Tom Petty – Free Fallin’ (Chords)
As well as being the obvious choice for a Tom Petty tribute, Free Fallin’ works very well on the ukulele. So well you only have to bother changing your fretting on the g-string. The C, E and A strings all ring though the chord changes.
The only bit that doesn’t translate so well is the section with chugging power chords towards the end. But the underlying chord changes there are exactly the same as the rest of the song. So you can just playing through that section as you have been.
Suggested Strumming
Intro and verses: You can keep it very minimal and just do one down-strum per chord.
Chorus: Because the chords change in unusual places the strumming is a little tricky. Here’s how I play it:
Which sounds like this:
Chugging section: This part I play with all down-strums while resting the side of my strumming hand lightly on the strings (more on picking hand muting here). The pattern is: three on F, six on Bb, two on F, five on C.
As I said, you can just keep playing the chorus pattern through this section if you prefer. Or if you really like it you can play the chugging for the rest of the song.
Twiddly Bits
Just one little twiddle in the song: the guitar part in the break. Here’s how it sounds on the uke:
Thanx, I’m going to play this all day … sounds great on Uke, too!