Ingrid Michaelson - You and I (Chords)

Ingrid Michaelson - You and I (Chords)

I’m slightly concerned this one is going to anger the Indie Gods. Particularly since she’s played it with Jason Mraz a few times. But I’ve had a bunch of requests for it and I took a lot less convincing than I did with the song that won’t be named (henceforth to be known as ‘the Scottish song’).

The chords are pretty simple and ideal for beginners. She does use the less common variations of F and Am (with the A string at the third fret). But if you find that tricky, use the ones you’re familiar with.

Suggested Strumming

Here’s the strumming pattern she uses:

d - d u - u d u

Play it twice for each chord in the verses and once for each chord in the chorus. An exception is in the, “You and I/You and I” where you do d - d u once each for the F and G chords.

If this is your first visit here, you can find the chords/tab in those posts by clicking on the song title in red.

Kate Micucci - Let Us Be Happy Together (Chords)

Kate Micucci - Let Us Be Happy Together (Chords)

Another adorable ukulele ditty from Kate Micucci’s appearance in Scrubs. The choards for this one are dead easy. The only trouble is that she’s playing in D-tuning. So you’ll have to tune up or face the dreaded E chord.

Suggested Strumming

Also dead easy, go with all down strums.

Buy Kate Micucci stuff on CD Baby.

Darren Hayman - The Greedy, Ugly People (Chords)

Darren Hayman (Hefner) - Greedy, Ugly People (Chords)

Not a Fall song. But there is a very tenuous connection.

I was very joyed when I stumbled across this video. Not just because it’s my favourite Hefner song played on the ukulele. But also because it was put up by Spoilt Victorian Child which was, back in the day, the best MP3 blog around. Without it I wouldn’t have started my first MP3 blog. And without that, I wouldn’t be blogging here.

Spoilt Victorian Child was named after a Fall song. But you knew that.

Jason Mraz - I’m Yours (Tab and Chords)

Jason Mraz - I’m Yours (Chords)

Here it is. Due to popular demand (i.e. to stop people requesting it). And also due to the fact that the other versions on line keep it in the original key of B. It makes more sense, for beginners in particular, to move all the chords up a fret so it’s in the more uke-friendly key of C. So if you want to play along with the original, tune down half a step.

I’ve based the chords and tabs on the version in the video (which seems to have survived the cull). It’s very similar to the album version but there are some differences in the intro (and the lyrics but it’s not like they were the world’s ‘bestest’ to begin with).

Suggested Strumming

The strumming in this version (and Aldrine’s version) goes like this:

(d) (u) d - (d) (u) d -

With the strums in brackets being muted strums.

But that’s a little sparse if you are playing the uke by itself. So you could go with.

d u d u d u d u

Emphasizing the second and fourth beats.

Twiddly Bits

Here’s the intro as it’s played

But if you’re doing a solo version it’s easy to fill in the chords in between these parts.

I’m Yours

Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You Into the Dark (Chords)

The second part of Captain Obvious Week and it’s Ben Gibbard again. A very different sound to last time but some very similar chords.

Suggested Strumming

For the verses you can go with:

d - d u

All the way through. But you have to hold some chords longer than others. For the verse you do it four times for F, Dm and Bb. Then twice for F and C.

The intro and choruses are a bit more tricky. Do it twice for Dm, F, Bb. Once each for F and F7M. Two for Dm and F again. Four for C. Two for Dm, F, A. One for Dm, Dm7. Two for Bb and Bbm. And four for F.

I hope you followed that. I never know how much detail to give for the strumming.

The Postal Service - Such Great Heights (Tab and Chords)

The Postal Service - Such Great Heights (Chords)

This week is officially Captain Obvious Week. Covering non-uke songs that seem to be done over and over on ukulele. Strangely enough, two of them are from Ben Gibbard.

The electronic blips on bloops make Such Great Heights a fair unlikely obvious ukulele song, but plenty of people have taken it on (my favourite being Amber Nash). I suspect the Iron & Wine version pushed it much closer to ukulele territory.

If you’re going to tackle the Postal Service version, it helps to make it a duet - like the Witchger Boys did - to handle the vocal overlaps and the…

Twiddly Bits

Here’s what I made of the intro - arranged for two ukuleles. It’s very tricky - particularly if you’re trying to play it the same tempo as the original. As you can hear, I haven’t quite got it down.

Such Great Heights Intro Tab

MP3

The little piano bit - try to let the notes ringing into each other as much as possible:

And the solo- dead easy:

Paolo Nutini - High Hopes (Chords)

Paolo Nutini - High Hopes (Chords)

Polo Nutini’s ukulele may have met an unfortunate end but this ukulele ditty (from the upcoming Sunny Side Up) turned out nice.

And it’s a dead simple song - perfect for beginners. It’s just baby’s first uke chords: C, F and G.

Suggested Strumming

Old faithful:

d - d u - u d u

Pre-Order Sunny Side Up

If you can’t wait until Monday to hear the studio version (also featuring the uke) you can stream the new album on MySpace (unless you’re in the US). Check out Pencil Full of Lead for more uke action.

Requested by Naomi (and I’m pretty sure Alice will be interested too)

Hellogoodbye - Betrayed by Bones

Hellogoodbye - Betrayed by Bones (Chords)

To complete the Ukulele Recordings EP trilogy. On the first few listens I thought this was the weakest track on it. But it’s grown on me a great deal since.

Like the other tracks on the EP, it’s in D tuning. But it works fine playing the chords in C-tuning. Although I would advise playing the similar chord inversions to those you would play in D tuning. So D would be 2225, F#m would be 6654.

Suggested Strumming

D U X (U)

The U in brackets is an up strum with the strings muted with your fretting hand.

Buy on iTunes.

Requested by about 20 people on Ukulele Underground.

Jim’ll Fix It Theme (Chords)

Jim’ll Fix It Theme (Chords)

Apologies to the majority of you who have probably never heard this song before, but after mentioning it the other day I couldn’t resist writing it up.

One thing to look out for in this is the two different versions of the C chord. In the original there’s a strong bass-line move from C to D to E. So I’ve emphasized the E note in the second C chord. You can use the traditional C chord. But the C’ chord does make the transition to Ab easier.

And check out the Musical Youth version for inspiration.

Rocky and Balls - I Heart You Online (Chords)

Rocky and Balls - I Heart You Online (Chords)

When Sophie Madeleine gets as famous as she’s obviously going to be, I fully intend to take all the glory for discovering her. Seeing as how I get none of the credit (or blame if you’re so inclined) for discovering Julia Nunes.

I’ll try to resist the temptation to dork-out on the chord progression as much as I did for The Ukulele Song*. But there are plenty of moments worth looking at. Like the flamenco like D - Eb-5 in the intro. And the extensive use of the IVm chord (C minor rather than the more common C major). And when they do the IV-IVm (which is pretty standard) they put the chord change between phrases rather than in the middle of it (where it’s usually used by lesser songwriters such as The Beatles).

And then, of course, it’s the Jim’ll Fix It style ba-ba-baa chorus.

Buy Sophie Madeleine’s stuff on BandCamp.

* I failed to resist.

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