ukulefty's blog

10 Guitar Riffs For Ukulele

ukulefty — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:35:46 +0000

Here’s 10 fairly recognisable guitar riffs I recorded for ukulele. You should always have a couple of well-known rock riffs up your sleeve to play for people when they inevitably ask, “play something I know!”

Pearl Jam – Alive
The Rolling Stones – Satisfaction
Nirvana – Come As You Are
White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
Smashing Pumpkins – Today
Aerosmith – Walk This Way
AC/DC – Highway To Hell
Mumford & Sons – The Cave
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Scar Tissue
Cream – Sunshine Of You Love

There’s bound to be at least one from these ten that you will recognise! I’ve got another bunch that I will record at a later date too. Most of these I’ve found the tabs for somewhere on the net, ukelelehunt.com springs to mind as well as a couple from Youtube tutorial videos. Enjoy!

NEW: The Marlow Ukulele Group

ukulefty — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:17:32 +0000

On Monday night I made the trip to Marlow to check out the newest ukulele workshop in town. The Marlow Ukulele Group, set up by Brian Ward, aims to provide place for “beginners and improvers” to meet regularly and build on their skills in a friendly group environment.

The first meeting saw a turnout of around 30 ukesters, with experience levels ranging from many complete beginners holding a uke for amost the first time through to the more seasoned guitar-to-ukulele converts.

Brian – a natural born teacher – started the workshop by going through some ukulele basics such as tuning, holding the uke and strumming patterns, before introducing some chords. Each time a new chord was introduced, it was backed up with a song, with each new song building on the previous one.

Although presently more suited to beginners with an interest in strumming their first few chord progressions, it was still great fun. Future workshops will be held on the 2nd and 4th Monday evenings of each month from 7:30pm at the Cross Keys Pub in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

For more details, head to http://www.marlowuke.co.uk

Blues in the key of E

ukulefty — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:07:04 +0000

Just chilling by the window, strumming out some 12-bar blues…

I learnt this chord progression from Ukulele Mike on Youtube. I am a bit of a fan his instructional videos. They’ve been a great help to me over the past year.

Click here for Ukulele Mike’s tutorial.

Valentine’s Day?

ukulefty — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:58:36 +0000

I know, it’s not for a couple of days yet… I’m not going to get into the whole overblown Hallmark holiday argument, but if you’re still hunting after a unique gift for that special uke player in your life, look no further than the Valentine’s Uke Heart Box over on PizzaByTheSlice. Print out the template, spend some time assembling it and then fill it with something chocolate!

Winter snow, village walks & ukulele

ukulefty — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:47:43 +0000

Snow! Finally after a very mild English winter we’ve been hit with a cold snap and a coating of snow! I took the opportunity (after building a snowman) to go for a wander around the village. As I was heading for the door I looked at my ukulele and thought, why not take it with me!

Everybody is so friendly when it snows – and even friendlier when you’re strumming away on a ukulele. It just makes everyone smile! On my walk I met this guy, Arthur, who came up to me to have a chat and spin a yarn or two about ukulele playing.

He said he’s been playing the ukulele for many, many years. He told me of a local group I didn’t know about and where I could meet him for a jam. We had a good chat and then I continued on, content in the knowledge that the ever humble ukulele had spread some good vibes today.

The 2nd Annual World Ukulele Day!

ukulefty — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:45:29 +0000

Around this time last year the great ukulele guru, Mike Lynch declared the world’s first “Ukulele Day.” Well that time has rolled around again and this year he has announced that the 2nd of February 2012 is once again…

World Ukulele Day!

Now, let’s step back for just a moment. This time last year I hadn’t even started playing the ukulele! Woah, just imagine that! I wasn’t even aware of this whole other highly addictive world of uke madness. I am coming up to my first year anniversary soon, but more on that later down the line. So 2012 is actually my first World Ukulele Day as an actual ukulele player!

Click for Ukulele Mike’s YouTube channel or here for his BLOG page.

How to learn the ukulele well enough to (almost) get you laid

ukulefty — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:03:55 +0000

I lol’d at “How about some Dragonforce?”

Happy Australia Day 2012

ukulefty — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:05:11 +0000

A massive HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY and shout out to all the Aussie folk out there in ukulele land! I’ve been living abroad for around six years now (time certainly flies) and it’s celebratory days like this that make me miss the sunshine, sand and surf of home. Australia will always be “home” for me.

Keeping this uke related, the guys over at UkeMullum are holding an Australia Day uke night down at the Courthouse Hotel, Corner of Dally and Burringbar Streets, Mullumbimby (New South Wales).

Make sure you download their special Australia Day Songbook and bang out a few good old Aussie tunes for yourself too!

Ukeeku’s Acoustic Challenge

ukulefty — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:46:07 +0000

Just as I’ve bought myself an Eleuke, Tim from Ukeeku dot com goes and throws up an acoustic video challenge! The criteria being that you take a typically ”electric” song and do an acoustic version. That’s it! Simple right? You’d think so, but a quick trip to YouTube reveals that all the great songs have been covered acoustically, many on a ukulele also!

There have been MANY great entries so far. This is my very first and very humble entry. After a lot of mulling over the idea, I chose to do a slightly edited (to clean up the lyrics) version of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems.” So here goes:

In case you’re tempted, entries close on Feb 14th!

Ukes for UNICEF: Berkhamsted

ukulefty — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:12:32 +0000

Here’s an upcoming event that will not only fuel your ukulele passion but help fund a good cause also. It’s called Ukes for UNICEF and will be taking place in the Berkhamsted Civic Centre, Hertfordshire on Saturday 3rd of March 2012.

Ukes for UNICEF is being hosted by the Berkhamsted Ukulele Random Players and it promises to be a huge day of ukulele fun and festivities. Expect trade stalls, raffles, group workshops, mass strum along sessions and ukulele performances from some big names in the UK uke scene such as Ken Middleton and Krabbers. For more information check out their website.

Ukes for UNICEF
Berkhamstead Civic Centre, Hertfordshire
Saturday 3rd March 2012
11:30am till 5:30pm
Entry by donation (suggested £5)

Mark the date on your calendar, print some fliers, spread the word!