Jesus Once Was a Little Child (Ukulele Tablature Solo)

Free TAB available at https://www.facebook.com/groups/77615… in the files section. Support this project at http://patreon.com/uke and find more ukulele songs, materials, tutorials, reviews and tabs at http://ukuleleplay.com

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam *Calypso* Ukulele Sing & Play Along with Tutorial

Tutorial at https://youtu.be/jJfhsYmOAVA … Free TAB available at https://www.facebook.com/groups/77615… in the files section.

Gerald Ross : Ukulele Players You Should Know

Gerald Ross consistently puts out great renditions of swing time anthems on his youtube channel. He’s a great player and teaches at a number of festivals throughout the year. His latest is a song from 1926, Sunday:

If you’re interested in swinging your uke like Gerald, he has a popular series of Beginning Swing Ukulele videos:

And in closing, another wonderful swing cover, Sweet Georgia Brown:

Over the Rainbow Instrumental Video Tutorials

I created these Over the Rainbow tutorials for my Ukulele Youth Choir students, but thought others might be interested as well. The music is visible in the video, but if you’d like to print a copy you can purchase this arrangement on Sheet Music Plus. There are five videos …

  1. Tutorial on the Chords (intermediate level chords).
  2. Play-through of the chords to practice with.
  3. Tutorial for for Ukulele 2 Tablature (Part 1).
  4. Tutorial for for Ukulele 2 Tablature (Part 2).
  5. Tutorial for Ukulele 1 Tablature (Melody part).

You can watch them below or with these links on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa626nR993Oy6wzx3QSc-_kfYhpBzD1o2 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqdByWx-ODw&list=PLa626nR993Oy6wzx3QSc-_kfYhpBzD1o2

Amazing Grace : Simple Chord Melody (PDF)

Download “Amazing Grace” PDF

If you’re interested in the process of writing a simple chord melody arrangement like this, see http://ukuleleplay.com/how-to-make-a-simple-chord-melody-for-ukulele-amazing-grace/

Letter from Slovenia (Choosing Chords for a Melody)

I saw you on facebook and i need some help. How can i turn sheet music for piano to ukulele chords? I would like to play Slovenian children songs, but i only have the sheet music for piano. Can you help me?

Changing piano to ukulele chords requires a bit of knowledge of how chords are built. You’ll have to identify the chords in the piano part, by looking at the notes that are being played together and then look up those chords using something like https://ukebuddy.com/ukulele-chords

Alternatively, you can identify the key of the song, isolate the melody and then just experiment with the chords in that key to see which ones sound good to you. For example, in the key of C, the most common chords are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, & G7. In essence, you’re ignoring the piano part and creating your own arrangement.

I sent you one photo of a Slovenian song and my way to convert piano notes into chord. First i wrote down tonality, so this song is in C. And there are three main grade: T, S, D. And on T there is C chord, on S there is F chord and on D there is G chord. So i play this song on ukulele with this three chords: c, f and g. And for every beat, i chose one of this chord. Or i just play the first note in the beat? So in the first beat there is g, so i play G chord, in the second beat there is a, so i just play A chord and so on.

This is looking quite good. There a so many ways to harmonize a simple melody like this. One of the many possibilities that I might do with my students on this melody might be (each chord = a quarter note):
C C Am Am F F Dm Dm
F F G7 G7 C G7 C
You could also use G instead of G7 if you like that better. I’ve attached a chord chart that shows how to make all the above chords.

How to Make a Simple Chord Melody for Ukulele (Amazing Grace)

A simple method for creating a basic chord melody arrangement of Amazing Grace (though the principles apply to any melody). Walk through the steps from start to finish, including tips on selecting your key, chords and editing your tablature. Though I use Finale in the tutorial, paper and pencil or the free notation program MuseScore will work just as well. Hope you find it useful and get inspired to start your own arranging projects for tunes you love.

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain : Ukulele Players You Should Know

As far as I know, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (UOGB) is one of two main prototypes for ukulele orchestras/bands/ensembles in the world (the other being created by renowned ukulele educator J. Chalmers Doane in the Canadian educational system, under which James Hill received his initial training). The UOGB combines ukuleles, awesome musicianship, mediocre (voice of the people) singing, in amazing arrangements filled with humor and British deadpan. I was lucky enough to see them when they were on a world tour and happened to come to Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City (they were great). If you can’t go see them live, which is everyone at this moment of self-isolation, I have good news, especially since they’re not regular video posters, that they just released Ukulele Lockdown. Episode 1, Clip 1 : Higher and Higher.

While we wait for the next clip, enjoy some popular UOGB performances, beginning with the one that gives me chills (in a good way), ‘Medley’. I show this one to all my new students at my Ukulele Bootcamps:

Check out more from the UOGB at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ukulele+orchestra+of+great+britain. Thanks UOGB for your decades of awesomeness. You are an inspiration to me!

I “C” Uke in Your Future : Chalk Walk Art Chord Chart for the Key of C

Our neighborhood had a chalk walk today. This was one of my entries, a basic chord chart for the Key of C. 🙂

Pirate Ukulele (Just for Fun)

A pirate ukulele made by Ukulele MOTU : this thing is awesome. I love that its based on a Tahitian ukulele design with the sound hole in the back.

Photo by u/CocoCapitainePoulet (reddit) – Used by permission.

The Pirate Uke in Action!!!

Piano to Ukulele Chords

A question I got today:

I saw you on facebook and I need some help. How can I turn sheet music for piano to ukulele chords? I would like to play Slovenian children’s songs, but i only have the sheet music for piano. Can you help me?

Changing piano to ukulele chords requires a bit of knowledge of how chords are built. You’ll have to identify the chords in the piano part, by looking at the notes that are being played together and then look up those chords using something like https://ukebuddy.com/ukulele-chords

Alternatively, you can identify the key of the song, isolate the melody and then just experiment with the chords in that key to see which ones sound good to you. For example, in the key of C, the most common chords are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, & G7. In essence, you’re ignoring the piano part and creating your own arrangement.

I plan to create some videos soon about these topics in more detail. Please let me know if you’d like me to add you to my announcement list so you can hear when they come out (ryan@ukuleleplay.com).

Danielle Ate the Sandwich : Ukulele Players You Should Know

Shifting focus on this series from great instrumentalists to great singers that happen to play the ukulele as their main instrument. Up first, Danielle At the Sandwich. I first saw Danielle perform live at the Denver Uke Fest. I’ve since had the opportunity to meet her in person and she’s got just as lovely of a personality as she has a lovely voice. She just released this new video today (which put her fresh in my mind):

I think she’s a fantastic songwriter … In fact she’s written one of my all-time favorite songs ever, Peace to You Brother:

Lest you think she can only do dreamy music … she’s also a great cover artist:

Thanks Danielle being awesome! 🙂

Watch ‘The Mighty Uke’ on Amazon Prime Video

Back when I began my own ukulele journey, I stumbled upon a wonderful documentary about the ukulele’s resurgence called The Mighty Uke, filled with ukulele history and interesting personalities. I was pleased to find that this film is now available to watch for free on Amazon Prime Video Streaming at https://amzn.to/2xfRjfg

Though a decade has past and it is not really a reflection of the current ukulele landscape, it is a great snapshot and very entertaining. I hope you enjoy it as much as have.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on and favorite parts of this film. Please comment below.

How to find songs that fit the CHORDS YOU ALREADY KNOW

Yesterday, I got a letter from someone wishing for some songs to play with common chords they already know. If you fall into this boat, and need some songs that already work with what you’ve learned, I’ve got good news for you.

The Chord Genome Project

I was recently contacted by the creator of The Chord Genome Project, who recently came out with a page focused at ukulele players: The Ultimate Collection of Easy Ukulele Songs for Beginners. The page is a good resource and jumping off point for a site that I think is a great idea.

The Chord Genome Project is basically a database of half a million songs that you can search with the chords you already know. This allows you to find new songs that already fit your personal knowledge base. There are many reasons you might want to be able to do this, besides being lazy. Some examples:

  • Disability, such as the arthritis mentioned in yesterday’s post, may limit the amount of chords you are able to make.
  • You need a new song for this weekend, for whatever reason, and you want to be sure your sure about what you’re playing.
  • You teach beginners and are looking for songs that will fit within their skill sets, or just help them to grow one chord at a time.

How the site works:

  • Go to the main page at The Chord Genome Project.
  • Enter the chords you wish to search for.
  • Under the instrument filters you can select Guitar, Ukulele, Banjo or Mandolin.
  • You can also select whether you just want to see music specifically for Guitar or Ukulele or Both (I’d suggest both if you already know these chords, because ‘chords are chords’).
  • Optionally: There are also Genre, Decade and paid filters you can select.
  • Hit the Search button and see your results.

The free version is quite limited on the results you’ll get back (5% for Demo and 10% for Free accounts), but the Gold membership returns results from all half million songs in the database and is only $24.99 for lifetime access (Disclosure: I am not being paid to review this and have no relationship with the site whatsoever). Paid membership also includes wildcard searches, which allow you to put in the chords you know and get results with just one more chord.

A useful tool? Yes, I think so. Worth it? I don’t think it is overpriced. Lifetime access is what I look for on these kinds of sites. I hate paying monthly for database use.

Anything missing? Yes, I do wish that there was an easy way to search for songs based on the number of chords in the song, rather than by specific chords. Also, it would be so awesome if there was a way to search chords by relationships (all songs that have I, IV, V or I, ii7, V7, etc. progressions).*** These features would make it indispensable for teachers or anyone who wasn’t afraid to transpose a song.

Do you know any other resources out there for players to find songs to chords they already know? Please post a reply or drop me a line at ryan@ukuleleplay.com

*** CORRECTION: I contacted Austin at The Chord Genome about those missing features, and while they currently don’t have a way to look up songs by the number of chords, they DO have a way to look up progressions. See this video:

Too Hard?

Yesterday, I released my 11 Easy Spirituals video with free PDF sheet music. Already, the video has been watched 841 times on Facebook with lots of likes and loves, but … Never is everyone happy, even with free stuff. I got this letter in my email box this morning:

“I LOVE the idea of this, Ryan. Unfortunately I am too much of a beginner to know most of the chords you use, even though there are only a few chords per song. How about a bunch using the familiar A A7 B7 C D D7 G G7 E E7? Bar chords are beyond my old arthritic hands, and several of the chords I have never even seen in uke tunes before. I know the teacher in you wants us to improve and become more proficient. But some of us just want to strum and sing along easy peasy. Thanks for listening.”

Usually, I just ‘let it go’ when it comes to criticism, or at least try to, but this person was too nice to ignore, so here’s my response:

Thanks for taking the time to write. I have to disagree about the difficulty on most of the songs I’ve included in this collection though. You can’t ask for anything easier than a song that uses Dm and F (one finger different from each other), or Fadd9 and C7 (both one finger chords) as the only two chords in their songs … just because a chord sounds unfamiliar doesn’t mean it is a difficult chord. In fact, many of these fancier sounding chords are easier to play than their plain vanilla counterparts. For example, Bb is a common chord but is notoriously difficult for beginners … in There is a Balm in Gilead, I substitute the much easier to play Bbmaj7 chord which has a similar shape to the easy peasy Em chord. As far as barre chords go, I’ve only included one in this set, the very common D7 barre, but it is easy to substitute the ‘Hawaiian’ D7, which is much easier to play (the fret numbers for that version are 2020). The only song in the set that might take more than 15-minutes of isolated chord practice is I Want to Be Ready, with the Bbadd9 chord from what James Hill calls the ‘don’t lift a finger set’ (where the pinky stays on the 3rd fret of the 1st string for all three chords) … once learned though, this becomes a fantastic substitution for the very common, and much harder, Bb chord (you can’t play in the key of F without it, or one of its substitutes). Anyway, I know there are those that just want to use the same chords over and over again, but I personally find that too limiting. I think 10 out of 11 of these chord sets could be mastered with 10-15 minutes of isolated practice.

What I didn’t say, but really wanted to, was that if something isn’t important enough for you to practice for 10-15 minutes, then you should just move on and do something else that you are willing to invest a little effort into. If you want the ultimate in ease, there’s nothing wrong with karaoke … after all, singing (even singing badly) is great for your health and well-being.

Honoka & Azita : Ukulele Players You Should Know

If you didn’t think the ukulele was already chipper enough all on it’s own, just add a couple of smiling, technically-awesome young players into the mix …

Honestly, this just makes me smile …

Not cute enough? Let’s add some Disney magic …

Wipeout!

A teary-eyed farewell (medical school break-up) …

If you’d like to continue with Honoku on her journey as a solo artist, her new youtube channel features singles and tutorials; here is her first new cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x81Kfgt1F5M

And an original song …

Thank you Honoka & Azita!!!

Get to know 11 easy Spirituals that will literally ‘lift your spirits’ in 25-min with this Free video introduction and PDF Sheet Music download …

Hope you enjoy learning these awesome songs that are an uplifting part of our American spiritual heritage … great for any day of the week when you need a boost. Enjoy!

80s Solo Instrumentals

In case anyone is interested in an 80s instrumental for the upcoming Utah Uke Fest in June (themed Back to the 80s) … there are some sources online. I found Every Breath You Take on one site: https://ukutabs.com/files/every_breath_uke.pdf and Ukulele Hunt has a page dedicated to 80s songs at https://ukulelehunt.com/tag/80s/ … some ones I think could be fun are:

Of course, you can always take any piano/vocal sheet music and reduce it to melody and chords and tab it out, if there’s something particular you are really interested in doing. https://musescore.org/en is a free music score editing software, with tutorials at https://musescore.org/en/tutorials, you could use, or do it by hand on some tab paper http://ukegeeks.com/paper/.

Corey Fujimoto : Ukulele Players You Should Know

Can anyone say Pachelbel Canon? Let’s get an AMEN to that!

That is so beautiful it hurts! Better yet, he’s provided a free TAB for this on Hawaii Music Supply’s site if you’re feeling ambitious (and have a low-g ukulele) : Canon (PDF). As a side note: HMS has a ton of TABS on their site with videos to demo them, enough to keep anyone busy on solo work for a while.

Here’s Corey on a Carpenter’s classic:

And another lovely cover with a free TAB:

Lastly, let’s send off with couple of Corey’s originals, Konayuki, and a one featuring the guilele (ukulele-sized guitar):

Thanks Corey!!!

What is your ukulele learning wish list?

UkeDogs2 by FolsomNatural

Questions often carry subtle assumptions …

For example: I was thinking of leading this post with, “What would you like to learn most in your musical journey with the ukulele?” That question carries the implication that the one’s journey with the ukulele is a primarily a musical one. In my life, the music has always been important, but often times it has been the vehicle, rather than the destination …

For example: Historically, I used to have a really hard time making friends and just dealing with people in general; I had some trouble with bullies in my youth and it took me a long time to work through that (I’m probably still working through it). In high school I became pretty good at music though and the side bonus was that I was able to make a lot of friends despite my social limitations. That, in turn, shaped my feelings about the music itself.

For example: When I was younger, I dreamed about being a professional composer … a sort of ‘Jeremiah Johnson’ / loner / basement-dwelling maverick that wouldn’t have to deal people. Thankfully, that vision never really came true (though I have written and arranged boatloads of music over the years and that is still a big part of what I do). The world forced me to be more creative about how I used my talents and interacted with it to earn my daily bread. Now, I count among my most fulfilling musical experiences the times I’m collaborating, teaching and interacting with other musicians in common goals. It is a much more balanced life and brings me a lot of joy.

So, one of the reasons I spend so much time leading a community ukulele group is that it affords me the opportunity to meet people and work with them on common goals, forging friendships along the way. I’m so grateful for that. Without going into much more detail, it’s easy to see how musical goals can extend far beyond music. In the future, I hope to grow more friendships, do more collaborations, meet more people and yes, make more music.

Since this has gotten pretty long, I’ll pick up from there in a ‘part 2’ later on; there’s a lot to think about when it comes to how music can touch our lives. In the meantime: What are some of your goals related to the ukulele? What is your ukulele learning wish list? Please leave a comment below; I’d really be interested to know.

Kalei Gamiao : Ukulele Players You Should Know

I found this video of Kalei Gamiao early in my ukulele journey, which has his lovely playing as well as a tour of the Kamaka Ukulele workshop as an added bonus:

However, I think this arrangement of Kiss From a Rose to be one of the most sublime ukulele arrangements I have ever heard …

He’s done many video collabs with Hawaii Music Supply, his most popular vid there comes including a little help from some looper magic …

And for closers, a full-length concert, live-streamed from Taiwan …

Thank you Kalei for being so awesome!!!

The Tide is High (Blondie) for Ukulele Ensemble

More Back to the 80s music for Ukulele Ensembles/Band/Orchestras at http://ukuleleplay.com/for-ukulele-ensembles/

Classical Ukulele Music

A student asked me about classical ukulele books … She’d seen the Lute to Uke book by Tony Mizen https://amzn.to/2PznYTj, so I pointed her to the Baroque volume  https://amzn.to/2Tn9PKe and Romantic era volume https://amzn.to/3cdxAgt all by the same author. He’s a good arranger.

John King was the pioneer in this area, but his campanella arrangements tend to be on the difficult side: https://amzn.to/3cgOdI2

PDF Minstrel is a free resource with many arrangements or varying quality and difficulty:  https://pdfminstrel.wordpress.com/

If you like traditional folk tunes (used by many classical composers), this is an excellent book by master arranger Colin Tribe, all of which can be played as solos or more easily as duets (genius): https://amzn.to/2T6tJtS … He’s come out with Irish https://amzn.to/39b8CMu and American https://amzn.to/32D84fT editions as well.

Mark Nelson’s book on Fingerstyle Ukulele https://amzn.to/3cgEnWz also has some classical selections and it is one great book.

Samantha Muir has a site dedicated to Classical Ukulele at https://iloveclassicalukulele.com/

UPDATE: Another bunch of great resources on this come from Wilfred Welti whose site is https://www.ukulele-arts.com/?lang=en and includes a number of free resources on this page: https://www.ukulele-arts.com/tabs-and-e-books/?lang=en

Kris Fuchigami : Ukulele Players You Should Know

I first saw Kris Fuchigami performing at the Reno Ukulele Festival some years ago. He’s an amazing player whom you can usually see performing with his mom on keyboards in the background. This piano/ukulele combination is something you really just don’t see anywhere else, but (surprising to me) it works great. He also does the solo virtuoso thing …

Lately, he’s been producing some tutorials as well, so check out his channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/uKuLeLe808fReAk/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid . I’ll close this brief overview with a couple of his collaborations with Hawaii Music Supply with almost 2 million views between them …

STAND (R.E.M.) for Ukulele Orchestra

More Back to the 80s music for Ukulele Ensembles/Band/Orchestras at http://ukuleleplay.com/for-ukulele-ensembles/