Bells for Her (Recorder, Ukulele, Bass)

This one is for Barbara B. from the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz. She just left one of the best compliments that I've ever received on this blog. This song has a sweetness like you Barb! Thanks HU.

Ukulele by Bicycle Slideshow

A photo journal of the first leg of Aaron Lee's Ukulele by Bicycle Tour. The tour works with local organizations to promote Community, Local Action and Sustainability through the power of ukulele music. More information at http://ukulelebybicycle.blogspot.com

Melinda Schneider makes a Great Combination of Doris Day tunes & Ukulele

The Anonymous Ron, ukulele research person extraordinaire, is the man behind many of the exceptional video finds and a great asset to Humble Uker, Inc. Here he finds a new little tidbit about Melinda Schneider and her new project. (NOTE: not all tunes a performed on Uke.)

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Ron prefers to remain behind the scenes, but I really appreciate his tenacity!

UKE MOON VIDEO FUN

The Jumpin' Flea Circus Players of LA video 1

GLEE || Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

American Idol was followed by another TV show called, Glee. Which is a musical comedy that had it's finale' tonight. I was upstairs working and listening to the Oakland A's baseball game and stopped at 9:45pm to sit for a moment. Wendy was watching the end of the show... the Glee Club teacher pulls out a Kamaka ukulele and does a duet with a student playing guitar. Clearly the uke is becoming very accepted in so many areas -- So nice to hear Iz's version of SOTR.

Self-Built Archtop Ukulele

New Ukulele Site in Espanol (Click Here)

I had a post on the El Foro Del Ukulele website. It is a website in Spain and may come up with a new ukulele perspective. It is simple to translate, just try out the Google Translator and request Spanish to English. Or if you speak spanish do it in reverse.
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django_r Miembro Publicado hace 1 día
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No se si ya está este link puesto en algún mensaje, pero por si acaso. Está fenomenal
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http://humbleuker.blogspot.com/ <= that's a nice circular reference!

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Además en la zona de la derecha "UKULINKIES" (jajaja ) tiene mil enlaces a miles de canciones, tabs, teoría de la música, etc etc... Tela para repasar !!

Blackbird Guitars || Unusual Ukulele

EcoDougie is on a roll again. Keeping me up on my surfing-toes. Here is a Carbon-Fiber Blackbird Ukulele which has a unique shape and sound hole. As I was watching this video I said what a shame he's wearing a black shirt, then 'poof' the shirt is blue and the shape ofthe ukulele really pops out.

Pretty awesome... how much? I have also seen some beautiful Martin-shaped carbon-fiber ukuleles at Mike DaSilva's shop in Berkeley. I think that they sold quite quickly. www.ukemaker.com

Here's Seeso, singing & playing Blackbird on a Lanikai...

UKULELE HUNT || ALISTAIR WOOD || COMPLETE & UNUSUAL BEATLES CATALOGUE on UKULELE & IMAGINATION

Geo. Formby inspiration to a Beatle or two...

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Alistair Wood scoops another BIG STORY. Always at the forefront of Ukulele Scoopdom he tells quite a story about the most unusual combination of ukulele music, musicians and singers doing every song in the beatles catalogue...

http://ukulelehunt.com/2009/08/31/beatles-complete-on-ukulele-roger-greenawalt-and-david-barratt/

The songs are here:

http://thebeatlescompleteonukulele.blogspot.com/

All of the songs are downloadable. Thanks Alistair. HU

(Rhan you'll like this!)

Bosko & Honey's Safari at Mike DaSilva's Shop

Well, I am getting excited about about a new Mike DaSilva handcrafted ukulele for myself. The eBay sales are doing well and it feels good in these tough economic times to trade in little used items for a new treasure. I am pretty sure the photo above is of Janet Klein, famous ukulady. Hey, wouldn't it be fun to have a 1920's style dress-up night and play all oldtime songs? Below is Bosko and Honey's Safari visit to Mike DaSilva's shop to pick up her new thin-body Tenor. Honey is truly a sweety.

BARITONE TABLATURE || HIRAM BELL

I have been taking ukulele lessons from Hiram Bell in South San Francisco. He is a multi instrumentalist and very precise yet patient instructor. Music takes times, practice and perseverance. I have recently been requested to make use of the Baritone ukulele and Hiram encouraged me to work on it but warned me that it is difficult to find tab for the Baritone. So this blog item is dedicated to finding the aforementioned tablature. The Baritone is standard DGBE tuning but some titles are high-D and some are low-D.

TABLATURE (REVISED)

Tab-U-Learn (for Baritone Ukulele) Site, followed by some of their pdf songs.

www.microshare.net/tabulearn/ <--This was DELETED

Lyle Ritz "Lulu's Back In Town" Dominator's Ukulele Tab
http://dominator.ukeland.com/Images/lulu.pdf

Live Ukulele (These guys gather songs a post them from other sites. Here are a few Baritone specific songs.)
http://liveukulele.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/blackberry-blossom-dgbe.pdf
http://liveukulele.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/red-haired-boy-dgbe.pdf
http://liveukulele.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/simple-gifts-dgbe.pdf
http://liveukulele.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/whiskey-before-breakfast-dgbe.pdf
http://liveukulele.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/wildwood-flower-dgbe.pdf

CHORDS
http://www.nalt.com/nakedflea/pdfs/SeeYouDreams.pdf

I would appreciate knowing about other tablature for the baritone and will add links here as I become more aware of them.

Also a little more about Hiram Bell and his range of musical ability. Besides being a multi-instrumentalist (Guitar, Piano, Ukulele, Baritone, Harmonica and about 5 others) he is an artist. He does photo-realism art and also does highly skilled artwork on ukuleles. I saw Hiram perform at Mike DaSilva's ukulele building studio and stage just about a month ago. I really appreciate that he is open and enthusiastic to all genres of music from his native Hawai'ian to Classical, to Rock. You can find out more about Hiram at http://hirambell.wordpress.com/

Joshua, Ashley and Grandpa Stan's Harmony Uke

No they aren't real ukulele players. They are number 2 and number 3 of my 4 kids: Joshua and Ashley. They are posing in our livingroom for dad with the camera. Joshua is now living in Indianapolis and Ashley is still in the bay area and working her way up the corporate ladder.

This little harmony, was purchased by my father Stanley W. around 1960 and it became part of my household and sat on shelves amongst books, legos, baseball cards, bats, gloves, cleats, for about 20 years. Then one day I saw it and picked it up and noodled a bit (not quite Lyle Ritz noodling) .

My neighbor Jeb is a guitarist and a longtime resident of the area told me that there was a Ukulele Festival every year in Hayward. I did some checking around and about 30 days later I was hooked. The Northern California Ukulele Festival was in it's 13th or 14th year already. Uncle Hollis Baker and another man started it up as a celebration of Hawaiian culture.

I went to a few of Uncle Hollis' Saturday classes and remember a Hawaiian man named Herman told me that I was going to struggle for a while until my fingers built up muscle memory. Every beginner should note - it takes time and you are going to be behind and feel stupid at times. Believe me, I have struggled with each step along the way. Your fingers are smarter than you think. Yes your fingers will be tender for a while and they will toughen up. The Bb chord that was so hard at first becomes easier. Your fingers will become more flexible. You will activate more brain cell connections and you will play music or atleast notes and the music will come.

Ukulele Internet Radio - UKEFARM

Where can you hear Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Janet Seidel, Bruce Shimabukuro, Boulder Accoustic Society, Dan Soybean Sawyer, Bill Tapia, Lil' Rev., Victoria Vox, Craig Robertson, the Langley Ukulele Ensemble, Ukulele Eck and the Fabulous Lacklusters (Girl from Oklahoma), Clif, Gerald Ross, Janet Klein, James Hill, Jim Beloff, Jake Shimabukuro, Brook Adams, Kimo Hussey, Lyle Ritz and our local favorite: Steven Strauss?

I have my own business and work from my home. It's a very short walk to my office where I work as a Structural Steel and Miscellaneous Metals draftsman. What is that? Whenever I fill out applications they never know where to put me. Sometimes I'll be in Construction and others I'm an Architect. I have a B.S. in mathematics and a minor in statistics. I have worked in the steel industry as a draftsman, chief draftsman, estimator, project manager, senior project manager. But after 9 years, I was layed-off, with many others about 6 years ago, and decided it was time to give it a go on my own.

I miss working as a project manager on such projects as: S.F. Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Gardens Children's Center on top of Moscone Center, No. Concord Martinez BART Station, West Pittburg BART Station, St. Mary's College Performing Arts Theater, and several other lesser known projects. I worked for Romak Iron Works during this time and they treated me exceptionally well while I was there.

Well, what I actually do is study Architectural, Structural, and Landscape design drawings and make erection and fabrication drawings for a few select Bay Area fabricators. I draw beams, columns, stairs, handrails, gates, glass handrails with brass handrail caps, ladders, and a boat? Kind of a boat, there is a black iron sculpture across the street from the SF MOMA that is clad with green glass that I drew.

Oh, I feel like Garrison Keillor, starting with a point in mind and making a complete tale before getting to the point... while I work sometimes I like to have some smooth ukulele music in the background. So I go to http://www.live365.com/ and play my favorite station "Ukefarm Radio"

It's really fun to hear those ukulele players that I've had the opportunity to meet at Mike DaSilva's studio or at the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz. Steven Strauss, who is the musical conscience, of our Berkeley Ukulele Club has a few songs from his excellent UkeBox album so I always get a kick when I hear his unique and sweet ukulele playing.

Alistair WOOD / Ukulele Hunt / ENGLAND

This is a camp photo from my collection of player photos, is that Alistair?

http://ukulelehunt.com/

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This Humble Uker has a not so humble friend, yes it’s Alistair Hunt. Al is a master musician, webjunkie, and he claims and can provide documentation for being the number one ukesite on the web. I believe him and I know why he’s tops:

• Ukulele Hunt can be subscribed to as a daily feed direct to your e-mail
• Ukulele Hunt frequently posts songs with TABS
• Ukulele Hunt frequently posts songs with CHORDS
• Ukulele Hunt frequently works out popular riffs with TABS
• Ukulele Hunt has Music Theory, Ukulele 101 Hints, and Practical Advice, see http://ukulelehunt.com/2007/08/02/how-i-work-out-chords/#more-238
• Alistair has also made a few ukulele books that are sold at true bargain prices and you can print them on your printer.
  - How to Play National Anthems
  - How to Play Ukulele Chord Progressions
  - How to Play Ragtime Ukulele
  - How to Play Christmas Ukulele
  - Ukulele 101
  
  I have been sending e-mails to my ukulele friends for over a year and I must confess that much of my inspiration comes from Woodshed’s daily feed. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
  
  
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  [My old Lars Larsson themed video collections from the defunct bulletin board of the Berkeley Ukulele Club.] http://ukulelehunt.com/index.php?s=lars+larsson&x=0&y=0]
  
  

Mark O. / Jazz Ukes / BOSTON

Met Mark for the first time when he was performing a one-man concert on Mike DaSilva’s stage. Mark comes from a classical guitar background and plays the ukulele in jazzy-chord-melody arrangements. He has an enthusiasm for music and teaching others how to play this amazing little instrument.

Mark was getting a Santo reproduction made by Mike and was making trips from Boston to keep up on the progress and to pick up the completed Santo. I was keeping in touch because Mark had sent me private YouTube ukulele lessons. He said he’d be coming out to pick up his uke and if I came by he would give me a lesson. Mark is another man that likes to video document his work, music and travels. Here’s that video taken Feb. 10, 2007 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AdaHsQrrbBQ

In Boston, there aren’t many opportunities to play Hawaiian music so I invited Mark over to the Temple Bar – Royal Hawaiian Ukulele Band class on University Avenue in Berkeley, CA. Mark sat next to me and although at a different venue, he was playing Hawaiian ukulele tunes in his usual energetic jazz-style and whispering to me the Jazz changes he would make. Constantly teaching.

Mark has generously composed several YouTube videos that are designed to teach others how to play jazz ukulele. You can see these in the Jazz Ukes demonstrated section of http://uk.youtube.com/user/markocchionero He’s got 15 videos there. He also has some of the best arrangements on the internet at http://www.jazzukes.com/index.html under the heading
"Arrangements".

One of Mark’s favorite chords appears to be the pretzelly enigmatic: Fmaj7 = 2413 which I am still working on. (Go ahead get your uke and try it. Start by holding an F chord, then put your ring finger on the A string 3rd fret, and now set your pinky on the C string 4th fret.)

He's also is a part of Ukulele Noir in Boston. I am hoping that we can encourage the Noir’s to come West.

Terry C / AUSTRALIA

My wife caught me with another ukulele the other day. I hadn't told her about it. She's not real enthusiastic about the ukulele but she's very supportive of me getting out and enjoying myself with friends. I just can't resist a good deal on eBay. I told her eBay makes me eVil. Besides being addictive Ebay can also introduce you to friends with similar interests.

I had been collecting a few photos of ukulele players and regularly bidding against a certain bidder. I used the eBay e-mail to contact him and asked if he'd like to trade some photos. We now have an eFriendship and I have an appreciation for a man with a mission.

So I met Terry C., who resides in Australia, and he turned out to be quite a collector and a man with a generous spirit. Terry is a great fan of the ukulele, and Cliff Edwards. He has created several videos on YouTube that take vintage photos of Cliff Edwards and common players from the 1920's and 1930's and makes a slide show to go along with old Cliff Edwards recordings. These videos are a pleasure to watch. Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/user/BeareTube and enjoy.

Terry also is a collector of vintage Martin ukuleles and he really treasures the beauty of this fine instrument. He has been buying ukuleles from around the world and has the peculiar habit of making videos of the receipt and unraveling of the ukulele. (Envision Steve Ervin here and the way he would describe a BEA-U-TI-FUL critter.) Terry tells a story as if it were a rapturous event. As joyous as a 6 year old on Christmas morning! Perhaps this is an Aussie thing.

I am sorry to tell you that these videos are a private reserve. Hopefully Terry will bless the world with some more home-spun videos. He plays ukulele with a smooth, heart warming, old style which honors those vintage ukuleles

You can see a treasury of vintage ukulele player photos by watching Terry's YouTube videos. I have contributed a few photos. If any one has a secret stash of photos of Cliff Edwards with a ukulele and would like to share it with Terry let me know and I'll get you in touch with him.

Humble Uker