Topic: Uke Resources

[ukulady]

I found some sources for the uke.

http://ukulele.org/catalog.html
This site has some uke related stuff.

Smeck Shorts: Short film clips of Roy Smeck/ by the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum. * *$22.00
This is a series of vintage clips which I highly recommend so you can see what can be done on the uke.

There are two videos for instruction that I've heard are good:
The Complete Ukulele Course by Ralph Shaw. (specify VHS, CD-ROM or DVD)  $30.00
**and
Ukulele Tunes & Techniques: Hawai'ian & American Styles by Bob Brozman.     $30.00
This one is for a more advanced player which you may be if you play the guitar well.

The only book I can recommend is my favorite uke chord book.
"Treasury of Ukulele Chords" by Roy Sakuma.       $10.00
It shows chords for 'C' tuning.  If you're using 'D' tuning just transpose the chord names in the book up a whole step.


I've attached words and chords to Crazy Words, Crazy Tune.

Listen to Crazy Words, Crazy Tune

the site is www.redhotjazz.com

the following links are audio.




The link to see a photo of and read about the recordings above are:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/hreserbands.html
http://www.redhotjazz.com/caramblers.html
http://www.redhotjazz.com/aaronson.html

~sandy

[ukulady]

I checked with Lightnin' today and he's got cd's of himself playing the uke.  I have several of them and they're really good.  He said it's ok to contact him directly for those.  His email address is Mlightninw@aol.com

[lindy]

In addition to this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/arts/music/30ukulele.html?8dpc

the ukulele orchestra of Great Britain has its own website, but of course, with lots of video/audio clips:

http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com
http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com/main/ListClips.aspx?SessionKey=

[Alexei McDonald]

There's not much blues ukulele out there, but the sides by Ukulele Bob Williams and Danny Smalls & Ukulele Mays on DOCD 5370 Hokum Blues (1924-1929) entertained me enough that I went down to Scayles and bought myself a Mahalo U320C to plunk around on.   And there's always this:

[Slack]

There is some good blues Uke instructional material now out there.  

Del Rey - fingerstyle country blues ukulele of tunes we all know and love.  I have the DVD and it is good.  You need to have some good finger independence to get the most out of the DVD - Del starts off with a very approachable tune (BBQ Bob's Going up The Country) and rapidly advances   - which is always the case with Del.

http://www.homespuntapes.com/shop/product.aspx?ID=138

Fred Sokolow has a Blues ukulele book of blues standards which gives two charts for every song in tab, one for chording used to accompany a vocal and the other is chord melody for an instrumental break.  Nice.

http://www.amazon.com/Blues-Ukulele-Jumpin-Songbook-Book/dp/1423465725/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255619200&sr=8-1

There is an absolute TON of Blues ukulele on Youtube of course, learning workshops and performance. You just have to sift through it.  I'm not sure any of this will sway Blueshome   but check out this very credible rendition of "Mississippi Blues"

[uncle bud]

I split out these resources posts from the other uke thread and moved them over to our instruments section.

[dave stott]

Del Rey's DVD is awesome and I highly recommend that you take her Blues Uke class at a workshop in your area

While attending guitar intensives in Maine this past August, I attended her class... it was a great learning experience..

BTW... Ernie Hawkins attended the class and learned a trick or two...

check out this link to his Uke performance after attending Del's Uke class

[blueshome]

Yes you can play the blues on the uke, or practically any instrument you care to name, whether it's "in the tradition' is another thing.

But....... I've just received a copy of "Virginia Traditions, Western Piedmont Blues" (it's on the Juke) on which there are 2 tracks by the wonderfully named Lewis "Rabbit" Muse - playing uke. His rendition of "Jailhouse Blues" is wonderful, the other track brings in the dreaded kazoo (oops! see above) but in both cases he proves to be a great picker rather than a strummer.

[uncle bud]

I agree, Rabbit Muse is wonderful. I think I've mentioned it somewhere here before but there are a number of tracks of him in mp3 format available at the Digital Library of Appalachia. Just search on Rabbit Muse. Several songs, comedy bits, tap dancing and an interview done by a student. The recordings are not great quality, probably done on a cheap tape recorder. But it's great some young student chose to do them back then. Unfortunately, any official Rabbit Muse releases are long out of print, aside from the tracks Phil mentions on the Virginia Traditions record.

[Bunker Hill]

Clicking on the Rabbit Muse TAG below will take folk to various other discussions about him.

[Annette]

Here is one for you!

The wonderful Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain!



Annette

[martoons]

I noticed some folks looking for ukulele blues and i've got the premier practitioner of the genre here. An unsung genius and a wonderful human being. Ladies & Gentlemen, Martin Mull gives us some Straight Talk About The Blues on a Ukulele here:


This man is brilliant!

[Slack]

Very funny!

Welcome martoons!