Song Help Request I Was an Oak Tree - Jonathan Byrd

I don't know how many of y'all are familiar with Jonathan Byrd, but his from NC and he's pretty awesome.

I love his song "I was an oak tree." Link to full song

He's such a cool guy that he actually has a YouTube tutorial on how to play the song, but only on guitar. He capos the 4th fret, which I guess is the key of C?

I used the transposer tool and it told me that the uke chords would turn out to be C,G,D,Em. I'm trying to figure out how to fingerpick it, but before I can do that, I want to make sure I got the base notes correct.

So....what do y'all think? Am I on the right path?

thank you!

clover said:

I don't know how many of y'all are familiar with Jonathan Byrd, but his from NC and he's pretty awesome.

I love his song "I was an oak tree." Link to full song

He's such a cool guy that he actually has a YouTube tutorial on how to play the song, but only on guitar. He capos the 4th fret, which I guess is the key of C?

I used the transposer tool and it told me that the uke chords would turn out to be C,G,D,Em. I'm trying to figure out how to fingerpick it, but before I can do that, I want to make sure I got the base notes correct.

So....what do y'all think? Am I on the right path?

thank you!

Click to expand...

Capo at the 5th fret on guitar would be standard low-G ukulele tuning.

If he is capoing at the 4th fret, you can easily detune your ukulele down 2 semitones from G-C-E-A to F-Bb-D-G, and then play in the same key as the original song, and likely use the same chord shapes (minus the 2 strings that do not exist on the uke) AND the same chord names as in his tutorial.

At least this is what I would do, since I am lazy and look for the path of least resistance. I have several ukes and some in different tunings so I do not have to transpose, and also to better suit my lower voice range if I need to sing.

Aside from the variations of lo-G (linear) and hi-G (re-entrant), I also have a tenor each with the following lower tunings:

F-Bb-D-G (Oasis bright hi-G strings)

and

E-A-C#-G# (Martin M620 strings)

Also, thanks for introducing me to Jonathan Byrd. He is quite an accomplished guitar player, and the tone and style of his singing is just so natural, pure and effortless seeming. I have now watched quite a few of his videos, and made a note to get some of his music next time I am adding to my library. Good stuff