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!

Telstar on uke and glockenspiel - you just gotta watch this!

Maybe you've been around as long as I have, and remember "Telstar" being a monster hit back in the UK and America in 1962. This version, a cover by "We Tigers" captures the same joyous atmosphere as the original - it's just a gas! Dig that funky glockenspiel.....

Just had to share... please enjoy.....

It's Matthew J Richards - Rubinstein's Melody in F

Matthew Richards is one of the nicest chaps you could wish to meet, and one of the most musically gifted. A star and mainstay of the George Formby Society, always there as MD with the band to support the artists as well as to play himself.... he plays wooden uke as well as the banjo-uke and I have posted his youtube videos including tuition vids here before.

His latest offering is an absolute corker - it's his own arrangement of Rubinstein's Melody in F. I popped over to Al Wood's Uke Toob to recommend it, and it was already there.... please watch, be astounded, and then rate it - I reckon you'll give this one five! Then if you're not already a subscriber - my guess is, you soon will be!

Here it is, watch in Uke Toob and click the 5th star to give it five!

He's playing his Mum's vintage Gibson soprano (above!) - I know she doesn't mind, though!

James Hill - Assam/Like a Bird

I posted ukuleletim, Tim Keogh playing James Hill's Assam/like a Bird earlier today, and now I've found James Hill playing himself, accompanied by Anne Davison on cello and his own foot taps - you have to watch this video, believe me! Of course, it's simply gorgeous! A blend of clawhammer and campanella style - Tim Keough says that James wrote the second part of this medley in tribute to John King. I've posted here before about John King and campanella style uke. Check out the tag-cloud at the foot of the page.... and as for me, I'm delighted to be booked into one of James's workshops at Ukulele Festival of Great Britain in June. I can't wait for that...

And if you want Tim's tab, go to ukulelesecrets blog...

Meanwhile, enjoy James Hill - Assam/Like a Bird

Ukuleletim is back! More clawhammer delights

Tim Keough, ukuleletim is another of my ukulele favourites and I've posted his stuff here before. He plays beautiful campanella -style uke and clawhammer. I'd been thinking that I hadn't seen any new videos for a while, when up popped a couple - this one just today - it's Assam/Like a Bird, a James Hill cover - revisited. Take a look, that real badass clawhammer ukulele tripping along is enough to cheer away any blues and winter grumps this morning! Tim writes that he has tabbed "Like a Bird" and has had James Hill's permission to share it - It's there now on Tim's ukulelesecrets website.

Meanwhile, enjoy.... Assam/Like a Bird, a James Hill cover - revisited

Kimo Hussey - lesson on triplets

Morning everybody! I still can't embed videos but here is a grand one I have to share. It's the great Kimo Hussey, giving a lesson on triplets. Formby strummers use a "triple", which is a triplet as taught here by Kimo, followed by by a finger-down strum - it comes out as a "diddley-dum" - rather like a train going over the tracks in the old days. Kimo's triple is just the "diddley"... it's a great lesson, and as a youtube video it's free, which is very nice. Where would some of us be without all these great and generous folks who are willing to teach on the internet for free... hats off to them all!

So, as I can't embed it, (Grrrr) here's a link to Kimo Hussey, giving a lesson on triplets.

I thoroughly recommend this video - after teaching the triplet he uses it to play some jazzy chord progressions and some melodies well-known and not so well-known - including "Love me Tender" (Aura Lee) and a Hawaiian piece.

Enjoy! And thanks for dropping in, this snowy day..... yes, it's snowing here again....

Not such a happy blogger today - something is broken!

I'm annoyed with my computer today. Or Blogger. Or Youtube. Or all three.... because I want to embed youtube videos as I often do - and can't. Something, somewhere, is broken. And Blogger no longer do support. I have tried the help forums, and it seems there is at least one other "Blogger" blogger with the same problem. I could do links to the videos, and quite possibly that is what I will have to do. But the page will not look the same... so bear with me, folks... hopefully, normal service will be resumed ASAP....

My new banjolele.....makes three! Gibson UB2

Yes, in addition to my lovely bird's eye maple Slingerland and my Dallas D - a rather art-deco and masculine looking uke, I am now the very proud owner of a Gibson UB2! I love it - love it, love it! I love the others too, and won't be in a rush to sell either of them, but I must say, the UB2 will be my main player when it comes to the banjo-ukes. Why? The Gibson seems to be particularly well-balanced. It's just a joy to hold and play, even standing. The neck is very smooth, the tuners are perfectly adjusted... and its last owner was none other than ukulelezaza - Remco Houtman-Janssen! So I am very proud to be able to call it mine. A couple of quick pics....

Now, to be able to play it like Remco, that would be something.

And it's my bet that Remco found a lot of new fans last weekend, when he "got the Formby itch" once more and attended the George Formby Society March Convention in Blackpool. It was my privilege to meet him there - what a nice man... and what a stupendous musician! But more of that next time!

Mr. Wu's a Window Cleaner Now - Johnny Foodstamp - George Formby

Once more, Johnny Foodstamp gives an old George Formby number the Nashville touch! I think this is his best yet - one take before coffee must have something going for it, Johnny! This version also features his uke in D tuning with a new calf-skin vellum - big improvement on that nasty plastic head! All the better for that old-time Formby sound!

And Johnny will be making the pilgrimage to the George Formby Society Convention in Blackpool in June! And we can't wait to see that!

Scott Edelman flies in to the GFS March Convention

One of the great pals I made last weekend at the George Formby Convention was Scott Edelman of West Virginia. What a lovely fella - and he, like me (oh yes, boys and girls) made his debut on the stage there! However, he is quicker off the mark than I am about recording his adventure on his blog. So here's a link to a great blog, and a "Yank"'s first visit to Blackpool and the GFS. He loved it. Of course he did.

Read all about it here!.

My own report will follow... soon... just off to Go Ukulele Crazy uke club!

My Melancholy Baby, John Bianchi

Good morning - or evening, whatever and wherever you are... I think my brain's going because I was so sure I had posted published this superb rendition of My Melancholy Baby by the incomparable John Bianchi! In draft form, there it was... draft.

So here it is, My Melancholy Baby, and how gorgeous it is - so smooth, so effortless - wonderful song, wonderful voice... written in 1912, music by Ernie Burnett, the lyrics by George A. Norton. Should be a pro, John; should be a pro....

According to Wikipedia, Ernie Burnett, who composed the music, was wounded fighting in the First World War, and he lost his memory together with his identity dog-tags. While recuperating in hospital, a pianist entertained the patients with popular tunes including "Melancholy Baby". Burnett rose from his sickbed and exclaimed: "That's my song!" He had regained his memory.

Read more about it here.

And coming up - what a fabulous weekend we have just had at the March convention of the GFS (George Formby Society) in Blackpool! See you soon! :D

I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl that Married Dear Old Dad

Well, here's my take on the 1911 song

I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl that Married Dear Old Dad



(C) I want a girl, (F) just like the girl that (C) married (G7) dear old (C) Dad (C7)


(F) She was a pearl (C) and she was the (A7) only girl that (D7) Daddy ever (G7) had,


A (C) good old-fashioned girl with (E7) heart so true


(Am) One who loves nobody (G7) else but you


(C) I want a girl, (F) just like the girl that (C) married (G7) dear old (C) Dad


You can throw in more C7s passing from C to F if you want....



It sounds great on banjo-uke - I reckon a Formby-style solo would work well on this! Something to work on there.... well, GFS, here we come! I could be strumming along with the gang in Blackpool Tower on Saturday... watch this space! ;)

A year yesterday - I started this blog!

Yes, a year yesterday I started this blog... I had the wooden laminate concert uke that Long-Suffering Husband had bought me when I demanded one back in 2005, and a newly acquired 1920's Slingerland banjo-uke that I was trying to get ready to play - the two ukes in my picture on every page here. Now, a year and nearly 20,000 page views later, I have four wooden ukes and four banjoleles. Can't believe it really. Well, one of the banjo-ukes is to sell when it's had a little TLC - but the rest are keepers, I reckon. I was going to do a sofa-shot with them all on, to celebrate the blog's birthday, but my baby-blue Mahalo soprano is still out on loan so I'll hang on. The last year has been quite a journey, uke-wise. Lots to tell there... I'm getting better - slowly. But I do play, nearly every day; a bit of this, a bit of that...

And here's a bit of that, coming up ... a song came into my head earlier on, and I thought perhaps I could work out the chords... that happens sometimes. This seems to work. It's the 1911 song

I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl that Married Dear Old Dad


Coming up, next time .... ;)

So what Ukafrolics are going on, then?

Well, life rattles on along a bumpy track, always with plenty to do and no excuses for getting bored - so much so that I really haven't had much chance to settle down to blogging for over a fortnight, and really I'm itching to tell you about so many things - so - coming up.......

As the next convention of the George Formby Society takes place at the Imperial Hotel, Blackpool this weekend, (16th and 17th March 2013), the UK Formby fans are chomping at the bit to get up there, meet with friends old and new, see each others' new ukes and get playing together.

At every Formby convention there are people who have made the pilgrimage to Blackpool from far corners of the world, and this convention will be no different - Scott, who hails, I believe from New York, is eyeing up the wintry but bracing Blackpool weather as he prepares to meet friends made on the internet and to hear the best of Formby-style playing. I know he will receive a very warm welcome. I think this convention will be a great first-time meeting for quite a few of us... me? Yes, I'll be there... looking forward to meeting for the first time Mike Warren, and ukulelezaza (Remco Hutman-Janssen) from Belgium and many more... and I, too, have a lovely new (well, new to me) vintage Gibson banjolele to show off and play...

I'll tell you all about that next time - a bit later.

Meanwhile, thanks for dropping in! I hope the day is kind....:)

A Little White Uke... travelling around the world, arrives in Somerset, England

One of my very favourite websites and ukulele communities is the Ukulele Underground Forum. Based in Hawaii and a branch of the Ukulele Underground, it has a membership of thousands who discuss all things ukulele and share uke videos. Since joining about a year ago, I have been so impressed by the members' knowledge, eloquence, and readiness to help new players. One of the main rules is "Don't be a jerk".... and people rarely are.... the team of volunteer moderators are a superbly able bunch who keep the peace if someone is getting hot under the collar.

I'm also hugely impressed by the sheer talent of players on there. Coupled with the community spirit, a little project has begun, the brain-child of a forum member in Australia ("pabrizzer"). He has gathered together a number of forum members to send a little white ukulele on a journey around the world. The Little White Uke has left Australia, traveled to Spain, the Netherlands and Germany, and is now in Britain. "Filipinouker" in Somerset recorded this lovely video .... it features the national anthems of the UK, the Phillipines, and some beautiful playing, as well as great scenic shots.



I asked "filipinouker" how long she had been playing, and how she began her own journey with the ukulele. This is what she shared with me.

"I've been playing since May 2012...before then, I never thought much about ukuleles - I considered them to be toys!

My husband and I were in the Lake District on holiday, and it was wet wet wet for the whole week. One afternoon, I got fed up walking in the rain and sought warmth and shelter in a music shop. I pretended to be interested in the rows of ukuleles hanging on the wall (I really was NOT interested). To my shock horror, some of them cost hundreds and hundreds of pounds! That got me curious. Why would a silly little toy cost that much?!!! So I picked one up - one that cost £300, and with the help of a chord chart that was lying around and the encouragement of the shop assistant, I managed to strum a C chord, a G chord and an F chord. I was amazed by how beautiful it sounded!

Three hours later, after I had tried all the ukes :D - I walked away with what I could afford then: an £80 Kala-CEM (concert size, exotic mahogany top). I have, since then, sold it and bought an Ohana CK42R (solid sinker redwood top) and a Mainland all solid mahogany soprano. It is like a drug, uke playing!

Also, since then, I thank God for miserable rainy days because, often, they can lead to something good... in this case, it opened up for me the happy, sunny world of ukulele music!"

On facebook, there's a page called Little White Uke Around the World, where you can see more pics of the LWU on its travels.

I was slow on the uptake with this great little project... by the time I had caught up with what was afoot, it was too late to be a part of it. A little sad, there... there's only room for about 24 names on the uke - everyone participating is signing it... so numbers were limited by that.

From the UK, the LWU is traveling on to France, Finland, then to America. And from there, back home to "pabrizzer" in Oz.

Bon voyage, Little White Uke! Travel safely! :D

Mike Warren, Music Box Waltz and facebook group

I want you to meet Mike Warren. When I went to the George Formby meeting in Blackpool in September, I was chatting to a chap, talking split-strokes (of course) when he said - "You need to get on facebook and join Mike Warren's group... he's really helpful..." and eventually, I did. I'll be meeting him in the flesh in a week or two... but one thing I have heard, over and over, is just what sort of a genuine bloke he is. I'm really looking forward to meeting him - and he really does do great little tuition videos! - but read his story for yourself, here in his own words.... the bit that really resonates with me is where he tells about "the moment in my life I knew I had to learn to play a ukulele"... because I had a moment like that, watching Joe Brown.

"Here is where my Ukulele story starts. I went to firth park school at the age of 12. I was a little Sh*t back then, having being expelled from a boarding school on the isle of Wight. One day at school I went to an art class by a Mr Litherland. We got on quite well so I behaved in his class, (most of the time.) In the storeroom of the art class where they store paper, paints, pencils etc. was a ukulele. It had no strings or tuning pegs but I thought it looked quite sweet. I asked what it was, and he told me it was a Ukulele, and that he was going to learn to play it. I was cheeky and asked if I could have it. He said that if I behaved in his class for so many weeks, (can't remember how many now) I could have it. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I got it, and it got put into a cupboard for years until I left school.

One night I was watching the TV and the Michael Parkinson show came on, and as a guest he had Peter Sellers. I liked him from the goon shows and films etc., so I decided to watch it. During that show out came a ukulele, and Peter played an old song on it. I instantly thought about my uke in the cupboard. Later on in the show he played again only this time he sang When I'm Cleaning Windows and did a solo.

That was the moment in my life I knew I had to learn to play a ukulele. I bought some tuning pegs and strings and a book and started learning. A year or so later I went into the shop where I always bought my strings from and started paying so much per week towards a ukulele banjo. I went into the shop and asked if I could have a go on it. The chap in the shop (funny enough was called George) said yes. I fumbled around a few chords and he said give it me, and then went into this song and did a GF style solo. My mouth fell open. I asked who sang the song and he said a chap called George Formby. I'd never heard of him. He then said I've got some records at home, If you come back tomorrow you can borrow them. So as the story goes, I borrowed them. I then recorded them onto an old reel to reel recorder that belonged to my grandad.

Months later I came across a book called The George Formby Complete, it's now got a lot thinner and it's called The George Formby Songbook. I bought it and my life-long George Formby passion started there, and the rest is history. I slowed down the tapes of George and figured out the strumming patterns by ear and used to play along note for note, or as near as damn it.


I had been playing for around three years and never met another uke player when I saw a documentary about George Formby and the George Formby Society were on it. I wrote to the BBC asking for details about the said Documentary and they wrote back with the name, address and telephone number of the then secretary of the society. I rang him up and got all the details and I joined. It cost me £2.60 for the years membership.

I went in March 1981 to my first GF meeting in Blackpool. I've never looked back since.

Over the years I've met some wonderful people and uke players. Some are dead and gone now (god bless em') Jack Jones, Dennis Taylor etc. Wonderful people that I have been privileged to have met.

It's now 2013 and come March I'll be off to Blackpool yet again to remember our George and meet some more fantastic people. I couldn't imagine life without the George Formby Society meetings. I now have a ukulele group on Facebook called Learn Ukulele Free which I started about 7 months ago and already there are nearly 700 members from all over the world. I love giving something back from my years of playing and the pleasure from it by helping other budding Ukulele players via this group.

Well folks that's my Ukulele story. I hope you liked it.

Happy Plonking!

Mike Warren."

Lovely story.... thanks Mike, for sharing it! And particularly, for me, for the "shake" video! :D

Ukulelehunt video of the year contest

Back in June (2012,) I posted a video of one of my very favourite performers, John Bianchi, performing a wonderfully un-PC song from the 20's called "The Dumber They Come, the Better I Like 'Em" - and it has now been nominated for the Ukulelehunt Video of the Year Award. Check it out, it's all here. But he needs your votes, folks! There are six videos in the shortlist, and they're all pretty good, in various ways. You can check them all out on the voting page of Ukehunt. As in the usual run of things, bands and trios have a advantage because they have more people to canvass support - but John B is a sole performer here, and he really needs your vote!

So - please get over there to Ukehunt and do the deed!

All Of Me - The Hot Tone Rhythm Boys featuring Jim 'Django' Gritt

At last - a band featuring the ukulele AND the great songs of the 20's and 30's - and the 40's. In the USA they have Janet Klein and the Parlor boys - and what do we have here? I'd been thinking that there was nothing like this in the UK, until I just stumbled across this one.

Before I write more I need some up-t-date info for you. So for now, just enjoy this great old jazz standard, All Of Me, written in 1931.....



Mmmmm - lovely!

Remco Houtman-Janssen, aka ukulelezaza

Shine ft Two on banjo-uke



Remco Houtman-Janssen from Belgium aka Ukulelezaza is one of the world's great ukulele players... if you've not had the pleasure of seeing or hearing him play, here is one of his Youtubes, featuring his Ludwig banjo-uke on this occasion, but on his channel there are many fantastic videos with his wooden ukes, where that one came from. See the tuition video for Mr Sandman below, for example... it's great!

Remco is running a weekend ukulele workshop at Gleanings Rural Centre, nr Minsterly, Shropshire UK on Sat 23rd / Sun 24th March 2013, and as I write there are still some places available to take part....

He will be performing a gig on the Saturday night at the Hope Village Hall at 8.00pm, a great opportunity to see him in an intimate venue - and there is real ale available! LSH will be wanting to go....

Should be a great weekend !!!

Interested? Contact Yvonne or John at Gleanings for tickets on 01743 891412 or email
yj.hart@virgin.net

The week before that, however, Remco will be at the March Convention of the George Formby Society, 16th/17th March at the Imperial Hotel, North Promenade, Blackpool. Some wooden uke players are fiercely anti the banjo-uke, and some banjolele players have little time for its wooden counterpart, once the banjolele bug has bitten - it's the fast and complex syncopation that does it - but Remco loves both, as do I, and is now one of my newest ukulele heroes...

Watch this space for more on ukulelezaza!

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!