Frequency of Chord Use (January 2024)
I keep a spreadsheet of the all of the similarly formatted Ukulele Play Along videos created by myself and a number of other users.
The Ukulele Play Along videos are slightly skewed towards ukulele-friendly keys, as many of the videos are made for educational settings. That said, I know that I and other creators occasionally make videos that are of interest to ourselves and our own playing—and the longer you keep creating content, the more you need to do this for yourself.
At any rate, as we make more play alongs for our own interests—when we’re making play alongs at all—the list of chords should change, right?
Well, not really. There is slight movement compared to previous years. I have included a list of the top chords through E, which is considered one of the “toughest” chords on GCEA ukulele. Of the nearly 1600 ukulele play along videos (!), only 3% of them use the E chord, whereas 75% of them use the C chord. This is in PDF format, and can be downloaded underneath this paragraph.
As expected, the G chord is the second most used chord (64%) of the time, followed by F (55%) and Am (41%). The G7 is only used 19% of the time, which is why, in my method (see the link for the Video Ukulele Method) G is the 3rd chord introduced instead of G7. I know G is hard for students…but if they can master it early, and also realize that the ukulele isn’t “easy,” they will be better prepared for other chords.
Here are the comparisons from past years:
2017
2018
And now 2024
If you look at chord order, there has been some movement over the years, but the first ten chords are the same chords (although changing position beyond Em).
My method introduces C, G, F, G7, and Am as the first five chords. I know this doesn’t follow the chart exactly, but it does allow us to play many songs in the Key of C.
I then follow with the other chords. Most years, I don’t get beyond the A chord with a class (that is hundreds of songs) but my students leave knowing those chords very well, and the ability to learn any chord that they might ever want to learn.
However, if you want to start ukulele with F and C7 (a common practice of elementary music teachers), I have to caution that there are very few songs that use only these two chords (there ARE a few play alongs with them including 2 in the next couple of weeks on this channel).
Feel free to dive deeper into the data if you would like, the full index is linked on this website (though I need to update the Google Sheets) and a very Happy New Year to everyone!
Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer Ukulele Chord Melody
While I offer a huge collection of public-domain Christmas and holiday songs for purchase ($10!) at buymeacoffee.com/ukestuff (look in “Extras”), I cannot offer songs that are under copyright in that collection.
Copyright allows creators to be paid for their work, though in the music industry, only a small percentage of the sale of a work (printed or audio recording) ever makes it to the composer, lyricist, or performer. But still, for items under copyright, this is the right way to do things.
As a result, I do have some arrangements for chord melody that are of existing works under copyright, and Hal Leonard’s “ArrangeMe” allows me to legally offer those arrangements. On a negative note, the lowest price I can charge is $4.99 (plus tax), and the sale of a single copy will result in a payment of $0.49. That’s actually a much better return (for me) than the income I make off a single song in the collection.
My arrangements are written for GCEA or DGBE, and work for High or Low G or D (I keep the melody in the top strings).
I would call this arrangement a difficulty of a 1.5 on a 5 point scale as it comes to chord melody.
Interested in a copy of “Rudolph”? If so:
GCEA (Sheet Music Direct): https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1447218/Product.aspx
DGBE (Sheet Music Direct): https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1447221/Product.aspx)
And of course, the collection of Christmas Intermediate Chord Melodies (which will expand to 60 arrangements in 2023) is available at:
Christmas Intermediate Chord Melody Arrangements for GCEA and DGBE Ukulele
I have just released my final collection of Christmas Intermediate Chord Melody arrangements for GCEA and DGBE Ukulele. This has been a three year project, first with 11 songs in 2021, then 20 in 2022, and now a final collection of 52 arrangements (53 songs with the two versions of “Away in a Manger.”
You can purchase the collection in “Extras” at www.buymeacoffee.com/ukestuff. The price is $10 for the collection and access to the linked videos.
- All the songs are in the Public Domain (e.g. no “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or “Frosty the Snowman”)
- All songs are arranged for both GCEA and DGBE ukulele (115 pages, total)
- There is an index of the songs, showing the level of difficulty
- Songs are written so they can be played in High G or Low G (GCEA) or High D or Low D (DGBE)
- Songs generally stay below the 12th fret (there are a couple of exceptions) so that the songs can be played by most ukuleles
- There are links to demonstrations of the songs, as well as a tutorial for each song.
The song list includes:
- A la Nanita Nana
- Angels from the Realms of Glory
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- Auld Lang Syne
- Away in a Manger (Medley of two versions)
- Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella
- Carol of the Bells
- Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
- Coventry Carol
- Deck the Hall
- Ding Dong Merrily on High
- The First Noel
- The Friendly Beasts
- Fum, Fum, Fum
- Go, Tell It On the Mountain
- God Rest You Merry Gentlemen
- Good King Wenceslas
- Hacia Belen Una Burra
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- Here We Come A-Caroling
- The Holly and the Ivy
- How Far Is It To Bethlehem
- How Great Our Joy
- I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
- I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In
- In the Bleak Midwinter
- Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
- It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
- Jingle Bells
- Jolly Old St. Nicholas
- Joy to the World
- Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
- O Christmas Tree
- O Come, O Come Emmanuel
- O Little Town of Bethlehem
- O Holy Night
- Oh, Come, Little Children
- On Christmas Night all Christians Sing
- Once In David’s Royal City
- Pat-a-Pan
- Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow
- Silent Night
- Sing We Now of Christmas
- Still, Still, Still
- Toyland
- Up on the Housetop
- We Three Kings of Orient Are
- When Christmas Morn is Dawning
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- The Wexford Carol
- While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks at Night
- Who is He in Yonder Stall?
New Recorder Page!
I have just added a separate page for my recorder resources. I realize this is a “UkeStuff” website, and that there has been some past negativity between recorder and ukulele in music education (I think most of that conflict has been resolved, but the opinions are certainly still out there).
While I use ukulele as a teacher with ALL my classes (K-5), I only teach it to 5th grade. And while there are teachers who teach ukulele (in some way) down to Kinder (usually with open tuning), I find 5th grade students (and older) to be most prepared for the challenges of ukulele as well as solving a lot of the discipline issues that are frequently recorded with upper elementary students in music class…but that is my experience and approach, which may not work for all teachers.
So, if you are interested in my recorder resources, they appear on a separate page on this blog—and there is even one further listing of my other music education resources.
One final note: I had made some episodes of “Secret Chicken: Orchestra Edition” and was asked by the creator of Secret Chicken to remove those videos as Secret Chicken was trademarked, and I honored that request.
As always, I hope you are having a great day…and I’ll be back soon with more ukulele (and other) stuff for you!
Ukulele Video Play Along Spreadsheets are now updated!
The spreadsheets are available on the Video Play Alongs Page on this blog/website.
Confession time: I have not updated the Ukulele Video Play Along Spreadsheets for a long time. There are a lot of reasons, but the biggest factors were:
- I have made a lot of play alongs (the list shows 674 as of today, September 3, 2023, and that doesn’t include the videos I have ready to release) and just haven’t kept up with the index. It takes time to maintain the index, particularly as I track which chords are used (this takes the longest amount of time in the process).
- My attention in this space has been split between Video Play Alongs (which generate no income) and my other ukulele interests at YouTube.com/ukestuff.
- I have had to take on additional roles and responsibilities in my own school.
- And the biggest factor was starting to publish PDFs of the Chord Charts or “Tabs” of each of the songs that I release as a Play Along Video. I had been sending data to a tab site which was publishing tabs, but as I released a lot of videos over Christmas 2021, it was too much for them to process, and I clearly received the message that I was asking too much of them. They didn’t say anything specifically, but since that time I have been publishing my own chord charts. That extra task has taken away time as I publish songs and maintain the directory.
Well, we’re starting the 2023-2024 academic year here in the United States, and before I went back to school with students, I wanted to update the Video Ukulele Method and the Video Play Along Spreadsheets. Thankfully, most of the creators (including myself) have slowed down the amount of content we are producing, unlike our high level of production in 2020-2021 during the lockdown of the world. So it didn’t take too long to process the new content from creators that I know.
To remind everyone, these lists include videos that follow a basic formula:
- Uses the original audio from the artist (not a cover)
- Include the lyrics of the song
- Include the chord diagrams and names of the song
- There is an indicator that helps you follow the chords of the song
The lists do not, and will not, include someone (even myself) singing a song with the lyrics on the screen.
I also want to remind everyone that the lists do not feature school-safe music. If you are looking for school-safe music, check out my Ukulele Video Method. There may be some songs that are not appropriate for your school in my method, but in general, it is pretty well vetted as I teach American elementary students (K-5 or ages 4-11).
I frequently get requests from people to “access” the lists; the lists are set to “view only,” but I believe that you can use Google to “Make a Copy” if you want to edit the lists for yourself.
There will definitely be issues with the lists, as I am human and I make mistakes. If you see an error, send me an e-mail and I can put it on my “to do” list.
I do not run the index at ukeability.org, but I will be reaching out to see if they can update their index as well, as the ability to search by the chords your students can play is useful.
There have been some issues with embedded YouTube videos in Google Slides as of late. I have checked this with my own videos, which are set to “allow embeds” but even then, the embedded videos are not working all the time. There’s nothing I can do about this as it is purely a Google issue, and there is no way to talk to a breathing person at Google to look into it. I am working on creating a list of video links for the Video Ukulele Method (in order), but the links in Google Spreadsheet should work, too…though there are ads when you open the videos.
Finally, I have added some videos by “Anoukulele” to the index list. They have made a lot of videos, but many of the older videos feature GCEA and DGBE tuning at the same time, which is not very helpful for elementary and middle school students. High school and adults would be fine with that approach, but it is too much data for younger students. Anoukulele shifted to making separate GCEA and DGBE play alongs somewhat recently, and those videos have been added. Do be warned, however, as Anoukulele’s play alongs often feature a large number of chords in the original key, unlike the music educators that make play alongs with an focus on ukulele-friendly keys.
If you know ukulele play along content creators I do not know, or whose work I have forgotten to look for please send send me an e-mail.
Teachers–some of you are back in session already, and some of you start with students as I do next week. I wish all of you success!
And to everyone, thanks as always for your support. I hope you have a wonderful day, and I’ll be back soon with more UkeStuff for you.
2023 Silver Creek International Ukulele Carnival (SCIUC) – Two Harbors, MN
I just wanted to write a short note following my participation at the 2023 Silver Creek International Ukulele Carnival which was held this past weekend (August 17-20, 2023). Two Harbors is located on Lake Superior roughly a half hour North of Duluth, Minnesota.
The SCIUC is hosted by the Two Harbors Ukulele Group (THUG), and over 300 people participated this past weekend. This year, for the first time, the event was held at the Lake County Fairgrounds, right in Two Harbors, where in past years it was held in the Silver Creek Township (a bit more of a drive, turning left after reaching Betty’s Pies, a legendary restaurant North of Two Harbors). While there was a lovely rustic nature of the Silver Creek location, the new location gave the event all the space it needed (and room to grow). I also appreciated the ability to access cell service in town—particularly with my role with the event this year.
And the weather this year, other than the smell of smoke we have experienced throughout the summer (Canadian wildfires), was UNBELIEVABLE this year. Check out this sunset from Agate Bay (The Two Harbors) on Saturday Night:
f you are looking for a wonderful ukulele event and want to visit Northern Minnesota (and yes, you can still drive quite a bit before you get to Canada), make plans to go next year! There are hotels in town, and there are campgrounds around as well as some (dry) camping on site.
I have been going to this festival for a few years, and considering the work that I do both in my day job (music education) and hobby (all of the UkeStuff work), I have really wanted to contribute to the festival. Usually people that lead sessions at festivals are performers that teach, and they are usually asked to teach (the teaching is secondary to the performing). I’m wired the other way…I can perform if I have to, but I am a teacher first.
So last year, I think in August after the event, I reached out to THUG and offered to teach anything. They reached out to me in June and asked me if I would teach beginner lessons at the festival.
I wasn’t sure about doing that, as I watched other people teach lessons in the past, working in a small area with two or three people. That sounded like a tough thing to do for a bunch of lessons over two days.
I asked what THUG was looking for, and they wanted a systematic approach to learning ukulele in a number of sessions over a couple of days. I shared my GCEA U approach with them, and asked if they were interested in that, and they said that looked good—but I knew that I would need to have more material, so I modified the existing GCEA U material and added 7 more chords, 7 more skill drills, and many more (folk) songs. That book is currently on the THUG website at the moment (I don’t know how long it will be up), and I’ll eventually bring it to this blog/website as well (Participants found a couple of small errors which I will correct and then republish).
I also found the time to make videos, with all self-generated music, a couple of weeks before the event. Don’t ask me how…I was “in the zone.” I usually make play alongs with existing music and do not make my own (I have a couple of times). For example, here is a version of “Streets of Laredo”:
This video aligns with the content of the new book, which brings participants/students all the way to the B-flat chord. Yes, anyone can use the materials, and as I always say, you can make donations towards the work at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ukestuff
I was assisted greatly by Charles Finch, who is one of the THUG leaders who deals with the technical details of the event, who provided all of the tech that I needed to teach most effectively. Some people did not bring the materials (it was a 71 page book), and having a 50” TV allowed them to participate.
Remember, I approach ukulele as a teacher, so I come at things a little differently than a lot of other teachers—I don’t get caught up in ”exact” strumming patterns, I welcome questions, I want people to have a solid foundation that they can build on, and I want them to be able to accept embrace imperfection and work through it. And I want my participants/students to have resources to keep practicing what they have done.
Incidentally, we were in the poultry barn—which was INCREDIBLY clean. The fair occurred the previous weekend, and while you know it had been cleaned afterwards, the THUG group came in and made the space like it was new…no smell or evidence of any poultry. If you have owned poultry, as I have, that is an unbelievable amount of work.
I wasn’t sure what we were going to have for participants, but 45 people signed up, and we saw a good core of 25 people attend both days, with people joining in sessions throughout the two days. I didn’t track numbers, but we had over 50 people stop in for some part of the lessons along the way. It was a lovely group, I had fun, and I think they had fun, and it was unbelievably good for my soul. To those that attended, thank you so very much. And to anyone in THUG, thank you for the chance to teach, thank you for your work in hosting the event, and thank you for what you are doing for the Ukulele in Minnesota and beyond.
**As a side note, the book I have created could be branded for any multi-day festival…we did 6 sessions (roughly an hour each…though the schedule said 45 minutes) over two days. If you are ever looking for a teacher to come to your festival and teach, please get in touch with me, and if you would like a branded book for your festival to teach yourself, please let me know.
Three Questions for You…
I have been thinking about three questions for the last week, and I while I have answers, they are not fully formed yet—and I am not sure they will ever be!
Here are three ukulele questions—what would your answers be? Here on the blog, send me an e-mail. I’ll make a video about this at some point on the UkeStuff channel (I’ll keep identities private). I will also post this on my UkePlayAlongs and UkeStuff community pages on YouTube.
1) If you were to recommend any ukulele, to a new player, what make/model would it/they be? Why would you choose that ukulele?
2) If you were going to buy ukuleles for a school, which make/model would they be? Why those specific instruments?
3) If you were a music store—not a ukulele specialist—and you had to carry ukuleles in your store, which companies would you choose? Why those companies?
Kala Waterman…Redesigned for 2022
In ukulele circles, Kala has been both applauded and criticized for their Waterman series of ukulele; ABS ukuleles modeled after the Maccaferri Ukuleles of the 1950s and 1960s.
The Maccaferri ukuleles were wonderful instruments made of styrene, and I have been lucky enough to have been gifted one by a friend, Ukester Brown (You can see his website at: https://www.ukesterbrown.com/index.html.).
Kala was applauded for the acknowledged design tribute to Maccaferri ukuleles (the moulds were destroyed, so no one could make them as they once were made), but criticized for their playability more than anything else. The action, or string height over the fretboard, was consistently too high, and was non-adjustable. The sound has never been an issue, as it is an ABS ukulele intended for harsh environments, like water (thus the name of the ukulele).
In 2022, Kala released a revised version of the Waterman. The colors are refreshed, but the main difference is that the latest Waterman features an adjustable saddle. I’m hesitant to buy one, as I have no need for one of these, and economic inflation has eroded the margin I used to have to be able to buy inexpensive ukuleles (and then sell them at a loss).
I presented ukulele sessions at the Ohio Music Educators Association earlier in February (thanks to Peripole Music), and there were several booths with ukuleles on hand. West Music had their own series of ukuleles (which I have not reviewed), and some Makala instruments. They also had models of the updated Waterman on hand.
This was the first time that I have seen these models in person, and in general, they look and play like Waterman ukuleles always have. This is not going to be a complex, gorgeous tone. It is going be a plastic tone—and that’s okay, because that is what it is! How was the action and playability?
The quick answer: not good. Here are photos of the action at the 1st and 12th frets:
As you can see from the above photos, action is much too high (standard action should be 0.5mm at the 1st and 2.65mm at the 12th fret). I do not know if lowering the saddle would be close enough to meet standard action measurements.
Action is important, as it both impacts playability and intonation. It’s harder to press down strings with high action, and when you do, you have to pull the strings further down—out of tune (usually sharp). And as these instruments are generally played by students and beginning students (most long term players will opt for other durable options), high action is unacceptable. And of course, if action is too low, columns is muted and buzzing can occur.
I do applaud Kala for making the saddle adjustable on the Waterman—but now they need to make sure that they come shipped with low action that doesn’t buzz.
If you are a school looking to buy ukuleles, I still cannot recommend Waterman ukuleles until this issue is consistently resolved and proven over time. I will keep checking!
Is the Ukulele “Bust” Over?
Yesterday I noticed that one of the companies that I really like (or, I should say, whose ukuleles I really like) was selling ukuleles at a discount. This company previously held auctions for each of their builds, and if you were selected, you could buy one at full price.
I did enter auctions, and finally won a concert “second,” which saved me something like $100 on the cost of the ukulele. Without naming the brand, it is one of my favorite ukuleles.
But, as I mentioned, that company now has stock on hand, and while there may still be auctions, if you want one of those ukuleles, you can buy one…at a discount for a few models (that are not seconds!). These are roughly $500 to $700 ukuleles.
While I think there is still a strong market for the $150 and less ukuleles…and there are a TON of those on the market, I think inflation and this recession are hitting pocketbooks in a way that is going to put a damper on $250 and more expensive ukuleles and ukulele manufacturers. Yes, some people will still buy these models, but there will be buyers like myself, looking to buy used instruments at a low price, as some people also exit the market.
Again, I don’t think it is “gloom and doom” for all companies, but I think companies that exist solely in that $250 and above range are going to have a rough patch over the next couple of years—as are the retailers who carry those models. Individual luthiers that had long waiting lists will be fine, and companies that continue to offer quality instruments at lower price points will be fine.
As for the average ukulele company, I would expect to see many companies start to bundle kits together (some have been resistant to this, to the point of not including gig bags), and I have to wonder if Kala’s recent addition of strap buttons and gig bags on some affordable models (such as the new cigar box ukuleles) is a reaction to the economic times and customers looking for more than just the ukulele when they buy a ukulele.
Then again, I am not an economist, so perhaps I am wrong. I don’t want to see any company (or person, for that matter) go through tough financial times. Hopefully most companies have a wide enough catalog to make it through. And, watch the marketplaces for great deals on new and used ukuleles…there may be some very special ukuleles that hit the market for an affordable price in the coming months and years (again, hoping that the economy turns for the better sooner than later).
ukestuff 