I’ve been waiting ages for an excuse to do a Johnny Cash song that isn’t Folsom Prison or Ring of Fire. So James Clem covering one of my favourite Cash songs is all the excuse I need.
There are a few tricky moves in the chords. But you can simplify it by using F7 in the place of Ab and use the open shape of C7.
Suggested Strumming
A lot of left-hand muting in this one. Here’s a pattern you can use most of the way through:
This is easily one of the best protest songs ever written. And one of the best songs of any sort. The lyrics are as nuanced and thought-provoking then any other. But it’s the music – written by Clive Langer – that really makes it shine.
The song is in the key of E minor but you’re hardly ever using the Em chord. In my arrangement there’s a grand total of three bars of it. So the song never feels relaxed or settled. It’s always shifting. The jazzy elements unsettle the tune. All that is added to in Robert Wyatt’s version with his vocal wobbles.
I could keep rambling on but I’ll let you play it.
Every time the subject of the ukulele video of the year comes up, regular commentor, Ron Hale enquires as to the status of previous winners. So for him here’s a rundown of what happened to the ukulelists after the career peak of winning the award.
2007 Winner: Molly Lewis (Sweetafton23) – Tom Cruise Crazy
Back then: Bedroom-uker covering Jonathan Coulton.
Since then: As a direct result of this video, she ended up regularly performing and touring with Coulton and buddies like Paul and Storm, and John Hodgman.
She started writing her own songs in a similar comic style. In 2009 she released her debut album I Made You a CD, but I Eated It. And displayed no loyalty whatsoever by mercilessly crushing Paul and Storm, and her label boss Hank Green to win Masters of Song Fu #3.
Back then: Adorable Japanese puppets covering Ventures songs.
Since then: They followed up the Ventures album with a set of Beatles covers. But whilst touring the record 900′s spiralling drug-use caused friction with U and the band split. U travelled to Bhutan and a spent a year’s retreat at the Punakha Dzong monastery. After a disastrous 13-day marriage to Heidi Hippo, 900 vowed to get sober.
Since then: Hal has been touring relentlessly and is a regular fixture at ukulele festivals. He released his follow-up to Huckster, Flirting with Mermaids, in 2010.
What’s he done lately? Hal’s just released the fantastic Devil on the Wall. It’s killer. You should give it a listen.
What’ve they done lately? The band’s ukulelist Rodrigo Lems has been busy releasing his own solo album and playing in the band Naked Girls and Aeroplanes
These hip hop riff posts fast becoming my favourite posts to do. With this one I’ve gone way down hill from the firsttwo posts in terms of credibility. But at least there’s a long-overdue Nas riff in there.
This one requires a bit of jiggering for the uke. The first note should be an octave below where it is here. So if you’re using low-G you can play it on the G-string, 1st fret.
The chords to go along with it are G#m – B – C# – D# – F#
Things get a lot more uke-friendly if you move the song down a fret (or capo the first fret). That lets you use the open g to buy you some time:
And makes the chords more familiar: Gm – Bb – C – D – F
Unlike the other riffs in the post, this one is absolutely perfect for ukuleling. It’s based around fingerpicking a Gm chord. I use thumb on C, index on E and middle on A.
I’m going to backtrack from the title right away. Whether these scales sound weird to you depends entirely on your cultural perspective. But they are rarely heard on the ukulele.
There are plenty of good reasons to learn unfamiliar sounding scales:
- Rut busting: Ever find yourself playing the same set of notes over and over again?
- Lame Pastiches: This is how they’re most often used. And that’s what I’ve done for the demo examples in this post. But that’s certainly not the best way of using the scales.
- Integrating into your own style: Much more satisfying is take ideas and sounds and integrate them into your own playing.
So, for starters, here are three lesser-uked scales for you to try out.
