Dominator Ukulele Tabs

I finally received the raw footage of my performance at the 15th Annual Ukulele Festival held this past April in Hayward, California. Here are the two songs I used to open and close the show. This was my first real, official, ukulele gig and a real good experience.

If all goes well I will be performing this year at the 7th Annual Southern California Ukulele Festival held on October 4th in Cerritos, California.

Blue Roses Falling

The Star Spangled Banner

Tonight I’ve completed a tab for Erroll Garner’s jazz classic, Misty. The tab represents my interpretation of the song as played in the video excerpt below. This has some really cool chord changes. Enjoy!

Tab can be found on the TABs page from the link at the very top of this page.

In case you haven’t heard yet, the Ukulele Underground crew is coming to California. Aldrine Guerrero and Ryan Esaki will be performing at DaSilva Ukulele Company in Berkeley, California on Friday July 18th. So if you are from the Sacramento valley or the Bay Area make it a point to see this show. If you haven’t checked out Ukulele Underground yet surf on over and sign up for the FORUMS. They have tons of ukulele giveaway contests, video lessons and a new video installment called “Uke Got Mail” where Aldrine answers member submitted questions.

See you all there!

I just got back a few days ago from visiting family in Michigan and Ohio. While I was there I also attended my 35 year High School Reunion. It was a great time and, as you can see from the pics, some of my classmates were in prime form as they did “the gator” on the dance floor.

When I attended the 30 year reunion I sat in with the band for a couple of tunes. The committee booked the same band and I was extended an invitation to play with them this year. They sent me a song list and there were a fair number of songs on the list that I currently do with my classic rock band, Rockslide. I brought my Stratocaster with me and had a blast playing with the band. Another classmate, Doug Cross, from Oakland, CA also joined the band with his saxophone.

Here's a pic showing Doug enjoying the company of several of the ladies that were getting loose and having a great time.

During the times I wasn’t on stage with the band I made a point to discuss my passion for the ukulele. The only reference for about 99% of the people there was that of Tiny Tim or Arthur Godfrey. I was asked if I was going to play Tiptoe Through the Tulips. I told them I was going to play some Led Zeppelin. Of course, I was told “you can’t play Led Zeppelin on the ukulele”. I politely told them to make sure they didn’t leave early.

When the band was finished with their last song the sound guy quickly plugged my Glyph into a direct box and set some levels in the PA. I played Going to California and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. The reception was overwhelming and I think most of them were very surprised to hear all of the music that was coming from such an unassuming 4 string instrument. My only regret is that I didn’t have a video camera to capture the moment. Here are a couple of pics. One from the back of the room where you can see everyone up front checking it out and the other showing how focused they were watching me play.

It was such a blast. Doug and I were invited to an after party where we played a few more tunes on ukulele with sax.

The 15th Annual Ukulele Festival of Northern California was yesterday in Hayward California. It was a beautiful day for a ukulele festival and as usual it seemed a good time was had by all. I got to meet up with some old friends and also got to meet a few new friends that are part of the Ukulele Underground (UU). UU is a relatively new website dedicated to promoting the Aloha spirit which seems to go hand in hand with this incredible addictive instrument we know as the ukulele. If you haven’t already done so, stop over to UU, become a registered member, and look around. You will find video lessons, tablature, within the forum as well as links to outside sources such as Dominator Ukulele Tabs and Ukulele Hunt, as well as helpful tips from the forum members. There are plenty of exciting things such as ukulele giveaways and online open mics that members can participate in.

The most memorable part of the day for me is that it was my first time as a performer at any Ukulele Festival. It was definitely an experience to go through the process of moving between the stations as you work your way to the main stage. I was fairly relaxed by the time I hit the stage as I opened with Jake’s Blue Roses Falling. Then I got a little tense as I worked my way through my arrangement of George Harrison’s Something. It was just a short ten minute slot so I needed a short one to finish with and I chose the Star Spangled Banner. I left the stage feeling like I did a decent job of controlling my nerves and getting through the set. I wasn’t able to capture any video on my own but I should be receiving the footage in the next few days or so. I’ll post some videos once I have the DVD in hand. In the meantime, here are a few pics from the show.

James Hill gave me the green light to post my “interpretation” of one of his “Live” arrangements of the One Note Samba. The standard notation is reflective of D6 tuning with a low A string, however, there’s no need to change any of the chord shapes to play the arrangement in C6 tuning. Use the same “chord shapes” that are indicated in the tablature staff and it will sound great just down one full step in pitch.

I’d like to point out that the midi file has a 16 measure space of silence which represents the section of percussion on the ukulele. I never did count the actual measures that James plays the percussion in his video or, for that matter, the number of measures I play percussion in my own YouTube video.

This is a great progression. I hope you have fun with it. The tab can be found on the TABS page.

I was blown away when I saw James Hill play the One Note Samba on Youtube. He has two versions and the middle percussive sections are quite different. I worked from a video of this earlier arrangement but changed some chords in one of the sections to fit within my own playing abilities.

James takes the middle section to new heights in this version where he adds his imaginary friends to the mix.

I tried to record this the other night and after about 6 tries I was finally able to make it through the complete arrangement without stopping. However, it was very poor and I knew it was time to just leave it be and come back to it later.

So tonight, after a wonderful dinner out with my wife, I decided to have another glass of wine and give it another go. Somehow I managed to get through the entire piece on the first take and decided that even though it wasn't the greatest I'd better leave well enough alone.

I'm working on a tab and will have it available soon.

ONE NOTE SAMBA - Video

Jason Castro played ukulele and sang Israel Kamakawiwo’ole's version of Over the Rainbow tonight on American Idol. Though Paula referred to it as a “guitar” all the judges were really pleased with Jason’s performance. Regardless of how you look at it this was a positive thing getting the ukulele in front of such a large viewing audience.

Woodshed, over at Uke Hunt has put together a chord chart of Jason’s version which is a good place for any newcomers or Jason fans wanting to start playing ukulele.

Our 4 string friend is getting some well deserved visibility.

I got a new video cam over the weekend and wanted to give it a whirl so I decided to do a quick recording of Stars & Stripes. The audio is much better with the new camera and there is no more motor noise so I look forward to doing some new tutorials in the future.

I was able to adjust the brightness when capturing from analog with the old camera but this option wasn't available with the DV hookup via the firewire cable. I will have to look into this. The raw footage is much brighter than the captured video. I'm using Pinnacle Studio Plus 9.5 for any video buffs out there.

STARS & STRIPES FOREVER

Tonight I’m posting my tab for Paul Luongo’s most impressive arrangement of Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven”. Aside from the excellent bit of arranging, one thing that Paul has done which makes this arrangement even more special is that he preserved the original key of the recording. To play the arrangement as written will require tuning your ukulele up one full step to ADF#B using a low A. Those that don’t want to change tuning can also download the Powertab file (assuming you have a PC that will run PT) and change the tuning to GCEA and this will allow you to play along with the midi file during the learning process.

Paul has been very busy with school and other responsibilities and hasn’t had time to fully review and provide comments on the draft version of the tab. We’ve decided to post the draft version to give you all an opportunity to get started learning his arrangement. There are a couple of spots in measures 18 through 21 and again in the Bridge section that I wasn’t quite sure of. I think it’s very close and should suffice should you get that far along in the arrangement prior to me receiving any edits from Paul.

I noticed on Youtube that some folks were asking Paul about a video tutorial so maybe there’s a possibility he will be able to do that sometime down the road. Should you learn the song from this tab and post your video on Youtube please credit Paul for his arrangement.

The tabs and a link to Paul's Youtube video can be found on the TABS page.