Miscellaneous - Ukulelehunt

  by Fiona Hutchings

published: 29 / 7 / 2010

Article

My desire to learn to play the ukulele can be attributed jointly to my older brother and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. I defy anyone to see the latter perform 'Shaft' and not want to pick up this oft mocked instrument and start strumming. My big brother of course can already play one, my younger one probably could too if he so fancied. The odd humiliating kamikaze karaoke episode aside I have resolutely stuck to listening and writing about music rather than attempting to play it. Yet at the grand old age of 30 I gave into my sibling rivalry tendencies and finally picked up an instrument courtesy of big B. A year later I am yet to even effectively tune my uke and my dreams of shocking my friends with a smooth rendition of 'Shaft' go unfulfilled. Having, however, discovered Ukulelehunt http://ukulelehunt.com/ I suspect my tiny friend will no longer mock me from the corner. Oh no! This time I am going to learn to play the damn thing! Ukulelehunt is comprehensive, taking in everything from buying your first ukulele (reviews and recommendations abound) through playing the thing to varying levels. For example you can browse both tab and chord options under genre and difficulty level. The latter includes following categories: Easy (yes please), Moderate, Tricky and Nightmare. See, I always appreciate this kind of honesty. The blog is jam packed with tips and videos (there are few songs that can't be improved when played on a ukulele - The Proclaimers is a case in point). There are lessons spanning beginners to advanced, blues and finger picking. There are free PDF downloads as well as more comprehensive e-books available to buy. All in all the site is a real one stop shop. But what I really like is though this site is that, while it is passionate about its music, it isn't worthy or patronising. It makes me feel like one day I might coax something musical out of my instrument and myself.