A little respite after the difficulty of the last two. You can beef it up a little by adding the G string at the same fret for each note to make them power chords.
Ace of Spades has to be one of the most air-guitared riffs in history.
The riff isn’t too hard to play on the uke. The only problem is the speed. Because it’s fast, it’s much easier to play it by strumming rather than fingerpicking (even when you’re only playing one note). Make sure you have the other strings muted (the G-string with your thumb and the E and A strings with your fingers).
The strumming pattern is down, down, up, up, down for the single notes (and all downs for the double notes).
As promised in the Hip Hop Riffs for Ukulele post, here’s an updated list of the riff posts on the blog.
The idea with these riffs isn’t to play the whole song or that the suit the ukulele particularly well. It’s to throw them in to your playing for a bit of light relief and audience recognition (like the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on Orange Blossom), to provoke the ‘I didn’t think you could play that on the ukulele’ or just for shits and gigs. Because of that, the riffs aren’t always arranged in the original key but the key that suits the ukulele best.
Five Riffs Series
Black Keys: 10am Automatic, Act Nice and Gentle, Tighten Up, Your Touch, Modern Times.
Funk: The Meters – Cissy Strut and Funky Miracle, Stevie Wonder – Superstition, Funkadelic – Hit It and Quit It, Rick James – Super Freak.
Grunge:Soundgarden Spoonman, Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box, Pearl Jam – Alive, Temple of the Dog – Hunger Strike, Alice in Chains – Them Bones.
Hip Hop: Jay Z and Kanye West – Ni**as in Paris, Dr Dre – Still DRE, Missy Elliott – Get Ur Freak On, Usher – Yeah, Panjabi MC – Beware.
Jack White: White Stripes – Hardest Button to Button and Icky Thump, Raconteurs – Salute Your Solution, Dead Weather – Treat Me Like Your Mother, Tom Jones – Evil.
Manchester: Stone Roses – Waterfall, Happy Mondays – Loose Fit, Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart, Chemical Brothers – Galvanize, The Fall – Right Place, Wrong Time
REM: Losing My Religion, Shiny Happy People, Pop Song 89, Driver 8, Pretty Persuasion.
The Who: Can’t Explain, Substitute, Pinball Wizard, The Seeker
Single Riffs
AC/DC – Back In Black
AC/DC – Hells Bells
AC/DC – Let There Be Rock
AC/DC / James Hill – Thunderstruck
Aerosmith – Walk This Way
Alice Cooper – School’s Out
Audioslave – Cochise
Beastie Boys – Fight for Your Right To Party
The Beatles – Come Together/Day Tripper
Biz Markie – Just A Friend
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper
Chic – Good Times/Rapper’s Delight
Chic – Le Freak
The Clash – Straight to Hell / MIA – Paper Planes
Cream – Sunshine of Your Love
The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry
The Darkness – I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Deep Purple – Smoke On the Water
Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart
Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus
Dillinger Escape Plan – Milk Lizard
Dire Straits – Money for Nothing
Donna Summer – Hot Stuff
Electric Six – Gay Bar
Eric Clapton – Layla
Free – All Right Now
Girls Aloud – Love Machine
Gogol Bordello – Not A Crime
Guns n Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
Hanson – MmmBop
Happy Mondays – Step On
Harold Faltermeyer- – Axel F
Ian Dury – Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
Iron Butterfly – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Jay-Z – Death of Auto-Tune
Jimi Hendrix – Fire
The Hives – Hate To Say I Told You So
Judas Priest – Breaking the Law
Kasabian – Vlad the Impaler
The Killers – Mr Brightside
Lady Gaga – Poker Face
Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love
Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way?
Metallica – Enter Sandman
Metallica – Master of Puppets
Metallica – Seek and Destroy
Michael Jackson – Beat It
Motorhead – Ace of Spades
Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy
Muse – Plug In Baby
Nirvana – Come As You Are
Nirvana/UOGB – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
Pearl Jam – Jeremy
Phoenix – Lisztomania
Pink Floyd – Money
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows
Rage Against the Machine – Freedom
Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name Of
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Suck My Kiss
Rolling Stones – Satisfaction
Slayer – Raining Blood
The Sonics – Have Love, Will Travel
System of a Down – Toxicity
They Might Be Giants – Older
Thin Lizzy – Boys are Back in Town
U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday
Vampire Weekend – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Riff)
The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – Pin
Yes – To Be Over
Here’s the complete lineup of the top 10 (or 11 if you’re going to be pedantic about it):
1. Sweet Child O’ Mine.
1.5 Back In Black.
2. Whole Lotta Love.
3. Paranoid.
4. Seven Nation Army.
5. Smoke On The Water.
6. Sunshine of Your Love.
7. Le Freak.
8. Satisfaction.
9. Gay Bar.
10. Iron Man.
I had fun putting this list together and people seem to have enjoyed it so I’ve decided to do 20 – 10 in the near future. Get your nominations in now.
Next up is spooky Halloween songs. If you’ve got any suggestions, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.
I’m sure having a top ten list is going to kick off a bit of a debate. The fact is, I’m making the list up as I go along. So, if you want to influence what gets in there or if you just want to call me an empty headed, bat-faeces speckled dolt for my choices so far. Here’s your chance to let me know what your favourite guitar riffs are.
Warning: If you don’t manage to talk me out of it the list will include The Final Countdown and Girls Aloud.
If you want to be sure not to miss any of the list subscribe to Uke Hunt via RSS or receive updates by email
To end up my Prince tribute week here’s a collection of his best guitar and keyboard riffs.
Let’s Go Crazy
I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
The Bangles – Manic Monday
Prince – Gett Off
Prince – I Wanna Be Your Lover
Another one for the Riffs for Ukulele series. Usual rules apply: they’re intended to be played for a lark (even more so with these punk pop songs); no, I’m not going to write up the full song; and they’re not necessarily in the original key (although only Sum 41 in this post isn’t thanks to some capo deployment).
Paramore – Still Into You
With Paramore’s recent foray into ukulele songs it’s only right I include one of theirs. Two riffs on this one. The top one is plucked thumb and two finger style and the bottom one using alternate picking.
Blink 182 – What’s My Age Again?
After a bit of octave shifting the arpeggio riff in this one works way better on ukulele than I was expecting. Thumb and two finger picking for this one again. Try to emphasise the notes on the g- and C-strings.
Green Day – American Idiot
Capo on the first fret for this one too. The switch from G to F at the end of bar two is very fast. If you’re struggling with it you can just switch the F for playing all the strings open like at the end of bar 4.
Sum 41 – Fat Lip
Not going to lie, this one is pretty preposterous on ukulele. But, hey, Sum 41 were a pretty preposterous band.
Panic! at the Disco – I Write Sins Not Tragedies
I’m not sure if this one entirely belongs in this post. But I’ve become obsessed with it recently. I tried to get all the discordant bits in. Which makes it much more difficult than it needs to be. Here’s a simpler version:
One of my favourite things to do on a ukulele is blast out a riff that everyone knows but no one has ever heard on the ukulele. And, to be frank, are sometimes wholly unsuited to it. They’re always fun to play and provoke smiles. Over the years I’ve tabbed up a load of these. So here’s a mega post of them.
The idea with these riffs isn’t to play the whole song or that the suit the ukulele particularly well. It’s to throw them in to your playing for a bit of light relief and audience recognition (like the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on Orange Blossom), to provoke the ‘I didn’t think you could play that on the ukulele’ or just for shits and gigs. Because of that, the riffs aren’t always arranged in the original key but the key that suits the ukulele best. And don’t request the rest of the song!
Five Riffs Series
Acoustic Riffs/Intros: Mumford and Sons, Nick Drake, Jose Gonzalez, Tracey Chapman, Black Crowes.
Black Keys: 10am Automatic, Act Nice and Gentle, Tighten Up, Your Touch, Modern Times.
Funk: The Meters – Cissy Strut and Funky Miracle, Stevie Wonder – Superstition, Funkadelic – Hit It and Quit It, Rick James – Super Freak.
Grunge:Soundgarden Spoonman, Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box, Pearl Jam – Alive, Temple of the Dog – Hunger Strike, Alice in Chains – Them Bones.
Hip Hop Part 2: Jay Z and Kanye West – Ni**as in Paris, Dr Dre – Still DRE, Missy Elliott – Get Ur Freak On, Usher – Yeah, Panjabi MC – Beware.
Hip Hop Part 2: Kanye West, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Killer Mike, Jay-Z, Eminem
Hip Hop Part 3: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, MC Hammer, Nas, Warren G, Das Racist.
Jack White: White Stripes – Hardest Button to Button and Icky Thump, Raconteurs – Salute Your Solution, Dead Weather – Treat Me Like Your Mother, Tom Jones – Evil.
Manchester: Stone Roses – Waterfall, Happy Mondays – Loose Fit, Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart, Chemical Brothers – Galvanize, The Fall – Right Place, Wrong Time
Punk Pop: Paramore, Blink 182, Green Day, Sum 41, Panic! at the Disco.
REM: Losing My Religion, Shiny Happy People, Pop Song 89, Driver 8, Pretty Persuasion.
The Who: Can’t Explain, Substitute, Pinball Wizard, The Seeker
Single Riffs
AC/DC – Back In Black
AC/DC – Hells Bells
AC/DC – Let There Be Rock
AC/DC / James Hill – Thunderstruck
Aerosmith – Walk This Way
Alice Cooper – School’s Out
Audioslave – Cochise
Beastie Boys – Fight for Your Right To Party
The Beatles – Come Together/Day Tripper
Biz Markie – Just A Friend
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper
Chic – Good Times/Rapper’s Delight
Chic – Le Freak
The Clash – Straight to Hell / MIA – Paper Planes
Cream – Sunshine of Your Love
The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry
The Darkness – I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Deep Purple – Smoke On the Water
Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart
Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus
Dillinger Escape Plan – Milk Lizard
Dire Straits – Money for Nothing
Donna Summer – Hot Stuff
Electric Six – Gay Bar
Eric Clapton – Layla
Free – All Right Now
Girls Aloud – Love Machine
Gogol Bordello – Not A Crime
Guns n Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
Hanson – MmmBop
Happy Mondays – Step On
Harold Faltermeyer- – Axel F
Ian Dury – Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
Iron Butterfly – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Jay-Z – Death of Auto-Tune
Jimi Hendrix – Fire
The Hives – Hate To Say I Told You So
Judas Priest – Breaking the Law
Kasabian – Vlad the Impaler
The Killers – Mr Brightside
Lady Gaga – Poker Face
Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love
Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way?
Metallica – Enter Sandman
Metallica – Master of Puppets
Metallica – Seek and Destroy
Michael Jackson – Beat It
Motorhead – Ace of Spades
Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy
Muse – Plug In Baby
Nirvana – Come As You Are
Nirvana/UOGB – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
Pearl Jam – Jeremy
Phoenix – Lisztomania
Pink Floyd – Money
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows
Rage Against the Machine – Freedom
Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name Of
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Suck My Kiss
Rolling Stones – Satisfaction
Slayer – Raining Blood
The Sonics – Have Love, Will Travel
System of a Down – Toxicity
They Might Be Giants – Older
Thin Lizzy – Boys are Back in Town
U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday
Vampire Weekend – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Riff)
The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – Pin
Yes – To Be Over
Pulp – Do You Remember the First Time (Tab)
The original version is tuned a bit sharp (my guess is the sped up the recording a touch). So if you’re trying to play along with the original it’s going to sound a bit off. But it should sound right with this live version. Plus Richard Hawley is playing guitar in this version so it’s automatically marvellous.
Here’s how my uked version sounds:
Intro/Verse
There are two main riffs. This verse riff is the easiest. All the picking is done with the index finger on the E-string and the thumb on the g-string.
Chorus
The chorus riff is much more involved and required a bit of rearrangement to make it fit on the uke. For the picking I use my thumb to pick the string nearest my face in that bar. Then employ my index and middle fingers as they’re needed.
Links
This post started out as one of my Riffs for Ukulele posts but it ended up evolving into an intros post.
I did think that acoustic guitar would transfer better to the uke than the electric riffs. Nope! They tend to be much more complex. So I’ve taken a few liberties with these arrangements and some of them are still very tricky.
The same riff rules apply:
– These aren’t necessarily in the same key as the original.
– If you want the rest of the song you’re shit out of luck.
Mumford and Sons – Roll Away Your Stone
Nick Drake – Fly
This version is for smaller ukes. If your uke goes as high as the 13th fret you can play the descending notes all on the C-string. That does make it a bit easier and gives it a more consistent tone.
It’s played campanella style and picked with thumb and two fingers.
Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats
This is the one I had most trouble getting down and is the most changed from the original. Again it’s played thumb and two fingers picking style.
Tracy Chapman – Fast Car
Finally, a straight forward one. Here I’m doing strumming and picking the g-string with my thumb. And picking the A-string with my index finger.
Black Crowes – She Talks to Angels
The picking for this one is all over the place. I just use whichever finger comes to hand at any point.
