ClassicalCode

While I was home for Christmas, I was watching lots of ukulele videos on Youtube. Somewhere in my wanderings I came across the Risa Uke Solid and my mind was blown. It’s a small electric ukulele made out of a single solid piece of wood and some hardware. The simplicity of the design made me think: “Hey, I could do that” and so I began thinking about how I could make a simple electric ukulele myself. Two days later, with lots of help from my dad and his tools, I have a working electric ukulele made from stuff I found around my parent’s house and a set of $4 ukulele strings. It’s currently fret-less and the pickup leaves a lot to be desired but my goal was really to create a mock-up so that I would know what I was doing when I built the actual thing.

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Inspired on my previous experimentation with parallel fifth harmonies, and my new ukulele (more on that soon), my dad and I recorded this version of Mary Had a Little Lamb where I sang and played the same song a fifth above. He was playing his guitar and singing in the key of C, and I was playing my ukulele and and singing in the key of G.

As of this week, Chelsea and I have been going out for three years and after countless barbershop tags, covers and miniature songs I have finally been able to write her an honest-to-goodness song song. I’ll admit it’s cheesy and trite and doesn’t properly rhyme, but it’s a song. A real song. Finally.

For Chelsea, after three years: “Driving”

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Edit (May 18, 2012): This bot is now defunct.

I would like to introduce you all to my new creation UkeChord. UkeChord is an automated Twitter robot who will send you ukulele fingerings for any chord you request. Please share your thoughts or improvements in the comments below.

Goal: To offer Ukulele chord fingerings via text message.

Preparation:

1. Follow Twitter user “ukechord“
2. Configure Twitter to forward direct messages to your phone.

Getting a chord fingering:

1. Text Twitter (40404) with: “@ukechord” followed by the chord name.
2. Receive chord fingering.

Below are the chord names it understands. C can be replaced by any note sharp (#) or flat (b):

It may be able to figure out other chords, but it is guaranteed to understand these.

Alice n’ The Irving Street Kidz are back with another hit single. This time it’s ‘Colors of The Wind’ from the major motion picture Pocahontas. We believe that our rendition is a vast improvement on the original.

• Vocals – Alison
• Ukulele, chimes, backup vocals, egg shaker – Jordan
• Epic Howl – Noah

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As well as turning 28, last month my brother graduated from UCSD with is PhD(!) in mathematics. So, as a combined gift, I got the family and Chelsea together to record a math themed song for him. We recorded “That’s Mathematics” by Tom Lehrer.

Happy birthday and congratulation Nathaniel. You are the best source of pride and inspiration a little brother cold ask for.

Tom Lehrer’s “That’s Mathematics” for Nathaniel:

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• Ukulele – Jordan
• Vocals – Jordan, Lisa, Chelsea, Gilbert

It was a beautiful day out today, so I headed out to golden Golden Gate Park and recorded Tom Lehrer’s “My Home Town” on my cheap $35 Ukulele.

Inspired by the recording I made with my friends, I decided to record a non-barbershop song. I decided on “Were Going To Be Friends” by the White Stripes. I recorded in four passes, each of which required several takes. First the ukulele track, which almost gave me carpel tunnel, then the melody, and then two different harmony tracks. The harmonies were based on a harmony I remember my friend Rosie Steffy singing when she first introduced me to this song many years ago.

Have a listen to this cover of the White Stripe’s “Were Going To Be Friends”:

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Today my friend Alison, my room mate Noah and myself recorded a rendition of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles.

Ukulele – Jordan
Bass – Noah
Vocals – Alison

Listen to the result:

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