Rilo Kiley – Ripchord

Rilo Kiley – Ripchord (Chords)

There’s no ukulele on the album version of Rilo Kiley’s Ripchord but, judging by the clips on YouTube, it’s become a ukulele mainstay in their live show with their guitarist Blake Sennett taking on uke and vocal duties. It seems that guitarists playing the uke move up and down the neck much more often than born ukulele players. You can see it songs like this and Panic at the Disco’s Friends in Holy Spaces.

A couple of things to look out for in the chord chart. First, There’s a chord I’ve labeled A5. It’s not strictly an A5 chord but an A chord. I’ve called it this to distinguish it from the other A chord in the song.

The second, and the trickiest part of the song, is the A6 chord in the intro. It’s a big stretch and he fluffs it a little himself. It’s such a big stretch I couldn’t fit in all on the chord diagram. The diagram shows the note on the eight fret of the A string. It actually needs to be on the ninth.

This would be a simpler way of playing it.


Midi

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13 Comments

  1. andrew July 17th, 2008 9:38 pm

    pssshhh, that’s a crazy reach, you’re right. i’ve got huge hands and that still hurts. still, thanks for the tab. it’s nice to have something to aim for, like huge reaches. also, question about your recent post on power chords- you mention that you just go up 7 frets from any note to find the fifth. how do you know which string to go up 7 frets?

  2. Paul July 17th, 2008 11:37 pm

    Is it just me, or is this track reminiscent of ‘You’re Sixteen’ as popularised by Johnny Burnette?

  3. Woodshed July 18th, 2008 3:02 pm

    andrew: Any string. Seven frets up from C is G whichever string you use.

    Paul: You’re right. There’s a definite similarity.

    Link for anyone who wants to check it out.

  4. brian July 18th, 2008 11:11 pm

    it’s like your reading my mind… this is the first song i tried to look up when i first got my uke

    thanks for posting this

  5. Woodshed July 20th, 2008 11:13 am

    You’re welcome, Brian.

  6. brian October 21st, 2008 9:28 pm

    ..me again (and if I could correct the typo from my comment above, i would.. ouch)

    Why did you use alternate chord versions for D, F#, G, and A (as far as I can tell..)? I feel like it sounds alright using the trad’l chords, but I can’t quite tell because I’m not quick enough to pull together the alternates enough to figure out what they sound like.

  7. Woodshed October 21st, 2008 9:34 pm

    brian: I wrote it up the way he plays it. There’s nothing wrong with using the standard chords. If it sounds good, it is good.

  8. cory September 29th, 2009 11:04 pm

    it needs to be bar chords the way that he plays it so he can mute it easier. i used to play it with traditional chords and it sounded good. but thank you for this version. its putting a strain on my hands playing it so much haha.

  9. Woodshed September 30th, 2009 11:46 am

    cory: Yeah, the open chords create a different vibe to the song. Good but different.

  10. Shannon April 19th, 2010 4:07 am

    It would be astrnomically cool if you also wrote the chords for “With Arms Outstretched” by Rilo Kiley. I used to know it on guitar, but I can’t figure it out on ukulele. It’s such a good song and I miss playing it. ;-;

  11. wants a uke August 22nd, 2010 5:35 am

    Maybe I just have a different track but I have this song on an album played on uke. Maybe it isn’t an original album track but I always thought this song was played on a ukulele

  12. tomped March 25th, 2013 4:38 pm

    Love this song, any chance you could break down the strumming?

  13. Woodshed March 26th, 2013 7:50 am

    tomped: It’s worth practicing coming up with your own stumming patterns. Here’s a couple of posts that should help:

    http://ukulelehunt.com/2008/10/22/ukulele-strumming/
    http://ukulelehunt.com/2011/06/29/ukulele-strumming-patterns/

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