Comments on: Neutral Milk Hotel – Holland, 1945

By: Liam

Liam — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:42:17 +0000

My favourite way is to barre the second fret and play the A string at the fifth fret with my little finger. C barre 2 basically…

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:37:49 +0000

Vatsal: Have you tried playing it by covering the g and C strings with the tip of your index finger then using your middle on the E string. That’s my preferred way of playing it.

By: Vatsal

Vatsal — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:10:40 +0000

THE EFFIN D CHORD. I CAN NEVER DO IT.

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:50:25 +0000

Liam: Thanks for the tab. Here's Laz's video on Aeroplanes Over the Sea. Sam: Thanks for the clarification. Ron: Laz has a bunch more tutorial videos on his site Ukulala.

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:24:19 +0000

What a great tutorial. Just got my first Uke a few days ago and, in all my searches on the net, this one has given some very clear instruction. Took me a while to get the strumming pattern but! More of this type of video would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

By: Sam Lowry

Sam Lowry — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:28:58 +0000

For those of us who are really slow to pick up new strums, I’d like to confirm that the strum described is:

DOWN DOWN UP UP DOWN UP

By: Ukulala

Ukulala — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:24:55 +0000

Hi,

Liam- Glad to hear you’re spreading the good word about NMH in the UK! I agree that In the Aeroplane over the Sea works great on the uke. I don’t know if there are tabs here, but I did a video on it a few months ago.

Woodshed- thanks for the extra insight into why the Am and G/B are used… that’s definitely the sort of uke-specific expertise we rely on you for!

By: Liam

Liam — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:41:10 +0000

Oh, another thing if you haven’t already tabbed it, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea works really really well on the ukulele. Two-Headed Boy parts one and two as well.

By: Liam

Liam — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:33:47 +0000

Ah, I see your point. It does work on the ukulele too. On the guitar, the Am sounds hideously out of place (but then you can do the bass run on the guitar so it’s ok). The way I was getting that bit on the uke was taking my finger off the first string whilst playing G:

0
3
2
0

and then this G shape to reinforce the run:

2
3
2
4

On a side note, I live in the UK and yes, the only people I know who know NMH are the people I’ve made listen to them.

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:04:53 +0000

Minamin: That’s a good one, too.

Mike: I strictly a play-along-er. I don’t have enough breath to make it through the first line of Happy Birthday.

amber and Ed: I had no idea NMH were loved so much. We don’t hear much from them in the UK.

p: Yes, the notes are the same, No, it doesn’t sound exactly the same. That point in the song is a walk-up on bass notes G – A – B. I wanted to emphasize that by keeping all those notes on the same string. When I play it, I strum in a way that focuses on those notes.

It is only a subtle difference, but I think it’s worthwhile. If you don’t hear the difference or find the chord a stretch (personally, I don’t), feel free to use the standard G chord.

Liam: It’s the same kind of thing with this. In the original there’s a single note walk-up of G – A – B. Playing just a single not on the ukulele isn’t going to give you a big enough sound for the job. So I beefed it up into a full Am chord.

Pffffff. I’m going to have to do my own write up along with these posts in future.