Foster the People – Pumped Up Kicks (Chords/Tab)

I think it’s about time I did a song people actually want to play. I’ve had a few requests for a uke version of the riff so I thought I’d knock up the chords as well.

Uke Friendly Chords

The original version is in the uke-unfriendly key of Fm. So it’s easier to do with a capo on the first fret as Sophie Madeleine does in her version. So you can use these chords with a capo. Or just as they are if you don’t mind being in a different key.

Suggested Strumming

For the strumming, you can follow the rhythm of the riff like this:

d – x u – u d –

Here’s how that sounds (played fast then slow):

Strum 1

Or, if you’re not into chnks, you can just replace it with a down strum:

d – d u – u d –

Strum 2

Twiddly Bits

This song is a good illustration of a quick and simple way of transferring (a few) guitar tabs to ukulele. If you look at the guitar version of the riff you’ll see the riff uses mostly the two lowest strings on the guitar: E and A.

So anything played on the E and A strings on the guitar you can play exactly the same on the E and A strings on the uke. The only problem is the D-string 1st fret which we can play on the A string at the 6th fret. That gives you this:

Relative to the capo it looks like this:

But if you prefer to play without the capo, it’s easier to play like this:

Which sounds like this:

Riff

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