Neutral Milk/Uke Hotel – King of Carrot Flowers Pt.1 (Chords)

Neutral Milk/Uke Hotel – King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1 (Chords)

Me a year ago: “That’s the second ukulele-based cover of the entire In the Aeroplane Over the Sea album I’ve ever heard (after this one). I should write up a song from that.”

Me a week ago: “I should probably get round to that now.”

So this is long overdue and now fairly irrelevant but it’s still an excellent song. And pretty easy since it’s only three chords. I included the soprano version of the chords in the chart above but the song is played on baritone so here’s that version of the chord shapes.

Suggested Strumming

For the main strumming pattern you can use this:

d – d – d u d u

Which sounds like this (slow then up to speed):


Main Strum

Do that twice for the F and once each for the C and Bb in the first two lines. Then twice each for the C and Bb in the next line.

The only tricky bit is the quick change in the intro, verse ends and instrumental parts. Here you strum like this:


Tricky Strum

After that, you’re back to the easy pattern for C and Bb.

Twiddly Bits

I’ve included tab for the two accordion/trumpet/melodica parts in the chord sheet. The first part is pretty simple and sounds like this on uke:


Break

It’s played twice through (as here) on the original but only once in the NUH version.

The outro section is a bit more tricky. It’s played higher up the neck. Try to use your pinky for all the notes on the 8th fret. That way your other fingers will be in the right position for the other bits.


Outro


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24 Comments

  1. kylie April 19th, 2011 9:08 pm

    OMG, thank you! I just bought my first uke Saturday and this song was on my list of songs I MUST learn. (The only song I know so far is Creep, lol) Great website, and great tabs!

  2. David April 19th, 2011 11:06 pm

    All-in-all… smile. :)

  3. Chris April 20th, 2011 11:55 am

    Great song, I love NMH. Very excited about Jeff Mangum at All Tommorow’s Parties…

    Quick correction though, I think the opening riff goes F//Bb//C//Bb//

  4. Rob NY April 20th, 2011 1:32 pm

    Great song great album,great lesson! Thank you

  5. Rissa April 20th, 2011 9:38 pm

    …i freaking love you, Woodshed

  6. Ry April 21st, 2011 3:58 am

    such a great song. thanks.

  7. Woodshed April 21st, 2011 11:13 am

    kylie: Have fun with your new uke!

    David: Glad to hear it.

    Chris: Have fun at ATP. I’m pretty sure it does go back to F after the Bb in the intro.

    Rob: Thanks very much.

    Rissa: Thanks! I love me too.

    Ry: You’re welcome.

  8. Klingenstern May 8th, 2011 8:18 am

    Hello! First of all, thank you for your great work on this wonderful site.

    I really like your version of this song. It sounds wonderful. However, when I play it, this strumming pattern sounds more like a drone than music, while your playing is beautifully diverse and elegant. How do you do it? Of course, I understand that this is mainly the question of talent and much practice (which I both lack), but I wonder if it is possible to verbalise the techniques of bringing life into the strumming?

  9. Daniel August 7th, 2012 5:42 pm

    This is too good. Damn I’m glad.

  10. Woodshed August 8th, 2012 1:17 pm

    Daniel: Glad you like!

  11. toonsis August 19th, 2012 11:46 pm

    Thank you. You are my hero. Seriously.

  12. Woodshed August 22nd, 2012 9:41 am

    toonsis: You’re very welcome.

  13. Jay December 24th, 2012 12:41 am

    Maybe a little fix on the C chord, since the original song sounds like it was mostly barre chords, then I feel like the C should be barred (B chord but on the 3rd fret) to imitate that barred feeling

  14. Woodshed December 24th, 2012 12:17 pm

    Jay: Yep, that’ll work.

  15. Dan March 18th, 2014 4:13 am

    This is amazing! Can you explain how Neutral Uke Hotel ends the song in the music video? There’s some changeup I can’t quite figure out. Thanks!

  16. Woodshed March 18th, 2014 7:59 am

    Dan: I don’t think there’s anything more fancy than slowing down.

  17. queen of carrot flowers August 22nd, 2014 8:08 pm

    thank you so much for this tutorial. you’re clearly very talented and this website has helped me learn so much. I want to throw my money at you because you deserve it!

  18. Woodshed August 23rd, 2014 7:09 am

    queen of carrot flowers: Thanks very much! I’ll go get my money bucket.

  19. Amy September 2nd, 2014 8:31 pm

    I was starting to doubt my resolve to learn to play the uke until this. <3

  20. Woodshed September 3rd, 2014 8:14 pm

    Amy: Hooray! Glad I could strengthen your resolve.

  21. Deanie January 5th, 2015 2:04 pm

    Hi, love that you’ve included the

  22. Deanie January 5th, 2015 2:06 pm

    Gah! – included the twidley bits, just wondering are you strummingand plucking at the same time in thesample clip or is there more than one recording/person playing?

  23. Woodshed January 7th, 2015 7:25 am

    Deanie: Yeah, those two have two ukuleles. One the strumming and one the twiddly bits.

  24. Tom Clarke May 29th, 2016 10:34 am

    Hi, I love the video of you guys playing this. Do you perhaps have an instrumental only version of this? Been looking everywhere for one!

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