Fingerpicking with Manitoba Hal!

Hal Brolund, AKA Manitoba Hal is another one of my favourite players. Fantastic bluesman, a golden voice and a unique way with a ukulele. If you've never seen and heard him play live, you are really missing something! He has just recorded this great tutorial on fingerpicking... so I thought I would share it here. I'm a huge fan of this man! Watch and learn, watch and learn!



Brilliant, eh?

Thanks for dropping in. This was a very short post - I wanted to catch the publish time...

Ukulele chord melody solos - great tutorial by Peter Forrest!

I have just stumbled across this great tutorial on working out chord melody by Peter Forrest. It's very well explained, and Peter is clearly a very good musician.

His own words introduce it best!

Learning to do a ukulele chord solo is the Holy Grail of uke playing. A chord solo is basically playing a song's melody line over a chord accompaniment on a ukulele. It's very tricky to learn, but Petey will show you the basics with 3 easy steps: uno, dos, tres!!! hehe Sure, one can learn other techniques like fancy strumming to one's heart content, but playing a melody over backing chords at the same time requires a different kind of art and technique. Petey's simple 3 step tutorial (uno, dos, tres) will help you get going on that front without any musical theory required. As well, if you do have any background in musical theory, this vid will help you just as much! 8-)

Worth subscribing to, eh? I should think so!

Thanks for dropping in... this was a quickie - and I have a few more of those in store!

Coming up - Carlos Jorge Pereira Rodrigues and his Madeiran machetes!

Peter Moss - how to make a ukulele solo

A quickie. I had to post this. Regular readers will know that I've posted Peter Moss before - just check out the label cloud at the bottom of the page for more... but here's a wonderful freebie from virtuoso player Peter Moss... how to make a ukulele solo!



And... if you liked that (who wouldn't?) Peter is now doing individual Skype lessons!

Details here....

Thanks for dropping in!

Carter Picking - bring it ON! Tutorial by Aaron Keim, The Quiet American

Two or three weeks ago or thereabouts, I was scouring the net, looking for a tutorial on Carter-picking. Uke players come in two kinds, one with a huge background of guitars, and the other with little or no guitar experience. I'm from the latter, and had only just become acquainted with the term - but when I did, I wanted to be able to do it on the uke. Nothing doing - but I did see Aaron Keim (AKA The Quiet American) pop up somewhere in the search, saying that he was preparing some tutorials on it. Well now he has, and it's really exciting....

Carter picking is a finger picking style where you pick out a melodic line with the thumb, and flick in strums with the first finger. Although Maybelle Carter didn't actually invent the style, it was she who became well known for using it and brought it to prominence. It's a lovely catchy, bouncy style that just gets your feet tapping right away... think Johnny Cash!



Aaron gives four pages of help and tabs - for that and videos click here

I've featured Aaron Keim on these pages before, he's a fantastic uke player - just check out the tag cloud at the bottom. If you're in the UK and want to see Aaron live - well, he'll be coming to the 2015 Grand Northern Ukulele Festival in Huddersfield next year! I've got my ticket already, oh yes!

(Pssst - that's a Mya-Moe uke he's playing. Beautiful American luthier-built ukes. Fred (the rooster song) from Quebec was playing a Mya-Moe banjo-uke in my post from the other day, too... see that distinctive headstock....)

Thanks for dropping in! Now to practise that Carter picking.....

The triplet strum - Ken Middleton begins a series of tutorial videos

Ken Middleton has been one of my favourite players since I picked up the uke in earnest about eighteen months ago. This is a very hurried post as it's Easter Sunday - things to do, places to go, people to see... but as Ken has just begun a series of tutorial videos on the triplet strum, I have to share, immediately, because this is exciting. And Ken will be doing a workshop on this very subject at the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain in Cheltenham in June.... and whoopee, I am on that!

In the meantime, observe a master...

Happy Easter, folks - and thanks for dropping in!

Mr. Sandman UKULELE TUTORIAL - ukulelezaza

Here is a great tutorial on a wonderfully achievable version of Mr Sandman, played chord melody style by Remco Houtman-Janssen, aka ukulelezaza. Remco has made the tab available - see the video on Youtube for details. I'm working on this, (just one of my butterfly flits.... I really should get focused...) and I really love it.

More on Remco to follow..... don't go too far away, now!

Bye Bye Blues chord melody - getting it sorted

Matthew J Richards is a superb banjolele player, the Musical Director of the George Formby Society.... and a lovely young feller.

On 21st an 22nd August this year I posted his two superb Youtube video tutorials on playing the 1930 jazz standard Bye Bye Blues chord melody style - that is, playing the chords whilst picking out the melody in between. It's a great style of playing, especially if you're not blessed with a great singing voice - you do the song as an instrumental instead.

I determined to learn it.

Well - the first two lines are pretty easy. The end is very easy, being related to the beginning - BUT - the middle two lines are a bit more challenging. It helps, to have the chords used in the song there in front to you, because in the middle every note is different.

So - I wrote the chords down and yesterday I made it my target to get those middle two lines learnt. Here are the chords - I've starred the tricky lines.

I've recommended this piece to a couple of people, who both love it and are working on it. As for me - I worked hard on it (those two lines) yesterday. Those two lines are still slowing me down, but I'm getting there.

Thanks Matthew for a first-class tutorial piece on ukulele chord melody!


F F Db7

F F D7

G7 G7 Am7 (all open strings)

(*) F F Am Dm

(*) C7 C7 C7 C

F F Db7

F F D7

G7 G7 Am7

F Db7 F


News - backing tracks to George Formby songs by Matthew J Richards are now available here from the George Formby Society shop.

AUTUMN LEAVES for the ukulele: tutorial by ukulelemike - Mike Lynch

This lovely French song (Les Feuilles Mortes) was written in 1945; music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by the poet Jacques Prevert. It was given lyrics in English by Johnny Mercer in 1947, and has been recorded countless times, becoming a jazz standard.

The autumn is now really setting in here in the UK, and so I feel compelled to add this beautiful song to my current practice list. It's funny, but I only feel like attempting it in the autumn! So I reckon I've got about five weeks to nail it. Hmmm. Unfortunately I won't be practising it in the summerhouse - too chilly now by far, even though the days when the sun shines brightly and the skies are blue, it can look tempting.....

Find lots more information about the song here, including information about the structure and the chord progression.

Thanks to ukulelemike, Mike Lynch for another great tutorial.....

Basic clawhammer ukulele secrets - Tim Keough

After watching yesterday's video post of Tim playing "Ain't No Grave" clawhammer uke, if you're anything like me, you'll be wanting to know just how that playing style is achieved... well, it just so happens that Tim has made an excellent tuition video on beginning clawhammer, and here it is.



Tim (ukuleletim) has a great website, "ukulelesecrets"

He writes -

"The idea is to learn how to play well in a short period of time. Like a badass.

I share secrets that make you sound good.

You still have to practice… but it will take years off your learning curve."

That sounds good to me!

"Bye Bye Blues" - Melody Style Tutorial, Parts 1 and 2 by Matthew James Richards

For months now, I have been watching and listening to good ukulele players playing songs and tunes in a style that plays the chords, but also picks out the melody - and wanting - no, yearning to be able to do it. The other day I was thrilled to discover that one of my ukulele heroes, Matthew J Richards, has done two tutorial videos on Bye Bye Blues as an introduction to playing this way. Matthew uses basic chords in this arrangement, and shows how to pick out the melody with the thumb, strumming the chords in the spaces between the notes. Watch the videos, you'll see what I mean. Matthew is a superb teacher. Following these videos has really helped me to begin to understand just how this technique of playing melody-style is done...

The song is the 1930 jazz standard "Bye Bye Blues" - the same song that I featured yesterday in a chord tutorial by that other great uke teacher, Mike Lynch. The arrangement is completely different, and I love both - Matthew's for the melody-style arrangement, and Mike Lynch's for the jazzy chords!



Now watch Part 2 to see how to play this Melody Style....



Matthew is a fine musician and a very nice person, I can attest. Piano tuner, entertainer, a stalwart of the George Formby Society (GFS) along with the rest of the Richards family, his banjo-uke playing is simply a joy, and he also plays keyboard with the band to accompany other players at the GFS Conventions in Blackpool. I'll be posting more of his videos. Read more about him here.

"Bye Bye Blues" - Ukulele lesson tutorial by ukulelemike, Mike Lynch

I've been looking at the popular jazz standard "Bye Bye Blues", written by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray and published in 1930. More on the song here.

This lovely version, by ukulelemike, Mike Lynch, has quite a jazzy sound because of the chords chosen... lots of 7ths and minor 7ths. Mike puts the chords up on the video, which is really helpful when you're trying to follow it...

For ease, here they are in order

A - F7 - Em - F#7 - B7 - E7 - A - Cdim7 - Bm7 - E7

Next time .... another great version of Bye Bye Blues, a couple of tutorial videos by Matthew Richards for playing Bye Bye Blues melody-style, using basic chords. You can take your pick!