Beirut - The Penalty
August 28, 2007 · Print This Article
The standout track on The Flying Club Cup as far as I’m concerned - although I am completely biased in any matter that involves ukuleles - is the uke lead tune The Penalty.
The first thing to notice in the chords for the song is that there are three different inversions of the C chord in there. The Penalty starts off with a shortened bar of the usual open C shape. Then the three strings remain open while the A string is played at the seventh fret. I’ve called it e/C as the highest note is the E. Finally, there’s another C chord - I’ve called it C(alt) which acts a passing chord between the Em and the F (it is only played for a short time and is, therefore, in square brackets). There’s is also a short Fadd9 chord which is made simply by taking your finger off the G string and letting it run open. This chord is only played for a short time also and is used to create a little harmonic interest in the long F bars.
There’s only one other set of chords in the tune: a simple F C F G. Then you are good to go.
More Beirut tab and chords for ukulele
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Thanks for working this out so soon! I am excited to play it. Keep up the good work
How exciting.
amazing work on the chords. i’m going to buy a ukulele soon, just playing it on guitar now.. do you know where this video is from?
check our site at the end of september, we should have some content from the beirut shows in montreal up there.
Hi Ryan. The video was shot at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, South Bank. I’m looking forward to your Beirut stuff. I can’t get enough of them.
Hi Ryan,
After listening to a number of versions of The Penalty, I’ve discovered that instead of “or get through the day” in the second verse (from your pdf chords), Zach sings “our friends rue the day”. The song makes a lot more sense now.
Cheers!
Hi again,
My “website” is not “http://noneyet”. I meant that I do NOT have a website yet!
Thanks…
Thanks for all the hard work! I’ve been playing through it, and this is a truly beautiful song. I was surprised not only to find the chords, but to find such a helpful explanation. Thanks!
Thanks, Benjamin. I’m glad you found it useful.
Thanks for your comments, Jim. I’m sure you’re right.
Love these guys. Can’t get enoguh of the Flying Club Cup, its an amazing record. I jost actually bought their first one.
oh and I’m learning this song right now. I just found out that I own a ukulele and just tuned it five minutes ago and now I’m learning this great song!
Congratulations on finding a ukulele, Daniel. Better than finding buried treasure
I Love this song and Everything Beirut,
and i have learned all of the chords for this song - But!
i cannot get the strumming pattern right so it sounds rubbish : ((
does anyone have any tips to help a beginner-ish uke player?
Thanks.
The strumming pattern changes around a lot. A good place to start is down, down, up, up. Here’s me playing that pattern slowed down, then at full speed. Hope that helps, Joshua.
[…] are a couple of uke-heavy tracks on the album: The Penalty (you can find the chords for The Penalty here) and St […]
[…] The Penalty (Chords) […]
only just got into Beirut, and being a novice uke player I thought i’d search for some tabs and found this site.
Just wanted to say thanks a lot for transcribing this song as there’s no way i’d be able to work it out myself!
You’re welcome, Spordan. Glad you liked it.
When I first heard the song, I started crying. Thank God that someone was able to work out the cords.
It’s a damn fine song, Siddhartha, no doubt about that.
Amazing. I love everything Zach Condon touches.
I just got a ukulele and I’m amazed at how easy it is. I play several instruments and ukulele has been by far one of the easiest and the most fun to play.
Thanks for posting the chords! I was looking around and I could only find chords rewritten for electric guitar.
Hi, Rachel. You’re welcome. Anything I can do to help people avoid gu***rs and their boring chords will be reward in heaven. I have no doubt.
Thanks… Any chance someone could put the chords up on chordie.com, in that format? That’d be tres helpful as I’m having trouble working out the chord progression completely accurately..
the link to the pdf file doesn’t seem to be working for this song….
can you email me the pdf to jusdog313@hotmail.com?
that would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve been looking through several of these songs lately, thanks for posting actually accurate stuff… these songs are great!!!