Michael Jackson – Beat It
March 24, 2009
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You can blame the inclusion of this one on my increasing addiction to Guitar Rock Tour. It might be the endless repetition, but I really like this riff. And the Eddie Van Halen solo is widdletastic.
The Darkness – I Believe In A Thing Called Love
March 22, 2009
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The most difficult riff in this series, but well worth it if you ask me. It’s mainly power chords but they do jump around the neck and it’s tricky switching to the picking for the last two notes. You could make it a little easier by just using the C and G strings for the chords.
Aerosmith – Walk This Way
March 19, 2009
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I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to include Walk This Way. It’s one of the classics.
It is one of the trickier ones to play in this batch. You have to give the E string a fair old pluck to keep it ringing through the hammer-ons.
Thin Lizzy – Boys are Back in Town
March 17, 2009
Thin Lizzy – Boys Are Back In Town (Tab)
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Guitar Riffs + St Patrick’s Day = Inevitable Lizzy
… and a bit of harmony action. This has to be the best bit of harmony guitar work ever (run close by the Hotel California solo). So I’ve kept that and written up two ukulele parts (moved up four frets to fit).
Judas Priest – Breaking the Law
March 15, 2009
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Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law, neyooow, breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law.
There are rumours flying around about me planting subliminal messages in mp3s telling people to set fire to guitars. These rumours are a half truth.
AC/DC – Let There Be Rock
March 12, 2009
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It wouldn’t be a series of guitar riffs for ukulele without AC/DC. To give this one plenty of rock, do all down strums and dampen the open string strums. You play these dampened strums by resting the underside of your strumming hand just in front of the bridge, so when you strum it sounds muted. This is a little different from chnks since you keep your hand on the strings the whole way through.
Nirvana/UOGB – Smells Like Teen Spirit
March 10, 2009
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Probably the most famous chord riff ever and very popular on the ukulele thanks to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain version. These chords are in the same key as those used in the UOGB version.
Hanson – MmmBop
March 8, 2009
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With Mmmbop fever gripping the ukenets, this one was an inevitable inclusion.
It’s really important that you let the notes in this riff ring into each other and you need to keep your middle finger glued to the C string (requiring some pinky action of the G chord shape).
Beastie Boys – Fight for Your Right To Party
March 5, 2009
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The Beastie Boys’ Fight for Your Right is pretty much the first bar of Smoke on the Water over and over. They’re all power chords, so you can play them on all four strings or, if you want to keep it simple, just on the G and C strings like the Smoke riff.
The Hives – Hate To Say I Told You So
March 3, 2009
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Time for another series of guitar riffs for the 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 are arranged in the key that I find easiest to play on the uke, so aren’t necessarily in the same key as the original.
This set of riffs is a bit more heavy on chord riffs. Since they tend to work better on the uke, they’re a bit more suitable for full uke covers. And The Hives’ Hate To Say I Told You So works great on the uke in the original key. The only other part in the song is the G in the chorus.
