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Friday Links: Ukulele Court Battle

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The Uke Hunt t-shirts have passed their goal. So they’ll definitely be printed. A massive thanks to everyone who has ordered already. Still plenty of time if you want to order one. You can find them on Teespring.

New Releases

James Hill’s new album The Old Silo is out now. You can stream it here and download the opening track free here.
– The Staves are working with Justin ‘Bonnie Bear’ Vernon on their new album and you can listen to the first track from it here.

Pictures

Drawing of an exceptionally handsome ukulele player.
Marion Davies and Lawrence Gray.
Play a Bari, Wear a Boa (c.1960).

Videos

The Rather Wonderful World of Chap Hop (via HermanVDC).
Tina Fey on ukulele (via Things I Saw That I Love).

Learning

Tyrone and Lesley’s Gentlemen’s Songbook has chords for a bunch of their songs. Including the much requested Unaccompanied.

Courtroom Drama

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain failed to get an injunction against The United Kingdom Ukulele Orchestra’s UK tour. More court battles to come. And it won’t be hard for the UOGB to find evidence of people who are confused. Here’s an exchange from TUKUO’s own Facebook a couple of weeks ago:

Screen Shot 2014-09-24 at 11.06.24Screen Shot 2014-09-24 at 11.06.24 copy

No prizes for guessing who has played Helsinki.

Don’t even get me started on the People’s Ukulele Front of Great Britain. Splitters!


James Hill, Keston Cobblers: UkeTube

Junior Brown – Better Call Saul (Chords)

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Junior Brown – Better Call Saul (Chords)

This one is hot off the press. The new song for the upcoming Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul. Although it’s performed by Junior Brown and his guit-steel, the lyrics are by show creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould with music by Dave Porter (composer of the Breaking Bad theme). On the downside, the video is only available in the US but you can listen to the song here.

The chords transfer very nicely to ukulele and there are a few tasty licks too.

Suggested Strumming

Here’s my favourite main strum:

d – d u d – d u d – d u d – d u

That’s just d – d u four times. That’ll see you most of the way through. There are a couple of places where the changes are quicker. For the A – C in the odd numbered verses and the E7 – D in the solos just do d – d u twice for each chord.

That’s pretty frenetic. So if you want something similar go for this:

d u – u – u – u

With the up strums short (stopping them just after you strum). Again, just split that in half for the quicker changes.

Twiddly Bits

There are a few simple but effective twiddles throughout the song. Here’s the little intro:

IntroLick

The little riff in the second half of the solo:

SoloRiff

And the little run at the end:

outro

Links

BetterCallSaul.com
JuniorBrown.com
Buy it on iTunes
Breaking Bad theme tab

No Hassle Chord Changes

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With all the intricate and dexterous actions that evolution has equipped our hands for it’s left us woefully unprepared to play an Fmaj7 chord on the ukulele. It’s made plenty of chord changes a pain in the arse too.

Laziness to the rescue! You can change the fingering of a chord or use a different inversion to make changes much more straightforward.

Here are a few tricky chord changes that can be simplified with a bit of rejiggering.

A to D

Here’s an obvious refingering. If you use your second, third and fourth fingers to play it you can keep your first finger tucked behind.

The Sucker Way

AD

The Smart Way

AD2

Video Comparison

Em to B7

In chord charts the B7 is almost always shown played with a barre. But it doesn’t have to be. Switch the notes on the g and A strings and you get the Em chord shape with everything moved across one string.

The Sucker Way

EmB7

The Smart Way

EmB72

Video Comparison

G to B7

Another B7. This one doesn’t actually have a B in it. But thanks to crazy ear-shenanigans your brain fills in the B for you (here’s Vi Hart explaining it as well as why chords and scales are as they are).

The Sucker Way

GB7

The Smart Way

GB72

Video Comparison

Anything to Fmaj7

If anyone tells you to play Fmaj7 the 2413 way throw your ukulele at them and run away. They are not your friend. In the first take of my trying to play the chord you can actually hear my wrist cracking as I attempt it.

The Sucker Way

Fmaj7

The Smart Way

Fmaj72

Video Comparison

D7 to G7

Like the B7, this version of D7 doesn’t actually have a D. But it is way easier to play. This version is often called the ‘Hawaiian D7′ for reasons that elude me.

The Sucker Way

D7G

The Smart Way

D7-G2

Video Comparison

Links

Ten ways to play an E chord
How to Play Ukulele Chords – my ebook on chords and chord theory.

Punk Pop Riffs (Tab)

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Another one for the Riffs for Ukulele series. Usual rules apply: they’re intended to be played for a lark (even more so with these punk pop songs); no, I’m not going to write up the full song; and they’re not necessarily in the original key (although only Sum 41 in this post isn’t thanks to some capo deployment).

Paramore – Still Into You

StillIntoYou

With Paramore’s recent foray into ukulele songs it’s only right I include one of theirs. Two riffs on this one. The top one is plucked thumb and two finger style and the bottom one using alternate picking.

Buy it on iTunes

Blink 182 – What’s My Age Again?

WhatsMyAgeAgain

After a bit of octave shifting the arpeggio riff in this one works way better on ukulele than I was expecting. Thumb and two finger picking for this one again. Try to emphasise the notes on the g- and C-strings.

Buy it on iTunes

Green Day – American Idiot

AmericanIdiot

Capo on the first fret for this one too. The switch from G to F at the end of bar two is very fast. If you’re struggling with it you can just switch the F for playing all the strings open like at the end of bar 4.

Buy it on iTunes

Sum 41 – Fat Lip

FatLip

Not going to lie, this one is pretty preposterous on ukulele. But, hey, Sum 41 were a pretty preposterous band.

Buy it on iTunes

Panic! at the Disco – I Write Sins Not Tragedies

IWriteSins

I’m not sure if this one entirely belongs in this post. But I’ve become obsessed with it recently. I tried to get all the discordant bits in. Which makes it much more difficult than it needs to be. Here’s a simpler version:

IWriteSinsEasy

Buy it on iTunes

Friday Links

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Last chance to order a Uke Hunt t-shirt. The minimum order has been passed so they’re definitely going to get made and shipped as soon as the pre-ordering is done.

Pictures

Light-box ukulele.
And that’s why you don’t play ukulele with a pick.
Martin found under a bed.

New Releases

Allo Darlin’s We Come from the Same Place.
Nicholas Abersold’s String Cheese.
Emilyn Brodsky Eats Her Feelings.

Learning

– Two new tab sites: Fingerstyle rules! (click on the letters on the right for the tabs) and the Spanish language Ukelatino.

Videos

1936 Harmonica & Uke: Percy Spouse + Sid Owen, Australia (Thanks to Ron Hale).

Ukulele chord changer – like the Chordmaster that Islanders used to have. You strap it to the neck, press a button and it’ll make a chord for you. I wouldn’t recommend it for most people but I know a guy with arthritis who uses a Chordmaster so worth checking out if you have those sort of problems.

James Clem, Sledding with Tigers: UkeToob

Cole Porter – You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To (Chords)

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Cole Porter – You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To

I had a clutch of requests for this Cole Porter song after posting Victor and Penny’s version the other week. And I’m always eager to write up a song that includes an aug7 chord.

Being a Cole Porter classic, You’d Be So Nice has been covered by a horde of people including Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone. But I’ve stuck to Victor and Penny’s ukulele version for the chord chart.

Suggested Strumming

Here’s your main strum:

d – d – d u d u

Here it is slow then up to speed:


Main Strum

That will do you for most of the song. But there are a few quick chord changes on E7-Emaj7 and
You can play those:

d u d u

Which sounds like:


Short strum

The only shorter chord change is right at the end. Do one down strum per chord there.

Links

Buy the Sarah Vaughan version
Victor and Penny on YouTube


Best Bits of Get Plucky with the Ukulele

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Get Plucky with the Ukulele is the new book by Will Grove-White off of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and his own group Will Grove-White & the Others.

As you would expect of someone who started playing the ukulele when it was ignored and deeply unfashionable in the 80s, Will has an obvious deep love of the ukulele. And that’s reflected in this book’s wealth of uke knowledge, anecdotes and photos collected over decades of playing.

The book does a full sweep of the ukulele. The first half covers the history of the ukulele and notable ukulele players (those famous for ukulele, famous for their music and famous for other reasons). And the second half delves into how to play the ukulele. The writing is witty, informative and opinionated. I heartily recommend picking up a copy.

Will was kind enough to send me one and here are a few of my favourite bits to whet your appetite.

Laura Dukes, Rabbit Muse and Charlie Burse

Great to see these three getting some attention. It’s a crime that all Rabbit Muse‘s music is all still out of print.

Usually I’m the sort of pedant referred to in the book who points out that a tenor guitar isn’t a ukulele. But that Charlie Burse clip is so great I’m willing to overlook it.

The Ukulele Built in a POW Camp

For sheer bloody minded ukulele fanaticism in the face of misery and torture, Second World War veteran Thomas Boardman has to take the first prize.

There are a bunch of profiles of musicians and other famous folks who play the ukulele packed with interesting detail and anecdotes. But my favourites are the less well known like Greenwich Village ukulele painter Bobby Edwards.

The most impressive is the story of Thomas Boardman who managed to build himself a ukulele from whatever bits of wood, metal and wire he could scavenge as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp in World War II. If you ever find yourself in the Manchester Imperial War Museum search it out.

America Takes Hawaii (And it’s Ukulele)

It came as no surprise that when in 1893 a group of European and US businessmen (with some gentle support from a group of US marines overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy…

Too many histories of the ukulele gloss over the machinations behind the uke’s first big push into popularity. So it’s good to it being pointed out that the ukulele was used by the businessmen who stole Hawaii from the Hawaiians to drive tourism to the island and fill their pockets.

Aside: After this good work it’s a bit of shame that he includes a couple of illustrations of the ‘topless Hawaiian hula girl in a grass skirt and lei’ variety.

Part of the strategy of these businessmen was to use songs and images to present a Hawaii packed with pliant, nubile women. And those songs and images are, unfortunately, still part of ukulele culture. With the huge contribution that Hawaiian women have made to the ukulele world it’s time to cut that bullshit out.

This is a criticism of the ukulele world in general rather than the book in particular. The writing in the book is very strong on the contribution of Hawaiians and women in general to the ukulele. And I think it provides the framework for understanding why these images are part of ukulele culture.

If this sort of thing is your bag I wrote a whole thing about music and cultural appropriation.

Agatha Christie Murder Solved by Uke

You caught her round the throat with it and strangled her… And you put another string on the ukelele – but it was the wrong string, that’s why you were so stupid.

*Spoilers for the 80 year old short story The Bird with the Broken Wing.* It gives me great pleasure that a character would be undone by their lack of uke knowledge.

The book also has the real-life murderous tale of Frederick Galloway ‘The Ukulele Slayer’.

Playing in a Ukulele-Only Group

Even though you’re all playing the same instrument, you don’t all have to play the same thing.

This is the bit I was really looking forward to. The only other people as well qualified to write about this are also in the UOGB. And with the number of people who are part of ukulele groups there’s no shortage of need for help on this.

Unfortunately, there’s just half a page on this. But it’s a good half page. And I’m still holding out hope of a full book on the subject from one or more members of the UOGB.

Links

Buy on Amazon UK
Buy on Amazon US
More on WillGroveWhite.com

Arctic Monkeys – AM Medley (Tab)

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Arctic Monkeys – AM Medley (Tab)

Way back in 2007 the second ever chord post I did was Despair in the Departure Lounge. Since then there’s been a steady stream of request for more Monkeys which I’d always replied to with, “I’ll do another Monkeys tab when they go back to making good records.” Johnny called me out on that promise correctly pointing out that the new album is awesome.

So here’s a medley of most of the songs on the album:

One for the Road/Do I Wanna Know?/Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?/Arabella/Knee Socks/I Want It All/R U Mine?

Trickiest Bits

The trickiest bits for the fretting are the two big leaps on the fretboard. There’s the big slide up in R U Mine? where it isn’t such a big deal if you don’t hit it exactly. The really hard one is the 8th fret in bar 5. Cut that 1st fret note before it really short to give yourself some time to get up.

The trickiest bits for the strumming hand are the palm muting (i.e. lightly resting the underside of your hand on the string at the bridge to muffle the strings). In One for the Road and Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? I’m muting all the strings. In Do I Wanna Know? I’m trying my best to mute the C-string while letting the E- and A-strings ring. As you can hear in the video I don’t always pull it off. It’s hard to get right so there’s nothing wrong with playing this section without any muting at all.

Links

Fluorescent Adolescent tabs and chords
Despair in the Departure Lounge chrods

Friday Links

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New Releases

– Pre-order the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s debut album. (Wait, debut album? … So it is).
Maybe by Sage Harrington.
UkePunk’s Punk Police The Album.
Wild Child’s The Runaround.

Learning

– Halloween chord book The Haunted Ukulele.
– You can find all my Halloween tabs and chords here. And in case you still can’t decide what to be.

Kickstarting

The Blues And The Abstract Uke by The Paul Hemmings Uketet.

Pictures

Ukulele photoshop contest.
Cat submits his ukulele record to Sony.

The ukulele orchestra feud continues with head UKUO man Peter Moss calling the UOGB “more of an amateur orchestra” and “a semi-professional outfit”. Which The Guardian followed up with, “Court papers show the UOGB turned over £4m over the past five years from a global concert schedule, which included shows at the Carnegie Hall in New York and Sydney Opera House”.

George Harrison’s sordid interest.

A luthier finds out if you can make a souvenir ukulele playable?

The Staves, Happy Gland Band: UkeTube

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Cream – White Room (Chords)

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Cream – White Room (Chords)

Sad news this week of, bass playing legend, Jack Bruce’s death. As my little tribute, here’s a write up of one of his biggest hits.

In the chord sheet above I’ve included the standard chord shapes. But I like to use these slightly trickier inversions:

White Room (Alternate Chords)

(Aside: The ukulele once owned by Cream’s producer has a colourful history – although this ukulele was more expensive.)

Suggested Strumming

Intro and Middle: This is in 5/4 time. So you can just do five down strums for each chord. But I like to ape the drums and do a triplet strum on the second bit. So it sounds like this:


Intro Strum

Verses: You can stick with just down strums here too. Twice each on D – C – G and once each Bb – C.


Verse Strum

Bridges: I like to go with d – d u – u d –

Links

Buy it on iTunes
JackBruce.com
Eric Clapton’s For Jack (MP3 link)

Essential Ukulele Records of 2014

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How in the merry hell did it get to be November already? The year is fast disappearing and I’ve got a lot planned so here are my favourite ukulele albums and EPs of the year. Let me know what yours are in the comments.

Note: for the purposes of this post “2014” refers to the time betwen the last time I did this post and now. Which means I’m missing out WIUO’s debut album and Craig Robertson’s Greatest Hats.

If you aren’t satiated by these take a listen to more of this year’s releases in my Ukulele 2014 Spotify playlist.

James Hill – The Old Silo

Who? Canuck uke legend, world’s best ukulelist and and not Alan Sugar’s apprentice.

What? James’s first album with no instrumental tracks at all but plenty of nasty-ass distorted baritone ukulele.

Buy it on iTunes

Keston Cobblers Club – Pocket Guide to Escaping

Who? Instrument swapping folkies coming straight outta Bromley.

What? Another top collection of singalong, foot-stomping, good time music.

Buy it on iTunes

Arroyo Deathmatch – Through the Fear of It

Who? Dethklok when they had to play grandpas’ guitars.

What? “Nocturnal New Mexican Rage Folk” proving acoustic instruments are not just for pussies and grandpas.

Pay what you like for it on Bandcamp

Purple Ferdinand – The Dragonfly EP

Who? London singer songwriter and Ed Sheeran tattooist.

What? Spacey ukulele soul. And it’s free.

Download it on PurpleFerdinand.com

Allo Darlin’ – We Come from the Same Place

Who? Australian songstress who recorded her first record at Duke of Uke.

What? Third album of ukulele indie pop.

Buy it on iTunes

Claudia’s Theme from Unforgiven (Tab)

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Lennie Niehaus – Claudia’s Theme (Tab)

Have to admit, I’ve never actually seen Unforgiven. It’s a western with Clint Eastwood and that’s about all I know. But I got a request for Claudia’s Theme, gave it a listen and loved it. Plus it seems ideal for the uke.

The original starts in the key of E before switching to F. But I stuck to the more uke-friendly F for my arrangement.

The intro and outro are very sparse. If you catch me nodding my head in those sections that’s me trying to keep time. It’s very tempting to rush these bits. But I’d recommend trying as hard as you can to hold it back.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
Watch Unforgiven


Friday Links

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New Releases

– Two new albums from the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra: Be Mine Tonight a collection of New Zealand songs from the Maori lullaby Hine e Hine to Lorde’s Team and Collected Hits featuring songs from their EPs.
Bosko and Honey’s The Universe Will Provide.
– Rock journalist and Leonard Cohen biographer Sylvie Simmons has released her debut album Sylvie.

Videos

Sneak peak of Street Punk! Banda Aceh a documentary about the ukulele-toting punks who were arrested and ‘re-educated’ by the Indonesian government.
Phil Harris and Alice Faye’s ukulele lesson from 1949. (Thanks to Ron Hale.)
Reggie Watts makes music with Garfunkel and Oates (US only) and some sort of cigar-box fiddle/ukulele.

Kickstarting

The Love Leighs are making a new record Spreading the Love.

Pictures

Madeira machete.
Wood burning ukulele.

The UOGB have been commissioned to make a new show for the 100th anniversary of WWI: When This Lousy War is Over.

Ocean Leaves, Missy Higgins: UkeToob

Blues Ukulele 2nd Edition

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Blues

I’ve just released an updated version of How to Play Blues Ukulele ebook with a snazzy new look, more examples, YouTube videos of every example, and more backing tracks.

If you’ve bought the ebook in the past you should have had an email from me with a link to download this version (it may have ended up in your spam folder). If you don’t have it shoot me a message with the email address you used when you purchased it and I’ll get you a copy.

If you haven’t bought it in the past, now is the perfect time. It’s usually $17 but use this code in the shopping cart before Christmas and you’ll get $5 off:

ibluemyself

(Copy and paste it into the discount code box then click ‘Update Cart’ after you enter the code)

Add it to your cart

Or find out more about it here.

What It’s For?

Way back in 2008 I was working on a tab of the James Bond theme and I’d reached that, “I hate this instrument, I can’t play it, I’m going to throw it into the canal” stage. I was pulling my hair out trying to get it together (as you can tell in subsequent videos).

A few days later I was listening to music and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Look at Little Sister came on. I grabbed my ukulele and started jamming along to it. I was immediately refreshed and energized by it.

There’s something about that combination of having just a few notes to choose from and complete freedom to do whatever you like with them that the blues gives you. It’s exciting, inspiring and makes you feel like a rockstar.

The goal of the ebook is to give you the tools to help you do that too. So you can jam with friends, along with records or by yourself.

Side-note: check out what happens in that SRV video after he breaks a string in the solo.

What’s In It?

To give you an idea, are the last two examples in the ebook which take some of the chord progressions, soloing techniques, licks and scales from it contains and combines them to make a short solo.

The A Blues

The C Blues

You can get a full run down of the ebook here. But here are the basics:

– Learn to improvise and jam in the blues style.

– Learn the most common blues chord progressions, variations and adaptations.

– Packed with ideas and techniques for blues soloing.

– Play riffs and licks in the style of blues musicians from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

– Blues chord patterns and strum patterns in a variety of styles.

– 123 examples all with mp3s and YouTube videos.

– 4 backing tracks to jam along with.

– Minor pentatonic scales and blues scales for every key.

– Contains chord charts and tab for re-entrant, C-tuned ukulele.

Buy It

Use this code in the shopping cart before Christmas and you’ll get $5 off:

ibluemyself

Add it to your cart

Or learn more about it here

Lorde/WIUO – Team (Chords)

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Lorde/WIUO – Team (Chords)

After 9 years of being together, the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra have put out their debut album Be Mine Tonight. It’s a collection of songs from New Zealand largely unknown in these more civilised parts. It serves as a guide to all the songs we’ve missed out on from impressively magnificent treasures that should have been global mega-hits to impressively, magnificent cheese.

One song that did make it global is Lorde’s Team. And that’s the one I chose to write up.

Slap a capo on the first fret and the chords are straightforward. Both songs are in the same key and the chords are pretty much identical. So this will work for playing along with both of them.

Suggested Strumming

When I’m playing along with the Lorde version I like to do all downstrums as the main strum. But with the third strum in each group of four emphasised to match the clap. So with the capital D being a strong downstrum:

d d D d

The only difference is the short Dm chords in the chorus and outro. There I just do two downstrums.

Together it sounds like this (slow then up to speed):


Strum

The WIUO is a bit more laid back and I go with ‘d u’s as the main strum.

d u d u d u d u

Links

Buy the Lorde version
Buy the WIUO version
Royals chords
More WIUO tabs, chords and whatnots

Christmas Ukulele III: Return of the Magi

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Christmas3-binding

It’s the third and final ebook of the Christmas Ukulele Trilogy. I promise not to make any shitty prequels.

Ten more Christmas tunes arranged as easily as possible so you’ll be able to play them if you’re called on to provide a festive performance at any point.

This collection is the most varied so far. As well as a selection of Christmas carols it includes the Appalachian tune Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over (as made famous by Jack White’s version on the Cold Mountain soundtrack), the creepy English folk song Down in Yon Forest and Hanukkah O Hanukkah.

It’s priced $7 but you can get $2 off by using this code in the checkout before Christmas:

theothertinytim

Add Christmas Ukulele III to Cart

If you don’t own Christmas Ukulele and Christmas Ukulele 2 yet, you can pick up all three for the price of two:

Add all three to Cart

The code ‘theothertinytim’ will get you $2 off that as well.

What You Get

– Tabs of full arrangements for these traditional Christmas favourites:

Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over?
Ding Dong Merrily on High?
Down in Yon Forest
Hanukkah O Hanukkah
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (The “Hymn” version.)
O Holy Night
O Little Town of Bethlehem (The Ralph Vaughan Williams version.)
Pat-A-Pan
What Child Is This? (Greensleeves)

They’re all arranged without any fancy finger work. The picking hand can all be done with the thumb. (The exception is Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over which has a simple arrangement and a more difficult one). They’re intended for high-g tuning.

– Super-simple melody arrangements of all those tunes. Only one note at a time. These include tab, standard notation and lyrics.

– MP3s of the melody arrangements. Stereo split so you can play along with either the melody or the chords.

– A PDF with performance notes and tips on playing all versions of the tunes.

Quick warning: if you’re using iPad/iPhone/Android you can’t download everying directly to your gadget. But there is a link to download the main body of the book (with the performance notes and the full arrangements) directly to you device.

What They Sound Like

Full Arrangement Videos

Melody Versions

Here’s what the melody-only versions sound like. The melody tab also has chord names so you can be accompanied by a friend. Or if, like me, you’re a badass loner you can play along with these mp3s. They’re split so the left hand side has the chords and the right has the melody.

Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over

Ding Dong Merrily on High

Down in Yon Forest

Hanukkah O Hanukkah

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

O Holy Night

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Pat-A-Pan

What Child Is This?

Buy It

Buy Christmas Ukulele III:

Add Christmas Ukulele III to Cart

Buy Christmas Ukulele III with Christmas Ukulele and Christmas Ukulele 2:

Add all three to Cart

Get $2 of either of them using this code:

theothertinytim

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