UKULELE ORGANIZATIONS & CLUBS back to top

The Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum (http://www.ukulele.org)
A non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Ukulele history.

Yahoo! Clubs (http://groups.yahoo.com)
Yahoo! boasts several ukulele enthusiasts clubs, check out the list here. Some may require registering at Yahoo! (free).

Ukulelia (http://www.ukulelia.com)
Mark Frauenfelder and Gary Peare's uke blog. Many links to newspaper/web articles, plenty of weird stuff too. Updated often.

Ukulele Society of Great Britain (http://www.usgb.co.uk)
The charm of the uke wasn't halted by the Pacific nor the Atlantic as this thriving group will prove. In fact, rumours of plunking have been reported past the Thames, over the Hebrides and all the way to the north coast of Scotland.

Flea Market Music (http://www.fleamarketmusic.com)
Jim Beloff's website. Plently of info on his doings as well as the uke community at large. Chatroom and on-line store.

Ukulele Sight (http://www.cobastudio.com/uke.e.html)
"Ukulele Link Collection of the World", not a uke club, but a massive listing of uke sites. Also listed are (ghosted) links to defunct websites, kept up as a record.

The Fourth Peg (http://www.4thpeg.com)
"Ukulele Parlor Room, Learning Center & Emporium". That's "bulletin board, songs and store" to the non-old-timey. Well designed, boasts a rapidly growing songbook and full featured bulletin board.

Rock That Uke (http://www.rockthatuke.com)
Mentioned in this section for the excellent "Uke Central", what I consider to be one of the two definitive uke web links resources.

Rolling Coconuts (http://www.rollingcoconuts.com)
A Japanese journal of ukulele popular music, in Japanese, of course. Clicking above will take you to the Babelfish translated version of their webpage.

T.U.R.D.S. (http://www.turds.org.uk)
The fun (and Guinness) loving Ukulele Research and Development Society founded by the well-travelled and redoubtable Sir Humpfrey Comfy.

UKuke (http://www.ukuke.co.uk/)
Pronounced "yookay-yook", Ray Shakeshaft's rapidly expanding website reflects the booming interest in ukuleles in England. Features UK clubs and concert listings, excellent freebies, photo gallery and music.

King David Ukulele Station (http://uke.hatelog.com/dc/index.php/)
General Bertrand Saint Guillain's uke blog is the ultimate French uke resource.

Ukulele Solen (http://www.ukulelesolen.se)
Web central for Swedish Uku-friends, maintained by Marcus Roos. Med Vänliga Hälsningar!

Habitat 4 Ukulele (http://hometown.aol.com/habitat4ukulele/index.html)
Ukulele museum, movie theatre, and music society... but it's on AOL.

Deutscher Ukulelenclub (http://www.ukulelenclub.de)
Guten Uken! Here is Germany's first ukulele club. News, photo galleries and more.

UKULELE PERFORMERS' WEBSITES back to top

Key School Strummers (http://www.keystrummers.org/)
Self described "red-hot novelty jazz band". Definitely the happeningest bunch of kids their side of the Mississippi.

Rhonda Roberts (http://www.geocities.com/trhondaukulele)
Uke strumming college co-ed, cd available on MP3.com

Tippy Canoe (http://www.angelfire.com/vamp/tippycanoe)
"Tippy Canoe is a ukulele slinging, sweetly singing, guitar wrestling, occasionally jesting, teasingly romantic, but may tickle with an antic, modern day solo performer." What more can I say?

The Ukulele Ladies (http://ukulele.jonsvik.com)
Straight from Sweden! They have eight tracks from their cd as mp3 samples. Linked also to Sweden's Ukulele "Klubben".

Petty-Booka (http://www.sister.co.jp/pettybooka)
A duo from Japan, Petty and Booka, who play Hawaiian, country & western, bluegrass, cha cha cha, rhumba, suku suku, dodompa, twist, and Boogaloo. Or so they claim - listen to their mp3 samples and judge for yourselves.

John King (http://www.nalu-music.com/nalu/bach.html)
"Johann Sebastian Bach Partita No. 3, BWV 1006 for Unaccompanied Ukulele". Performed by John King. CD for sale, interesting liner notes online, also mp3 sample online.

Ralph Shaw (http://www.ralphshaw.ca)
King of the Ukulele (self-proclaimed, but he may be right). I'm just sorry I never saw him at the Seabus terminal in Vancouver. Mp3 samples and cd for sale.

Langley Ukulele Ensemble (http://www.langleyukes.com)
The highly regarded kids of the Langley Uke Ensemble of Langley, British Columbia. Listen to the mp3 samples, they play like I don't... really well.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com)
The audio/video part of their website is (still) under construction, but there is quite a bit there.

Howlin' Hobbit (http://www.howlinhobbit.com)
Mr. Hobbit's personal web space. Biography, links, photos, and mp3s. Not to mention... haiku! Gesundheit. Also, how to make your own felt uke picks.

Tony Penultimate (http://www.tonypenultimate.com)
Suave, sophisticated, sexy... many of the words that describe Tony Penultimate begin with the letter S. Solo songwriter from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Trefor Bazett (http://members.shaw.ca/tbazett/ukulele.htm)
Island Ukulele alumnist, Trefor Bazett, posts a growing number of mp3s.

Jake Shimabukuro (http://www.jakeshimabukuro.net)
A high-speed camera was built, apparently, by MIT to capture the Hawaiian whiz-kid's playing. Photos confirm what we suspected all along: Mr. Shimabukuro has eight fingers on each hand!

Rose Turtle Ertler (http://www.cat.org.au/scooter/scootstar/rose.html)
Miss Ertler is the "electrik ukelele lady". Seriously. Check out her mp3s on this page. Then check out her blog and help her flesh out the history of ukes down under.

The Hazzards (http://www.ukesofhazzard.com)
Formerly known as Ukes of Hazzard, Sydney and Anne from NYC (I'm fighting the urge to use the word "adorable", really I am) play original songs. See their music video - available on DVD - a surprisingly lavish production well worth the download.

James Hill (http://www.ukulelejames.com)
Much like his virtuoso performances, James Hill's lecture "Inverted Bipolar Tetrachord Stacks and How to Fit Them into Oh, Canada" is not to be missed. His (newly designed) website is regularly updated with his doings.

Amber Nash (http://www.ukebucket.com)
Amber Nash "breathes new life into an ancient art" by performing covers and originals on her new site. (80s) Rock on!

Ukie Yuk Yuk (http://www.ukieyukyuk.com)
Ukie Yuk Yuk

Boulder Acoustic Society (http://www.boulderacousticsociety.net/)
I saw these guys in San Francisco late in August. Late in the night actually, I missed their set entirely but did get to hear them tear up Tico Tico after the show. They play excellently, with the precision and levity of classically trained musicians turned jazz hounds, sophisticated and fun. Their CD So Many Stars in the Sky is built less around the uke than their songbook, available here. Check out the BAS!

The Moonlighters (http://www.blissblood.com)
From The New Yorker: The Moonlighters are a charming band with a penchant for swinging Hawaiian tunes from the twenties and thirties such as "Hula Blues" and "Honolulu March," along with a few originals in the same style.

Rock, Onic & Bob (http://www.alphapups.com/rockonicandbob/)
Rock, Onic and Bob are a three piece covers/tribute band with a twist. Formed in April 2004 by Sgt. Rock, Dave Onic and Trucker Bob, they decided to bastardise their record collections by 'recycling' some of their favourite tunes with the use of drums, bass and a banjolele. From this they've dragged together a set of quirky, humorous, touching, blasphemous, sexy and stupid songs which have wowed audiences around the world (Brighton).

Joachim Joe Harmut (http://www.joe-ukulele.de.vu)
Joachim Joe Harmut has played the uke since 1961. Does that make him Germany's oldest uke player? Go to his site to find out.

Manitoba Hal (http://www.manitobahal.com)
Like anyone whose name is a place, Manitoba Hal wears his love for his roots on his sleeve. But those roots aren't just in the prairie soil. Hal's got a songwriter's roots in eerie folk - murder ballads and killer floods - and a player's roots in the deep, dark, fixin' to die blues.

Pete Starkey and PUB (http://wearepub.com)
PUB is a group of ukulele fanatics from Stockport, England who aim to convert the galaxy AND BEYOND to 'ukedom.'

The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra (http://www.ukulele.co.nz)
By the comments on their website and their MySpace page, you'll learn that the WIUO not only inspires uking and artwork and but they also pack a full house at Cafe Deluxe. They're sharp dressers, too.

Tornadic Ukulele (http://www.tornadicukelele.com)
Tornadic Ukulele was founded in 2006 with the intention of performing contemporary alternative music using the ukulele as the featured instrument. While showing respect for the historic acoustic ukulele sound, Tornadic Ukulele also takes advantage of the modern electric ukulele’s capabilities to produce a powerful sound experience.

Ukestermoe (http://www.ukestermoe.com)
Hailing from Campbell River, BC, Canada and playing a Stawski custom tenor is Marcello Sequeira aka Ukestermoe. "Marcello attributes most of his ukulele solo skills to his friend and mentor, Canadian ukulele virtuoso, James Hill."

Patty Plinko and Her Boy (http://www.myspace.com/pattiplinkoandherboy)
"A sassy vintage PinUp girl swinging to her 'boy's bicycle spokes.'"

UKULELE INSTRUCTION & ACADEMIA back to top

Ukulele Lesson by Kunishige (http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~kunisige/eukulele_f.html)
The website that turned me on to the uke. Possibly the funniest anything I've seen about the ukulele. Great diagrams of 120 chords in chapter 8 (mistake on D7 excepted).

ezFolk (http://www.ezfolk.com/uke/index.html)
Used to be the ezfolk uke site, merited its own domain, recently returned to the ezfolk banner... but well worth keeping track of. An excellent, well-maintained site.

The George Formby Society (http://www.georgeformby.co.uk)
Everything you could ever have wanted to know about George Formby, the man who pulled Britain through the war with his banjo-uke.

Brudda Bu's Ukulele Heaven (http://www.geocities.com/~ukulele)
Fantastic amount of history (instrument and personalities), great pictures of ukuleles.

Banjo-Ukulele Instruction @ Hau'oli Haole (http://www.snowcrest.net/motman/uke.html)
A banjo-ukulele self instruction manual (published circa 1914) scanned and presented for your learning pleasure.

Michelle Kiba (http://www.Ukalady.com)
Michelle Kiba, the Ukulele Lady of Santa Cruz, CA. Check out her new webpage with loads of ukuleleana! Here you'll find Michelle's performer biography, and fact sheet, Ukulele schedule of classes, a photo gallery and stuff about her band.

The Ukulele Occasional Magazine (http://ukemag.com)
A new magazine, first issue expected August 2002. Their posted "table of contents" looks great, but I don't see how they're going to have anything left for issue two. Info on ads and subscriptions also.

Uke Chords CD (http://www.ukechords.com)
Website offers a user-friendly CD containing over 2,500 chord diagrams that can be used with your preferred word processor to create your own song sheets.

Ukulele Lessons (http://www.ukulele-lessons.com)
Herb Ohta student Dorothy Muncy offers lessons to mainlanders. Her package (tabs in Word documents) is sometimes available on ebay, but don't wait to be outbid there. Check out her site. Comes with valuable unlimited email support.

Ukecat Ukulele Method (http://home.attbi.com/%7Ecatflat/bookcover.html)
This well constructed and designed manual will break you out of that 1st position chord rut - the same one I was stuck in for months - painlessly and with funny pictures of cats. An incredible effort by Alan and Elaine Bond, a big uke shout out to them.

The Banjo Ukulele (http://freespace.virgin.net/dennis.taylor/index.htm)
Mr. Taylor's informative website is dedicated to the banjo-uke and has plenty of entertaining sound clips and photos peppered throughout.

Joyce Roe Flaugher (http://www.alohayall.net)
The ALOHA Y'ALL website. Website offers much Hawaiiana, she offers lessons on the uke AND in hula.

ScaleSMART for Ukulele (http://www.guitar-learning.com/ukulele.cfm)
Original interactive programs from NSA (No Strings Attached) Software to help Ukulele players become more proficient. Thourough instruction in chords, scales and song playing.

Heeday's Ukulele (http://www.heedaysukulele.com)
Even if you consider yourself "not musically inclined", you can learn quickly with Heeday Kimura's step-by-step ukulele instruction booklets & audio supplements!

UKULELE SONGBOOKS & TABS back to top

OLGA: the On-Line Guitar Archive (http://www.olga.net)
An enormous database of (guitar) chords and tablature to all sorts of songs. Just call it OLUA and use their chords.

Big Greg's Ukes (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BigGregsukes)
aka "Ukuholics Anonymous". This is a Yahoo! group that I wanted to single out. "Big Greg" has a bunch of songs with chords in three categories: Hawaiian, Tin Pan Alley, and Rock.

Island Vibrations (http://islandvibrations.tripod.com/tabs.html)
An altruistic uke effort. All free uke tabs from Travis Kawika Alcos. Not updated since 2001, but a good collection none-the-less.

Ukulele Lessons (http://www.ukulele-lessons.com)
Herb Ohta student Dorothy Muncy offers lessons to mainlanders. Her package (tabs in Word documents) is sometimes available on ebay, but don't wait to be outbid there. Check out her site. Comes with valuable unlimited email support.

Dominator Uke Tabs (http://www.rockslide.org/Ukulele_Tab.html)
When not rocking out with Rockslide, Dominic the "Dominator" Pieranunzio works on his ever-growing collection of uke tabs. Well arranged classic and popular songs in accessible formats. A great challenge for the plateaued beginner.

Ukulele Strummers (http://www.ukulelestrummers.com)
South Bay Strummers strumming group from Torrance, California. The best place to go for chords to Island songs (Brudda Iz, Krater Boys etc).

Brook Adams' Chords & Songs (http://www.brookadams.com/jumping%20flea/index.html)
Not only hosting his own (fun) mp3s, but providing chords to the songs also.

The Guitar Guy (http://www.theguitarguy.com/)
Probably the best place on the net to find jazz standards and some oldies. The jazzy arrangements are built for guitar and can be a bit intimidating, but it is a great resource none-the-less.

Betty Lou's Guitar Underdogs (http://betty.hypermax.net.au/)
I love Betty Lou! This site is updated daily and has an enormous collection of popular songs. There are also MIDI samples of the songs to help you play along (chords are kept pretty basic).

Joseph Todaro Uke Tabs (http://www.akulele.com/tablature)
Some excellent tabs of classical (Chopin's Prelude 7), old time (Dill Pickle Rag), and Latin (Tico-Tico) songs. Go there now! And then check out Todaro's Music at http://www.akulele.com/playuke/.

Ukulele Angel (http://www.ukuleleangel.com)
Ukulele Angel brings you an excellent assortment of Music Hall songs along with biographies of the composers/performers. There are also blues and traditional songs as well as a couple Angel orginals. Go check it out!

UKULELE MULTIMEDIA back to top

Ukulele Chord Finder (http://www.sheep-entertainment.nl/ukulele/chordfinder.html)
Marcel van der Zwet's interactive uke will give you the tabs for any chord, for any standard tuning of ukulele. Requires flash, recently updated.

NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross (http://freshair.npr.org)
Replay of a 15 minute interview with Tiny Tim from 1996. Includes two songs--Girl and Oh, Sly Cigarette--and parts of others. Requires Real Player.

Ukulele Chord Generator (http://www.geocities.com/xulfrepus/folder/ukulele.html)
Interactive ukulele chords generator. A lot of text but even more chords. Taking the scientific approach, we get 1,161,216 chords, apparently.

Annna's Ukulele Week (http://thingsihate.org/view/228)
The oft-hilarious adventures of Annna (yes, three) as she sets out to teach herself to play the uke in a week. The entries in this blog get a little less uke-centric as the week progresses, but remain entertaining nonetheless. Many mp3s available.

Ukulele Playing Lego Robot (http://community.middlebury.edu/~jlagman/mike_and_jarvis.htm)
And you thought the Arthur Godfrey "Uke Player" was high tech. These two guys built a ukulele playing robot out of legos and lines of code. Their adventures chronicled with pictures.

R. Armstrong's Hand Painted Ukes (and more) (http://www.geocities.com/artandnoveltyhut)
Robert Armstrong has some really great looking custom painted ukes and guitars at his website. Many seem custom ordered - if you ever wanted your face on a uke, here's your chance.

Ukulele Beatles Fun (http://www.4rmj.com/rick/beatlesite)
The popular Flash play-along interactive features 64 Beatles' songs. Definitely worth a visit.

Ukulele Themed eCards (http://www.ezfolk.com/greetings)
Part of the ezFolk/uke101 network, free eCards featuring ukes.

Eddie Vedder mp3s (http://www.fivehorizons.com/tour/02/wiltern.shtml)
I can't say I'm a Pearl Jam fan - or even able to name one of their songs with any certainty - but here's a review of a concert plus a few mp3s of Eddie Vedder playing a uke. Rock on, Mr. Vedder. Rock on.

Uke Farm Radio (http://www.ukefarm.com)
UkeFarm provides the uke community with artist profiles, music and tablature, and the "Now Playing" display for UkeFarm Radio.

UKULELE MAKERS & VENDORS back to top

Ukulele World (http://www.ukuleleworld.com)
The online equivalent of one of those one room stores stuck in the back of a strip mall with an oscillating fan and inventory stacked floor to ceiling - which is to say it's a personable, unpretentious, helpful, and informative uke and uke supplies store. Give them a visit before checking out the auction sites.

Earnest Instruments (http://www.earnestinstruments.com/ukuleles.html)
From the workshop of Joel Eckhaus. Check out the ukes for sale on this site, a lot of fun to look at. The "ipulele" earns a recommendation for novelty... it's so danged cute!

DaSilva Ukulele Co. (http://www.ukemaker.com)
Michael DaSilva's sweet, sweet ukuleles.

Digging Stick Ukuleles (http://www.onlyuke.com)
Digging Stick Ukuleles by Jeff and Margaret Burger.

Pohaku Ukulele (http://www.pohakuukulele.com)
Peter Hurney's slick ukes. I like to call this one "Kabuki Ukey."

The Ukulele Man (http://www.theukuleleman.com)
John Croft's UK ukulele website. Ukes for sale, articles, photos, and many connections to UK happenings.

Kauwela Ukulele (http://www.kauwelaukulele.net)
Kau'wela Ukulele Company, nice-looking ukes.

Kau'wela Ukulele Company (http://www.kauwelaukulele.net/)
Strum wisely, as they say on their website.

Papas Boxes (http://www.papasboxes.com/)
Bill Moore is "Cigar Box Papa," a luthier taking cigar box ukulele kits to a whole other level. Go to his site to check out his various kits and hear him play.