MP3

Maximum Effects

Link

All sorts in there: looper, slicer, wah, delay.

The Good Stuff

- It’s very easy to play: The neck feels very slick. The action is low. It’s very light. Unlike a lot of ukuleles that pack on useless frets, all the frets are playable with any finger. Because the body and neck are all one piece you can also do a bit of fretless playing above the top fret.

- Design: It’s not just a ukulele with pickups on. RISA have obviously given a lot of thought to what is required of an electric ukulele and designed towards that. It’s also pleasing as an object – to look at and hold (it’s very light).

My only grumble is the big RISA logo slapped on it. There’s a reason you don’t see chairs with ‘THOMAS CHIPPENDALE’ scrawled across the front of them. The design of it says it’s a RISA more clearly than the logo.

- It’s well made: No flaws in mine. And the intonation is spot on.

- It’s solid: Not just in the sense that it’s not hollow. It’s also very sturdy. As the shape suggests, you could play cricket with it.

The Not So Good Stuff

- It takes a lot of getting used to: It’s very different from any ukulele you’re used to. I found myself falling off the end of the neck a few times. The tuning pegs are on the body and it took me a while to get used to which tuning peg goes with which string and which way to turn them. You need to buy a strap to play it comfortably.

- The tuning pegs: This is the main drawback of the ukulele as far as I’m concerned. Even after getting used to the system there are problems. Like a lot of friction tuners, it’s hard to tune them accurately and they’re placed too close together for comfortable tuning.

- Aaaargh, the string is jammed: During some over-enthusiastic widdling I broke the A string. I went to take it off to find that the string was jammed in the hole at the nut end. There’s no way of getting direct access to it either. I had to bash a pin through the hole to free it. Even after setting it free, the rest of the string changing experience was also a pain in the arse.

I haven’t heard about this happening to anyone else, but the fact it can happen seems like a pretty big design floor to me.

- Passive pickups: That means you don’t get the on-board kajiggers like tone and volume controls. Not necessarily a big disadvantage. But you don’t get a headphone socket like you do with the EleUke which comes in handy for quiet practice.

Overall

I enjoy playing the RISA. The string jamming incident has soured me against it a little, but it’s a way better ukulele than the EleUke.

RISA Uke-Solid on eBay UK and on UkeSurfer.

Brandi Carlile – Oh Dear (Chords)

I must admit I had no idea who Brandi Carlile was until I saw this clip. But when I posted it on the Saturday UkeTube there was an outpouring of love from the ukers. It’s not hard to see why. This is a lovely little ukulele tune.

Suggested Strumming

Dead easy. It’s all down strums on the beats.

Ricky Rodriguez – I Wouldn’t Call It Love (Live)(MP3)
Ricky Rodriguez – BFF not GF (Live)(MP3)
Ricky Rodriguez – Moustache (Live)(MP3) via One Night Music

Ukulele? Check. Kazoo? Check. Song about facial hair? Check. Nerdy disposition? Check. Zeitgeist confirmed. Rush him through for a Monday Exposure.

Visit Ricky Rodriguez’s photography site and One Night Music

Laurel and Hardy Theme (Dance of the Cuckoos) (Tab)

After Steve sent me this slightly worrying video, I decided this is perfect for the ukulele. It’s simple to play, works perfectly on the uke and I’ve been strumming it the whole time.

I’m using D-tuning in the video, but C-tuning will work fine. The D-tuning does add a bit of plinky-plonky to it though.

If you want you fill-up of music, here are a few excellent non-uke videos:

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears – Bobby Booshay
Lindi Ortega – I Never Loved a Man…
Tripping Lily – The Little Black Dress

Dent May – Love Song 2009

Sebi – Ace of Spades

Craig Robertson – Steady As She Goes

Sophie Madeleine – Being Around

Daddy Stovepipe – Winin’ Boy Blues

Craig Chee

Michelle Blades – Quarters (Part 1)