Karen O – The Moon Song (Chords)
By my reckoning the last ukulele song to win the Best Song Oscar was Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head in 1969.
But that could change this year with the nomination of Karen O’s The Moon Song this year. The song was written for the Spike Jonze film Her where it’s performed by Joaquin Phoenix playing ukulele and Scarlett Johansson playing a Siri. Here’s a ukulele-based précis if you need to catch up.
I’ve written up two versions of the song. Above is the plain chords based on the Karen O guitar version. And below the ukulele picking version from the movie.
Suggested Strumming
For the main pattern you can use:
d – d u – u d u
Do that once each for Dm and G. You can do it twice for the C chord. Or you can do this:
d – d u – u d u
– u d u d u d –
Just do one down strum each for the F and Fm.
Picking Version
The Moon Song (Picking Version)(Tab)
The ukulele version has the same basic chords but a few different inversions. That means you can switch chord inversions as you see fit. Here’s Liz doing an excellent version by combining the picking with the open chords.
The arrangement, though, is slightly different. The intro is longer and there’s a verse missing.
I’ve suggested a thumb and two fingers picking pattern (shown in the first bar and repeated all the way through). It doesn’t seem to be what he’s using but it’s what I’d recommend.
I was looking for this for a while and suddenly 3 or 4 ukulele tabs pop up at once!
I prefer strumming the F and Fm a little differently, but other than that, spot on (Y)