Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra/OutKast – Hey Ya (Chords)

Hey Ya was the first song I – and I suspect most people here – heard from the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra. It’s coming up on half a million YouTube views and over 500 comments – most of them saying, “Is that that dude off of Flight of the Conchords? Awesome!”

The easiest way I’ve found of playing the chords is to play the D 2225 to make it an easy slide up to 4447 for the dreaded E chord.

Suggested Strumming Pattern

For most of the chords you can use this pattern:

d – d u – u d –

But there is a time signature change in there. The D chord is one bar of 2/4. So just do two down strums for that chord. Or you could really cheat and play a baritone like that dude off of Flight of the Conchords.

Twiddly Bit

Every uke group song needs a twiddly bit in to keep the show offs in the band happy.

First part of the phrase played a bar later than in the original.

I’m way too lazy to move up and down the neck, so I prefer to play it like this:

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