Mar/1/09
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Wellington International Ukulele Trio – Blue Smoke (Chords)

Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – Blue Smoke (Chords)

Lest you think ukuleles and New Zealand are a new phenomenon, the first record entirely produced in New Zealand, Blue Smoke, was a uke-featuring hapa haole song recorded when the technology was just reaching New Zealand way back in 1993 (you can read the full, and more accurate, story here). And a slimmed down version of the WIUO recorded it at the Ukulele Cabaret

Suggested Strumming Pattern

Blue Smoke is in waltz time (3/4) so here’s a strumming pattern that suits it:

d – d u d u

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13 Comments

  1. Mike March 1st, 2009 6:37 pm

    New Zealand is a bit backward, but we were making records before 1993! Blue Smoke is 1949, but there were plenty of records recorded and pressed before then; this was just the first completely NZ-made record from start to finish. It’s a lovely song.

  2. Woodshed March 2nd, 2009 9:23 pm

    Don’t listen to him, folks. It’s definitely 1993.

  3. Carrie March 2nd, 2009 10:26 pm

    haha!

  4. Mike March 3rd, 2009 5:03 am

    Oh no. Punk’d.

  5. Rukuleleth March 4th, 2009 5:15 pm

    I’ve been trying to learn some songs from a guitar book, by just playing the chords for the uke, but I don’t know how to play chords where it’s something over something, like E/D# or G/B. No ukulele chord website will tell me, and my ukulele book doesn’t know. Can you help me out Woody??
    Thanks!

  6. Woodshed March 4th, 2009 7:18 pm

    Rukuleleth: They’re slash chords. E/D# would be Emaj7 and G/B is just a G chord.

  7. chris March 7th, 2009 6:34 pm

    Is that Bret from Flight of The Conchords

  8. Mike March 8th, 2009 1:30 am

    It most certainly is Bret; he’s a founder member of the WIUO, but nowadays only gets to jet in for special occasions.

  9. Pozza October 2nd, 2009 4:26 pm

    Here’s a real simple intro for Blue Smoke based on the one you can hear in the original recording. Sorry if my tabbing skills are rubbish but hopefully you can get the gist of it.

    5 – 2 – 5 – -7 – 3 -7 – 5 – 2 – – 0 – – – – – – – – – – 2 – 0 – 2 – 0 – – – 0 -5
    – – 3 – – – – – – -0 – – – – – – -3 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 2 – 3 – – – -0 – – – – 3 – 2
    – – 2 – – – – – – -0 – – – – – – – – – 1 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – -2
    – – 0 – – – – – – -0 – – – – – – – – – 0 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – -2

  10. Woodshed October 2nd, 2009 6:56 pm

    Pozza: Thanks for that. I got told off by Gemma for tabbing up this version, so I might redo it with the new version.

  11. fibby March 6th, 2010 10:30 am

    Thanks for these chords! Next week I’m going to a fancy dress party as “New Zealand’s first pop song”, and now I’ll be able to give a quick demonstration too!

    I notice you’ve given the standard fingering for D7 (3222), but as this is a Pacific song, it seems to me that Hawaiian D7 should be used throughout (0202). I reckon it sounds a lot better and more bluesy that way, and also more like the WIUO version. Plus it’s easier to play!

  12. Woodshed March 6th, 2010 11:13 am

    fibby: Yeah, you can do either.

  13. Uke17 August 21st, 2014 9:23 pm

    And fibby did go to the fancy dress party, AND she won a prize, AND the CEO asked her to play. This was when she had been playing the uke for only about 4 months, so that was a pretty impressive feat.

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