All Apologies by Nirvana for the UKE!

I really love this song  by Nirvana and I’ve put together an arrangement for it on the ukulele. In “All Apologies” Nirvana has tuned down their guitars a half step so if you want to play along with it you need to tune down your uke a half step or (1) Ab (2) Eb (3) B (4) Gb.

The song is basically just the verse and chorus so I hope you guys enjoy it…good luck and let me know if anything sounds funky or if you are a little confused.

Forget You by Cee Lo Green (for Ukulele)

One of my favorite teaching methods is asking my students what they want to learn on the ukulele. I find this to be a completely useful tool because in my experience students will practice songs that THEY love and want to learn.  Once I learn what style of music the student loves to listen to than it’s a lot easier for me to make music suggestions for them. This leads me to talk about the Cee Lo Green song “Forget You.” I like this song for a couple of reasons. The song is incredibly catchy, the rhythms are pretty easy to play and it features chords that aren’t that difficult for beginner ukulele students.

This song is great one for beginners because the chord progression is |C///|D7///|F///|C///| and than you repeat it, repeat it, repeat it and repeat it…because it’s the same on thing being used for the Verse and Chorus.  The first chord you are only fretting the 3rd fret of the 1st string (C).  Than to play the D7 chord you than put barre across the 2nd fret while keeping your finger on the 3rd fret of the 1st string.  Than you strum the F chord.   A great way to get used to this is to just strum the C chord and than count four beats. Than strum the D7 chord count four beats. Finally strum the F chord and count four beats.

One thing that I noticed while playing this was that it was easier for me to play the C chord with my 3rd finger and not my 1st finger. I than played the D7 with my 1st finger doing the barre and than my 3rd finger holding the 3rd fret on the first string.  If you are having a hard time with these fingerings you experiment and find one that works for you!