WIN an Eddy Finn Uke!

Learn to Create Easy Chord Variations Find a Uke Fest Near You

Fall 2013

Daniel
Ho’s
YouTube Stars
Danielle Ate the Sandwich &
Hawaiian 4 other uke sensations are
Odyssey lighting up the Internet

God of Uke
Jesse Kalima
Lil Rev’s
Festival Frenzy
Plus
Play the Beatles’
Uke News
‘Here, There & Everywhere’
& Events
Lanikai’s New Concert
Plug & Play USB Uke
+ new ukes from Mahalo,
Breedlove & Eddy Finn

UkuleleMag.com
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 VOLUME 1, ISSUE No. 3
ON THE COVER: Danielle Ate the Sandwich
PHOTOGRAPHER: Emily Fisher

Fall 2013 • VOLUME 1, ISSUE No. 3

ON THE COVER: Danielle Ate the Sandwich
PHOTOGRAPHER: Emily Fisher

DEPARTMENTS

16
WHY I UKE
On the many virtues of the egalitarian ukulele
By Chris Malcarney

18
CLUB UKE
Austin Ukulele Society: In the music hub of
Texas, these ukulele devotees love playing
everything from jazz standards to the Beatles,
Bob Marley, and Gnarls Barkley
By Amber von Nagel

22
UKE-A-RAMA
News from the world on four strings

24
GODS OF UKE
Jesse Kalima: Winner of Arthur Godfrey’s
‘Amateur Hour’ in 1937, Kalima’s virtuosity set
a high standard for generations of players
By Marcy Marxer
LYDIA MIYASHIRO-HO

FEATURES
30
UKE BASICS
Don’t Lift a Finger: Create easy chord variations
by leaving one finger right where it is
By James Hill
40
SONGS TO PLAY GEAR REVIEWS
Daniel Ho’s 64

Hawaiian Odyssey
26
Mahalo Pineapple Soprano:
“Stars and Stripes Forever”
A pineapple-shaped soprano that fits any
The popular uke virtuoso talks about his early days, the John Phillip Sousa,
budget
development of his six-string uke, and gives advice on practic- arr. by Marcy Marxer
By Teja Gerken
ing and choosing an instrument
31
By Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers 66
“Rocky Mountain”
Eddy Finn Concert:
Traditional, arr. by James Hill
46 An easy-playing uke with a scent of the islands

Ukulele Euphoria
32 By Teja Gerken
“Shady Grove”
68
Jam, listen, learn, and hang out at a great American Traditional,
Lanikai USB Uke:
uke festival arr. by Andrew DuBrock
A state-of-the-art uke that’s dressed to kill
By Lil Rev
34 By Teja Gerken
“Here, There, and Every-
52 where” The Beatles
70

YouTube Sensations
Breedlove American Series Tenor:
38 Precision & elegance come shining through this
Five popular ukulele artists talk about their musical inspira- “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” uke’s simple styling
tions and instruments, and how they make their videos Porter Grainger and Everett By Teja Gerken
stand out from the crowd Robbins
72
By Amber von Nagel
6 EDITOR’S NOTE
MIXED MEDIA
Movies, music, and more
60 8 UKE LIFE

Inside the Wood Shop

10 CALENDAR 74
GREAT UKES
A luthier explains the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of ukulele tonewoods Vintage Weissenborn Uke
By Dave Sigman By Derek See

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 5

Editor's Note

UkuleleMag.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Group Publisher & Editorial Director Dan Gabel
Editorial Director Greg Cahill
Editor Scott Nygaard
Managing Editor Megan Westberg
Senior Editors Teja Gerken, Greg Olwell
Senior Designer Emily Fisher
Designer Kay Marshall
Production Manager Hugh O’Connor
Assistant Editor Amber von Nagel
Contributing Editors Andrew DuBrock, Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

INTERACTIVE SERVICES
Interactive Services Director Lyzy Lusterman
Copywriter Maura McElhone
Marketing Designer Joey Lusterman
Digital Developer Breeze Kinsey
Single Copy Sales Consultant Tom Ferruggia

MARKETING SERVICES
Marketing Services Director Desiree Forsyth
Marketing Services Manager Cindi Kazarian

MATT CARDY/GETTY IMAGES

Marketing Services Associate Jessica Martin

I
n your hands you have the first full newsstand issue of Ukulele! A year ago, we asked the
question, “Is the world ready for a magazine devoted to the ‘jumping flea?’” and we were
Stringletter.com
greeted with a resounding “Yes! It’s about time!” So, it looks like we’re here to stay. And,
in fact, we’re planning some exciting new digital-publishing innovations as well as a quarterly Publisher David A. Lusterman
presence on your local newsstand or in your mailbox. Keep your eyes on UkuleleMag.com and
facebook.com/UkuleleMagazine for updates and other goodies. FINANCE & OPERATIONS
Director of Accounting & Operations Anita Evans
Meanwhile, in this issue, Ukelele has turned to the experts for a number of articles: a Bookkeeper Geneva Thompson
beginner lesson on a couple of easy, but cool, chord voicings from uke virtuoso James Hill Accounting Associate Raymund Baldoza
(“Don’t Lift a Finger,” p 30); Marcy Marxer’s reminiscence about her discovery of one of the Office & Systems Manager Peter Penhallow
“Gods of Uke,” Jesse Kalima (p 24), as well as her rendition of Kalima’s classic arrangement of
General Inquiries FrontDesk@Stringletter.com
“Stars and Stripes Forever”; a look at ukulele fests from festival-maven Lil Rev (“Ukulele Eupho-
Customer Service Help@AcousticGuitarService.com
ria,” p 46); and a guide to the tonewoods used to make ukuleles, from uke-builder Dave Sigman Advertising Inquiries Marketing.Services@Stringletter.com
(“Inside the Wood Shop,” p 60). In addition, Daniel Ho talks about his musical evolution, includ- Send e-mail to individuals in this format:
ing the development of his six-string uke (“Daniel Ho’s Hawaiian Odyssey,” p 40); we profile five FirstName.LastName@Stringletter.com

up-and-coming “YouTube Sensations” (p 52), including this month’s cover ukester Danielle Ate
Front Desk (510) 215-0010
the Sandwich; and we visit the founders of the Austin Ukulele Society (p 18). Customer Service (800) 827-6837
And . . . well, if you haven’t turned the page to the rest of the issue by now, all I can say General Fax (510) 231-5824
is, “What’s keeping you?” Secure Fax (510) 231-8964
Uke on!
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Enjoy,
SCOTT NYGAARD Printed in USA

GOT A QUESTION or comment for Ukulele’s editors? Please send an e-mail to editors.uke@stringletter.com or TO ADVERTISE in Ukulele, call Desiree Forsyth at (510) 215-0028, or e-mail her at
snail-mail Ukulele Editorial, 501 Canal Blvd., Suite J, Richmond, CA 94804. desiree.forsyth@stringletter.com.

JOIN US ONLINE at UkuleleMag.com to activate your free e-mail alerts and get uke content that entertains,
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RETAILERS To find out how you can carry Ukulele magazine in your store, contact Alfred Publishing
at (800) 292-6122.
Except where otherwise noted, all contents © 2013 Stringletter, David A. Lusterman, Publisher.

6 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

Photo: Danny Clinch

“I've been using Fishman pickups with my Kamaka ukulele for many years. I love
the warmth and detail it gives me when I'm playing a soft ballad, but I also love
the snappy attack I get when I'm really digging in and strumming hard.”

Jake Shimabukuro’s latest CD

Peace Love Ukulele
available on Hitchhike Records
fishman.com www.jakeshimabukuro.com
Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 7
Uke Life

The ukulele is an all-access

pass to a lifetime of musical joy
and fulfillment. Whether you’re
cheerfully strumming along with
your toes in the sand, joining a
group of your fellow ukesters at
a festival, or refining serious
ukulele technique, you’re a part
of a greater community that has
discovered the good life on four
(or in Daniel Ho’s case, six)

MATT CARDY/GETTY IMAGES

plucky strings.

8 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 Ukulele Inc.
crafted in
Honolulu, Hawaii
Events

AUGUST
Oakridge Ukulele Festival
Aug. 2–4
Oakridge, OR
James Clem, Ronnie Ontiveros,
Buck Mueller, and Richard Colombo
oakridge-lodge.com/events/ukulele-festival/
Midwest Uke Fest
Aug. 3 & 4
Woodburn, IN
Peter “Madcat” Ruth, Ehukai Teves,
Butch Ross, Richard Ash, Bing Futch.
Also workshops
midwestukefest.com/about-us.html
Strathmore UkeFest 2013
Aug. 10–14
The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301
Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, Lil Rev,
Gerald Ross
strathmore.org/eventstickets/calendar/view.
asp?id=9052
Camp Oo Koo Lay Lay
Aug. 17–23
Pinecrest, CA
Summer camp at the Lair of the Golden
Bear in the Central Sierra Nevada. Andy
Andrews and Elaine de Man host special
guest instructor Heidi Swedberg (aka
“Susan,” George Costanza’s ill-fated,
envelope-licking fiancée on Seinfeld).
campookoolaylay.wordpress.com
2013 Silver Creek Ukulele
Carnival
Aug. 24
Two Harbors, MN
Lee “Colorblind” Johnson, Ukester Brown,
Hanna Cesario
twoharborsukulelegroup.com/
Central Coast Ukulele Festival
Aug. 24 & 25
Memorial Park, the Entrance, New South Wales,
Australia
Workshops, uke jam, lutherie exhibits,
concerts
theentrance.org/events/ukulele.html
Ukulele Hooley by the Sea 2013
Aug. 24 & 25
Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland
A gathering of ukulele enthusiasts
from around Europe
ukulelehooley.com
First Czech Ukulele Festival
Aug. 31
Uněticky Pivovar, Prague West, Czech Republic
ukulelefestival.cz

Ukulele Hooley returns to the Irish

seashore on August 24th & 25th

10 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

Events
SEPTEMBER Oyama Ukulele Festival
Sept. 1
Oyama, Tochigi, Japan
Omo Yoko, Herb Ohta Jr.,
Tam Amix, Rio, Kaneohe
Goooooood Guys, Gensblue,
Fortune Cookie, Jazzoom Cafe
oyama-ukulelefestival.com
Wine Country Ukulele
Festival 2013
Sept. 6–8
Napa Valley, CA
Live music, instructional
workshops, ukulele-building
demonstrations, jam
sessions, open mic,
flea market, and more
winecountryukefest.com
Tunes in the Dunes returns to
Oregon September 20–22
KORG.COM/PITCHHAWK
12 UkuleleMag.com
Port Townsend
Ukulele Festival
Sept. 11
Fort Worden State Park,
Port Townsend, WA
Four nights and three days of
intense fun, ukulele instruction,
and merry music-making with
some of the finest ukulele
instructors and players. The
“house band” includes Piper
Heisig, Matt Weiner, Nova
Devonie, and Greg Canote. The
workshop offerings will feature
a wide variety of styles—jazz,
blues, swing, Hawaiian, ’60s
music, pop, big band, novelty,
and jug-band ukulele, as well
as introductory-level sessions,
chords, melody, improvisation,
and performing tips.
centrum.org/the-port-townsend-
ukulele-festival/
UKULELE
Our brightest clip-on LCD display yet
New clip design for extra firm hold
Multi-angle positioning for easy viewing
SPRUKE: Brisbane’s
Ukulele Festival
Sept. 20–22
Southbank QLD TAFE Campus,
Brisbane, Australia
Daily stage, open mics,
classes, workshops
spruke.net.au
Tunes in the Dunes III
Sept. 20–22
Otis, OR
Aaron & Nicole Keim,
Guido Heistek, Kate Power &
Steve Einhorn, Jim D’Ville,
Andy Andrews, the Diggers
tunesinthedunes.com
Blackwater
Ukulele Festival
Sept. 14
Cypress Gardens, SC
Workshops, boat jams,
open mics, and more
festival.charlestonhotshots.com
Ukulele Fall 2013
 Custom Handcrafted
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Events

OCTOBER
Grand Northern 7th Annual Maui
Ukulele Festival Ukulele Festival
Oct. 12 & 13 Oct. 14
Pontefract, England Kahului, Maui, HI Julia Nunes will perform at the Tampa
Manitoba Hal, Phil Doleman and ukulelefestivalhawaii.org/en/maui.htm Bay Ukulele Festival in November
Ian Emmerson, the Uke Box, Anything
Goes Orchestra, Chonkinfeckle, 5th International
workshops
northernuke.com
Ukulele Ceilidh
Oct. 24–27
NOVEMBER
White Point Beach Resort, Liverpool, UkeFest Virginia
Milwaukee Ukulele Nova Scotia, Canada Nov. 1 & 2
Festival 2013 Manitoba Hal, Lil Rev, Ukulele Bartt, Cultural Arts Center, Glen Allen, VA
Oct. 19 Ken Middleton, Chalmers Doane, Workshops, concerts, open jams, and exhibits
Sunset Playhouse, Elm Grove, Milwaukee, James Hill ukefestva.com
WI ukuleleceilidh.ca
Danielle Ate the Sandwich, the Tampa Bay Ukulele Festival
Canote Brothers, Aaron and Nicole Canberra Ukulele Festival Nov. 1–3
Keim, Lil Rev, the Revomatics, Oct. 25–27 Tampa Bay, Florida
the Uke Crazy Kids Club, John Tuggeranong, Canberra, Australia Concerts, workshops, uke jams, and more.
Nicholson, Matt Daniels canberra100.com.au/calendar/view/1006/ A portion of the proceeds from this event go to the
mufest.com canberra-ukulele-festival-of-fun-2013/ American Asperger’s Association, a nonprofit group
that provides treatment and support for children
with autism.
tampabayukulele.com/index.html

14 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

Breedlove Ukuleles
A TOUCH OF THE ISLANDS MEET THE MAGIC OF THE MOUNTAINS
Breedlove’s Tenor Ukuleles display the style and craftsmanship that
Breedlove is famous for. These fine hand-crafted instruments are
made of all solid wood and produce a bright, crisp tone, perfect for
performance. A touch of the islands meets the magic of the mountains.
100% built in the USA.

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Why I Uke

Chris Malcarney,
attorney at law,
of the Philadelphia Ukulele Orchestra &
the Donuts

T
he ukulele is a very egalitar-
ian instrument. It’s cheap,
portable and everyone who
picks it up has a shot at being able to
plink away at a song or two.
I’ve played guitar for about 33 years
and I’ve loved all forms of traditional
American music for as long as I can
recall. But my enthusiasm has always
outstripped my skills, and since songs
by folks like Billie Holiday and Duke
Ellington invariably have some compli-
cated jazz chords that I couldn’t begin to
wrap my head around, I resigned myself
to sticking with three-chord rock on the
guitar.
Then, several years ago, I got my
brother a uke for Christmas. As an after-
thought, I asked my wife to get me one,
too. One of the first songs I tried to play
was Ellington’s “Satin Doll.” I was as-
tounded at how easy it was to play and
how good it sounded. A new world
opened up. Suddenly, words like “aug-
mented” and “diminished” referred to
chords that I could actually play instead
of just being punch lines in self-depre-
cating jokes about my modest musical
abilities.
A band mate and I started having
uke get-togethers that quickly morphed
into the Philadelphia Ukulele Orchestra.
Like me, most of the PUO members
have spent years playing in rock bands,
but have never really touched the Tin
Pan Alley and jazz standards. Both audi-
ence and group alike seem to have been
caught off guard by the delights inherent The author, third from right in the back row,
in songs about pennies from heaven with the Philadelphia Ukulele Orchestra.
and wishes upon stars. —C.M.

16 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 Learn to Play ‘Ukulele
from Grammy® Award Winner
Daniel Ho!
Starter Pack Includes:
• High-quality Firebrand™
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• Daniel Ho’s CD, ‘Ukulele Collection
• ‘Ukulele chord chart

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Or visit alfred.com/DanielHo

Daniel
aniel Ho iss an award-winning
aniel gpper
pe
performer,
erformer,
ormer
or
songwriter,
ongwrite , producer, and ‘Uku
ongwriter, ‘Ukulele
‘Ukulel
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pecializing
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specializingg in Hawaiian music. His
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national airplay charts, re
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top ten onn the
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Billboard
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Club Uke
The Austin Ukulele Society
In the music hub of Texas, these ukulele devotees love playing everything
from jazz standards to the Beatles, Bob Marley, and Gnarls Barkley
By Amber von Nagel
U
kulele players have a reputation for
being quirky and expressive, so it’s
no surprise that Austin, Texas, a
city known for its quirkiness and expressive-
ness, would be home to such a large and de-
voted group of ukulele players, the Austin
Ukulele Society. The AUS is led by Jen Brown,
Walter Minkel, and Bob Guz, all passionate uke
players. Although they refrain from taking on
official titles as “leaders” or “officers,” their
strong leadership and organizational skills have
been integral in creating and maintaining such
18 UkuleleMag.com
an active uke club. The club performs as well—
one recent gig was the Keep Austin Weird Fest
and 5K, where they played uke songs to cheer
on the runners. They even spotted a runner
wearing a pink bra over her running clothes that
she adorned with two pink ukuleles. Austin is
clearly a great place for uke players to show
their pride!
I talked to Jen Brown to find out more about
the club—how it got started, how it’s organized,
and what advice they have for others who want
to start uke clubs.
Austin, TX
The Austin Ukulele Society kicks off the
Beatles Complete on Ukulele event at
SXSW 2012.
Where do you meet?
We meet monthly at 7 PM on the second Thurs-
day of each month in a church’s community
classroom in North Central Austin.
How many members do you have?
We have over 200 members, of which a revolving
40–55 members attend each meeting. New
members come to our meeting every month. We
have a wonderfully diverse group, including one
three-generation family and several two-genera-
tion families, pairs of siblings, and many couples.
Ukulele Fall 2013
Why did you start the Austin Ukulele
Society?
Bob and I were both very inspired by the ukulele
clubs featured in the documentary film The
Mighty Uke. We were also impressed by the
turnout at the theater to see the documentary;
it was obvious that there were a lot of ukulele
lovers in Austin. Shortly afterward we met for
lunch and decided it was time to get a ukulele
club going in Austin, so we worked on it in the
fall of 2010 and got it started in January 2011.
What are your favorite songs to play at the
meet-ups?
We enjoy playing a wide variety of songs, includ-
ing “Love Potion Number 9,” “On the Road
Again,” “Margaritaville,” “Runaway,” and “Three
Little Birds.” We try to add a new-to-us tune to
our repertoire each month. We also reserve a
section of our meetings for an open mic, where
anyone can get up and play a song of their
choice for the group.
How do you organize and promote your
club?
The club is organized by a few dedicated lead-
ers: Bob, myself, and Walter. Generally speaking,
Bob prepares chord charts to suit the group,
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Fall 2013 Ukulele
teaches the new songs, and leads the strum-
alongs at each meeting. I handle most of the
e-mail and Facebook communication. Walter
handles our blog/website [austinukulelesociety.
wordpress.com]. We all take photos and make
efforts to promote not only our group’s meetings
and performances but all ukulele-related happen-
ings in Austin. Our members and their families
help out with videos, photos, and performance
opportunities as well. Local media attention has
helped too!
Some uke clubs are focused on Hawaiiana,
while others avoid the theme completely.
Where does your club fall on that spectrum?
The Austin Ukulele Society prides itself on play-
ing a great variety of music styles, from early
rock hits like “Runaway” and “Eight Days a
Week” to reggae tunes like “Three Little Birds”
to jazz standards like “All of Me” and “Sway” to
contemporary hits like Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”
Admittedly, we are a bit biased because we think
nearly every kind of song sounds great on the
ukulele, and we also enjoy choosing songs that
sound great being sung by a large group. We
neither focus on nor avoid Hawaiiana and truly
enjoy when our members play Hawaiian tunes
during the open mic part of our meeting. Some-
time soon, we’ll likely add a Hawaiian tune or two
to our repertoire.
How often does your club perform live as a
group?
The AUS performs live around four to six times a
year. We’ve enjoyed several opportunities to play
live as a group, including a family music festival,
a breast cancer awareness fundraiser that we
hosted, and the Beatles Complete on Ukulele
event at SXSW. Live performances provide a
great reason to get together for additional prac-
tices and increase ukulele enthusiasm around
Austin.
Do you have any tips for others who would
like to start their own ukulele clubs?
Meet on a mid-week weekday rather than a
weekend day, as folks tend to have a more con-
sistent schedule on weekdays and often prefer
to reserve their weekends for family and home
projects. Also, we advertised in the musicians
section of Craigslist to get the group started,
and this was successful, since about 20 people
came to our first meeting! One last recommen-
dation would be to pick a space that will accom-
modate up to 40 to 50 people; we outgrew our
first meeting location in about a year’s time.
UkuleleMag.com 19
 The Next Big Thing In Ukuleles!
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From Lanikai!

Compensated Nut
TECHNOLOGY
Have
H ave you
yo ever tuned up your ukulele
and
and p played
lay one chord in tune then
switch to
switch t another chord and it plays
oout
ut ooff ttune? The strings are stretched
aand
nd tthe
he open strings are in tune, but for
ssome
ome rreason
eas that second chord plays out
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of ttune…
une… Well my friends that is what is
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Between the four strings the differences
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There
There aarere many issues that cause poor
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he nut
the distance between the first fret and the nuutt wewe areaarre intonatio and TunaUke Technology
intonation
able to make open chords sound as smooth othh as
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ssiilk.
lk
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Uke News

The Ukes Are Coming, the Ukes Are Coming!

“For sheer fun and outright daffiness tied to
first-rate musicality and comic timing,” the
New York Times opined in 2010, when picking
the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain as
among the year’s best, “few concerts . . .
matched this ensemble’s November perfor-
mance at Zankel Hall.”
Of course, the UOGB—or simply, the Ukes,
as they’re affectionately known to fans—are no
strangers to acclaim. Pop star David Bowie has
called them “wonderfully clever.” Monty Python’s
Michael Palin saluted them as being “absolutely
the best of British.” And electronic-music pio-
neer and record producer Brian Eno flat-out de-
clared, “The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
may well turn out to be one of the turning points
of 21st-century art. But then again. . . .”
Earlier this year, the UOGB toured the West
Coast (on a two-leg journey that was filmed for
an upcoming documentary). It seems that uke
enthusiasts on this side of the Big Pond can’t
get enough of these eccentric Brits: the UOGB
returns to the States in November for dates in
Princeton, New Jersey; New York City; Portland,
Maine; and Ann Arbor, Michigan. This eight-piece
ensemble will be bringing its kitschy mix of com-
edy, vocals, and ukulele virtuosity to such popu-
lar songs as Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
and Ennio Morricone’s “The Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly.”
Meanwhile, you can stay in touch with the
Ukes on the Ukulele Podcast of Great Britain,
the group’s downloadable tribute to all things
uke (one recent episode included an insightful
interview with Squeeze front man and ukulele
player Glenn Tilbrook).

Folks Are Eating Up

Permaculture on Ukulele
Earlier this summer, the Formidable Vegetable Sound System, which writes “ecological
edu-tainment” for the ukulele, sprouted out of its rather rarified niche of songs about
permaculture to find itself onstage with some of the world’s biggest pop acts. After talent
agents spotted the band’s globe-trotting uke enthusiast Charlie Mgee at the Total Solar
Eclipse Festival in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, the Australian trio traveled to the
Glastonbury Festival in Scotland to share the stage with the Rolling Stones, Elvis
Costello, and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. The group uses its mix of self-described “speak-
easy electroswing-style wonk, live ukulele quirk, and horns” to promote sustainable agri-
cultural practices worldwide. This year, its Australian-government sponsored Grow Food
Everywhere Tour also took the FVSS to the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland,
and Cuba. You can view the clever video to “Yield,” from the group’s album Permaculture:
A Rhymer’s Manual, on YouTube.

22 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

Next Stop:
Broadway
Not to be outdone by their UK
counterparts, the Ukulele Orches-
tra of Great Brooklyn this summer
took their “Missionary in Manhat-
tan: Big Philly Style,” on the road
to HOTlanta. This one-act musical
comedy portrayed three polygamist
pop stars (fundamentalist Mormon
sisterwives, aka Sister Gretchen,
Sister Fanny, and Sister Bunny
Katherine) on the hunt for their
husband. The show—directed by
Kaleigh Malloy—was staged at
the Marcus Jewish Community
Center in Atlanta, Georgia. It fea-
tured Caitlin Davis, Elizabeth May,
Dave May, and Lily Narbonne on
ukes and vocals. Other stops on
the New York–based troupe’s Dirty
South Tour included Raleigh and
Greensboro, North Carolina.

nce.
iffere
the d
hear
u can
Yo
GPX TM

Clear Fluorocarbon
Ukulele Strings
Available online from www.stringsbymail.com
63” length will make two sets of strings
for soprano, concert and tenor ukuleles.
Available in warm or bright tone.

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 23

Gods of Uke

Jesse Kalima
Winner of Arthur Godfrey’s
‘Amateur Hour’ in 1937, Kalima’s
virtuosic playing set a high
standard for generations
of players
By Marcy Marxer

M
any years ago, a friend gave me
a cassette tape of a bunch of old
recordings of 78-rpm records he
had collected. There was no written information
on the cassette, but it was full of fantastic
music of many musical genres, including a mag-
nificent solo ukulele version of the John Philip
Sousa march “Stars and Stripes Forever.” The
ukulele playing was inspired: the notes flew by
at blistering speed, and the player harnessed
the excitement and enthusiasm of an entire
brass band, all on a small ukulele.
This ukulele player was clearly special. He
was the best of the best, but who in the world
was he? How could I find him? That was back
before the Internet, when the best way to search
was to knock on doors, ask questions, or look in

COURTESY OF JESSE KALIMA JR.

record stores. I asked record collectors, radio
DJs, and other folks in the know, but they didn’t
know who had played that glorious ukulele solo.
Fast-forward to the present, and when I was
asked to write an article for Ukulele, that wonder-
ful version of “Stars and Stripes Forever” came
to mind. This time, I searched the Internet and
YouTube looking for the original recording, but it
did not appear. My last resort was to contact my
friends the Hula Honeys—Ginger Johnson and
Robyn Kneubuhl. The Hula Honeys are great
musicians who play ukulele, baritone ukulele,
and tenor guitar. They live on Maui, where they
perform and host a radio show of music from the
islands. I got notes back from each of them
within minutes with the original performer’s
name: Jesse Kalima.
Finally, the source of the original recording
was uncovered.
Behind “Stars and Stripes”
With Kalima’s name in my grasp, I was able to
find more information on his life and career. He
Jesse Kalima (left)
and Jesse Kalima Jr. (right).
band when I was 17 and recorded with him in
made several records, some with Herb Ohta, Lyle
succeeding years as well as on a few movie
Ritz, and other ukulele virtuosos, and some with
gigs. My brother Dana Kalima played the drums.”
his family. All are fantastic!
Hoping to find out more about him, I
searched the WhitePages. Several Kalimas
Uke Innovations
Jesse Kalima was born in 1920 in Honolulu. He
showed up in and around Honolulu, including one
attended Farrington High School, where he
very special name, Jesse Kalima Jr. I picked up
played in the orchestra and school band. Kalima
the phone and called. Jesse Kalima Jr. is, in-
loved all the marches he learned in the band. As
deed, the son of the ukulele virtuoso Jesse Ka-
soon as he learned a march on the tenor saxo-
lima and was happy to talk about his father, his
phone and clarinet, he went home and figured it
playing, and the children he raised and inspired.
out on the ukulele.
“Music was always a part of our family life,”
At the age of 15, Kalima entered the Territo-
Jesse Jr. recalled. “All of my brothers and sis-
rial Amateur Hour Contest at the band shell in
ters—six of us—grew to become accomplished
Honolulu, dressed in a white suit with black
musicians, singers, and dancers in our own right.
pants and wearing a flower lei. Kalima won the
I was fortunate to play professionally in my dad’s
contest playing “Stars and Stripes Forever,” and

24 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013


ukulele playing changed forever. He single-hand-
edly pushed solo ukulele playing further than it
had ever gone before. Kalima’s version of “Stars
and Stripes Forever” quickly became a hit record-
ing and a goal for ukulele players to try to play.
Kalima also pushed the boundaries of the
ukulele by experimenting with the tuning of the
strings. He moved from the soprano ukulele to
his favorite uke, a Martin 14-fret tenor that he
outfitted with a pickup of his own invention.
(Kalima may have been the first person to am-
plify a ukulele.) He was also the first known
player to change the tuning of the ukulele from
re-entrant or high G C E A to low G C E A, lower-
ing the pitch of the fourth string one octave.
Dropping the G string down an octave gave the
ukulele a warmer sound, especially on the Martin
tenor, and allowed lead lines to include lower
notes.
Family and Friends
In 1938, Jesse founded the Kalima Brothers
Band and gave the band the nickname “One
Thousand Pounds of Melody.” With the band,
Jesse continued to bring new kinds of music to
the ukulele repertoire. The band performed such
songs as “Jealousy,” “Dark Eyes,” and “Under
the Double Eagle.” The Kalima Brothers also
Fall 2013 Ukulele
See a video performance of “Stars and Stripes Forever” at UkuleleMag.com
played with Richard Kauhi, who was 14 years
old when he met Jesse. They played together
for life.
The band did many variety shows with other
great musicians and comedians, including Little
Joe Kekaoha and Johnny Waikiki.
Kalima also struck up a friendship with TV
actor Richard Boone (Have Gun—Will Travel).
They were known for their humor and mischief
when together. One day, on a whim, they bought
a bunch of ukuleles and took them to the local
school in Nanakuli, Hawaii, and passed them out
to the kids just for fun.
There also was music and merriment in the
Kalima family garage. Friends and even celebri-
ties would stop by any time of the day or night to
see if there was a party going on, and there usu-
ally was. The Beach Boys were regular visitors to
the family home.
Once, while visiting
the Kalima family, the
Beach Boys carried
the piano from the
garage all the way to
the large banyan tree
in Waikiki to play for
passers-by and pass
the hat for change.
Kalima also ran a small ukulele shop and
snack stand across from the Waikiki pier and
across the street from the Honolulu Zoo. He sold
children’s size ukuleles for $5, soprano ukuleles
for $8.50, and tenor ukuleles for $25, as well as
hot dogs, candy, and other snacks.
Kalima passed away of a heart attack in
1980 at the age of 60. That day he played a
company party with Little Joe, friends, and family
and went to see a Don Ho show in the evening.
His son Jesse Jr. says, “He died doing what he
loved.”
I hope you enjoy my arrangement of “Stars
and Stripes Forever” (page 26), which was in-
spired by Jesse Kalima. Thank you to Jesse
Kalima Jr. for his time and generosity of informa-
tion as well as the joy with which he spoke of
his father, family, and friends.
MARY MARXER, a multiple Grammy
winner, multi-instrumentalist, session
musician, teacher, and producer/engineer,
studied ukulele with Roy Smeck in New York
City in the early 1980s.
UkuleleMag.com 25
Gods of Uke
Advanced

Stars and Stripes Forever

Music by John Philip Sousa, arranged by Marcy Marxer

D7 C 7 D7 C 7 D7 D7 C 7 D7 D9
1 2 11 1 2 11 1 2 11 1 2 11 1 2 11 1 2 11 1 2 11 1 2 11 1214
5 fr. 4 fr. 5 fr. 4 fr. 5 fr. 5 fr. 4 fr. 5 fr. 5 fr.

   



5 4 5 4 5 7 5 4 5 7
5 4 5 4 5 5 5 4 5 5
6 5 6 5 6 6 6 5 6 6
B 5 4 5 4 5 5 5 4 5 5

G F G
0 124 0121 0132

  

  
5

5 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 0 2
3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 3
2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 2
B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

D7
1 0 23

  
  
10

5 2 2 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2
2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
B 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2
© 2013 Marcy Marxer. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

G D9 D7
0132 1214 1020
5 fr.

    

    
15

3 3 3 3 2 0 2 5 5 7 7 0 0
2 2 2 3 3 3 5 5 2 1
0 2 2 2 6 6 0 0
B 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 5 5 2 1

26 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 See a video performance of “Stars and Stripes Forever” at UkuleleMag.com

G
0 124

   
   
20

0 5 5 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
0 0 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2
B 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

B7
1 2 11
E1sus4
34 1
E m(add11)
1321
2 fr.


25

2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 5 2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
B 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

C B C C7 C6 C G
3 2 11 3 2 11 3 2 11 3241 3241 3 2 11 1114
3 fr. 3 fr. 7 fr.

  

29

3 2 3 3 3 3 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 0 2
3 2 3 6 5 3 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 3
4 3 4 4 4 4 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
B 5 4 5 5 5 5 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

To Coda  1. 2.
G6
x1 0 2
D7
1 2 11
G
0132
G
0132
5 fr.

  
    
33

5 0 2 5 2 0 2 5 2
3 0 2 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 0 0
2 0 2 2 2 3
B 2 0 0 0

D dim7
1324

 
   
40

2 2 0 0 0 2
0 0 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 1
3 3 2
B 1

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 27

Gods of Uke

A dim7 A dim7 G dim7 G dim7 F dim7 F dim7 E dim7 D dim7 D dim7 C dim7
1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 0304
9 fr. 8 fr. 7 fr. 6 fr. 5 fr.

∫ 

46

10 10 10 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1
9 9 9 9 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0
10 10 10 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1
B 9 9 9 9 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0

B dim7 A dim7 A dim7 G dim7 G dim7 F dim7 F dim7 E dim7 D dim7 D dim7
1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324
10 fr. 9 fr. 8 fr. 7 fr. 6 fr. 5 fr.

∫ 

50

11 11 11 11 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 2
10 10 10 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1
11 11 11 11 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 2
B 10 10 10 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1

C dim7 D dim7 C dim7 D dim7

1324 1324 1324 1324
11 fr. 11 fr.

∫ ∫ ∫ ∫
 
 
54

12 12 12 12 12 12 3 12 12 12 12 12 12 3
11 11 11 11 11 11 2 11 11 11 11 11 11 2
12 12 12 12 12 12 3 12 12 12 12 12 12 3
B 11 11 11 11 11 11 2 11 11 11 11 11 11 2

C dim7 B dim7 A dim7 A dim7 G dim7 G dim7

1324 1324 1324 1324 1324 1324
11 fr. 10 fr. 9 fr. 8 fr. 7 fr. 6 fr.

58

12 12 11 11 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7
11 11 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 6

 Coda
12 12 11 11 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7
B 11 11 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 6

D.S. al Coda
D9 D7 C 7 D7 G
1214 1 2 11 1 2 11 1 2 11 0132 1114
5 fr. 5 fr. 4 fr. 5 fr. 7 fr.

61 62

7 5 4 5 2 10
5 5 4 5 3 7
6 6 5 6 2 7
B 5 5 4 5 B 0 7

28 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 Basic Chords

Basic Ukulele Chords

Just need some chords to start playing your favorite songs?
These major, minor, seventh, and minor seventh chords should get you started.

Major Chords
C C
3211 1230
D D
1114
Eb E
2341 2010
F
000 3 0341

G
0132
G
3121
Ab
3 121
A
21 00
A Bb
3211 3211
B
3121
4 fr.

Minor Chords
C m
3 1 11
C m
01 1 1
D m
2310
E m
0321
E m
3421

Fm
1 0 24
G m
0231
G m
3241
A m
2 000
B m
3111

Seventh Chords
C7
0001
D7
1112
E7
1203
F7
2310
G7 A7
0 1 00
B7
1211
0 213

Minor Seventh Chords

C m7 D m7 E m7 F m7 G m7 A m7 B1111
m7
1111 2314 0102 1324 0211 0000

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 29

Ukulele Basics

Don’t Lift a Finger!

Create easy chord variations by leaving
one finger right where it is
By James Hill

I
n this lesson, I’ll show you one of my
favorite chording techniques. It’s so easy
and it sounds so great that I almost
hesitate to give it away. It’s a way to smooth out
your chord progressions and add an extra layer
to your sound. How? It’s simple: don’t lift your
little finger.
To show you what I mean, take “Rocky Moun-
tain,” a traditional song with three chords: F, B,
and C (see Version 1 on page 31). Normally,
we’d use the voicings in Example 1 for the three
chords in this piece. There’s nothing wrong with
that. But there’s always room for improvement
and variation!
First of all, try the voicing in Example 2 for F.
By placing a finger on the third fret of the
first string, you change the sound of the chord.
(I like to use the little finger as shown above,
but you could also try using the third finger.)
By adding this finger you haven’t changed the
basic ingredients of the chord: it still contains
the notes F, A, and C. You’ve just “shuffled” the
notes so that the C note is now the highest
(Example 3).
Voilà! A new version of F that has a slightly
different sound.
is already done for
you! String all three
chords together and
see what you get
(Example 6).
The little finger
stays down all the
way through the
chord progression,
giving you a high
“drone” note that creates a smoothness to This little-finger-drone technique makes a
the chord changes, adds a new layer of sound, great variation on a theme. For example, try
and gives your performance a more traditional using the standard fingering on the first verse
quality that recalls the sound of the banjo and of a piece and the little-finger drone fingering on
mandolin. the second verse. I’ve used this a lot in my own
Check out the revised version (Version 2) of playing. For example, watch my YouTube video
“Rocky Mountain” that includes the new chord for “Heart-Shaped Tattoo” and you’ll see me
shapes you’ve learned in this lesson. using exactly these fingerings. Enjoy!
Example 1 Example 2 Example 3

A New Chord
Now take a look at the B chord. What happens
if you do the same thing? Can you add a high C Example 4 Example 5 Example 6
note? Try it for yourself (Example 4).
This version of B looks a little strange, but it
sounds great. So what exactly have you done to
the B chord? Have a look at the ingredients
(i.e., note names) in the chord, before and after
(Example 5).
As you can see, by adding the C note to the
B chord, we’ve changed the basic “genetics” of
the chord. Where a B chord normally has the
notes B, D, and F, our new version has the
notes B, D, F, and C. So this chord needs a
new name. We’ll call it Badd9 (B with the ninth, JAMES HILL is co-author of Ukulele in the Classroom and director of the
or the C note, added). annual Langley Ukulele Workshop. He also maintains a busy touring
schedule as a performer; his latest album release is Man with a Love
A New C Chord Song. Visit jameshillmusic.com for more.
Now the final step: the C chord. Fortunately, the
C chord already has a high C note, so your work

30 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 Beginner

Rocky Mountain
Traditional, arranged by James Hill

(c) 2013 James HIll. All rights reserved. Used by permission.]

Bb
Version 1

2 œ
F F
&b 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ
Rock - y mount - ain rock - y moun - tain rock - y moun - tain high When you’re on that

0 0 0 3 5 3 0
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
B

Bb Bb
Chorus
œ œ œ œ
F C F
&b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ
6
rock - y moun - tain hang your head and cry Do do do do

5 3 0 0 0 0 3 5
1 1 1
B 0 0

Bb
œ
F C F F C F
&b œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ
11
Do re - mem - ber me Do do do do do re - mem - ber me
0 0 0 3 5 0 0
1 1 1
B 0 0 0 0

F
201 4
badd9
B3214 F
201 4
Version 2

&b œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
17
Rock - y mount - ain rock - y moun - tain rock - y moun - tain high When you’re on that

badd9
B3214 F
201 4
C F badd9
B3214
000 4 201 4

Chorus

& b 42
œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ
œ œ œ œ œ
© 2013 James Hill. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

22
rock - y moun - tain hang your head and cry Do do do do

F C F B bsus2 F C F
201 4 000 4 201 4 3214 201 4 000 4 201 4

œ œ
&b œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ
27
Do re - mem - ber me Do do do do do re - mem - ber me

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 31

Songbook
Shady Grove
Traditional, arr. by Andrew DuBrock

“S
hady Grove” is an 18th-century folk
song most often found in Celtic,
folk, and bluegrass players’ reper-
toires. It has been recorded by many artists of
varying musical backgrounds including Doc
Watson, Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, Taj
Mahal, Crooked Still, the Chieftans, and others.
Like most folk songs, it translates easily to the
ukulele. At its core, it’s a simple two-chord song,
and can be played with as much or as little em-
bellishment as you like.
The first strum pattern illustrated below is a
simple down-down-up pattern. If you’re a beginner,
the chord changes can seem a little hard to man-
age, considering how quickly they happen in the
first line of each verse, but take it slowly at first
and keep in mind that you only have two chords to
deal with, which simplifies things a bit. The sec-
ond strum pattern is made up of a bass note and
two strums, one down and one up. This is a great,
easy pattern you can apply to any song you play,
and sounds especially good on folk standards like
this one. The third pattern is entirely fingerpicked,
and requires only three picking fingers: the thumb before should start slow and shoot for accuracy. If
(p), index (i), and middle (m). Players who have you make a mistake, just slow your tempo down.
experience fingerpicking will have fun playing Once you’ve mastered the pattern at that tempo,
through this pattern and embellishing it along the you can gradually build up speed from there.
way. Players who have never tried fingerpicking —Amber von Nagel

Beginner
Chords Strum Pattern 1 Strum Pattern 2 Fingerpicking Pattern

b
& b 44 œœœœ Û Û Û ‰ œ œ œj œj œ œ œj
Dm Dm Dm
Û Û œœœœ Û œ œœœœ Û
œ œ œ
D m
2310
C
0003

≥ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≥ ≤
À À À À À À À
*Strum: p i p m p i p m
0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2 2
B
* ≥ = down; ≤ = up
2 2 2 2 2

Dm C Dm Repeat Chorus
1. Peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall
C Dm Dm C Dm
If I can’t get the girl I love I don’t want none at all 4. Some come here to fiddle and dance, some come here to tarry
C Dm
Some come here to fiddle and dance, I come here to marry
Chorus
Dm C Dm
Shady Grove, my little love, Shady Grove I know Repeat Chorus
C Dm
Shady Grove, my little love, I’m bound for Shady Grove Dm C Dm
5. Every night when I go home, my wife, I try to please her

Dm C Dm C Dm
2. Wish I had a banjo string made of golden twine The more I try, the worse she gets, damned if I don’t leave her

C Dm
Every tune I’d play on it, I wish that girl were mine Repeat Chorus

Repeat Chorus Dm C Dm
6. Fly around, my pretty little miss, fly around, my Daisy

Dm C Dm C Dm
3. Wish I had a needle and a thread, fine as I could sew Fly around, my pretty little miss, nearly make me crazy

C Dm
I’d sew that pretty girl to my side and down the road I’d go Repeat Chorus

32 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

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Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 33

Songbook

Here, There,
and Everywhere
Words and music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

E before heading to

B
y the time the Beatles released
Revolver in 1966, their songs were
already getting infused with psyche-
delia as the Fab Four began to experiment with
different instrumentation and sounds. “Here,
There, and Everywhere,” on the other hand, is a
rarity on the record—a ballad with more of a
traditional rock-band sound, and it’s a tune that
would have naturally fit on any of their earlier
records. Here are two interpretations of this tune:
one is uke maestro Jake Shimabukuro’s chord-
melody arrangement and the other shows
straight-ahead song accompaniment.
Shimabukuro’s arrangement follows the
same general chord progression as the original
tune, but if you look closely, you’ll see a few
places where he puts his own fingerprints on the
song—like the stretched-out intro that pauses on
the verse, and the
descending diminished-seventh chord line in
measure 28.
Shimabukuro also masterfully mutes some
strings while letting others ring out to add tex-
ture without overwhelming the arrangement with
discordant notes. The best example of this is in
measure 6, where he reaches up for the F note

Advanced

Intro
G Bm B A 7sus4 D E


2 5 5 5 5 5 8 6 5 3 5 5 5 3 23 2 0 0 6
3 2 6 6 6 3 2 3

© 1966 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. Copyright renewed. All rights administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 8 Music Square West,
2 2 5 5 5 4 2 3
B 4 7 2 2

Verse
G A m7 G maj7 C( G maj7 A m7 B m7 C maj7 F B7

Nashville, TN 37203. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission of Hal Leonard Corp.
11) m11

  

   
5
(simile on repeats)
3 5 10 12 10 7 5 5 3 2 3 5 7 7 2 2 2 3 2
3 5 7 14 8 7 5 2 7 3 3 5 3 2 2 2
2 4 6 0 6 4 2 0 4 3 3
B 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2

1. 2, 3.
F m11 B7 F7 Em A m7 D F7

10

*
2 3 3 5 2 0 9 9 7 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 3
2 2 1 3 5 7 8 0 0 2 0 1
4 3 3 4 7 0 0 0 1 2 0 3
B 2 2 2 4 0 0 2

* Top note only, first time.

34 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 Bridge To Coda 
B G m(add4) C m7 D7 Gm C m7 D7

14

5 5 8 5 5 3 5 5 6 3 0 0 1 3 3 5 5 5 6 7 8 7 6 5 3 5 5 6 3 0 0 1 2 3
6 6 8 8 6 3 2 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 3 2
5 7 7 7 7 7 3 0 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 3 0
B 5 5 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

D.S. al Coda
(take second ending)  Coda
G A m7 Gm G m7 C m7 D7

18 19

5 2 3 3 5 5 3 5 5 6 3 0 0 1 2 3
3 5 5 6 6 3 0 3 2
2 4 4 7 7 5 0 3 0
B 0 0 0 B 0 0 3 3 2

Verse
G A m7 G maj7 C( 11) G maj7 A m7 B m7 C maj7
3

21
3

5 2 3 3 5 10 12 10 7 7 6 5 5 5 4 3 3 2 3 5 7 7
3 5 5 7 14 8 7 7 5 5 2 7 3 3 5 3
2 4 4 6 0 6 6 4 4 0 2 0
B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

F m11 B7 F m11 B7 F7 Em A m7 Aº 7
3

25

2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 5 2 0 9 7 10 10 9 6 3
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 3 5 7 8 8 8 8 5 2
4 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 3 3 4 7 9 9 9 6 3
B 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 0 0 9 8 5 2

G A m7 B m7 C G A m7 B m7 C

29

Harm. Harm.
2 0 0 2 5 2 0 2 0 0 2 5 5 9 9
3 3 0 0 2 3 12 3 3 0 0 2 8
2 2 0 0 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 2 0
B 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 12

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 35

Songbook

with his little finger during the C chord, quickly song! But don’t let the number of chords intimi- to strum along with a pick or your fingers. You

adding the 11 to the chord. But he quickly lets date you. The chords naturally flow from one to might also try the rolling fingerpicking pattern in
go of this note so that it doesn’t rub up against another, and if you learn one section at a time, the middle or the alternating-bass fingerpicking
the melody note (just a half step away) for too it won’t seem like you’re playing that many pattern on the right as starting points.
long—creating just enough harmonic variety chords. Try using the strum pattern below, left, —Andrew DuBrock
without a jarring sound. The harmonics at the
end also add a nice touch (notice again how he

targets the F note over a C chord in the last
measure, letting it fade out before hitting the
final harmonic).
The song version below follows the chords ANDREW DuBROCK, former Acoustic Guitar music editor and author
on the Beatles’ original recording, as adapted to of Stringletter publication, Acoustic Rock Basics, lives in Portland,
ukulele using mostly root-position chords. Oregon, where he transcribes, edits, and engraves music for print and
As is common for many Beatles songs, this multimedia publications.
is not a basic three-chord tune—instead, there
are 13 chord shapes used to play the entire

Intermediate

Chords Strum Pattern Fingerpicking Pattern 1 Fingerpicking Pattern 2

m B b A m7 D 7
j‰
G Am G Am G Am
G B
#4 ‰ j
& 4 œœœœ Û Û œœœœ Û Û œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œœœ œ œœœ
0132
3111 3211 0000 2 0 3 0

F #m7 B 7 ≥ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≥ ≤
a a
Am C p i m i p i m i p i p m p i p m

Û Û Û Û
*Strum:
2000 0003 1314 1 2 11
2 0 2 0 2 0
3 0 3 0 3 0
2 0 2 2 0 0 2 0
Em F Gm Cm B 0 2 0 2 0 2
0321 2010 0 231 0 111 * ≥ = down; ≤ = up

Bridge
F Bb
Intro I want her everywhere
G Bm Bb Am7 D7 Gm Cm D7 Gm
To lead a better life, I need my love to be here And if she’s beside me I know I need never care
Cm D7 G Am Bm
G Am Bm C G Am But to love her is to need her everywhere
1. Here, making each day of the year
Bm C F #m7 B7 Bm C G Am
Changing my life with a wave of her hand 3. Knowing that love is to share
F #m7 B7 Em Am7 D7 Bm C F #m7 B7
Nobody can deny that there’s something there Each one believing that love never dies
F #m7 B7 Em Am7 D7
G Am Bm C G Am Watching their eyes and hoping I’m always there
2. There, running my hands through her hair
Bm C F #m7 B7 Repeat Bridge
Both of us thinking how good it can be Repeat Verse 3
F #m7 B7 Em Am7 D7 G Am Bm C
Someone is speaking but she doesn’t know he’s there I will be there and everywhere
G Am Bm C G
Here, there, and everywhere

36 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

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Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 37

Songbook

Ain’t Nobody’s Business

Words and music by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins

I
n 1922, Porter Grainger and Ever- versatile song, you can play it just about
ett Robbins wrote "Ain't Nobody's any way you like.
Business," an eight-bar blues stan- Below are three different ways of pick-

Carl Van Vechten Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-54231]

dard. The tune was first recorded by blues
singer Sara Martin as a relatively upbeat-
sounding vaudeville number, but when
Bessie Smith got hold of it in 1923, it
underwent a drastic tonal change to match
ing out the chords in this song. The first
is a basic strum pattern made up of
downstrokes. The second has you picking
all four strings at once, which sounds
great if you add a little jazzy palm-muting.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,

Smith’s moaning, mournful vocal style and
the song’s darker themes. Lyrics like “If I
should take a notion to jump into the
ocean” work perfectly if you want to go for
a somber blues interpretation, while lyrics
like “If I go to church on Sunday then cab-
aret on Monday” can be read as defiant
and empowered, allowing for a more up-
beat tonal interpretation similar to Mar-
tin’s or Billie Holiday’s versions. A tonally
The third is a slightly more complex pat-
tern. If you’re a fingerpicking veteran, this
should be a piece of cake. If you’re new
to fingerpicking, not to worry! Just take
the pattern slowly at first to build muscle
memory. Once you have it down, feel free
to play around with it. You can even use a
combination of all three techniques
throughout the song to keep things lively.
—Amber von Nagel

Intermediate

B b6 B b6 B b6
Strum Pattern Fingerpicking Pattern 1 Fingerpicking Pattern 2

0211 0211 0211

Chords
b6 1112 b
B
0211
D7 G m
0 231 & b 44 œœœœ œœœœ œœœœ œœœœ œœœ œœœ œœœ œœœ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
*Strum: ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ a a a a p i p m p i p m

E b7
m m m m
i i i i
F7 p p p p
01 3 1 2310
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
* ≥ = down; ≤ = up

B b6 D7 Gm E b7 B b6 D7 Gm E b7
1. If I should take a notion to jump into the ocean 4. If I give him my last nickel, and it leaves me in a pickle
B b6 F7 B b6 F7 B b6 F7 B b6 F7
Ain’t nobody’s business if I do Ain’t nobody’s business if I do

B b6 D7 Gm E b7 B b6 D7 Gm E b7
2. If I go to church on Sunday, then cabaret on Monday 5. If I let my best companion drive me right into the canyon
B b6 F7 B b6 F7 B b6 F7 B b6 F7
Ain’t nobody’s business if I do Ain’t nobody’s business if I do

B b6 D7 Gm E b7 B b6 D7 Gm E b7
3. If my friend ain’t got no money, and I say take all of mine, honey 6. If I don’t like my lover and leave him for another
B b6 F7 B b6 F7 B b6 F7 B b6 F7
Ain’t nobody’s business if I do Ain’t nobody’s business if I do

38 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

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 Daniel Ho's
Hawaiian

40 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 D
aniel Ho is one of today’s most versatile and
prolific musicians on the ukulele scene, and

Odyssey
a longtime ambassador of Hawaiian music.
As an artist and a producer, Ho scored a re-
markable six consecutive Grammy awards in the
Best Hawaiian Music Album category between
2006 and 2011, plus Grammy nominations for
his solo ukulele album Polani, the piano instru-
mental album E Kahe Malie, and most recently
On a Gentle Island Breeze, a blend of Hawaiian
slack-key and ukulele traditions with Taiwanese
aboriginal music (all are released on his own
Daniel Ho Creations label). Ho’s music has
made its mark on the big screen, too. Ho con-
tributed ukulele and slack-key guitar to the score
of 2011's Soul Surfer, and he sang a Hawaiian-
The popular uke virtuoso talks about his early days, language version of Prince’s “Nothing Compares
2 U” over the end credits in Forgetting Sarah
his six-string uke, and tips on practicing and Marshall.
Ho was raised in Honolulu, where he started
choosing an instrument playing not only ukulele but a whole band’s
By Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers worth of other instruments, including organ,
guitar, piano, bass, and drums. Inspired to pur-
sue a career in music, he studied composing
and arranging at the Grove School of Music in
Los Angeles, and he found his first success with
the smooth jazz group Kilauea—named after
Hawaii’s only active volcano. Getting closer to
his roots in the late ’90s, Ho released his first
slack-key guitar album, Hymns of Hawaii with
George Kahumoku Jr., followed by his first uku-
lele album, Pineapple Mango, featuring the
hooky title track that has been widely covered
by uke players. In recent years Ho has been
collaborating with the singer and actress Tia

TEXT © 2013 JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.
Carrere, a childhood friend from Honolulu, on
a series of Hawaiian music albums that have
added to his Grammy trove.
These days, Ho travels widely with his uku-
lele and guitar, performing and teaching in Asia,
Europe, and Australia as well as across the
United States. Looking for a way to translate
music more easily between slack-key guitar and
ukulele, Ho worked with the KoAloha company to
develop a six-string tenor uke on which he could
play in the same (relative) slack-key tuning that
he uses on guitar; one of the resulting D-VI ukes
is currently on display at the Grammy Museum.
As this phone conversation from his home in
Los Angeles makes clear, Ho has a passion for
sharing his love of the ukulele with other players
and listeners, and for bringing sophisticated new
music to life on the instrument.

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 41

Daniel Ho's Hawaiian Odyssey
What sort of music did you start out playing on
ukulele?
HO I started playing the ukulele when I was
about eight years old. In grade school, a lot
of people brought their ukuleles to school and
played, and at the time Ohta-San [Herb Ohta]
was super famous. He was on A&M Records
and had a song called “A Song for Anna,” which
was written by André Popp and recorded with a
symphony in Europe, and it was a huge hit on
the radio. I think he sold six million copies of
his album. So “A Song for Anna” is what every-
one played, and that was the only song I knew
for about two years. I only knew the A section—
I’d walk around the house and play that. I really
enjoyed it, and I moved onto classical guitar in
fourth grade and became more serious about
that.
From there I went to other instruments—
I took classical piano in fifth grade, and then
drums and bass in junior high school. I kind of
dabbled around with instruments. I took a lot of
lessons but never mastered any one instrument.

How does your formal training in music influ-

ence what you do on the ukulele?
HO That’s a really good question. It has every-
thing to do with the way I approach the uku-
lele—specifically my classical guitar training.
I use four fingers and I play in the classical
style. Generally people strum the ukulele, and
of course it’s the way you start, strumming along
and singing. I wanted to take a little different ap-
proach, so pretty much all my instrumentals are
fingerstyle. I try to incorporate different kinds of
voice leading, which I find so much fun to do
because you only have four voices. To try to play
a melody and counterpoint in between is some-
thing that intrigues me about arranging for the
ukulele.
I also don’t do very many cover tunes. Once
in a while I record a song from [for example]
Queen Lili‘uokalani on a CD. But I do predomi-
nantly original material, and the training allows
me to write and arrange songs for the ukulele.

Your classical background really shows on your

composition “Amis Rondo.”
HO Oh yeah, the arpeggio kind of thing—the
Spanish style. To tell you a little bit about the
background of the song, the Amis is a Taiwan-
ese aboriginal tribe. I didn’t even know there
were aboriginals in Taiwan until May of last year,
when we were invited by a record company, Wind
Music, to visit Taiwan and see if we could do a
collaboration of island cultures: the Hawaiian
culture, ukulele and slack-key guitar, and Taiwan-
ese aboriginal music, which is primarily vocal
LYDIA MIYASHIRO-HO

music. I visited with my wife, and we went to all

the rural parts of Taiwan and met different
tribes, listened to their music, and had barbe-
cues and jams. The music fit together very

42 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

nicely. So that’s how I came to write the song
like that—and it’s a rondo.
What was the story behind writing “Pineapple
Mango”?
HO That song was a homework assignment at
the Grove School of Music. This school was
absolutely amazing. [Dick Grove] would teach us
from Monday through Thursday about a particu-
lar genre—it would be Broadway, Latin, dramatic
ballads, big band. . . . We got the assignment
on Thursday and you’d have to write the song
and copy the parts for all the musicians. On
Tuesday he hired an orchestra or a band. We’d
have to go in and conduct it, and we had 15
minutes to get a good recording of our song.
“Pineapple Mango” was the assignment for
a TV main title, and it was a calypso song, with
steel drums and flute and that kind of vibe. It
seemed to fit very nicely on a ukulele, so I
recorded it on my first ukulele CD [Pineapple
Mango, now reissued as Ukulele Classics and
Originals]. It only has three chords, so anyone
can play it.
What inspired the development of your six-
string KoAloha ukulele, which you call the
slack-key ukulele?
HO It’s a D-VI—D for Daniel. Around 2005 I was
asked to do Ten Days on the Island, which is a
biannual music festival in Tasmania. I really
didn’t know many ukulele songs at that time
because I was playing mostly slack-key guitar,
and they wanted me to go solo because of the
cost of travel and all that. So I asked Paul
Okami, who is KoAloha’s main luthier—he’s also
the son of Alvin, who started the company—if
he would consider making a six-string ukulele.
Just six individual strings, no double strings, on
a tenor body so I could play slack-key ukulele
[using slack-key tunings]. It doesn’t have to be
slack-key—you could just tune it like a guitar [in
standard tuning] up a fourth. He gave it a try
and built it, and I was really surprised by the
amount of sound that came from it. In a lot of
ways it’s even more resonant than a four-string
because of the sympathetic vibrations of having
two extra strings in the lower register.
I tune it in the C Kilauea tuning. Kilauea is a
tuning I developed for my slack-key guitar play-
ing. It’s the only slack-key tuning I play, and it
has a unique sound. So I tune the uke to the
Kilauea tuning up a fourth.
What are the notes?
HO Basically you take standard tuning and lower
the three lowest-pitched strings a whole step
[on guitar, the notes are D G C G B E; on the
D-VI ukulele, G C F C E A]. So it’s a hybrid be-
tween G taro-patch tuning, which is basically an
open G chord, and standard tuning. There are a
number of reasons I came up with this tuning. I
Fall 2013 Ukulele
tried all the slack-key tunings—there’s a whole ukulele sound fuller. Unless you do the George
ton of them. I needed something that could Formby banjo-like strumming stuff, pretty much
function in both major and minor keys, and the anything you do with a re-entrant tuning you can
taro-patch is a G major chord, so it’s not fun to do with low G as well.
play a minor chord. The other problem I found
with the taro-patch tuning is the high first-string You released a video on getting started with
E is tuned down to D, so when you are playing ukulele. What should people keep in mind when
scales, melodic passages, you actually have to choosing their first instrument?
change position even just to play a scale. I HO The first thing I would recommend is to get
found that to be pretty awkward. geared tuners—no friction tuners. It doesn’t
matter how good your uke is; you cannot tune a
Do you play more six-string or four-string uke uke with friction tuners. The scale is too short
these days? and it’ll just never be in tune. Even if the tone is
HO I play mostly four-string. If I’m going to do a not excellent, like if you bought a $40 or $50
strictly ukulele performance, I use both. But I’m uke, if it has geared tuners, you can get the
doing a lot of four-string now because it con- instrument in tune and it can still sound beauti-
nects more directly when I teach workshops. I ful. But if you have a nice, loud, resonant instru-
used to do more on the D-VI, but a lot of the ment that is horribly out of tune all the time, it
times when I travel I can only bring one guitar doesn’t make any sense.
and one uke, so I capo my guitar on the fifth fret My favorite tonewoods are ultimately rose-
to sing those [D-VI] songs. wood back and sides with a spruce top. Ma-
hogany sounds very similar to koa, but
How do you tune the four-string uke then? mahogany is slightly more resonant. Koa is the
HO I use a low G [G C E A], because I do finger- wood that is associated with the ukulele be-
style and it has an extra fourth of range [com- cause it’s from Hawaii, and it can look very
pared with re-entrant tuning] and makes the beautiful if you buy curly koa.
Daniel Ho’s Ukes
Daniel Ho has a long relationship
with the Honolulu-based ukulele
company KoAloha. His four-string
KoAloha ukes include a custom
curly koa tenor, which he uses for
recording, and a thin-body tenor
that he says works very well for
feedback-free stage use. For
slack-key–style songs, he plays a
KoAloha D-VI, his six-string tenor
signature model, with Indian rose-
wood back and sides and a Sitka
spruce top. Ho uses PhD strings
(ukulelecreations.com) on all his
ukuleles.
For amplifying his ukes, Ho
relies on the Mi-Si Acoustic Trio
system with an L.R. Baggs
pickup. The Mi-Si system uses no
battery; before a show, Ho plugs
it into a wall adapter for one
minute, and it stays charged
about five hours of playing time.
He runs the Mi-Si output into a
Bose T1 mixer and L1 Compact
speaker system. “You can carry it
in one hand, and it sounds better
than anything I’ve heard on a
uke,” he says.
UkuleleMag.com 43
Daniel Ho's Hawaiian Odyssey
It’s kind of a strange thing, but I would suggest
walking around when you practice. I walk around
the yard, I walk around the house, and I clip a met-
ronome onto my headstock and always practice
with a metronome.
One thing I think is very important is to use a
strap when you play. When I do workshops and
teach, I see a lot of people really struggle with
holding the instrument. They are gripping the
body with their right forearm, and the uke is sit-
ting in their left hand, between their thumb and
forefinger. There’s not a lot of playing you can do
when you’re holding the instrument up that way.
You can’t really finger the A string, the first
string. I feel like 100 percent of the effort of
your hand should be dedicated to producing
music, not gripping the instrument and holding it
up. Whenever I perform and practice and play I
You’ve got a uke.....but do you GET the uke?
These clear and concise method books will help.
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44 UkuleleMag.com
always use a strap so my hands are completely
relaxed. But I never use a strap when I record.
Why not?
HO The ukuleles that I record with are very frag-
LYDIA MIYASHIRO-HO
ile instruments. They’re not something you’d
take around anywhere. The back of the instru-
ment resonates a lot, and you can’t actually
stand or put a strap and hold it against your
body because you lose about 20 percent of the
sound just from touching that piece of wood. can see light because the wood is so thin. So
With one instrument I play, you can actually hold I hold the ukulele like a classical guitar when I
it up to the light and see through the wood—you record: I sit it on my left leg and brace it with my
100 pages each
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Ukulele Fall 2013
right leg, and I only touch the corner of it with
my right forearm. It’s braced in such a way that
it doesn’t move and I can move my fingers.
You mentioned practicing. What’s your advice
on getting the most out of practice time?
HO I have completely fallen in love with the uku-
lele in recent years, and I literally take it with
me everywhere I go. Any scale or any song I
practice on the ukulele, the technique translates
directly to a guitar, bass, or anything. So it’s
really helped me a lot to have an instrument to
practice on everywhere I go. If my wife goes
shopping, I don’t mind. I’ll sit in the car, wind
the windows down, and take out my uke and
work on a piece for the next show.
It’s kind of a strange thing, but I would sug-
gest walking around when you practice. I walk
around the yard, I walk around the house, and I
clip a metronome onto my headstock and always
practice with a metronome. This way you never
get bored and you never slouch; it gets your blood
flowing and you get exercise at the same time.
The scenery changes, which is something that I
don’t take for granted because when I practice
piano I stare at the same wall day after day, hour
after hour. Psychologically that has an effect on
Fall 2013 Ukulele
whether you’re motivated to sit down and stare at HO Yes, I think so. It’s nice to start out strum-
that wall for another two hours or whatever. ming C, F, and G, just to engage someone and
The last thing is to practice slowly and per- say, look, you can make music in ten minutes!
fectly—that I cannot impress enough. Practicing Once someone is intrigued by the instrument, I
fast and making mistakes here and there, you’re think the very next step is to separate out the
just teaching yourself to make those same mis- strings and find out how much music you can
takes over and over again. It’s much harder to make with a ukulele. My feeling about the ukulele
undo if you learn that way than if you learn it is it can be a flashy instrument. George Formby
correctly the first time. So if you practice slowly, has that strumming pattern thing and people are
painfully slowly but absolutely perfectly, you’ll be excited by the fast stuff too, but there’s really
surprised by how much faster you can learn any- seriously deep music you can do on a ukulele—
thing, no matter how easy or difficult. Break dissonant and consonant harmonies and voice
things down into little sections and do them leading and chromatic passages. It’s not a young
slowly. instrument, but there’s not much music out for it
like there is for the piano, which has amazing
When you’re starting out, do you think it’s good repertoire created for it over hundreds of years.
to play single notes and melodies in addition to I want to try to create more repertoire and music
strumming? for ukulele players to enjoy.
JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS (jeffreypepperrodgers.com), the founding
editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine, is author of the Homespun video se-
ries Learn Seven Grateful Dead Classics for Acoustic Guitar.
UkuleleMag.com 45
 Ukulele
Euphoria
By Lil Rev

I
t’s a balmy Saturday afternoon in 2008, and I am on the
campus of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, surrounded
by a half dozen of my favorite ukulele superheroes—includ-
ing James Hill, Aaron Keim, and the Canote Brothers. The
courtyard is filling up fast as our jam grows with the ranks of
students eager to strum along with their teachers. We move
joyfully from the jug-band blues “Going to German” to the
Carolina Chocolate Drops’ “Starry Crown,” before settling into
a bucket of old-time dance melodies, clawhammer-uke style.
That’s when I realize, this must be what ukulele heaven is
like—nonstop jamming, learning, great food, dance, concerts,
and socializing.
Fortunately, one needn’t go to heaven to experience the
inspiration that I felt while teaching at the Portland Ukulele
Festival—which has now morphed into the Port Townsend
Ukulele Festival. Today there are nearly 35 annual ukulele
MATT CARDY/GETTY IMAGES

festivals scattered across Canada and the United States,

which present a checkerboard of choices. For the uninitiated,
you’ll discover that they all offer a sense of community that is
unparalleled at other kinds of music festivals and a rich op-
portunity to connect with many of the best instructors on the
circuit.

46 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 Jam, listen, learn, and hang out at any one
of the many great American uke festivals

Uke revelers at the 2010

Cheltenham Festival in England

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 47

Ukulele Euphoria
Legendary jazz ukulele player Lyle Ritz puts it
this way: “Ukulele festivals begin and end with a
loving camaraderie of ukulele enthusiasts, spar-
kling energy, and round-the-clock rhythm and
song via jamming, workshops, and concertizing.
Where else could we rub shoulders and tell
stories with some of the most remarkable vir-
tuosos on the planet? It’s a ukulele family re-
union with but one rule: never leave your room
without a uke in your hand!”
Joining the
Community
In 2005, I drove from Milwaukee to Indianapolis
for my first Indy Uke Fest. The very thought of
finding so many great players in one place was
a dream come true for a uke-aholic like me. I
cornered one of my favorite players, Joel “Uncle
Eck” Eckhaus, at his vendor’s booth and asked
him about a Roy Smeck stroke he had per-
fected. He could have easily brushed me off, but
as is the spirit in the ukulele-festival community,
he sat me down and took the time to show this
young upstart the intricacies of the “voo-do-dee-
o-do” strum. In the years that followed, sharing
and openness have become the norm within this
48 UkuleleMag.com
community. As a busy teacher, touring artist,
and ukulele entertainer, I have come to expect
this from both myself and others in the ukulele
world.
At most ukulele festivals, beginners can
expect to find plenty of entry-level classes, in-
struments, memorabilia, merchandise for sale,
and tons of peer support, all in one place.
Classes may range in subject from common
strokes and strums and beginning improvisation,
to repertoire and musicians’ etiquette, to En-
semble 101 or even Abbey Road for ukulele! You
can take home enough tricks and tabs to last a
full year, and it’s this kind of bang for the buck
that attracts players from all over the world.
“Ukulele festivals are the friendliest events
ever,” says international ukulele teacher and
performer Cathy Fink. “The players don’t tend to
be competitive. Instead, everyone wants to
share their skills and music. It’s the only situa-
tion where we easily see beginners and ad-
vanced players playing together, and everyone at
his or her own level.”
Uke Socializing
For many folks, the decision to attend a ukulele
festival is purely social. For that reason, a typi-
cal uke-fest schedule includes plenty of time for
jamming, socializing, and schmoozing. The Mil-
waukee Ukulele Festival, the New York Uke Fest,
and the Reno Ukulele Festival are just a few of
many that encourage ukulele players to sit
around and jam with one another during lunch
or afternoon breaks and often late into the
night.
In addition to my work as a performer and
teacher, I am also director of the Milwaukee
Ukulele Festival. Over the years, I’ve learned
that it’s counterproductive for attendees to go
from one scheduled event to the next without
some well-placed down time. Or as one at-
tendee recently told me at the Macomb Ukulele
Festival in Illinois, “You gotta leave room for the
magic to come in.”
With most ukulele festivals bringing in any-
where between 125 and 500 people on a given
day, there’s an opportunity to make dynamite
connections with other players, clubs, builders,
and vendors of every ilk. That kind of dynamic
group makes for an exciting day.
If jamming and socializing are really what
you crave, minus all the workshops, vendors,
and concerts, then look no further than the Uku-
lele World Congress in Needmore, Indiana,
which you might call the Woodstock of ukulele
Ukulele Fall 2013

Uke festivals offer a sense of community
that is unparalleled at other kinds of music
festivals and a rich opportunity to connect with
many of the best instructors on the circuit.
gatherings. As my family and I discovered this
year while attending our first UWC, the event is
loosely organized around its outdoor camping,
evening open mic, and near constant group
jams. Having participated in ukulele festivals
and camps all over North America, I was quite
impressed to see the camaraderie that UWC
attendees are known for, as a large group of
30–50 ukulele players graciously encouraged
one another to sing, strum, and take turns lead-
ing songs. As the day wore on, one could hear
strummers leading everything from Hank Wil-
liams’s “Jambalaya” to Pink Floyd’s “Mother”—
not to mention a sprinkling of Adele and Prince!
UWC is sponsored by Mainland Ukes of
Nashville, Indiana, though like most festivals, it
runs on the goodwill of its volunteers from
Fall 2013 Ukulele
Thursday through Sunday on the first weekend
of every June (with many folks arriving much
earlier). People come from all over the States
and abroad to attend, and they return year after
year to spend quality time with one another in a
very relaxed environment. I should mention the
UWC also boasts the best Friday-night potluck
east of the Rockies, and I shall not forget any-
time soon how I stood, stomach growling, as
tables were piled high with dozens of freshly
made dips, stews, breads, cookies, pizzas,
soups, salads, and more.
Ukes for Sale
While some might attend a ukulele festival due
to its noncommercial appeal, a lot of folks show
The morning strum at Michigan’s Mighty Uke Day,
hosted by the Lansing Area Ukulele Group.
up because they are in the market for a ukulele,
and it’s unlikely that you’ll find a better spot to
test-drive the latest models, even if you don’t
have the cash.
Why not get a feel for what a Tony Graziano
tenor sounds like next time you’re at the Ukulele
Festival of Northern California, in Hayward, or
perhaps an Augustino LoPrinzi concert uke while
you’re at the annual Tampa Bay Ukulele Get-
away?
Gatherings like the Reno Ukulele Festival in
Sparks, Nevada, attract a wide array of vendors,
from local music stores selling intro-level ukes,
tuners, straps, and instruction books, to high-
end builders like Mya-Moe and Michael DaSilva,
who meticulously craft custom orders.
That means that at a uke fest you can try
out some of the finest instruments anywhere, or
sit and listen as endorsers like Gerald Ross
plays his master-grade Mya-Moe koa tenor reso-
nator, or Sarah Maisel plays her snazzy DaSilva
jazz tenor.
“Ukuleles in abundance are the main
thing that can only be had at a ukulele festival,”
says performer and teacher Ukulele Bartt
(Warburton), “and unlike other events which
share in an air of competition, the whole ukulele
community is snoot free!”
UkuleleMag.com 49
Ukulele Euphoria

On the
Circuit
When I first started traveling to ukulele
events in the late 1990s, the landscape
was barren at best. Then a few expos
blossomed into a few festivals, and a
few festivals morphed into a few dozen
ukulele clubs, and the numbers have
continued to double every couple of
years, along with a wave of new uke
stars, videos, instrument builders, in-
structional books, clubs, festivals, and
songs. All the while, I have played the
role of a Johnny Appleseed, stopping at
every little ukulele club from here to
Timbuktu, putting on almost 40,000
miles a year. Having watched all of this
unfold, I am at once humbled and proud
of this eclectic community that has
sprung up and rallied around our be-
loved four-string instrument, and I look
forward to the next little ukulele festival
that’s bound to spring up somewhere
down a country lane or ’neath the bright
lights of the big city.
My guess is, if you’ve already been
bitten by the “jumping flea” and are
looking to reach out and connect with
the North American ukulele community,
you’ll find that folks are waiting for you
with that big island mahalo spirit of grat-
itude and respect. The eloquent Brook
Adams, of Eugene, Oregon, a ukulele
club leader, festival founder, and per-
former par excellence, sums up his feel-
ings about the festival experience like
this: “Many ukulele festivals trade on a
sense of community. The catch is that
ukulele players never expected to find
this community. It is the joy in finding
the twin you never knew you had, the

‘I have played the role of a Johnny

surprise at meeting someone in a
strange land who speaks your language.
It is the magic felt when the last unicorn

Appleseed, stopping at every little ukulele meets the second-to-last unicorn. It is

like a homecoming.”

club from here to Timbuktu, putting on

While you may not catch me tiptoe-
ing through the tulips, I do hope to see
you out on the great American uke festi-

almost 40,000 miles a year.’ val circuit.

—Lil Rev

50 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

Uke Nation
Here’s a select list of US festivals. For a more extensive list that includes international festivals,
see the Events Calendar on page 10 or visit ukulelehunt.com (keyword: festivals).

8 10
7 11

4 2
6 12
3 9
14

13

15

1 The Port Townsend 5 Lone Star Uke Fest 10 Ashokan Uke Fest 15 8th Annual Maui
Ukulele Festival Dallas, TX Olivebridge, NY Ukulele Festival
Port Townsend, WA 2014 dates TBA 2014 dates TBA Kahului, Maui
September 11–15, 2013 lonestarukefest.com ashokan.org/ukefest
October 13, 2013
centrum.org/the-port-townsend-ukulele-
festival 6 Macomb 11 New York Uke Fest ukulelefestivalhawaii.org

Ukulele Festival New York City, NY

2 Reno Ukulele Macomb, IL 2014 dates TBA
nyukefest.com
Festival 2014 dates TBA
festival.ukulelemacomb.com
Sparks, NV. 12 Strathmore
October 19–20, 2013
playuke.net  7 Mighty Uke Day UkeFest
Lansing, MI North Bethesda, MD
3 Ukulele Festival of May 9–10, 2014 August 10–14, 2013
benhassenger.com/mighty-uke-day strathmore.org
Northern California
Hayward, CA. 8 Milwaukee Ukulele 13 The Tampa Bay
2014 dates TBA
ukulelefestivalnorcal.org Festival Ukulele Getaway
Milwaukee, WI Tampa Bay, FL
4 Wine Country October 19, 2013 November 1–3, 2013
mufest.com tampabayukulele.com
Ukulele Festival
St. Helena, CA. 9 Ukulele World 14 UkeFest Virginia
September 6–8, 2013
winecountryukefest.com  Congress Glen Allen, VA
Needmore, IN November 1–2, 2013
2014 dates TBA ukefestva.com
facebook.com/
events/360887260644329/

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 51

 YouTube
Sensations
Five popular ukulele artists talk about their musical inspirations and
instruments, and how they make their videos stand out from the crowd

By Amber von Nagel

T
here is no shortage of talented ukulele players on the web, and most
have chosen YouTube as one of their primary ways of sharing their
music. When Jake Shimabukuro’s Central Park performance of
George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” became a viral hit in
2006, it set a promotional precedent for ukulele players: with just a uku-
lele, a video camera, and a unique take on ukulele music, any player can
create a viral hit and grow a significant following by using YouTube as a
primary means of music-sharing and promotion. With their high-quality
performance videos and fun promotional vlogs, a handful of these players
have emerged as stars of the ukulele world over the last few years. They
aren’t hard to find on YouTube; the popularity of their videos made them
stand out immediately in my search results, but it was their exceptional
songwriting, musicianship, charisma, and attention to detail that drew me
in as a viewer. And based on the positive feedback and high number of
views on their videos, it’s obvious others were drawn to these players the
same way I was.
After watching countless uke videos, I contacted YouTube sensations
Sophie Madeleine, Julia Nunes, Lila Burns, Victoria Vox, and Danielle
Ate the Sandwich to find out more about their backgrounds, their expe-
riences as performing artists, and their wisdom on using YouTube to
promote their music.

52 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 Danielle Ate the Sandwich
(aka Danielle Anderson)

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 53


Danielle Anderson, also known as Danielle Ate
the Sandwich, has done something many musi-
cians strive to do: she’s been able to make a
career as an independent musician. She got
her start playing ukulele and guitar at open
mics in 2009. After four studio albums and mil-
lions of combined views on her YouTube chan-
nel, she gained such a strong, loyal following
that she could write and play music full-time,
all without the aid of a record label. Her sin-
cere, heartfelt songwriting; intimate perfor-
mance style; and accessibility to her fans
continues to push her career forward. Her
music has even gotten the attention of film-
makers. Recently, she was asked to write the
music to the independent film Packed in a
Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson, a
documentary about an artist born in the
1880s whose work was lost when she was
committed to an asylum in 1925. With projects
like this on her hands, it’s plain to see that
Anderson’s hard work has paid off, and will
continue to fuel her success as an indepen-
dent musician.
Location I am currently based in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. This is a new home for me, how-
ever. I moved here a year ago after living in
54 UkuleleMag.com
DANIELLE
ATE THE
SANDWICH
[The ukulele] was an
unexpected
discovery
Fort Collins, Colorado, for about 12 years. It’s
where I got my start and where I consider
home.
Musical influences My biggest influences as a
songwriter are Paul Simon and Ben Gibbard of
Death Cab for Cutie. I do love Bob Dylan and
Joni Mitchell, and I love pop music. I really
like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry. I
love their music, but I think I also like study-
ing them as pop-culture icons and young
women who are representing themselves as
artists. I relate to them, even though I’m on a
much smaller, folkier level than they are.
Why I started playing ukulele I had picked up
the ukulele my friend had at his house and
really liked it and borrowed it from him. He
eventually bought me my own so I didn’t hog
his as much. It was an unexpected discovery.
I just happened to see it, pick it up, play it,
write a song on it, fall in love with it, and then
before I knew it, I was writing and singing
more than ever.
I think the ukulele and I are in it for the
long haul. We’re definitely going places. It
may be the relationship I’m most secure
about in my life!
youtube.com/user/daniellesmagic
danielleatethesandwich.net
Favorite instruments I play a tenor and a bari-
tone, both Mya-Moe ukuleles. I love them, and
in general I get really attached to my belong-
ings, no matter their value—for example, I
love a cheap, orange stocking cap I’ve had
since 2008. But I really love these ukuleles.
They play and perform beautifully. They help
me write songs. They go on tour with me.
They kind of feel like my bandmates—or like
my cats. Instead of a crazy cat lady, I’m a
crazy ukulele lady. I talk to them and knit
them sweaters. (I haven’t actually knit any of
my ukuleles sweaters, but I wouldn’t put it
past me—give me a few years.)
YouTube advice Keep your ukulele in tune! Use
and value the ukulele and don’t expect it to
do all the work. I still think you have to have
talent as a songwriter, performer, and player.
You’re not going to be a sensation on the
Internet just because you play the ukulele.
You have to be good at it in your own way, and
be sincere about it in your way. So my advice
is take it seriously and be inspired by others,
but remember to be yourself. Put your web-
cam on a level table and try to look comfort-
able, so people will be comfortable watching
you. And have fun, I guess!
Ukulele Fall 2013
JULIA
NUNES
My guitar actually
belonged to my
father and he wasn’t
keen on me taking it
to a place with squirt
guns so I took my
cheap uke
youtube.com/user/jaaaaaaa
junumusic.com
It’s nearly impossible to talk about Internet
ukulele stars without bringing up Julia Nunes. A
hardworking artist, Nunes self-published the
majority of her catalog on her own label, Rude
Butler Records, and became a prolific YouTube
user, gaining a massive following with her up-
beat original songs and covers, creative ar-
rangements, approachable personality, and
personal contact with her fans. Her most re-
cent album, Settle Down, was funded through
Kickstarter and released through Mordomo/
Thir ty Tigers. The campaign reached its
$15,000 goal in less than 24 hours and con-
cluded with $77,888. Through this and numer-
ous independent successes, she has inspired
musicians in the ukulele world and beyond to
take a DIY approach to music as an art and as
a career.
Fall 2013 Ukulele
Location Brooklyn, New York
Musical influences I grew up listening to the
Beatles and the Beach Boys—it’s pretty evident
in my pop harmony-filled writing style. One of
my favorite contemporary artists is David
Bazan. His songs are wordy and the lyrics
punch you right in the heartstrings. I really
strive to do that, but I’ve got a long way to go
before I get on Bazan’s level.
Why I started playing ukulele I found one in a
music store while my friend was buying a guitar.
I was bored and started playing around on it. It
was summer and I was about to leave for four
weeks of summer camp as a counselor-in-train-
ing. My guitar actually belonged to my father
and he wasn’t keen on me taking it to a place
with squirt guns so I took my cheap uke. I
played it all summer and wrote more songs
than ever before. I’ve been in love ever since.
Favorite instruments I play a couple Kalas right
now: an archtop f-hole and a blonde lacewood.
I like them a lot, but I’m also really fond of my
acoustic EleUke with the offset soundhole, and
I have other brandless favorites. I also can’t
pass up a piano when faced with one. I live in
Brooklyn though, so not many folks have room
for one.
YouTube advice It’s all about making music and
videos that please you. If you love what you’re
doing, other people will love it too. Put your art
up everywhere, every website, find a home that
really fits it. For me, it was YouTube, but there
are amazing platforms out there for every kind
of creative pursuit.
UkuleleMag.com 55
SOPHIE English songstress Sophie Madeleine has en-
chanted the ukulele world and beyond with her

MADELEINE
sweet, sophisticated vocal style and infectious
pop grooves. Her songwriting prowess and ver-
satility is easily heard in songs like the multi-
layered, whimsical “The Rhythm You Started,”
from her 2011 album of the same name and
the sparse, intimate “Take Your Love With Me
(The Ukulele Song),” from her 2009 album,
LOVE. LIFE. UKULELE. In addition to her origi-
nal songs, she has done a series of covers on
her YouTube channel, from Bon Iver’s “Skinny
Love” to Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.” Her upcom-
ing third album—title and release date yet to
be disclosed—is a self-released, crowd-funded
project.

Location Brighton, United Kingdom, and I spend

a lot of time in the US, too.

Musical influences Françoise Hardy, Buddy Holly,

the Beatles, and whatever is flavor of the month
on my iPod.

Why I started playing ukulele George Harrison is

the main reason I became interested in the
ukulele. He’s one of my heroes. Then some-
body bought me one as a present, so I taught
myself how to play it. I could already play the
piano and the guitar, so the ukulele was easy to
pick up, and it was also a refreshing change for
me as a songwriter.

Favorite instruments My favorite uke at the mo-

ment is a Risa Bean electric. It’s kind of funny
looking, but well-made and nice to play. I play it
through a Fender Super Champ amp. I also
have Pono, Hamano, and Kanile‘a concert ukes
that are all beautiful in their own ways.

YouTube advice There’s a lovely online commu-

nity of ukulele players who are all supportive of
each other and just devour new stuff. So if
you’re a uke player, it’s a great idea to involve
yourself in that by sharing videos, tutorials, and
blog posts. But if you want people to really like
your videos and share them all over the
Internet, then I suggest making them look and

George Harrison is the main sound great. I know that may seem simplistic,
but lighting, background, and sound quality all

reason I became interested need to be considered. It’s not just about hav-
ing a nice camera or shooting in HD. You’d be

in the ukulele surprised how important presentation has be-

youtube.com/user/misssophiemadeleine
sophiemadeleine.com
come on YouTube—there’s just so much com-
petition. Obviously, the performance needs to
be good, too, and you need to try and connect
with your audience through your performance.
But if you give a great performance and viewers
can’t hear or see you well enough, then it will
be a waste.

56 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

LILA BURNS youtube.com/user/lololobotomy • lilaburns.com

I saw Kimya old songs, and because of the open tuning, I

could mess around on it and it never really

Dawson perform sounded bad. Translating guitar chords into uku-

lele ones while I played, I could even jam with

back in 2005 or friends (which I could never do before). Also, a

ukulele was the perfect size to carry on an air-

so and realized plane, so I could travel with it during school.

that, wow, I don’t Favorite instruments I primarily play a Takumi

Kiwaya soprano ukulele. I started out on a

have to write the super cheap ukulele but upgraded after a while.
It’s an incredible instrument. My old one

next anthem of my seemed fine until I played this one. The action
on the strings is just right, and it’s surprisingly

generation to write loud! I also own a beat up banjo-ukulele my dad

found in an antique shop and refurbished. It’ll

a good song never fully be in tune, but I think that makes it

Singer-songwriter Lila Burns embodies the art-
istry and aesthetic of the modern ukulele audi-
ence. Her honest, poetic songwriting and raw
recording style complement her bright, plunky
fingerpicking and Kimya Dawson–esque vocals,
creating an anti-folk sound that draws on a wide
spectrum of influences, including hip-hop, punk,
indie rock, and traditional music from around
the world. Using YouTube and Bandcamp as her
primary outlets for sharing her music, her fan
base continues to grow as more people hear her
clever originals and infectious hip-hop covers.
Location I’m based in a woodsy suburb of
Seattle named Kingston (it’s super small—we
don’t even have a mayor). I lived in Valencia,
California, during school, but moved back home
after I graduated. I may not always live around
here, but I will definitely keep coming back—I
love the Pacific Northwest dearly.
Musical influences There’s definitely a range. My
dad is probably my biggest influence—he
makes wooden Irish flutes for a living, and met
my mom at Lark Camp (world music/dance
camp in Northern California). Since I was born,
I’ve always been around folk and traditional
music from everywhere, either from attending
the same camp every summer or through family
friends throughout the year.
On ukulele, my biggest influence is proba-
bly Kimya Dawson. I saw her perform back in
2005 or so and realized that, wow, I don’t have
to write the next anthem of my generation to
write a good song. So my earliest songs are
definitely modeled after hers. I often get com-
pared with her music, Juno, and the Moldy
Peaches. And while that has gotten a little tire-
some, I still owe her music a lot of credit. She
definitely gave me the epiphany I needed to
start writing.
Why I started playing ukulele This kind of hap-
pened in a few parts. First, when I was a kid,
my dad bought a ton of instruments for me and
my mom. He’d trade flutes for them, or buy
them, and just keep them around the house
hoping one of us would be interested and start
messing with it. At one point, he bought me a
super-cheap mandolin, and I loved it!
Then in high school, I started playing a
smallish guitar. I also started writing songs with
Corbin Lester (who is now part of an amazing
hip-hop group called the Nimble Bs). He would
write using all these crazy barre chords that my
hands could barely manage—there were some
songs where I’d just sing or play keyboard be-
cause my hands just couldn’t deal with the
chords. He definitely expanded my knowledge
of the guitar, but I also found my limits with the
instrument.
After playing in a band called the Electric
Lemonade Project and a few years into college,
my dad bought a ukulele and I commandeered
it one break. The great thing was I knew a ton
of chords already (since you can use the same
guitar chord shapes on a ukulele and just ac-
count for a key change). I could play a bunch of
more charming. I also still use my mandolin on
occasion (made by the Mid-Missouri Mandolin
Co.), since it ends up serving as the bass when
paired with uke. I also always carry at least two
kazoos in my case. Campfires are my favorite
places to play, and there’s usually someone
willing to jam on the kazoo.
YouTube advice If you want to post music online,
consider getting some decent recording equip-
ment. I still use my Canon camera, which
doesn’t have a great mic, but compared to any-
thing I’ve recorded on my computer, it still
sounds way better.
Also, get to know your music face. I defi-
nitely have one. My songs have a lot of lyrics
generally, and it basically comes down to a kind
of muscle memory to get them out and play the
ukulele, so I get a kind of blank stare. At first,
it bothered me in my videos, and friends/users
still poke fun at it. But if you really enjoy play-
ing/singing/writing, you’re probably gonna find
your own music face and you just have to own
it. People will enjoy your music regardless!
Finally, it’s been super beneficial for me to
have a cover or two posted. I got some decent
traffic from sites like Ukulele Hunt, but noth-
ing near the traffic that “Ignition Remix” or
“Shake That Ass” have gotten!
There’s definitely a huge trend of ironic
ukulele hip-hop covers out there, but I have to
say, people are searching for these songs any-
way, so you should totally try and steer some
of them your way. They also leave the best
comments. One of my covers once got the
comment “This beat is sick nastay”—I still
think this is one of the best compliments I’ve
ever received.

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 57


Victoria Vox is a charismatic and adept musician
who loves to make her audience happy. Her
music career has been an active one; with nine
solo releases since 2004 and a strong YouTube
presence, it’s clear she understands the impor-
tance of having a constant flow of music for her
audience to enjoy. In 2011, she began her ex-
tremely popular YouTube cover song project,
posting 52 cover song videos on her channel
over the course of the year. She is also a sea-
soned traveler, bringing her ukulele all over the
world and documenting her performances in
various locales, including India, Scotland, France,
and even on airplanes heading to Hawaii. With
her elegant vocal and playing styles and her in-
fectious enthusiasm for the ukulele, it’s no won-
der uke fans everywhere have become hooked
on her music!
Location Baltimore, Maryland
58 UkuleleMag.com
VICTORIA VOX
I absolutely love
the ukulele for its
versatility and
simplicity
Musical influences My musical influences in-
clude, but are not limited to, Cyndi Lauper, Liz
Phair (early days), Peter Gabriel, Laurie
Anderson, Feist, the Cats soundtrack, The Little
Mermaid, Madonna, Chet Baker, Salt-n-Pepa,
and Sting.
Why I started playing ukulele In 2003, I was
given a ukulele by a friend who happened to
have a vintage collection. I immediately wrote a
song on it, and the ukulele quickly became the
highlight of the Victoria Vox show. Two years
later, I recorded my debut ukulele album
(Victoria Vox and Her Jumping Flea), and have
followed it up with eight other albums, the lat-
est called Key. I absolutely love the ukulele for
its versatility and simplicity. It has helped me
become a better songwriter and more innova-
tive. It is truly a joy to play.
youtube.com/user/victoriavox
victoriavox.com
Favorite instruments My first sponsorship came
in 2005 from KoAloha ukuleles (the KoAloha
O’hana is very dear to me). I played the
Pineapple Sunday for five years and then
switched to their standard tenor. In addition to
KoAloha, I now endorse Mya-Moe ukuleles (cus-
tom low-G tenor and six-string), Petros (custom
high-G), Spanky Ukes (banjolele), and Morgan
Instruments (electric ukulele). I also play a Boat
Paddle baritone.
YouTube advice My cover song project in 2011
was especially challenging since I forced myself
to memorize every song I posted. I think wait-
ing to post your song until you are really ready
is important—unless it’s a total on-the-fly kind
of thing (which can also be endearing). That
means not reading lyrics and making a connec-
tion to the camera.
Ukulele Fall 2013
 THE HAWAIIAN WORD MOKU MEANS ISLAND.
Play one for yourself and bring your self back to the Islands

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Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 59

Inside the
Wood Shop

A luthier explains
the ‘whys’ and
‘hows’ of ukulele
tonewoods
By Dave Sigman

60 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013


I
t all starts with the wood. From the entry-
level factory-made ukuleles produced over-
seas to the high-end custom instrument
fashioned by a skilled luthier, selecting the right
wood for the job is where it all begins. The two
main criteria in wood selection are, of course,
beauty and, perhaps more importantly, tonal
quality. As a custom ukulele builder, a big part
of my job is selecting the woods I’m going to
use. When shopping for a ukulele, it’s good to
be informed about the wood, why it was se-
lected, and how it affects the sound.
Soundboard Wood
Where sound is concerned, probably the most
important wood in the whole instrument is the
top (also known as the soundboard) and the
wood used in the soundboard bracing (the rein-
forcing pieces glued to the top inside the instru-
ment). Commonly used woods for a uke’s
soundboard include koa, mahogany, cedar, and
various types of spruce.
When selecting a suitable soundboard, I first
do a visual inspection of the wood to make sure
Fall 2013 Ukulele
Córdoba’s 35TS tenor uke
is built with acacia back
and sides, and solid
Sitka spruce for its top
the piece has nice, even grain and no flaws. I
then gently flex the board, checking it for stiff-
ness across the grain. Stiffer is better. If the
potential soundboard is too flexible, the sound
quality can be compromised—resulting in less
volume, a lack of sustain, or tonal imbalance.
Finally, I check the “tap tone,” holding the board
up between my thumb and index finger and tap-
ping it to produce what will hopefully be a nice,
clear tone.
Many species of wood improve tonally with
age, most notably Sitka spruce. I’ve noticed that
right after stringing up a new uke for the first
time the sound may be a bit quieter for a while,
but this will soon change. The low notes be-
come deeper, the high notes brighter, and the
sustain longer, all in the first hour of life. The
sound quality will continue to open up and ma-
ture for several months.
I’ve seen beautiful ukes built with dazzling
woods that are a delight to behold, but lacking in
tonal quality due to mediocre wood selection of
the soundboard and supportive bracing. Think of
how a stereo speaker works. It’s a box made of
wood back and sides with a lightweight paper
This tenor uke by luthier
Steve Grimes has a body
that’s completely made
out of quilted maple.
cone in front that vibrates and pushes out the
sound waves. A ukulele body works in much the
same way. The more freely the top is able to
vibrate, the more efficiently sound waves will be
produced.
A lot of entry-level, factory-made ukuleles are
constructed with laminated wood, which is cre-
ated by bonding together inexpensive, thin lay-
ers of wood with an outer layer of an exotic or
decorative veneer. This method of production is
less expensive than solid wood construction.
I’ve played quite a few ukes made with lami-
nates and found the majority of them to have
pretty decent sound, though they’re generally
not as dynamic as a higher-end instrument.
However, they do offer some advantages.
The lower price tag makes the uke more afford-
able, of course, and a good choice for a first
uke. The laminate construction, while making
the uke a bit heavier, also makes it sturdy, so a
laminate-wood uke is a good choice for kids.
They also make great travel ukes—the laminate
construction may stand up better to the varying
changes in climate one may encounter during
travels.
UkuleleMag.com 61
Inside the Wood Shop
a Sd Wood
Kala’s KA-BC-CT concert Probably the most common wood choice for the
back and sides of ukuleles is Hawaiian koa. Koa
uke uses bocote wood works beautifully as a top as well, producing a
for its back and sides. warm, mellow tone that really evokes the island
feeling. That, along with its exotic color and
grain, make it the tonewood of choice for many.
Honduras mahogany is also widely used in
uke construction. It is quite similar to koa in
density, workability, and sound quality and, like
koa, it’s also used in ukes, where a single kind
of wood is used for the entire body—the sound-
board as well as the back and sides of the in-
strument.
One of my favorite wood choices for ukes
that use the same wood for the entire body is
claro walnut, a California native that is similar to
koa and mahogany in terms of stability and
tonal character. And, like koa, choice pieces of
claro walnut exhibit very curly, dramatic grain.
Many other species of wood, both imported and
domestic, are used in uke body construction as
well, including maple, sycamore, madrone, myr-
tle, ebony, monkey pod, a wide variety of rose-
woods, and even bamboo laminates.
Rosewood is widely used and much prized
for its beauty and distinctive bright sound. There
are several varieties well suited to uke construc-
tion: East Indian rosewood, Honduras rosewood,
and cocobolo to name a few. These are true
rosewoods, of the Dalbergia family. Brazilian
rosewood, once considered the “holy grail” of all
tonewoods, is now subject to several trade
This vintage restrictions, which means that it has become
Lyon & Healy expensive and difficult to find in good quality.
However, many sustainably harvested alternative
Bell uke has a woods are being used for instrument building.
body made out
of mahogany.
Wood
The most commonly used wood for the necks of
ukuleles is probably Honduras mahogany. It has
nice, even grain; is stable; and is easy to work
with. It also has an impressive strength-to-
weight ratio, making for a well-balanced instru-
ment that feels right in the player’s hands.
Many other woods work well for necks, too.
I often use koa, if it’s not too dense. Spanish
cedar also works well and is the traditional
choice for flamenco guitar necks. Sometimes
I’ll get a client who requests a neck made with
Koa has long been wood that is similar to the wood used in the

a popular choice body, so I may go with black walnut on a darker

uke or maple on a lighter one.
for ukes of all types,
KNUTSEN AND LYON—DAVE MATCHETTE

as evidenced by this
vintage Knutsen n rboard rd
There are several wood choices available for the
harp ukulele. fingerboard, but I generally choose a hardwood
like ebony or rosewood. The fingerboard takes a
lot of wear and must be tough enough to stand
up to the abrasion of the strings as well as the

62 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

player’s fingers. I once saw a very old Hawaiian
uke with a koa fingerboard that had holes be-
tween the frets all the way through the finger-
board and into the neck wood! This uke had
clearly been to quite a few luaus. Koa is com-
monly used for fingerboard and bridges, too.
However, it’s best to pick a dense piece. Hard-
woods are also better suited to hold the tang of
the fret wire, as well as any decorative inlays,
firmly in place on the fingerboard.
The bridge, like the fingerboard, should be a
select piece of hardwood, completely dried and
free of any defects. I usually match the finger-
board and bridge woods for aesthetic purposes.
The tension of the strings on the bridge is con-
siderable—about 35 pounds is exerted on a low
G tenor uke. That’s a lot of weight, but not as
much as on a steel-string guitar, where the pull
is closer to 160 pounds.
d ndn
In selecting the binding for the edges of the
body, I usually pick a hardwood that creates a
nice contrast and compliments the body wood.
For example, if the uke body is a straight-
grained, darker wood, like rosewood, I might pick
Fall 2013 Ukulele
a lighter, curly wood,
like koa or maple.
Conversely, on an
instrument with highly
figured grain, I would
choose an edge bind-
ing that’s less showy.
Basically, if it’s a
plain wood, I use
fancy binding, and for
a more figured wood, plain binding.
The binding’s job, besides looking nice, is to
protect the edge of the uke from bumps and
bruises and to help hold the body together. That
being said, there are a lot of ukes out there with
no edge binding at all. Some builders use a
decorative “rope” binding, a series of alternat-
ing light and dark wood edging around the body,
giving the instrument a vintage look.
Plastic bindings are commonly used, too,
and are available in different colors and pat-
terns such as ivoroid, pearloid, and faux tor-
toiseshell.
Wood a on on
So how do you know what kind of wood your uke
DAVE SIGMAN is a luthier and inlay artist
who runs Little River Ukes (littleriverukule-
les.com) in Little River, California.
should be made of? It depends to some extent
on what kind of sound you prefer.
If you mostly play solo, a warm, well-rounded
tone, like that produced by an all-koa uke or one
with a mahogany or cedar top, might suit you.
Or maybe you play in a group and you need your
solo licks to soar above the guitars. Then per-
haps a uke with a rosewood body and a spruce
top will deliver the bright, punchy sound you’re
after.
The list of possible combinations is as vast
as the number of wood species.
Just remember: the most aesthetically
pleasing woods are not necessarily the best
sounding, so take time to audition as many
ukes as possible to help inform your purchasing
decision.
UkuleleMag.com 63
Gear Reviews

A Pineapple-Shaped Soprano
That Fits Any Budget

Mahalo U-320P
Laminated mahogany top, back, and sides. Mahogany
neck. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 13 5/8-inch
scale. 13/8-inch nut width. Gloss finish. Gold-plated
tuning machines. Aquila Nylgut strings. Made in China.
$74.95 list/$50 street.
sagamusic.com
O
ne of the reasons the ukulele has
had a resurgence in recent years is
that this diminutive instrument can
be incredibly affordable. What other instrument
is inexpensive enough to be an impulse buy, yet
stand a good chance that it’ll be easy to play
and sound good enough that it can be used to
make music, rather than ending up as a room
decoration or a conversation piece? Mahalo’s
U-320P is a perfect example of how much uke
you can get for less than the cost of dinner and
a movie (well, at least where I live).

Pineapple Punch
Offered by Saga Music (a San Francisco–based
company that also makes Blueridge guitars,
Kentucky mandolins, and other brands), the
U-320P loosely follows the pineapple design
first introduced in the 1920s by Hawaii’s
Kamaka ukulele company. Even if you’re not
familiar with the design, one look is enough to
see where this affordable, deluxe model gets its
name. Instead of a body with the hourglass
shape of a typical ukulele, pineapple ukes have
an oval-shaped body that resembles the tropical
fruit (some instruments are even painted to look
like pineapples).
The Mahalo U-320P’s body is made of lami-
nated mahogany—our review instrument has
attractive grain, striping, and a lovely dark brown
color. The neck is assembled from three pieces
of Nato wood and, as is the case with most pine-
apple ukes, the rosewood fingerboard has just
12 frets. The Mahalo’s bridge also is made of
rosewood. Strings are attached by tying a knot at
the end to keep them from slipping out of their
slots behind the saddle. The saddle and the
instrument’s nut are supplied by Graph Tech and
made from a synthetic material called NuBone,
which is specially formulated to create similar or
even better tone and more sustain than real
bone (which is more labor-intensive to fit and

64 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013


install). The peghead is home to a set of gold-
plated, open-gear tuning machines with black
plastic buttons and cute, dolphin-shaped base
plates. The instrument comes strung with Aquila
Nylgut strings and includes a basic carrying bag
that has no padding, but will at least protect the
instrument from scratching or moisture.
The Mahalo is well-constructed,
with no obvious flaws.
The Mahalo is well-constructed, with no
obvious flaws. Its frets are nicely polished and
crowned, joinery is precise throughout, and
there were no globs of excess glue inside
the body.
Easy to Play, Easy to Tune
The U-320P has a lively voice that sounded best
when I strummed it using a pick—strumming
with just the flesh of my thumb or fingers made
me wish for a little more brightness. Most im-
portantly for an instrument at this price, though,
the Mahalo stayed in tune, and its intonation
Fall 2013 Ukulele
See video review at UkuleleMag.com
was spot-on throughout the fingerboard. Most
players won’t feel limited by the fact that there
are only 12 frets, but if you’re working on ad-
vanced playing techniques, you may encounter
times when you can’t access certain high notes.
The Mahalo U-320P would be a great starter
instrument. Casual players may find that it
serves their needs well past the first song or
two, and more seasoned players may find them-
selves wanting several—one for the car, one for
the office, one for the porch?
—Teja Gerken
Other Sopranos
in the $50–$100 Range
Fender U’Uku Soprano ($119.99 list/
$80 street; fender.com)
Kohala KO-S Kine’O ($60 list/$40 street;
kohalaukes.com)
Lanikai LU-11 ($92 list/$60 street;
lanikaiukes.com)
Oscar Schmidt OU2 ($129 list/$69 street;
oscarschmidt.com)
UkuleleMag.com 65
Gear Reviews

An Easy-Playing Uke
with a Scent of the Islands

Eddy Finn EF-3-C

I
t’s not easy to leave your mark in the
Laminate basswood top, back, and sides. Basswood
growing world of affordable ukes, where
neck. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. 15-inch scale.
most instruments use the same famil-
1 3/8-inch nut width. Gloss finish. Open-back tuning ma-
iar designs. And yet, companies continue to
chines. Aquila strings. Made in China.
introduce instruments that make you say, “I
haven’t seen that before.” In the case of Eddy
Finn ukes, you might even think, “I haven’t
$159.95 list/$79.95 street.
smelled that before.” Yes, you read that right,
eddyfinnukes.com
one of Eddy Finn’s trademarks (recognized by
the US Patent and Trade Office) is that their
ukes are infused with a tropical scent. If you’re
a uke or guitar aficionado who likes to poke his
nose in the soundhole to see what the wood
smells like (I’m certainly guilty!), when you take
a whiff of an Eddy Finn uke, you’ll be greeted
with a mixture of coconut and tropical fruit, not
sawdust.

Basswood Blonde
The entry point of Eddy Finn’s line of ukes, the
concert size EF-3-C model (also available in
soprano and tenor sizes), has a body
built with basswood top, back, and
sides. More commonly used
for the bodies of solid-body
electric guitars than for
acoustic instruments, bass-
wood is lightweight, espe-
cially when made into the
laminates used on the
EF-3-C, but strong. Our review
uke came in an attractive
blonde color, but red, pink,
blue, and a couple of differ-
ent sunburst variations are
also options.
The EF-3-C is constructed
very simply, with no binding on
the body or neck, simple position
dots in the rosewood fingerboard,
and no rosette around the soundhole.
Instead of the typical round soundhole,
Eddy Finn uses a shark-fin-like design, mak-
ing the instrument immediately identifiable. The
uke’s rosewood bridge is glued and screwed to

66 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 See video review at UkuleleMag.com

the top, and Eddy Finn uses a real bone nut and
saddle on the instrument. The EF-3-C’s solid
headstock is home to a set of chrome open-gear
tuning machines with white plastic buttons.
When you take a whiff of an Eddy
Finn uke, you’ll be greeted with a
sustain helped single-note melodies stand out,
and it played in tune everywhere on the neck.
Overall, the Eddy Finn EF-3-C would be a
great choice for a beginning player or anyone
looking for a unique-looking (and unique-smell-
ing!) uke at a very affordable price. Advanced
players may wish for a more complex sound, but
anyone will appreciate this instrument’s good
intonation and playability.
—T.G.

mixture of coconut and tropical fruit.

Pickin’ with Eddy Other Concert Ukuleles

Despite its low price, the EF-3-C came out of the
Mahalo U-320C Deluxe ($79.95 list/$60
box with a great setup that included easy-playing
street; mahalo-ukulele.com)
low action and buzz-free performance in all posi-
tions, probably a result of the nicely finished Ibanez UKC10 ($134.99 list/$90 street;
and polished frets. The uke’s neck has a half- ibanez.com)
round shape that I found very comfortable.
Lulu Model 1 ($390 list/$300 street;
Strumming the instrument, I was greeted with a
luluukuleles.com
balanced voice that had a slightly compressed
character (after a certain point, strumming Kala KA-ASAC-C ($479.99 list/$340 street;
harder didn’t give me any more volume) but a kalaukulele.com)
very pleasant overall sound. The EF-3-C’s nice

Even if our nearest

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Instruments
Since 1972

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 67

Gear Reviews
A State-of-the-Art Uke
That’s Dressed to Kill
Lanikai LK-CEU Concert UkeSB
Laminate koa top, back, and sides. Mahogany neck. Rosewood fingerboard and
bridge. 15-inch scale. 11/2-inch nut width. Bone nut and saddle. Gloss finish. Open-
back Grover tuning machines. Fishman Kula electronics. Made in Indonesia.
$700 list/$429 street.
lanikaiukes.com
M
ore and more manufacturers are offering ukes with built-in
pickups and electronics systems that allow hassle-free
amplification. No need to use a microphone onstage; sim-
ply plug into an amp or PA. Working with Fishman—one of the leading ex-
perts in acoustic instrument amplification—Lanikai has gone one step
further, offering a line of instruments that include a USB port for plug-and-
play interfacing with computers and even certain mobile devices. Why would
you want a USB port for your uke? You might like its ultra-simple recording
capability, or perhaps an easier setup, and more sound options for record-
ing YouTube videos. Plugging directly into your computer could also make it
easier to process your sound with effects plug-ins. I spent some time with
Lanikai’s LK-CEU, a concert-size instrument with an all-koa body (Lanikai
offers similar models in its UkeSB series in soprano, tenor, and baritone
sizes, including versions with solid spruce tops).
68 UkuleleMag.com
Koa & Abalone Body
The concert-size body of the LK-CEU is constructed with laminated Hawaiian
koa top, back, and sides. A laminate top is generally considered to have
less resonance than a solid top, but its stiffness helps reduce the likeli-
hood of feedback when playing amplified at high volumes. On our review
instrument, the wood was fairly dark and could have been mistaken for
mahogany from a distance. It displayed some figure in the top and back,
but didn’t have the wild flaming often associated with koa. A matching
piece of koa is used to cap the front of the solid headstock.
It only takes one look to see that the LK-CEU is dressed to kill. Large
rectangular position markers take up significant real estate in the rosewood
fingerboard, the body’s rosewood binding offers an organic-looking contrast
to the koa, and the mother-of-pearl purfling and rosette really make the uke
sparkle. The instrument’s rosewood bridge has two pearl dots on its tie
block, between each outer pair of strings, which disguise the screws that
are used to provide additional strength to the otherwise glued-on design. A
set of gold-plated, open-geared Grover tuning machines adds to the sense
of elegance.
The first thing I noticed when I played the LK-CEU was its overall
smooth feel. The neck is relatively slim, and between the instrument’s high-
Ukulele Fall 2013
 See video review at UkuleleMag.com

gloss finish and low string action, I found it easy
to move from position to position. Played acous-
tically, the instrument was quite loud, with a
somewhat bright voice that had great note sepa-
ration and nice tonal complexity, especially as
notes sustained.
Easy-to-Use Electronics
While the instrument itself is largely traditional,
the Fishman electronics package is state of the
art. Not counting an internal wire harness, the
system consists of three main components: the
pickup itself (consisting of a coaxial cable in-
stalled under the saddle), a preamp/control unit
in the uke’s side; and an output panel. The pre-
amp includes a surprising number of features in
its 11/2-inch by 2-inch footprint. The largest knob
is a rotary volume control, with a soft rubber
surface that is easy to grip for quick adjust-
ments. Just below that are three dials for bass,
middle, and treble, allowing for individual EQ
adjustments.
As with many modern onboard preamps, the
unit includes a chromatic tuner, which is useful
whether you use the actual pickup or not. The
output panel is straightforward. Besides offering
a 1/4-inch analog output jack for a standard
guitar cable, it holds the USB jack and a flip-
open compartment for the nine-volt battery that
powers the system.
I began trying out the electronics by plugging
into an AER Compact 60 acoustic amp, and I
was greeted with completely hassle-free ampli-
fied tone that didn’t require any tweaks of the
onboard EQ. When I did try the EQ, it proved
effective at coloring the basic sound. You could
definitely take this uke to an open mic or other
performance and be ready to go immediately,
with no lengthy soundcheck needed. I was also
able to crank it up to a hefty volume level before
the sound started to get too tubby and feedback
became imminent. My guess is that the only
situations in which feedback might be an issue
would be in a very loud band.
Making Connections
I was eager to see how the instrument’s main
attraction worked, so I opened Apple’s Garage-
Band application on my MacBook Pro and
plugged in the supplied USB cable (which, fortu-
nately, is about five feet long). Almost immedi-
ately, I was greeted by a dialog box telling me
the computer had found an audio device named
“iGuitar USB, Fishman.” Other than hitting the
“record” button in GarageBand, this was the
extent of the setup—recording couldn’t possibly
be any easier. The resulting recorded sound was
quite good—not as natural as a high-quality mic,
but perfectly acceptable. The real fun started
when I began playing with GarageBand’s effects
and amp simulators. From slightly sweetening
the tone with a touch of reverb to using full-on
distorted electric guitar settings, I was able to
shape the LK-CEU’s sound in ways I hadn’t ever
considered.
I also tried the USB connection on a Win-
dows PC, using the free recording software Au-
dacity, and found it to be similarly simple to
plug-and-play—I literally just plugged in the uke,
opened Audacity, and hit “record.” Because I
didn’t have the proper cables (from the Lanikai’s
mini-USB jack to Apple’s proprietary iOS device
plugs), I wasn’t able to try the LK-CEU with a
mobile device such as an iPhone or iPad, but
there’s no reason to believe this wouldn’t be
just as easy.
Having the option to easily amplify or record
your instrument is a great new feature for uke
players. For some, the USB output alone will be
reason enough to take a Lanikai UkeSB for a
spin. For others, just having a good-looking uke
that sounds good by itself, but has the option of
going high-tech will be appealing.
—T.G.

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Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 69

Gear Reviews

Precision & Elegance

Come Shining Through

F
ounded in 1990 by former Taylor Guitars employ-
ees Larry Breedlove and Steve Henderson, Breed-
love Guitars immediately made a splash with its
Breedlove
modernistic, sometimes asymmetrical designs, use of exotic
woods, and careful attention to detail. In 2010, Breedlove
American Tenor
Solid Sitka spruce top. Solid sapele back
added ukuleles to its distinctive line of guitars and mando-
and sides. Bolt-on sapele neck. Ebony fin-
lins. Designed by Kim Breedlove (brother of co-founder Larry,
gerboard and bridge. Fan bracing. 17-inch
and long-time master luthier for the company), Breedlove ukes
scale. 1 3/8-inch nut width. Semi-gloss fin-
are available at three levels: the high-end Kim Breedlove Sig-
ish. Gotoh tuning machines. Worth strings.
nature (built with myrtle wood back and sides, a bearclaw
Available left-handed (as custom order)
Sitka spruce top, and abalone purfling), the Master Class
Made in USA.
tenor (koa top, back, and sides), and the American tenor,
which we had a chance to check out.

Made in Oregon $1,339 list/$999 street.

(877) 800-4848; breedlovemusic.com
The American tenor uke is built in Breedlove’s Bend, Oregon,
facility. As with Breedlove’s American Series guitars, the Amer-
ican tenor offers maximum value rather than a flashy appear-
ance. The uke is built with a Sitka spruce top and back and
sides of sapele, an African wood that is often compared to
mahogany, both in terms of tone and appearance. Our review
instrument’s sapele has beautiful striping with an almost
three-dimensional quality, and paired with the tight-grained
top, it produced an immediate impression of quality. The fin-
gerboard, bridge, and headstock faceplate are made from
pitch-black ebony. The neck is also made from sapele.
If you’re used to ukes with lots of flamed koa and abalone
inlay, you might feel that the appearance of the Breedlove
American is fairly plain. The instrument’s sophistication is
more subtle. I loved the tortoise-shell binding on the body,
which gives the instrument the look of Martin Guitar’s style-18
instruments, as well as the simple single black ring rosette,
which doesn’t distract from the beautiful spruce used for the
top. I also appreciated that the simple pearl dot position
markers on the face of the fingerboard were repeated on the
edge (with an additional dot at the third fret), which is where
most players find them to be most practical. Breedlove’s use
of vintage-style Gotoh tuning machines (open-back, with but-
terbean knobs) is a great choice—their smooth operation and
high degree of precision make tuning this tenor a breeze.
The word “precision” can be used to describe most of the
construction elements of the instrument, except that “flaw-
less” would be more accurate. The overall fit and finish is
simply astounding, although this won’t come as a surprise to
those familiar with Breedlove’s pedigree as a high-end custom
guitar maker. Like all US-made Breedlove guitars, the American

70 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

 See video review at UkuleleMag.com

tenor has a bolt-on neck rather than a traditional Dynamic Player cially impressed with the instrument’s clarity
glued-in design, which can be beneficial if neck Breedlove ships the instrument with Worth throughout its range—even when I was playing
adjustments or repairs have to be performed in strings set up for standard high-G (re-entrant) single-note lines all the way up to the 19th fret,
the future. On the inside, the Breedlove’s top is tuning. Playing the instrument, the precise work- the notes bloomed delightfully instead of pro-
braced with a fan pattern, a common bracing manship once again stood out: the neck is ruler ducing the nondescript “ploink” that is often the
design for ukes. However, while many ukes rely straight, the frets are polished smooth and result of playing a ukulele that far up the neck.
on just a couple of fan braces, Breedlove chose beautifully crowned, and the nut is perfectly cut. If you’ve been learning on an inexpensive
a pattern of five delicate struts that is similar to All the attention to construction and setup uke and are ready to step up to a pro-level tenor,
the bracing on most classical guitars. The Ameri- detail makes this uke very fun to play, and its the Breedlove is definitely worth considering.
can tenor has a satin finish, which on some highly dynamic voice only adds to the experi- The American tenor’s austerity pays off in a level
instruments can result in annoying sounds when ence. Whether strummed softly or fingerpicked of quality and tone comparable to those of
you brush up against them—in the case of this with some muscle, the instrument produces some pricier instruments.
Breedlove, the finish is not buffed to a glossy great volume and a complex tone that doesn’t —T.G.
shine, but is still fairly smooth. favor any particular playing style. I was espe-

Other High-End Ukuleles

Kamaka HF-1D Deluxe Soprano ($1,690;
kamakahawaii.com)

Martin 3K Soprano Koa ($2,599 list/$1,900

street; martinguitar.com)

Kanile’a K-2 Tenor ($1,598 list/$1,430

street; kanileaukulele.com)

Collings UC 2-K Koa Concert ($2,100

list/$1,890 street; collingsguitars.com)

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be made on or around November 15, 2013. The prize will be fulfilled by D’Addario within 60 days of receipt of winner’s written acceptance. Employees of Ukulele and D’Addario are not eligible to win. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received. Limit one
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Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 71

Mixed Media
Mama Mia!
ABBA Gold, Greatest Hits: Ukulele,
a book and CD set from Hal Leon-
ard, lets you play along with 15
songs from Swedish pop sensation
ABBA’s Gold, arranged from the
actual recordings in the original
72 UkuleleMag.com
And Viewers
Like Uke
Filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura grew up on hip-
hop, but his new PBS-TV documentary Jake
Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings, now on DVD,
admirably captures this gentle ukulele superstar
on his 2010–11 concert tour while delving into
the musician’s life. “It was like I was holding a
newborn baby for the first time,” Shimabukuro
recalls of his first encounter, at age four, with the
diminutive instrument. “[My mother] told me
where to put my fingers, and I strummed the four
strings and fell in love with the sound. And I just
couldn’t put it down.” The video is available at
ShopPbs.org. $39.99.
Rockin’ a Hard Place
Upon its 1991 release, critics hailed Metallica’s black-jacketed self-titled
album as a game changer. Few could have known that the disc’s malevolent
hit “Enter Sandman” one day would be arranged for the humble uke. That day
has come. “Enter Sandman” is among 18 songs included on The Best of
Metallica for Ukulele from Cherry Lane. If Metallica isn’t your bag of nails,
Black Sabbath for Ukulele, from Music Sales America, gathers 20 of the
band’s hard-rock songs, including “War Pigs,” “Paranoid,” and “Children of the
Grave.” Also available from MSA, AC/DC for Ukulele, 22 classic songs from
Down Under that include “Highway to Hell,” “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,”
“Back in Black,” and “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You).”
keys. The 48-page book includes
chord symbols, ukulele chord boxes,
and complete lyrics for each song.
The specially recorded “soundalike”
CD features ukulele tracks for each
song.
Ukulele Fall 2013
Worth a King’s Ransom
Anyone lucky enough to see and hear John King
play will remember him in a Hawaiian shirt, a uku-
lele perched just below his neck like a loosely-tied
bow tie. His size made his ukulele appear tiny
indeed, but the sound coming out of it was gigan-
tic. He was a tireless promoter of the ukulele as a
serious instrument, and when he played from the
Baroque repertoire, he gently left no doubt.
King, who died in 2009, has left us a parting
gift in The Ukulele: A History by Jim Traquanda
and John King. It’s the book one always hoped
would be written, and it belongs on the shelf of
any serious ukulele player or enthusiast. The
Ukulele: A History is a fun read, but it is the
book’s high level of scholarship that sets it apart
from almost all previous writing about the instru-
ment. In the early chapters, Traquanda and King
break new historical ground in recounting the
untold story of this instrument. For this reason
alone, it should be required reading for any uke
player called upon to answer a casual question
from someone in the instrument’s rapidly growing
audience.
Often-repeated half-truths are clarified on
almost every page. Traquanda and King trace
the ukulele back to the 19th century and the
Portuguese island of Madeira, where the uku-
lele’s two extremely close relatives, the machete
and the rajao, were popular folk and parlor in-
struments. The authors show that the ukulele as
it is known is essentially the machete, but its
characteristic re-entrant tuning is borrowed from
the larger rajao. The instrument’s arrival in Ha-
waii is shown to be not the result of a single
historical event, but part of a wave of Madeiran
immigrants fleeing the island’s depressed econ-
omy. The authors note that many of these immi-
grants were luthiers who opened shops in
Honolulu, building and selling machetes as they
had done at home.
The ukulele became a favorite instrument of
Hawaii’s King David Kalakaua, and its popularity
soared. It made its Pacific crossing to the main-
land for world’s fairs in Chicago and later, San
Francisco. Soon the ukulele and the new and
rapidly evolving “Hawaiian music” would capture
the imagination of America.
The Ukulele: A History by Jim Traquanda and John King
Traquanda and King take us on a joyride,
(University of Hawai’i Press, $20.99)
surfing the successive waves of “ukulele pop
culture.” It’s all here, from the initial Hawaiian- it all with a depth and seriousness that is new
music craze right up to indie rock. Along the way, to ukulele writing. Affirming Taquanda and King’s
you meet such important figures as Cliff Edwards implicit viewpoint, indie-pop star Stephin Merritt
(Ukulele Ike), Arthur Godfrey, Eddie Kamae, and of Magnetic Fields is allowed the last word: “I
Tiny Tim, all the way up to contemporary virtuo- don’t think it’s a gimmicky novelty; I think it’s a
sos James Hill and Jake Shimabukuro. whole culture, and it doesn’t seem particularly
This is familiar territory, but the authors treat funny to me.” —Michael Bristow

A Launch Pad for Amateur Uke Makers Did You Know

Make Your Own Ukulele: The
Essential Guide to Building, Tun-
ing, and Learning to Play the Uke
by Bill Plant (Fox Chapel Publishing,
$17.95)
Ukuleles are small and cute, but
they’re no small amount of work to
build. Just like a guitar, makers will
need to bend sides, do fretwork,
and finish the thing, and with so few
titles dedicated to making ukuleles,
any book that treats the would-be
uke maker with attention and re-
spect is going to be essential. The
full title is slightly misleading,
though, because Bill Plant’s book is
really about making your own uku-
lele. He uses hundreds of color
photos and step-by-step instructions
through the many operations
needed to make a ukulele, and
wraps it up with a brief guide to
tuning up and strumming. Plant
begins with building a cigar-box
ukulele, a great launching pad for
beginners honing skills to make a
playable (and distinctive) uke before
moving to a more complicated (and
very cool) soprano ukulele with rope
binding.
As a maker and woodworker,
Plant clearly knows what he’s doing,
but several important steps feel
rushed and beg for more guidance,
like the single paragraph dedicated
to fretwork or the plans for building
your own side-bending iron using a
pipe and a blowtorch (OMG!). I
would have happily sacrificed the
photo gallery of ukes made by con-
temporary makers, which takes up
the first third of the book, for more
insight into building techniques and
plans for concert, tenor, and bari-
tone ukuleles.
Still, making your own ukulele is
an empowering project and Plant’s
David Bowie wrote the music for
book is an important guide for aspir-
Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust for Life’ on a
ing ukulele makers—just make sure
ukulele.
to complement it with a good guitar-
making book. —Greg Olwell

Fall 2013 Ukulele UkuleleMag.com 73

Great Ukes

A Koa Classic, Circa 1920

Weissenborn Concert

L ike so many other innova-

tive artists and artisans,
the work of German im-
migrant Hermann Weissenborn
(1863–1936) has taken on far
greater importance well after his
passing. After spending several
years repairing pianos and violins
in New York City (from around
1902 to 1910), Weissenborn set
up shop in Los Angeles, where he
began building stringed instru-
ments. In adapting the principles
of hollow-neck guitar design from
Norwegian Chris J. Knutsen, Weis-
senborn’s refined version of hollow-
neck Hawaiian guitars produced a
full, rich tone favored by Hawaiian
guitar players in the early part of
the 20th century.
Weissenborn’s move to Los
Angeles was certainly well-timed,
as he was able to take advantage
of the Hawaiian-music bug that
had bitten the mainland. Travelers
to the Hawaiian Islands had dis-
covered the music, and the Hawai-
ian exhibit at the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition in San
Francisco in 1915 cemented the Hawaiian music boom that
ran through the remainder of the 1910s and ’20s.
In addition to his famed square-neck Hawaiian-style gui-
tars, Weissenborn also made a small number of round-neck
Spanish, plectrum (four strings and the same scale as tenor
banjo), and tenor guitars, as well as some highly coveted
ukuleles. This early concert-size model is possibly the finest
GRANT GROBERG/GRYPHON STRINGED INSTRUMENTS

example known: its condition is superb and the beautiful koa

wood is breathtaking. The “V” pattern in the book-matched
back is especially attractive. Weissenborn instruments are
certainly not as meticulously built as modern instruments, but
the uke’s exemplary tone trumps any rough edges. Weissen-
borns of all shapes and sizes were built lightly, and this uke is
very loud and sweet sounding. It is surprising that there
aren’t more known Weissenborn ukuleles, given the popularity
of the instrument throughout his time as a builder, but per-
haps Weissenborn was simply too far overloaded with orders
for guitars at the time. —Derek See

74 UkuleleMag.com Ukulele Fall 2013

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