Just a friendly reminder, today is the LAST day to enter the contest for the FREE Kala Ukulele Giveaway. We’ll be holding the drawing tomorrow. We’ll probably broadcast it live, just trying to figure out what time Aldrine can be part of it. If you haven’t already signed up for a chance to win that ukulele, what are you waiting for? Times a tickin!

Official Contest Entry Thread

*** Update - All entries have been collected. We’ll be broadcasting the live drawing here tonight, March 1st 2008 @ 7:30P.M. HST (9:30pm PST). We will draw 3 names from the hat. The first name pulled will be the winner of the ukulele. The winner will have 48 hours to contact us to receive their prize. If they fail to do so, the opportunity to get in touch with us will go to the next person drawn and they will have 24 hours to contact us.

We will fill in the details tonight on the live stream. Thank you to everyone who participated and best of luck to you all!

There were so many good videos from our members this week that it was hard to choose just one. In the end, originality won out and we (i.e. Rayan) decided to feature member edmundwhitehead’s original composition ‘One of a Kind’ . If this kid keeps it up, he has a very bright future in ukulele.

Thank you to everyone who submitted videos. Keep it up, we love seeing uke players from all over the world!

In this episode of Uke Minutes, Aldrine Guerrero teaches a simple way to enhance your strum called the 4-finger roll. If you decide to try this technique out in a song, be sure to post it in our forums.

We noticed that we get the most traffic on the weekends. Makes sense, everybody is off school and work, so we’ve decided to move Ukulele Underground Video releases to Saturdays instead of Mondays. This change will start this Saturday with the release of March’s Ukulele Lesson.

Also, thank you to everyone who pre-ordered Ukulele Underground T-shirts! We’ll be putting the order in to our t-shirt printer sometime this week.

*edit* – PRE-ORDERS ARE NOW CLOSED Thank you to everyone who ordered a t-shirt! We will let you know the progress of the shirts as we get them ordered.

Brown Tee – White + Red Logo

Brown Tee – White Logo

*Shirts may be American Apparel if NL is not available. Both NL and AA shirts are usually a little more fitted than normal t-shirts. If unsure if you want that form fit, order a size larger than normal. Heres a sizing guide to help.
** 3XL shirt will be standard Fruit of the Loom T-Shirts
*** Shipping charges are $6 for U.S. $12 for international

This week’s UUMVOW comes from New York City. Forum member menehunenyc plays a cool ukulele version of the Turtles ‘Happy Together‘.

Also in regards to the UU string changing Uke Minute be sure to check out NukeDOC’s string changing tutorial with power-drill string winder.

Remember T-Shirt pre-orders end Friday, so order now while they’re still on sale!

Happy Presidents Day! Hope everyone in the U.S. is enjoying their day off. In this episode of Uke Minutes, Aldrine teaches you how to restring your ukulele. For more in depth instruction on restringing your instrument, be sure to read the article on restringing your instrument.

Also just a reminder,

Just four days left until we close T-Shirt Pre-orders. After this Friday, the price for these shirts will go back to their regular price of $18.

If you haven’t entered the Free Ukulele Contest yet either, just a couple more weeks to get your entry in. We have well over 300 entries into the hat as of now. This contest ends on February 29th and we’ll do the drawing and post the video on March 1st.

How To String your Ukulele

So, you need to string your ukulele? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Here we’ll help guide you through all the steps to replace your old, dead strings with some brand spankin’ new nylons …

Check out our video tutorial for all the same content, no reading required.

What you need:
1. a NEW set of strings.
2. a pair of string / wire cutters
3. about 20 minutes of your time

You should also determine whether your ukulele has a standard or tie-bar bridge and whether it has a standard or slotted head (see video) prior to starting your string-changing experience.

Read more

Aldrine just posted a new video on his youchoob account. It’s his version Jake’s version of the classic Beatles song ‘Something’ performed on the ukulele. I really like this song. I made him play it against his will at our gig on Kauai. Check it out and show him some love!

You guys asked for it… but we still need your help. We have 2 slight variations of the same shirt and we can’t decide which one to order. We have a poll set up in the forum. Please go vote on which one you want. We’ll take votes for 1 week. After that we’ll order whichever shirt gets the most votes… or who knows, if theres enough votes we may order both.

Heres the 2 designs

Brown Tee – White + Red Logo

Brown Tee – White Logo