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Richard Ayoade makes some great videos but the one he made for Vlad the Impaler is a whole new level of astounding. Not least because of Noel Fielding’s moustache.

The bass riff, of course, doesn’t work on ukulele at all. But why should that stop us?

More guitar riffs for ukulele

There are three little riffs in the song a one bar riff, a two bar riff and an eight bar riff.

The first riff from the keyboard:

The first guitar riff:

The second guitar riff is worth playing with pick and some damping (letting the underside of your hand rest gently on the strings just in front of the bridge).

And all of them on one tab:

Phoenix – Lisztomania (Tab)

Here’s my attempt at putting them all together.

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Requested by Gerado.

More guitar riffs for ukulele

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A much simpler riff this time. Most of it is just the G chord shape moved up the neck (to create C and Bb chords). I used a pick when I recorded this one but only because I still had it in my hand whilst recording some others. It does help with the triplets – which need to be played as all down strums – but it isn’t required.

More guitar riffs for ukulele

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There’s a very good reason why Julia Nunes went for a chord-based version when she covered this tune – the riff is a nightmare to play on uke.

It’s not in the same key as the original and slightly adapted. I’ve used harmonics for the notes at the 12 fret to buy a bit of time but you can just fret them normally if you prefer.

More guitar riffs for ukulele

Did you know Metallica have started suing fans they suspect of playing Metallica songs in their head? True fact.

Demo

More guitar riffs for ukulele

A very tricky one to get right. It’s in 6/8 time (I think). The best way to count the bar is 1,2,3,2,2,3 (I think). And it’s best to play this one with a pick (that one I’m pretty sure on).

Here’s me definitely getting it wrong:

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More guitar riffs for ukulele.

For my version I’ve kept it in the original key of F#. Molly plays it in G so if you want to play along with that version move everything up a fret.

There are two parts to the riff. Part 1:

And Part 2:

And here’s my stab at playing it.

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Part of the Riffs for ukulele series

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UPDATE: The new look is up if you want to come and see it. If you find anything that isn’t working I’d really appreciate it if you let me know. A huge thanks to Ben Lew for all his hard work in making it happen.

I’m surprised more indie bands haven’t pillaged African sounds. It seems to me that the high octane soukous guitar stylings of Diblo Dibala and Dally Kimoko is prime for some transplantation. Vampire Weekend made a decent stab at it with Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (kwassa kwassa is the dancing style on display in the Diblo video).

Like a lot of African guitar styles (and the lead parts in A-Punk and Oxford Comma) the lead playing here is heavily based on the chords (G, A and D). I’ve written up the riff in the same key as the original but an octave higher. The chorus is the same chords – I think it sounds best if you use these chord shapes.

Requested by HJM and Imogen

More guitar riffs for uke.

Secondly, a few weeks ago I post a clip of highlights from Annie Bacon’s Folk Opera. She’s got in touch to tell me they’re having the first full cast performance of it on Thursday March 4th at The Jalopy Theatre Brooklyn, NY. I’ve had a sneak listen and it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area. Now bring on the rock…

Time for another set of riffs for ukulele (mostly guitar riffs but one keyboard riff and one bass riff this time round). The idea isn’t to cover the whole song but to chuck them in a different piece for a bit of light relief or just show off in a ‘I bet you didn’t think you could play this on ukulele’ way. One change this time round is that the riffs are in the original key unless it’s way too hard to play them that way.

Starting off with one that should have cropped up in this series long ago (and did crop up in Wayne Federman’s medley).

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The riff for In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is fairly straightforward (even more so if you use a pick). It only gets a little tricky in the little run into the chorus.

More guitar riffs for ukulele.

I hate Facebook. I used to have a secret account and then people started finding me. I ended up shutting it down. But, to my shame, I had to set up a new secret secret account just to play Happy Island. I have to admit I’m completely addicted. When a game starts influencing your sleeping patterns, you need to take a good look at your priorities.

Despite being set on a Hawaii-like island, there are no ukes in its theme tune. But there are ukes aplenty in the tunes that back the Happy Island-a-like Tiki Resort and its sister game Tiki Farm. So, obviously, I had to get tabbing.

The tune is fairly straight-forward. It sounds like it’s being played with a pick, but you can just about get away with not using one.

Here’s my version of the tune:

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