simple German language song needed

Harold O.

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My wife and I are doing a Rhine River cruise to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary next month. I always travel with a uke and am wondering if there is a simple German language song I can learn beforehand. Chords and rhythms are easy enough, it's the language I will most struggle with.

Online searching produces too many odd offerings. Does anyone here know of something worth learning and bringing along?
 
Auf Wiener Schitzel, Mein Herr comes to mind but I don't remember the chords.
 
Here are some: http://www.alles-uke.de/BluePages/volkslied.htm

.... though I have to say that there are several that I have never even heard of, and I'm native. Of the Volkslieder (folk songs), very popular and mostly upbeat examples would be #7, #18, #20, #22, #24. For something easy (lycris-wise), there's also "Mein Hut der hat drei Ecken" that Petey performed a while ago (video).

Wilfried Welti's free e-book Solobuch has detailed tabs for a number of German folk songs, though without the words (some of which you can get from the site mentioned above). Good candidates might be "Muss i denn" (#24 in the other list) and "Kein schoener Land" (#22). YouTube probably has videos for those. :)

Hope this helps!
 
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How about 'Mackie Messer' - of course better known as 'Mack the Knife' to English speakers? And there's only a few lines in German but 'Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen' is fabulous on a uke.
 
, there's also "Mein Hut der hat drei Ecken" that Petey performed a while ago (video)

Danke. Thanx. There is a better song to do then that ELVIS song...

***

Sorry, my post got corrupted. The German song he sang was "Must I Then Leave the City."

Petey
 
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That'd be the "Muss i(ch) denn" (... zum Staedele hinaus) song, I believe. :)

Yes, I think today's forum update broke umlauts and other special characters. Posts get truncated. By the way, Petey, do you happen to have the chords for "Mein Hut der hat drei Ecken"?
 
My wife and I are doing a Rhine River cruise to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary next month. I always travel with a uke and am wondering if there is a simple German language song I can learn beforehand. Chords and rhythms are easy enough, it's the language I will most struggle with.

Online searching produces too many odd offerings. Does anyone here know of something worth learning and bringing along?

I learned Bach's Bist Du Bei Mir, as a kid. We sang it in the Indianapolis Children's Choir. It's just a few lines that repeat. It also has a beautiful meaning. I still sing it a lot. If you google for it, make sure you put in Bach's version...and most videos are choirs or opera singers. It does not have to be sung in that style.
 
The Happy Wanderer (auf Deutsch, naturlich) and Ein Prosit.
 
Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand and Sie Liebt Dich come to mind. ;)
 
How about some Christmas Carols like "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night), "Oh Du Froehliche", or "Leise rieselt der Schnee"...? There is a free song book of these "Weihnachtslieder", made by W. Welti as well.

Of course, "se Germans" might look at you in a funny way if you play Christmas Carols in October... :)
 
Danke danke danke, UU.

The uke travels well and is widely accepted as a friendly instrument. I won't have much luck learning to speak German in a couple of weeks, but one of these songs will be great and might well earn me a free beer or two!

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
I'm trying to cut and past a pdf of Bei mir bist du schon for you from a songbook.

I hope it takes.

if not, PM me and maybe I can get it to you that way :)

keep uke'in',
 
bei mir bist du schon was the andrews sisters' first hit, written by an american and taken from yiddush as well as the german roots. it's not natural fare for germans.
if you perform 'du du liebst mir im herzen' you'll get the whole boat swinging. make sure there is plenty of beer flowing. interesting group, them.
 
That'd be the "Muss i(ch) denn" (... zum Staedele hinaus) song, I believe. :)

Yes, I think today's forum update broke umlauts and other special characters. Posts get truncated. By the way, Petey, do you happen to have the chords for "Mein Hut der hat drei Ecken"?

The basic chords of that "Carnival of Venice" song (written by Julius Benedict) were just Eb and Bb7 in the version I did without the extra stuff. Mein Hut is based on that song.

Petey
 
bei mir bist du schon was the andrews sisters' first hit, written by an american and taken from yiddush as well as the german roots. it's not natural fare for germans.
if you perform 'du du liebst mir im herzen' you'll get the whole boat swinging. make sure there is plenty of beer flowing. interesting group, them.

Ah, the Andrew sisters... you can see plenty of them in the old Abbott and Costello movies!

Petey
 
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