Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over
This line in the NYT review of the Ukes’ performance at got up my nose a little:
Perhaps because the ukulele has long been treated as a four-string mini-guitar for amateurs, only a handful of ukulelists have achieved much renown…
But the more I thought about, the more I thought they had a point. OK, there are thousands of examples of the uke not being played like a small guitar. But they are outnumbered by the mini-guitar types. And if you’re not taking advantage of the uke’s idiosyncrasies you may as well be playing guitar.
Much more effective is playing the ukulele like a drum with strings or like a harp with frets
This tune by Florence and the Machine is a perfect place to start with the uke/harp crossover. In fact, I’m not 100% sure it is a harp and not a ukulele.
Suggested Strumming
You can recreate the echo sound by just doing:
d u d u d u d u
Do that four times for the G, once for the Am and twice for the Em.
Alternative Inversions
I’ve included the open chord shapes in the chart, but if you’re feeling ambitious it’s worth using this A minor to give you the upwards move from the G:
And here are some inversions further up the neck.
Twiddly Bits
In the acoustic version the chord part is played like this on harp:
And there’s a little riff like this:
And here it is slowed down a little:
like this song, thanks!