House of Gold

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Up until recently my repertoire has been sixties, seventies, and some eighties rock and folk songs. Some old timeless songs like Clementine, Hey Good Lookin', stuff like that. But this summer my neighbors have had an Italian exchange student who happened to show up with a ukulele. So we have been playing a lot, and she has her own songs that she is playing, so I'm expanding my horizons a little.

One song of her's in particular is House of Gold by Twenty-One Pilots. If you watch the video, which may be disturbing to some, they are accompanying it with a ukulele. It works great, and it is a pretty song to sing. It is not particularly hard to play.

One thing of note, the entire first verse of the song is played with just a C chord, but all the strings except for the C are muted by barring them. That really sounds good, especially when you un-mute that C chord and start playing the song. Anyway, it is nice to learn some songs that maybe a younger audience can connect with. House of Gold, Twenty-one Pilots, give it a try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDyxykpYeu8&list=RDmDyxykpYeu8#t=17
 
Hi,

For the students I teach at a public middle school, house of gold is probably one of the most popular tunes the kids like to play and associate with ukulele. 21 pilots is definitely up there and is one of the current bands that seems to be helping promote the ukulele with a younger audience.

The technique in the first verse you refer to I've heard labeled as "mono strumming" and is one of James hills specialities. Believe it or not, I had a small group of girls in one of my classes figure out how to do it all by themselves before I could even get a chance to help them!

I like the song and the band as I see how engaging they are with my students and the ukulele.
 
Hi,

For the students I teach at a public middle school, house of gold is probably one of the most popular tunes the kids like to play and associate with ukulele. 21 pilots is definitely up there and is one of the current bands that seems to be helping promote the ukulele with a younger audience.

The technique in the first verse you refer to I've heard labeled as "mono strumming" and is one of James hills specialities. Believe it or not, I had a small group of girls in one of my classes figure out how to do it all by themselves before I could even get a chance to help them!

I like the song and the band as I see how engaging they are with my students and the ukulele.
I don't remember hearing the song before I met our neighbor's exchange student, but now I hear it all the time. Funny how things work. But I play it a lot and people like it, young and old. But sometimes I wonder what it looks and sounds like for a 66 year old, "old man" to be playing that song. But I like it. Another song is Pink Lemonade by the Wombats, but I really don't like that song as well.

Well, Rollie, not only gross but also weird, but you warned me. I guess I'm older than I thought . . .
Yes I did warn you Dick, but it isn't that bad. I don't know how it is connected to the song, but I'm not sure that it is supposed to be. Anyway, a little bit of trivia, that house and the property in the video belongs to Will Smith. There is a YouTube video about the making to that video, and it is very interesting how they did it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P8H-jBy84g
 
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For second there, I thought you said "Heart of Gold" (Neil Young). A very different song.... :)
 
Thanks! it's stories like this that encourage my belief that ukuleles and ukulele music will be around for a long, long time.
 
Wait, was that an allusion to "Christina's World"?

Wyeth-web2.jpg
 
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