Hard Day's Night

A great little song that I've always wanted to play simple due to the fact that so many people know the words to the song. Older people I guess. Anyway, Ukulele Mike's tutorial video is below, I'll write up some tab (Mike's tab is not available anymore) and post it in here as soon as I can.

The part I really like about this tutorial video is that it introduces "hammering-on" and a little solo picking but it is not essential for the song. If you want to skip to the main chords and play-a-long then just head to about 3min40.

Enjoy

Dr Who Theme Tune

Our first request is the theme tune to Dr Who. A classic tune that I believe everyone in the country is familiar with but quite a difficult one to play as it includes both strumming and picking. The fact it's quite fast only adds to the level of difficulty as well as the awe and wonder when you master it.

I'm just figuring out the tabs at the moment, so for the time being here are a couple of videos of others playing it. Do message me if I still haven't worked it out by the end of 2012.

 

Below you will find the tab for the first video by "Uke of Carl". He's transferred quite a few songs onto the Uke and has a great talent when it comes to the arrangement of the songs. Because of this the tab actually looks quite difficult, so I will try it out and attempt to write it up a little more simply so you know how to do the strumming pattern as well. 

In the meantime, give it a go.

 

Banana Boat Song

I was first made aware of this song through the film Beatlejuice. The main characters took possession of some 'unwanted' guests and made them sing/dance to the song. Over 20 years later a colleague reminded me of the song and here we are.

  

It has few chords

C - 0003

F - 2010

G - 0232

G7 - 0212

and relies mainly on the calypso strumming pattern

\           \      /     /      \        / 

down, down, up, up, down, up 

Anyway, take a look at the sheet below and watch the tutorial by Ukulele Mike. He'll explain it all far better than I can.

 

Here's Mike

Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World

This is a lovely little song made famous by a man who goes by the name of "Iz", real name Israel  Kamakawiwoʻole. So far, his you tube official video has had over 9.5 million views and you can see it here.

It only has six simple chords

C - 0003

Em - 0432

F - 2010

E7 - 1202

Am - 2000

G - 0232

and relies mainly on the calypso strumming pattern

\           \      /     /      \        / 

down, down, up, up, down, up 

which is completed twice for each note.

I've created a little songsheet that contains the chords, strumming patterns and words onto just the one sheet that you can see here but also download for your songbook.

Ukulele Mike is probably one of the best teachers of the ukulele that I have seen, so have added two of his instructional videos below. One shows the strum pattern with the other being a good play-along track. Enjoy and do please let us all know how you're doing with it. Maybe you could even record yourself (audio or visual) and share it with you. Enjoy