Beirut – The Penalty

August 28, 2007

[youtube djtrHK67CSw]

Beirut – The Penalty (Chords)

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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EXPECTING TO FIND CHORDS/TABS? Try clicking where it says the name of the song in red under the video.
Written by Woodshed · Filed Under Chords 
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Comments

35 Responses to “Beirut – The Penalty”

  1. Pete Wissinger on August 28th, 2007 8:20 pm

    Thanks for working this out so soon! I am excited to play it. Keep up the good work

  2. amber on August 29th, 2007 8:06 am

    How exciting.

  3. ryantheduke on September 18th, 2007 10:48 pm

    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.

  4. Woodshed on September 19th, 2007 9:43 pm

    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.

  5. Jim on September 28th, 2007 5:21 pm

    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!

  6. Jim on September 28th, 2007 5:27 pm

    Hi again,

    My “website” is not “http://noneyet”. I meant that I do NOT have a website yet!

    Thanks…

  7. Benjamin on October 3rd, 2007 10:42 pm

    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!

  8. Woodshed on October 3rd, 2007 11:06 pm

    Thanks, Benjamin. I’m glad you found it useful.

    Thanks for your comments, Jim. I’m sure you’re right.

  9. Daniel on November 15th, 2007 2:56 am

    Love these guys. Can’t get enoguh of the Flying Club Cup, its an amazing record. I jost actually bought their first one.

  10. Daniel on November 15th, 2007 2:57 am

    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!

  11. Woodshed on November 17th, 2007 10:38 pm

    Congratulations on finding a ukulele, Daniel. Better than finding buried treasure :)

  12. Joshua on December 6th, 2007 7:10 pm

    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.

  13. Woodshed on December 9th, 2007 3:47 pm

    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.

  14. Best of 2007: Beirut - St Apollonia | Uke Hunt on January 16th, 2008 8:06 am

    [...] are a couple of uke-heavy tracks on the album: The Penalty (you can find the chords for The Penalty here) and St [...]

  15. Beirut - Flying Club Cup | Uke Hunt on February 26th, 2008 6:00 pm

    [...] The Penalty (Chords) [...]

  16. Spordan on February 29th, 2008 1:30 pm

    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! :)

  17. Woodshed on February 29th, 2008 7:21 pm

    You’re welcome, Spordan. Glad you liked it.

  18. Siddhartha on April 3rd, 2008 7:35 pm

    When I first heard the song, I started crying. Thank God that someone was able to work out the cords.

  19. Woodshed on April 3rd, 2008 8:10 pm

    It’s a damn fine song, Siddhartha, no doubt about that.

  20. Rachel on April 4th, 2008 12:48 am

    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.

  21. Woodshed on April 4th, 2008 9:52 pm

    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.

  22. Izzy on April 22nd, 2008 4:01 pm

    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..

  23. justin on April 24th, 2008 6:51 am

    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. :)

  24. traveling/strings on June 12th, 2008 12:49 am

    I’ve been looking through several of these songs lately, thanks for posting actually accurate stuff… these songs are great!!!

  25. Janice on August 22nd, 2008 6:32 am

    thank you so much. I’m a beginner on the uke but have been playing the guitar for 2 years already and this is awesome. YOU’RE awesome!

  26. Woodshed on August 23rd, 2008 5:04 pm

    Thanks, Janice. Happy to help.

  27. bobchaw on April 7th, 2009 7:46 am

    I’ve been working on this song for a little while now. I can get most of it save the strumming pattern, which is really tricky. I’m also having trouble getting the second chord of the song to come out right (the e/C). Maybe it’s just my factory strings doing their work. It seems to me that this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01XO0seAfw8 has an alternate way of playing that chord. Any suggetstions?
    Thanks one million.

  28. felix on May 10th, 2009 12:25 pm

    the e/c sounds really off but the rest sounds incredible

  29. Woodshed on May 10th, 2009 2:26 pm

    felix: Are you sure you’re playing it at the right fret. It needs to be at the 7th.

  30. Simon on September 6th, 2009 1:28 am

    It really sounds like this song starts with an F, not with a C.

  31. Beatrice Everett on September 7th, 2009 4:13 am

    I am in awe at how simple but beautiful this song is on the Ukulele. I play viola and used to play guitar, and expected the uke to be much of the same, but instead found it to be a refreshing. Plus it helps that this site is freaking AMAZING! This song is equally amazing, too. Thank you so much for all that you do!

  32. Woodshed on September 13th, 2009 8:47 am

    Simon: You’re absolutely right. Not sure how I missed that.

    Beatrice: Thanks so much for the kind words.

  33. Woodshed on September 13th, 2009 8:50 am

    Beatrice: Holy crap! I just checked out your blog. That Garden of Earthly Delights is amazing.

  34. Sammi A. on October 2nd, 2009 6:03 pm

    hey i recently just bought a ukulele and they are awesome. I did not relize how many songs you can play on them plus im not the tallest person in the world so having a small instrument helps a lot. I used to play violin but this is much cooler. I bought a black one from kilauea i didnt see this brand on your website but i got a good deal and a free felt pick which is hard to play with, Do you have any advice for me?

  35. Woodshed on October 2nd, 2009 6:55 pm

    Sammi: Don’t bother with a felt pick, use your index finger for strumming instead.

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