Guitar Riffs for Ukulele

The idea with these riffs isn’t to play the whole song, but to throw them in to your playing for a bit of light relief (like the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on Orange Blossom) or just to prove that the ukulele can do more than just strumming Tiptoe Thru the Tulips. The riffs aren’t usually arranged in the original key but the key that suits the ukulele best. Most of them are in C.

1. Guns N Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
1.5 AC/DC – Back In Black
2. Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love
3. Black Sabbath – Paranoid
4. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
5. Deep Purple – Smoke On the Water
6. Cream – Sunshine of Your Love
7. Chic – Le Freak
8. The Rolling Stones – Satisfaction
9. Electric Six – Gay Bar
10. Black Sabbath – Iron Man
11. AC/DC – Hells Bells
12. Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – Pin
13. Gogol Bordello – Not A Crime
14. Nirvana – Come As You Are
15. Eric Clapton – Layla
16. Metallica – Enter Sandman
17. Europe – Final Countdown
18. Girls Aloud – Love Machine
19. The Sonics – Have Love, Will Travel
20. Violent Femmes – Blister In The Sun
21. Free – All Right Now
22. Motorhead – Ace of Spades
23. Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy
24. Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
25. Pearl Jam – Jeremy
26. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
27. Survivor – Eye of the Tiger
28. The Beatles – Come Together/Day Tripper
29. The Raconteurs – Salute Your Solution
30. Muse – Plug In Baby
31. AC/DC / James Hill – Thunderstruck
32. Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows
33. Dire Straits – Money for Nothing
34. Slayer – Raining Blood
35. Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus
36. Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way?
37. The Clash – Straight to Hell / MIA – Paper Planes
38. The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry
39. Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper
40. Michael Jackson – Beat It
41. Darkness – I Believe in a Thing Called Love
42. Aerosmith – Walk This Way
43. Thin Lizzy – Boys Are Back In Town
44. Judas Priest – Breaking the Law
45. AC/DC – Let There Be Rock
46. Nirvana/UOGB – Smells Like Teen Spirit
47. Hanson – MmmBop
48. Beastie Boys – Fight for Your Right to Party
49. The Hives – Hate to Say I Told You So