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.
Mentions of a ‘Ukulele Recordings’ EP from Hellogoodbye have been cropping up around the net recently, but I couldn’t find any mention of it from an official source. It seems to have leaked onto the blogs, but I assume it’s headed for official release. The EP contains The Thoughts That Give Me the Creeps and this cover of Buddy Holly’s Everyday.
I worked out this tune on the assumption that they were using a capo on the first fret, then I saw this video. But I’ve left it as it was because the chords make more sense that way and it gives you the opportunity to use the more familiar open chord shapes rather than the more difficult barre chord shapes he’s using.
hellogoodbye – The Thoughts That Give Me The Creeps (Chords)
I was very excited when this video cropped up on the YouTube feed on Sunday. hellogoodbye are currently slaving away in the studio and have put up a ukulele demo of a song tentatively titled ‘The Thoughts That Give Me The Creeps’. And rather lovely it is too. Obviously, I immediately picked up my uke and started working it out.
The song is in D-tuning. So start twiddling the knobs or slap a capo on the second fret.
The main strumming pattern is down, down, up, up, down.
The lyrics on the sheet are testament to why I usually just copy and paste lyrics from elsewhere on the net. I’m sure all the real lyrics actually make sense.
I wholeheartedly concur on the tightness of Yo Gabba Gabba!, if only for bringing the joys of Biz Markie to a new generation. Keep it old school, kids.
No indication when this track will be released, but there’s plenty of other hellogoodbye stuff for you to buy here and visit them on MySpace.
Hellogoodbye’s Oh, It Is Love is a very popular tune with uke players. There are a bunch of ukulele covers of it on YouTube. There are many instruments moving in and out of the tune including banjo and mandolin, which are in ukulele territory.
I got a request, ages ago, from Emily asking for tab of the twiddly bits in the song. So, here’s a few.
This is the high part played on the mandolin in the first few lines:
The part that accompanies the verse is played slightly differently by each instrument. This is a sort of uke-ified version of it:
Even if you’re not planning on learning the song, it’s definitely worth taking a look at that last lick as it’s a bit of a cliche and can be used in many situations.
Happy St Valentine’s Day to all you lovebirds. Here’s a selection of tabs and chords of love songs I’ve done over the years which you can croon to your boo while everyone around you vomits from the gooiness of it all.
If you’re not one of those people you can console yourself with the (much longer) list of anti-Valentine tabs and chords.
Lots of good stuff this week but my favourite is Lisa Hannigan doing some boat-ukuleling. Also up: U to the izz-9 0 to the izz-0 take on a new cover project, hellogoodbye with Taylor York off of Paramore on uke duties, Aussie songsters The Little Stevies, power-popping electro-uke from Toy Horses and plenty more besides.
The most awkward question I get asked is, “What’s the strumming pattern for this?” Because there’s no real answer to it. It’s not like a chord progression where there’s a right chord and a wrong chord. You can use different strumming patterns and it will still work. It’s an important skill to be able to pick your own strumming patterns.
So in this post I’ve listed some of the most common strumming patterns around. Ones you can try out and see if they fit the song.
Before you start strumming, go through these steps:
Step 1: Clap along with the song: If the singer was to shout, “Hey everybody, clap along,” what would you do? (Assuming you’re less surly than me and would just fold your arms and look moody.)
Step 2: Pretend you’re in The Ramones: If you were going to start the song by shouting one, two, three, four what would you do? Try counting through the song repeating that all the way (if counting to four doesn’t fit, try counting to three).
Step 3: Try a few strumming patterns: Try fitting a strumming pattern to the song. Fit them so the down strums in the pattern match with the numbers you count. So a dead simple pattern would be all down strums: strum down when you count one, when you count two, when you count three and when you count four.
4/4 Strumming Patterns
By far the most common time signature around is 4/4 (“four four”). If you can count along to a song, “one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four,” and it fits, try out these strumming patterns.
Strumming Pattern 1: d – d u – u d –
This one crops up in so many ukulele songs. It’s simple to play. But – because it misses the third down strum – it has a slightly syncopated feel to it which makes it more interesting.
With a reggae strum you’re always going to be accenting the off beats. In the other strums here you’re always playing a strong beat on the ‘one’ of the count. Here you’re accenting other beats. It’s not always obvious what’s going on so I’ve included a click track with these.
Strumming Pattern 10: – d – d – d – d
Here you’re accenting the beats between the count.
You make any of these strums faster or slower than I’ve played them. In general, the more complicated the strum, the better it’ll sound slowed down. The more straight forward it is, the better it works at high speed.
In honour of the weather warming up a bit here (with apologies to those places under snow) a couple of summery tunes this week from Hellogoodbye and Shugo Tokumaru.
Highlight of the week is the video of Mel Torme busting out the bari that Shelley discovered. And there’s plenty more jazz this week from Sarah Maisel, Honey and the Baldies and Eugene singing a song that could be my theme tune.
Three of today’s videos come courtesy of Jeff’s series of animated videos. Flesh and blood offerings come include Those Darlins (who are my biggest band crush since The Detroit Cobras), a new song from Sophie Madeleine (with one more on Wild Honey Pie where you can also learn why Sophie is friends with dicks and whores) and Hellogoodbye being a bit quiet.
I bet the tweenage girls are squealing themselves hoarse over wee Christofer Ingle and his magnificent hair. But in December he took time out from his punishing hair care routine to record an EP of ukulele pop songs Me & My Uke. And he’s currently recording an album with fellow ukulele-EP-releasing runtogetherbandnamefrontman Forrest Kline of Hellogoodbye.
Trouble is a fairly simple three chord affair. The only tricky thing is the chord inversions I think he’s using. You could make it easier by using the more standard chord shapes: 0331 for Eb and 2010 for F.
The strumming for the verses is dead easy as well. The easiest strum of all, Strum #1 from the Strum Bible: all down strums. Just make sure you release the chord right after you’ve strummed it to get that sharp sound.
The strumming in the chorus is much trickier. It’s down, down, up, up, down, up. I’m experimenting with showing strumming patterns, so let me know if either of these make sense to you (top line counting, bottom line strumming):
1 … and … 2 …. and … 3 … and … 4 ….. and
down ……. down up ……….. up ….. down up
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
d .. d u .. u d u
For the first chord in the chorus you just play the Bb on the first strum, then you mute the strings (by resting your hand on them but not playing them) and strum the same pattern.
