This is the form to complete if you’ve got a copy of UKE Magazine issue 41 and would like a chance to win the Kala Gardenia ukulele that was provided by Kala Brand UK. This will go to a randomly chosen reader who answers the following questions correctly.
This is a video from Zoe Wadey, to accompany her arrangement of Silver Sand Rag in issue 41 of UKE Magazine.
This is taken from a digital songbook - 10 Blues and Ragtime Solos for Ukulele - which you can find available to download by clicking here.
This video shows a demo of a song written by me, but created by AI, as detailed in ‘Final Word’ in Issue 41.
I wrote the lyrics and set them to some chords, and recorded a quick demo on my phone. Not being the finest singer, and not being that good at singing and playing at the same time, the standard of that recording was extremely low! However, I wanted to share it with the band for comments and to see if they might want to work on it.
However, this song was very personal - and the terrible recording I made was not going to cut it. So I used AI (an app called Suno), uploading my demo and lyrics. It was then able to generate a demo for me, using my words, my melody and my song structure and chords. So it was still my song - but the production was better and therefore I could share it without the embarassment.
In the end, I forgot to describe the vocal style on the app - so it was a female vocal. But a) any would have been better than mine and b) I quite liked it.
It was a song written after waking up from a dream that it was the mid 90’s again (a common theme for me, who lives for nostalgia). My best friend had passed away and it set me thinking about our lives together. So, you can see why sharing an awful demo seemed wrong somehow! For the purpose of this article it would have been better to share the ‘before’ as well as the ‘after’, but trust me, it’s out of tune singing and ropey ukulele playing - it’s bad!
Unfortunately it will soon be no longer possible for me to ship ukuleles to the EU.
Magazines will be unaffected.
Since Brexit, I have offered to send instruments to EU countries, over a certain value on a delivered duty paid basis (which means the tax and duty is paid by me). I have continued to charge my regular price (which includes 20% tax), and I have used that to pay the tax bill in the destination country. This varies from country to country, between 19% and 25%. In addition I pay 6% import duty (despite it having already having been paid when the ukulele arrived in the UK). This can mean that I am using 20% of the ukulele’s value to pay up to 31% tax in the destination country.
I have always accepted this as the cost of doing business post-Brexit. However, the administration charges for doing this have steadily increased also. This fee is now up to £27.17.
Increasingly too, customs officers are checking the purchase value with customers. They (naturally) give the price they paid, rather than the amount I declare (I declare the price of the instrument minus VAT - as I use that 20% to pay customer charges). They then calculate their tax and duty on the full value. I am often losing money sending instruments to the EU as a result.
If we take an example of a ukulele at £200, being sent to Sweden. I receive £200. In the UK I would receive £166.67, and pay £33.33 in tax. In theory I am attempting to pay all of the charges to send to Sweden using £33.33.
The cost to send that ukulele is £17.33. The admin fee is £27.17. Swedish customs ask the customer how much they paid and they say £200. Customs then charge tax on £200, which comes to £50. And they charge 6% import duty on this amount too, which equals £12. So my total charges are £105.50.
A typical profit margin might be around 30% of the selling price, excluding VAT. In this example, that means a cost of £128.21. Add the £105.50 charges and the total cost to me is £233.71, a loss of £33.71.
It doesn’t always happen this way - as higher value ukuleles do generate a profit still, but this profit margin is greatly reduced.
I may consider sending ukuleles over £400 to the EU in future - but this will be on a case by case basis. But it is likely I will cease doing this altogether. There is the option to allow EU customers to purchase ukuleles with the tax excluded, but I am reluctant to do this as the charges are so variable from country to country that I am unable to provide accurate advice on what they might be. Some countries (Cyprus and Greece, for example), charge huge fees which would make any instrument hugely more expensive. I don’t want customers to have to pay these charges, especially as they’re applied in a seemingly inconsistent manner.
I have to stress that UKE Magazine is unnaffected as there is no tax on printed paper.
I will shortly cease shipping ukuleles to the EU. In order to do this I need to make a number of time consuming changes to the website. When I have been able to do this, shipping ukuleles to the EU will no longer be possible. I am sorry to report this - which is of course no fault of customers in the EU.
This page is for attendees of the Big House Ukulele Weekend in Penrith, 7-10 February, 2025. You can find a lot of information about it in the Events Store.
The itinerary is now available too. If you need a copy, you can download it here.
There is a quick form below to advise of any dietary requirements you may have. If you don’t have any, I would appreciate it if you could still complete the form. (If you don’t I’ll ask you anyway… I will worry if I don’t get a reply from everyone!)
Matt
Choosing ukulele strings can be quite baffling, with the range of materials, feel, sound and sustain.
I have produced a diagram based on my own observations, and my own experience to help. It’s very much what I feel - and people have different perceptions of sound - but it might be of assistance!
If the image is too small for you, you can download a pdf. To do that, click here.
You can find my selection of ukulele strings here: https://worldofukes.co.uk/ukulele-strings
Help choosing ukulele strings
In Issue 40 of UKE Magazine, readers have the chance to win an Ohana CK-50MG, solid cedar top concert ukulele. To be in with a chance, complete the form below by 1 February 2025
Your details won’t be used for anything else - only to inform the winner when correct entries are put into a pot and the winner picked at random.
Elisabeth Pfeiffer demosntrating ‘Sandcastle Nostalgia’, as featured in UKE Magazine 40.
From UKE Magazine 40, Phil Doleman demonstrates ‘Hand Me Down My Walking Cane’
From UKE Magazine issue 40, Lindsay Higgs demonstrates his piece, Study No. 12.
(As this has been uploaded as a YouTube short, it can’t be embedded in this post - so click the link above!
From UKE Magazine issue 40, Andy Eastwood discusses different ukulele tunings.
From issue 40 of UKE Magazine, here’s Lil Rev demonstrating Deep Ellum Blues.
This is the competition described in Issue 39 of UKE Magazine, where readers have the chance to win an Enya EUP-X1 pineapple soprano ukulele package.
You can complete the form to enter below with entries needed in by 1 October 2024.
Here is the video where Andy Eastwood describes how to get new ukulele strings in tune, as featured in UKE Magazine Issue 39.
Here is Lindsay Higgs playing Valse Romantique, as shown in the ukulele tabs section of UKE Magazine Issue 39
This is the accompanying video to the Making Progress feature in Issue 39 of UKE Magazine, discussing how to move further up the neck of your ukulele with a straightforward chord progressiom.
Here is the video for Matt Dahlberg’s strumming exercise in UKE Magazine Issue 39.
In the printed edition of the magazine, one of the supplied diagrams was unfortunately corrupted.
You can download the full page, with corrected diagram, by clicking here.
These will be added to this page over the next few days
UPDATE - THE INFORMATION IS NOW AVAILABLE ON THE FESTIVAL’S WEBSITE: click here to visit that
BraveUke is an independent ukulele festival I have helped a little with, with organisation / planning. They now have their website live.
(The form that was here to complete your details has now been removed - please refer to the website link above - which has the organiser’s details on it too).
If you’re a UKE Magazine reader, here’s the form for the competition in issue 38, to win PKC-70G concert pineapple ukulele, kindly provided by Ohana Music.
We asked you to identify the logos of various ukulele brands. You can submit your answers (by 1 August 2024) below:
