My Ukulele for Dummies book is now available in the UK (Amazon sold out their first batch straight away but they’re back in stock now). People have already been getting their copies (including my mum who was practically bashing on the doors of Amazon on the day of release). If you’re one of those, it would be great if you could leave a review on Amazon. Good, bad or indifferent. It would be great to have reviews on the UK site when it’s released in the US in August. And I’m, of course, very interested to see what people make of it.
There was a big reaction to Blue Dean Carcione’s magnificent performance of this song when I posted it and Dean was kind enough to pass along his version of the chords/tab for me to write up.
Dean based his version on the Alligator Boogaloo chords but added a few variations and also used a capo at the second fret (making the song in the key of D).
Twiddly Bits
Dean’s intro is spot on and is played like this:
There’s a little bit of filigree on the C chord in the bridge.
You can play that or just stick with a straight C chord.
The most awkward question I get asked is, “What’s the strumming pattern for this?” Because there’s no real answer to it. It’s not like a chord progression where there’s a right chord and a wrong chord. You can use different strumming patterns and it will still work. It’s an important skill to be able to pick your own strumming patterns.
So in this post I’ve listed some of the most common strumming patterns around. Ones you can try out and see if they fit the song.
Before you start strumming, go through these steps:
Step 1: Clap along with the song: If the singer was to shout, “Hey everybody, clap along,” what would you do? (Assuming you’re less surly than me and would just fold your arms and look moody.)
Step 2: Pretend you’re in The Ramones: If you were going to start the song by shouting one, two, three, four what would you do? Try counting through the song repeating that all the way (if counting to four doesn’t fit, try counting to three).
Step 3: Try a few strumming patterns: Try fitting a strumming pattern to the song. Fit them so the down strums in the pattern match with the numbers you count. So a dead simple pattern would be all down strums: strum down when you count one, when you count two, when you count three and when you count four.
4/4 Strumming Patterns
By far the most common time signature around is 4/4 (“four four”). If you can count along to a song, “one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four,” and it fits, try out these strumming patterns.
Strumming Pattern 1: d – d u – u d –
This one crops up in so many ukulele songs. It’s simple to play. But – because it misses the third down strum – it has a slightly syncopated feel to it which makes it more interesting.
With a reggae strum you’re always going to be accenting the off beats. In the other strums here you’re always playing a strong beat on the ‘one’ of the count. Here you’re accenting other beats. It’s not always obvious what’s going on so I’ve included a click track with these.
Strumming Pattern 10: – d – d – d – d
Here you’re accenting the beats between the count.
You make any of these strums faster or slower than I’ve played them. In general, the more complicated the strum, the better it’ll sound slowed down. The more straight forward it is, the better it works at high speed.
If I turn into a crazy cat-lady, I think my millions will probably go to trees. Which is why I’m entirely won over to Misty Miller after she did a song for the Woodland Trust.
For this song, I’ve written up the album version. Although I prefer solo version (much less Mrazy).
Suggested Strumming
This strumming pattern will do you well:
Use that twice for each chord in the verses and once for each chord in the chorus.
Still no decent Internet here, so a rather shortened post this week. So go ahead and leave your favourite of the week in the comments to give people something to listen to.
Another example of a national anthem that isn’t. This one is a bit more murdery, but still preferable to a song expressing pride at being girt by sea.
This arrangement is pretty easy. There’s no fancy picking, it’s all done with the thumb. The only thing to watch out for is a bit of a journey up the neck.
In other news, I’m on holiday at the moment and having some Internet connection problems. I’m relying on the hideous, caveman-like experience of 3G. So if there are no Friday and Saturday posts that’ll be why.
It’s nearly the half way point of the year. Already. So here’s a quick round-up of my favourite videos so far (in the order they showed up on the blog).
One thing I’ve noticed putting this together: the number of pro musicians using the ukulele has crowded out the bedroom players. Whether that’s established musicians picking up the uke (Amanda Palmer and Eddie Vedder), new acts with the uke up front (Misty Miller) or bands with the uke as part of the texture (Seryn and Keston Cobblers’ Club).
Leave your favourite(s) of the year in the comments.
Saying, “I love you,” might be hard but saying, “I love this song certainly isn’t.” Makes for a pretty easy transfer from piano to ukulele as well – which isn’t always the case.
Suggested Strumming
A good main strumming pattern would be:
d – d u
In the verses and choruses use that twice for D, once for G, four times for D. That sounds like this:
You can do just a down strum for the Bm and A at the end of the verse before heading back to the main pattern for G. Watch out for the end of verse 4. There you add a down strum for G and back to the main strum on D.
In the bridge section, do the main strum once for each chord.
Then the tricky bit. Play just single notes for the ones in brackets (so that’s E-string open then E-string at the second fret) then you’re back to G for a down strum. It’s a bit tricky to play the usual G chord. I prefer to use a barre across the second fret (which you can put in place to play the F#). Or you could just play a single G note. After that, two down strums on A.
If I ever launch a range of ukuleles, I’m going to get Kimo Hussey to demonstrate them. That guy has incredible touch. As well as Kimo showing off his DeVine, this week has videos from The Vespers, The Jive Aces, Peter Brooke Turner of the UOGB under his Tony Penultimate pseudonym and plenty more besides.
