Steel string electric ukulele songs

Ukulelerick9255

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I have a solid body tenor steel string dual pickups uke from Jim Hellar at Monkey Wrench music. I need suggestions for some easy songs to learn that would lend themselves to the electric sound instead of the usual acoustic songs I play on my traditional hollow body acoustic. I don’t play lead I’m not that advanced I could probably learn some short lead parts by tablature so I need some songs where I don’t have to play any long difficult extended leads. Any help is appreciated. I play a lot in the key of C my preferred key for singing if that helps lol
 
It would probably help if you gave us an idea of what sort of songs you are interested in learning. I can say that Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd and Paranoid by Black Sabbath are both pretty easy to learn and have short solos in them though the one in Paranoid is a bit fast and technical at the end. I learned it on a regular uke but it would work better with steel strings since I couldn't do most of the bends which are one or two full steps. I'm sure others here will have more, maybe better :), suggestions.

John
 
Well, they do have books out like ACDC for Ukulele, Metallica for Ukulele, Black Sabbath for Ukulele, Rolling Stones... You can find anything these days lol :rock: I've found just learning a few riffs are enough to make my Risa Les Paul happy: http://ukulelehunt.com/guitar-riffs-for-ukulele/ But even something like Crooked Tree by Aaron Keim sounds nice on the steel strings, to me.
 
Dylan goes Electric at the Newport Folk festival (See the photo A below). After this festival, people strum even folk songs with electric. Dylan plays “Like A Rolling Stone” both with acoustic and electric. I strum and sing Amazing Grace with my Stratcaster, Old Folks at Home with my Les Paul. See Neil Young (photo B), he strums folk songs with his Les Paul. Do not hesitate to play your favourite songs with electric ukulele. Just check Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul Simon and many other great Folk singers who play electric.



It is very fun to play fork songs with electric.
 
Why solid body electric at all? Well to take a leaf out of the electric guitar world it was to amplify the sound of the instrument without the feedback that amplifying an acoustic instrument creates.

So first and foremost solid body electrics are about being loud.
However there are other things you can do. Solid body instruments take effects well. Solid body instruments have quite a bit of sustain which can be good or bad.
I find that solid body instruments work just fine for fingerpicking although not necessarily great for strumming with your fingers.
They are good when using a pick/plectrum however so if your not currently using a pick then learning what you can do with a pick would be a good avenue to pursue.
The technique of using a pick while palm muting the strings is a classic technique on guitars which would be great to learn on a solid body ukulele.

There's nothing stopping you from just playing your current songs on it and hearing what they sound like.
 
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