Ukulele Guy

Andy Smetanka posted a link to a video today that I figured I could get away with re-posting here. For one, I just need to start posting again (stupid real life getting in the way of my blogging) and for another, I'm actually playing Ukulele in the music of this video.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Andy is a long-time friend and full-time Renaissance man.  I met him around 1997 or so when he was fronting Humpy, a great Missoula hardcore band.  If you've seen any Volumen videos, then you've seen his work before.  He made videos for Sexy Astronaut, Snakes and Lost in the Baltics.  Heck, he's even made videos for The Decemberists.  Heck, he even officiated my wedding, if you can believe that.

This particular video was made for Big Sky Brewing, a local Missoula Brewery.  However, the music that's featured in the video was recorded, I think, for another project.  I think he was making a Tolkien-inspired video for Le Force.  This music was supposed to be for the Hobbit's merry-making and whatnot, I think?  Anyway, besides me on the Ukulele, Al Pils is on the jawharp and I think Bryan Ramirez and a few other folks (Andy as well) are stomping, snapping, etc.  I'm actually a little surprised that there is no musical saw in this song because Andy is also the king of musical saw, if you can believe that.

Oh, hang on!  I just found a link for the Le Force video as well.  I'm probably stretching it by including this video here, but hay, it does have some ukulele in the beginning.   Besides, the video is freaking RAD!

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So, @RabbitRemix was asking me, on Twitter, how to tune their 6-stringed ukulele.  At first I thought we were talking about a Tiple or maybe one of those Ukes where the A and C strings are doubled in octave or something.  But, no, there weren't any doubled strings.  So, then I started thinking, "Umm.. are we just talking about a small guitar?"  Turns out, we aren't, I'd just never heard of it.

Yamaha's is calling their GL-1 a Guitalele.  And, from what I can see, it's basically like a ukulele (only with a low G, instead of a high G string) and then you add an A and D string on there.  Or, to make it less complicated, take your normal guitar and then pop a capo on the fifth fret.  So, your open D chord (just how you play it on guitar) would actually be a G chord on the Guitalele.

It's funny because when musicians (who aren't familiar with Ukulele) ask me how a Uke is tuned, I always say, "Imagine your guitar, now pop a capo on the fifth fret and pull off your E and A string."  Well, this is like another hybrid of that.

But, all I really know is that I NEED ONE.  I can't find them on Amazon or Musician's Friend right now, but I've listed some eBay auctions below that show some off.

It looks like it has 18 frets and it's built to a 17" scale.  Oh yeah, and it's cute as all hell.

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So, this morning I hopped on the ole computer feeling a little bit groggy (I'm not a morning person).  I headed over to twitter to see if I had missed anything, and I notice that @valcam1 has tweeted a Youtube link at me.  The morning is starting to look up.  So, I made my way over to Youtube to see a  Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain video that I've never seen before.  Huzzah!  Now, I don't know if I'm just slightly emotional today, or maybe slightly hungover, or what, but when they all come in together at the end, I definitely teared up a little bit.  Yeah, I'm a sap, I'll admit it.  Enjoy!

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I finally got a few free minutes during lunch to make a video showing off the

I think that the powers that be must have known I only had a few minutes, though because they kept effing with me.  I'd play the song perfectly and the cat would run by and mess it up.  Or, the shot was great and my brain turned off.  It seemed like it was something every time, so finally, I just decided that I was going to do one more and that was it.  Of course my freaking knee was covering the pocket uke the whole time though.  Doh!

Next time I'll be more careful to let you see the uke while I'm playing it.  Anyway, this song is one of my favorites to play (even if I can't always remember all the words) and my son Simon really loves it as well.  He usually sings the chorus with me if he's anywhere near while I play it.  So, that's pretty fun.  He and I have a Ramones cover band also, (we're called "Second Verse, Same as the First") so maybe I can convince him to make some videos with me of that action.

Anyway, if you have ever watched George Formby play this on Youtube then you'll notice that he uses different chords.  I learned it this way and I guess it just stuck so there's no undoing it now.

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So, while I'm still going to make a longer video showing off the adorable Kala Pocket Ukulele, I wanted to answer your biggest question first.  So, while I could have just told you that it's 16 inches long, it still might be hard to visualize that, right?  Well, hopefully that won't be an issue after this video.  If it is, I don't want to hear about it .

Video Notes:

• In case you were wondering, I rolled a natural 20 with that die.
• The Rubik's Cube I show you actually has 6 sides (it's a cube, after all) but each face is 4x4.  Sorry for any confusion about 4-sided cubes and whatnot.

Anyway, here is your size comparison video for the

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So, I got my Kala Pocket Ukulele this morning and I haven't been able to put it down for very long.  It's so freaking fun!  I'm going to make a few videos to show you more about it but I wanted to give you a quick picture to give a sense of scale.  People keep asking me, "Just how small is it?".  Turns out, they were talking about the ukulele.  Hi-yooo!

Anyway, here is a picture of my guitar, baritone ukulele, tenor ukulele, soprano ukulele and the

More to come soon!

Guitar, Baritone Uke, Tenor Uke, Soprano Uke and Kala Pocket Ukulele

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So, it happened.  I was able to convince the boys in Volumen to play a Misfits song with me.  I'm not sure why I had my heart set on this particular song, but I did.  As I said yesterday, the audio is pretty blown out, but that's because we are so F-bomb loud.  Also, Volumen Beta (our drummer) is a machine and the camera was sitting right next to him for most of the video.  (Something tells me that I'll have my proximity to Volumen Beta, and his massive beat generation, to thank for significant hearing loss in my right ear.  Heh.)

Anyway, up until yesterday, I've always sort of treated Volumen and Ukulele Guy as two separate (but equally fun) entities.  So, it was really nice to combine the two of them for this video.  The boys were real champs about learning this song real quick.  I mean, we had already practiced for 2+ hours on our original material for an upcoming show, so it's not like they hadn't already filled their rock quota.  Well, quota be damned, I always say... hrm... actually, I've never said that, but I wholeheartedly believe it now.

Just in case you are playing the home game.  Volumen are:

• Volumen-1, Shane, Guitar/Bass/Vocals (aka Ukulele Guy)
• Volumen-2, Doug, Guitar/Vocals (not appearing in this video, he was filming)
• Volumen^2, Bryan, Bass/Guitar/Vocals (my brother)
• VolumenBkawck, Chris, Keys/Percussion/Vocals (wrestling mask)
• Volumen Beta, Bob, DRUMS (drums!)

Also, if you want to play along, you should check out UkuleleHunt.com.  Woodshed wrote up some tabs and lyrics that I actually used.  Ukulele Hunt is actually one of my favorite Ukulele sites because it seems like I have similar tastes to Woodshed.  That is to say, I love the songs that he chooses to make tabs of.

Enuff of my gabbin'.  Here's the video.

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I found another great Ukulele songbook (in pdf format) and apparently I asked the fellow if it would be alright if I were to link to it. I honestly don't remember that, so it must have been some months ago. Well, Stewart finally got back to me and he's cool with it. So, check out his great songbook at stewartgreenhill.com/blog/ukulele/. There are 48 pages of Ukulele tab goodness here, so it's definitely worth your while. Two songs that immediate jumped out were "Elanor Rigby" by the Beatles and "Turning Japanese" by the Vapors!
Honestly, what Ukulele play could resist a chance to play an early 80s proto-ska song about masturbation, right? It's practically MADE for ukulele.

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So, as you may or may not know, when I'm not "Ukulele Guy", I play in Volumen.  We are a heavy new wave band from Missoula, MT, and we've been playing weird sonics since 1996.  Well, yesterday was Wednesday and Wednesday=Volumen Practice.  So, I went in a little bit early and brought my Eleuke so that I could make some videos of it through a better amp.

I lucked out because Volumen^2 (my brother) showed up just minutes later with a case of Coors and he agreed to hold the camera for the second half of this video.  Woo hoo!  I didn't really have an idea of what I wanted to play, so I just went for it.  Sadly, my wah wah pedal badly needs a new battery, apparently, so that part is a little bit weak, but you get the general idea right?

After we finished recording this video, we had regular Volumen practice and then I convinced the boys to play "Halloween", by the Misfits, with me on the Eleuke.  We'd never played it before, but we picked it up easily enough.  I'll post that video tomorrow, or maybe later today.  It's a little blown out, because we are so damn loud, but that just makes it punk rock, right?

P.S. Whoever can tell me what I'm playing during the "clean" portion of this video wins extra special bonus Ukulele Guy points.

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Well, my Eleuke arrived on Friday and I've been as giddy as a schoolgirl ever since.  For those for those of you who don't know what an Eleuke is (shame on you, you mean you aren't hanging on my every word?) check out my "Everybody, meet Eleuke (and a rad Pedro da Silva video)" post.  I imagine that this will be the first of several videos talking about the Eleuke and showcasing what it sounds like.

I was in such a rush to do this video that I didn't even leave my office.  The down side to that is that the only amp I have in my office is a wimpy little guy, but it'll give you an idea anyway.  Tomorrow I'll run the Eleuke through my Fender SuperAmp and various pedals (Electric Mistress, Marshall Guv'ner, etc.)  Maybe I can even run through a song with my Heavy New Wave band, Volumen.  I'm thinking Misfits (Maybe Halloween?), but we'll see what I can talk them into.

Anyway, on to the Eleuke itself.  This is the model that I have in my grubby little mits:

Eleuke Solid Body Electric Ukulele Concert MP3 - Blue CCK100BL-MP3

Just holding the Eleuke is pretty soothing for some reason.  I think I am so used to playing Electric Guitar that the smaller body and weight of an electric instrument feels more natural to me.  So, if you spend more time on Electric Guitar than you do on Acoustic, then you might have a similar experience with this Electric Ukulele.

I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with the Eleuke, overall.  Sure, It's the first solid body electric ukulele that I've played, but to be honest, there aren't really that many of them out there.  It's well constructed, sounds great and the design is really interesting.  It's also hard to believe that it's only $220.  That seems like a scream of a deal.  Anyway, enough of my jawing.  Here's the first of what I hope to be a long string of videos showcasing this little number.

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