Queen – Somebody to Love (Chords)
It’s been very gratifying to see the revival of interest in Queen the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic has produced. Their songs so often have interesting twists and turns, memorable guitar solos and amazing harmonies. Plus Brian May started out on ukulele and picked it up again for Good Company.
Suggested Strumming
Main strum: d – d u d –
Intro: Just one strum per chord to start with. Then you can down-strum on each beat for the build on Bb – C.
Verse and solo: When there are three chords to a line, main strum once each for the first two chords then two on the last chord. Two each on the G7-C. And one each on the last line. Which sounds like this:
The verses do switch up a little. Verse two starts two main strums on the F and one on each of the last line.
Chorus and Outro: One down-strum per beat on the F in the first line. Then switching back to the main strum once per chord until two big down-strums on the F6. Then back to the main strum twice per chord.
Bridge: Here you down-strum on the first four beats of each bar. And switch to down-strumming every beat as the tension builds. For the last line I strum down on the Csus4s and up on the Cs.
Twiddly Bits
Here’s a take on the piano part in the intro also played with a capo at the third fret. It’s a fingerpicked version of the chords with a few bits of filigree.
I love Brian May’s solos. They’re always melodic and interesting. This one uses the Ab major pentatonic most of the way through. It switches to the Ab major scale in bar 8. Then switching the D flat of the major scale for a D natural to move to the Ab lydian mode.
The end of the original solo turns into a bit of a widdle-fest that doesn’t translate well to uke. So for my version I’ve borrowed from the, “someday I’m going be free, lord,” vocal part.
I’m playing this without a capo. But there’s nothing below the third fret so it won’t cause any problems if you’re playing the chords as well.
