Uke Can Play Rock

The song must be a previously unpublished work – preferably written for this contest.
All content must be your original work. Covers, and derivative won’t cut it.
In the beginning of each entry, you must clearly state (audio or text is fine) “This is my entry into the 2010 “BringtheSong.org Original Song Video Contest – Thanks Mainland Ukes!”

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Second Prize will be drawn live during the award ceremony for the announcement of the Grande Prize winner. Any valid entry will be eligible for second prize and the selection will be random – anyone can win.

Grand Prize nominations will begin on Nov 1st 2010 and will be open to all members at bringthesong.org. Each member will be asked to nominate a favorite song for the final voting.

Final voting will also be open to all members of bringthesong.org and any entry that receives at least one nomination will be in the running for the grande prize vote.

Many of us early members of BtS are uke players, and the contest is sponsored by Mainland ukuleles,, but this is an original song contest – songs can use any instrumentation, or none at all – nothing is off limits and uke songs will not have any particular advantage.

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Absolutely – instrumental, a cappella, pots and pans, industrial machines, whatever you like. As long as it’s your original work, send it in!

Be aware though – we only have one of each of the prizes. That means in the event you and your collaborators win something, you’ll have to work out who gets the prize. We’re just a little not-for-profit collective, so for now, it’s one prize only.

Nope – the submission must be in the form of a video, but the visual content is entirely up to you. It can be a simple black screen if you wish. Be aware that winners of the grande prize will be chosen by popular vote, so a catchy video can really help, but it’s not required.

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How to play Postcards From Italy by Beirut on the Ukulele

www.ukulala.com This is a tutorial video on how to play Postcards From Italy on the ukulele. It goes over the tuning, chords, hammer-ons, strumming, and timing. The song has two very distinct parts, and it switches from one part to the next in about the middle of the song. This is a tutorial for beginners, but it is a somewhat advanced song that will take a beginner (like myself) a long time to learn and requires a lot of practice. Of course, the song is awesome and was originally played on a uke, so it’s a FUN kind of practice where the better you get the more it sounds exactly like the Beirut version. This is my entry for the play it forward ukulele video contest ukulelereview.com The chords, tabs, and lyrics are at http The breakdown of the video is: 0:00 – Intro 0:12 – Tuning (standard GCEA) ======== 0:21 – Part 1 ======== 0:29 – Chords (F and A) 0:58 – Hammer-on (top string, second fret) 1:30 – Strumming pattern (hammer-on, pause, up, down, down, repeat) 2:25 – Timing (3 loops of hammer-on) 2:40 – top string melody (3rd fret, 2nd fret, open, 2nd fret) 3:21 – Demo of F chord strumming and melody 3:33 – Description of A chord (same as F, index finger moves up one string) 4:10 – Advice on practicing Part 1 5:30 – Part 1 Review (and, of course, some encouragement!) ======== 5:48 – Part 2 ======== 5:48 – Chords (Bb add 9, F, Dm, C) 6:55 – Chorder (chord order–those four chords loop) 7:17 – Strumming pattern (up, miss, up, down, pause, up-down, up, down) 8:23 …

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Guitar Tablature: Learn To Play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star With Guitar Tab

Even if you haven’t played guitar tablature before you can impress or maybe shock your friends by playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Let’s start playing guitar tab!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is a popular English nursery rhyme with the French melody Ah! Vous dirais-je, Maman. You can play this song on the first three strings on the guitar.

The text is from a poem, “The Star”, by Jane Taylor. It was first published in 1806. Here you have the English lyrics:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

We will use guitar tablature so you will not need to read sheet music. You will only use the thinnest strings on the guitar. The string with the highest pitch is called the first string or E-string. Look at the following guitar tab:

1. 0-0-0-0—————–
2. ——–1-1-1-1———
3. —————-2-2-2-2-

This is a tablature staff and the four number 0 indicate that you play the first string four times without pressing down any finger on your right hand. This is called to play on an open string.

The four number 1 coming after is played on the second string pressing down your first finger on the first fret. Then you will play the third string four times pressing down the string on the second fret. This is what the previous guitar tablature notation is telling you.

Let’s play the first notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with guitar tablature:

1. ————0–0————————–
2. ——3–3——-3—-1–1–0–0———-
3. 0–0—————————–2–2–0–

If you want to use your left hand in a professional way you can play the guitar tab notes on the first fret with your first finger, notes on the second fret with your middle finger and the notes on the third fret with your ring finger.

Now it’s only one guitar tablature part left:

1. 3–3–1–1–0–0—–
2. ——————3–
3. ———————

After having played this part twice, go back and play the first guitar tablature part and the melody is complete.

Now when you understand guitar tablature notation you can find many songs written this way on the internet. Search for guitar tab or guitar tablature. A complete guitar tablature staff has six lines representing the six strings.

If you have an ukulele hanging somewhere you can use the previous tablature too. The first three strings on an ukulele is tuned the same way as on the guitar.

Just one more thing for you to do. Play the song for your friends! Good luck!

mikep yes sir thats my baby how to play the ukulele lesson

yes sir thats my baby=one in black and white=and one in color

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Learn how to play “Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” on the Ukulele

Well the Copyright Claim against this video has been dropped due to inaction by Range Road Music Inc. Maybe they’re just waiting to sue me, who knows. In my interactions with them (through email), I was very surprised and disturbed by their supposed attitude toward music and copyrights. I explained quite clearly to them that I do not ever intend to profit from this video. It is but my service to people who wish to learn these two wonderful songs. I think they think this is still all about money for me. Frankly, I think it’s all about just money to them, rather than this wonderful legacy that their song (What a Wonderful World) has left. And for the thousands of people who are now able to share in this piece of music as a result of this video. I’m not going to take down this video, but to all my viewers, please remember that as a person going in to Christian Ministry, I will have no means at all to defend myself should a law suit be brought up against me. Please keep in mind how you have been helped by this video, and maybe if I need it some day, you would be able to help me too. Thank you all, once again for watching my video!

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How To Play Tears In Heaven (Ukulele)

I “TRY” to teach you how to play tears, but the sound quality is Nasty, and you dont have a real good look at the keys…so i put them below so you can know the keys, and maybe try and follow along… KEYS: G – Bb (on the 5th fret) – Em – C – D – B The Picking: The picking part you hear comes between the “G” and the Bb (on the 5th fret). This is how it goes – 2h3 – 2 – - 2slide5 – - – - – 2 – 2slide5 – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - After that lil Thing, then you key the Bb on the 5th fret.

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Ukulele Chords: Learn To Play Chord Changes

Ukulele is a great instrument to use when you play chords to songs. Your chord playing on your ukulele can be more effective if you apply a few guitar playing principles. In this ukulele lesson you will find out how you can change between chords better and easier!

First a few easy to follow principles as you play any chord:

1. Fingerings. The left hand fingers you use as you play chords can make chord changes easier or harder.

2. Minimize finger movements. Try to take the shortest distance between two frets if you have to move a finger to change chords.

3. Keep fingers down on frets that are shared between two chords.

Let us take a closer look at these principles:

Fingerings

As an example of the first principle we will take a look at two common ukulele chords. We will use the common C-tuning. In this tuning the C-major chord will look like this:

C-major: 04 03 02 31

The number pairs tell you how to put your fingers to play the chord. The first number in the pair tells you which fret to press down and the next number which string to play. The number 0 means that you will not press down any fret. For example 04 means play the fourth open string. The number pair 31 tells you to press down the third fret on the first string.

The strings are numbered from the string with the highest pitch. This string is called the first string and is the bottom string when you play your ukulele.

In the C-major chord written out above you can see that there is only one fret to press down. This makes for many fingering alternatives. The easiest way to finger this C-chord is of course to use your index finger. But let us look at the next chord to play, G7, to see if there is another way to finger the C-chord. Here is the G7 chord:

G7: 04 23 12 21

The most common fingering for this chord is using the ring finger for the first string, the index finger for the second string and the middle finger for the third string. Try it out and see if it is this way you have played it.

A common chord progression is to move from C-major to G7. In order to make this chord change as smooth as possible I suggest that you use your ring finger to play the third fret on the first string in the C-major chord. When you move to G7 you simply slide your ring finger to the second fret and add the remaining two fingers and you have the G7 chord.

If you are going from G7 to C you only have to reverse the procedure.

Minimize finger movements

As an example of this principle we will use the chords A-minor and and F-major. Here you have these chords written out:

A-minor: 24 03 02 01

F-minor: 24 03 12 01

Suppose you have to move from Am to F. As you can see there is only one change to make between Am and F. The only thing to do is to put your index finger on the first fret on the second string and you will have the F chord. To make this chord change as smooth as possible you can keep your index finger as close as possible to this fret even when you play Am. This principle applies to other chord changes as well.

Keep fingers down on frets that are shared

In order to illustrate this principle we will use the chords F-major and G7. I have already showed the chords above so I just have to describe how to move your fingers. If you take a look at the two chords you will find that the first fret second string is shared by both chords. This fret is pressed down with your index finger.

As you move from F to G7 you only have to move your middle finger from fret two on the fourth string to fret two on the third string and press down fret two on string one with your ring finger and you are done!

Using the chords and principles we have already discussed you can practice the following sequence that is very common in many songs:

C Am F G7 C Am …and so on.

How to practice

The best way to practice chord changes in a song is to take two consecutive chords and practice them by strumming once on every chord as you move between them. Slowly at first, making it possible to apply the principles we have discussed. In a short time you will find that you automatically will use the right fingerings, minimize finger movements and you will also find that your playing will be more effective and enjoyable!

How to play Somewhere over the Rainbow on a Ukulele

Here’s the video on how to play Israel Kamakawiwo?ole’s version of Somewhere over the Rainbow. It was being requested a lot and so I figured I would help out everyone who plays Uke. Enjoy guys!

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How do I play the ukulele with a band of guitarists as its not in tune played in ensemble.?

I read in a website that in order to to be in tune with the rest of the band, the guitars will need to use a capo clamped at 5th fret. If this done, does the guitarist play standard guitar chords or does he play ukulele chords? Does the bass player need to clamp at 5th fret too? Thanks folks..

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How do you play the D7 chord on the ukulele?

I am new to playing the ukulele and the book I have on how to learn it isn’t quite clear on a few things. The D7 is confusing to me, along with the D chord. If someone could please help me that would be lovely

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