I’ve read some absolute drivel about ukuleles over the years. But there’s a new worst: Rolling Stone wrote an article about “best ukuleles” that “pros use” that’s so bad I’m not willing to link directly to it.
I’ve kept my version very simple. I’m only using the top three strings picked thumb and two finger style. The most important thing is to give the melody notes a little extra umph so they stand out against the backing notes.
Following on from Lewis Capaldi, I wanted to do another recent song with an interesting picking pattern. And Señorita shares elements of that picking pattern but is more challenging and uses some interesting chords.
Suggested Strumming Pattern
If you’d rather strum than pick, you can use this pattern all the way through:
d – d u d u d u
Use that twice per chord until Em7. On Em7, play it once but switch to G on the last up strum. Then continue playing the pattern again on G.
The only exception is at the end of the second verse. On that G you just play two down-strums.
Like the Lewis Capaldi song, the picking is done with the thumb on the C-string, index finger on the E-string and middle finger on the A-string. The complicating factor is the percussive clicks the pattern contains. I produce these two different ways. The first two in each chord (show with just two xs in the PDF tab) are made by bringing my thumb down on the g- and C-strings so hit the fretboard and make a light click. The final one (shown by four xs) is a traditional chnk where I strum the strings but deaden them with the underside of my picking hand.
Here’s a version of the solo that plays in the intro and outro. For this, I’m using a lot of palm muting i.e. resting the underside of my picking hand on the strings as I pick them. Light enough that the notes still sound but heavy enough that they don’t ring out.
I Remember You is heartbreaking beautiful song from 1941 by Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer. My favourite versions of this are by Ella Fitzgerald and Bjork. But, bafflingly, Frank Ifield’s bizarre yodelling cowboy version is the most well known. You won’t be surprised to learn my arrangement is based on the former two.
This song is part of my jazz odyssey series where I’m trying to increase my understand of jazz theory and putting it into practice. Instead of focussing on jazz licks like I did in Ja-Da and Summertime, this time I’m focussing on chords. So there are many 7, maj7, 6, and b5 notes thrown in. Hopefully, in a way that they flow together and don’t sound contrived.
A selection of riffs and motifs from various songs that use powercut-proof instruments. Including uke, guitar, piano, fiddle and marimba (courtesy of, famed minimalist composer, Steve Reich’s Nagoya Marimbas).
If you like these short tabs, you can find lots more on my Instagram.
You can’t move for I’m Yours chord progressions in the charts at the moment. Those are I V vi IV progressions to give them the technical definition. On ukulele that’s usually either G-D-Em-C or C-G-Am-F. And if you put a capo on the first fret, the later is exactly what you get from Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved.
The main reason I wrote up this song is that it makes for a great introduction to fingerpicking. The picking pattern is dead simple and the easy chords mean you can focus on your picking hand.
Suggested Strumming Pattern
If you’d rather strum than pick, you can use this pattern once per chord almost all the way through:
d – d – d u d u
The only exception is in the middle. There when you reach the first G play the pattern as normal. Then stay on the G for two more down-strums. Then switch to Am for dudu. Before returning to the pattern for Dm.
Twiddly Bits
The picking pattern is very simple and a great place for beginners to start. You pick the E-string with your index finger at the same time as picking the A-string with your middle finger (except at the end of the pattern where you just pick the E-string. Then you pluck the C-string with your thumb. And you just repeat that for the whole song.
The tab above matches the piano part as closely as possible. But you can just use the same picking pattern with the standard chord shapes and it sounds just as good. Like this:
Christmas came early for depressed weirdos last week with the surprise release of Bon Iver’s new album i,i. The record is a perfect blend of his previous three albums. The acoustic track Marion is the most like his debut album and so obviously suited for a ukulele cover I started working it out during my first hearing of it.
I’m playing it with a capo on the third fret to keep it in the original key of Eb. But it does stray high up the neck so you might want to ditch it if you’re using a soprano uke.
It’s not too difficult to play. The only big stretch comes in bars 10-11. Everything else is plain sailing. I’m very loose with the timing in the song. Spreading out and compressing notes to add feeling to the song. So I encourage you to do the same.
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