Velvet Underground & Nico – I’ll Be Your Mirror (Chords)

Velvet Underground and Nico – I’ll Be Your Mirror (Chords)

I had to do a Lou Reed tribute post. And I decided on this less-famous song because it suits the ukulele well. The original was played with a capo on the fifth fret. Which means the chord shapes are the same for both versions.

Suggested Strumming

For the main strum you can use:

d – d u d u d –

In the intro and outro: Once for each chord.

In the verse: Main strum once for each chord except the first D. Play two down strums for that.

In the chorus: Two down-strums each on the C and D. One main strum each on the Gs. Then two main strums on the Am, one on the C and end on the D.

Twiddly Bits

The little picking bit in the intro and the middle works well on the uke too. Here’s a simplified uked version:

BeYourMirrorIntro

When you play it in the middle of the song just play the repeat once.


Intro

The little bit at the end of the chorus doesn’t work quite as well but you can do this:

I'llBeYourMirrorLick


Lick

Links

Buy it on iTunes
Lou Reed obituary

View Comments

8 Comments

  1. Richard November 6th, 2013 4:05 pm

    First, thanks for making such a wonderful website. As a new uke player it has been very useful. This is one of my favorite VU songs. I am looking forward to going home and spending some time learning it.

  2. Rhonda November 6th, 2013 4:56 pm

    Been thinking about a LR song that would work on uke. This one’s lovely. Thanks.

  3. David November 6th, 2013 6:58 pm

    V.U….thank you Al.

  4. Woodshed November 6th, 2013 7:57 pm

    Richard: Thanks very much! Happy playing.

    Rhonda: Glad you like it.

    David: You’re welcome!

  5. wastad November 8th, 2013 9:41 am

    thanks for that – ihaven’t heard that song for an age, I’ve got an lp with it on somewhere. banana album?

  6. Woodshed November 8th, 2013 11:35 am

    wastad: Yep, the banana album.

  7. Liz November 9th, 2013 6:01 pm

    Yes, thank you so much for this! You know, after Lou Reed died I kept thinking of this beautiful song and how lovely it would be to play on the ukulele – so I was thrilled to get this.
    The sweet and wistful Perfect Day also works very well on the ukulele.

  8. Woodshed November 10th, 2013 4:34 pm

    Liz: You’re very welcome.

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