Posts by UkoOno
Leaving on a Jet Plane
In this tutorial we are looking at the forever loved song “Leaving on a Jet Plane” – words and music by the talented John Denver. It’s a fairly straight forward song to play but that makes it easy and fun to sing along to. We have added couple of shuffle strums to add some ‘crescendo’…
Read MoreRhiannon
In this tutorial, I have included three videos for the riffs in Rhiannon. I am using the great ‘ukestration’ put together by ‘The Sum of the Parts’. These videos were filmed at the inaugural Magic Mountain Music Festival in Ulong and I took advantage of having a bunch of beautiful women with me on a…
Read MoreMad World
This lesson is for Mad World, a beautiful song by Tears for Fears, which shows the picking pattern and different strums.
Read MoreJoy To The World
It’s time for Joy to the World (isn’t it always?). For this one you can either riff out the melody (using only notes from the C Major Scale!) or strum it out using a range of strums to keep it interesting. Joy joy joy!
Read MoreJingle Bells
It wouldn’t be Christmas without Jingle Bells – right? So I’ve given this one a bit of a Hawaiian vibe for the ukulele by using the Island Strum. For some reason it also reminds me of Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ but you can get your own jam going on this one. enJOY!
Read MoreIn Between Days
This is a beautiful song by The Cure which I have made pretty for the ukulele! There are six videos in total. These were made way back in the early days of Uko Ono on a holiday in Crescent Head and feature by bestie, Sami and were filmed by Andrew who many of you know…
Read MoreI’m A Believer
The Monkees were one of my favourite bands (and TV shows) growing up. Here’s the classic song, ‘I’m a Believer’, brought to life for younger generations all over again through ‘Shrek’. The main strum is Island until we get to the Chorus, and then it’s 2 down strums on each chord for the first two…
Read MoreFriday Im in Love
This tutorial is for the fabulous Cure song, Friday I’m in Love. Our version is inspired by Choir Choir Choir so I’ve posted a video of them singing so you can hear it in full – scroll down the page to find it. We did a collaboration with Aka Bella back in 2018 and Choir…
Read MoreI Just Called To Say I Love You
This Stevie Wonder song is such a fun song to play! There are some lovely melodious chord progressions that we will master, and sound like a real pro! The Island strum with a bossa-nova feel works well, but for those who would like a challenge, you can try ‘chucking’ or ‘chunking’ on the 2nd and…
Read MoreI Can See Clearly Now
In this tutorial we will look at the sunny and bright ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ by Johnny Nash. It’s a great, uplifting song that is relatively simple to play. We use the Island strum and things sail along pretty smoothly until we get to the bridge! Then we have a couple of tricky chords…
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