Rock and roll songs on ukulele

J

jnicholes

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 18, 2019
Messages
261
Reaction score
6
So, today, I did an experiment that I honestly thought was weird. I took a rock and roll song, and I played it on the ukulele. It was actually quite funny hearing a rock and roll song played on the ukulele. I texted a video of what I played to my dad.

He wouldn't stop laughing.

The song I played on the ukulele was Twisted Sister "We're not going to take it"

It was very funny in my own opinion.

I hope this puts a smile on everybody's face!

Jared
 
Personally I love acoustic covers of rock songs and I've tried several on ukulele [usually my friend's baritone] and it's a lot of fun whether it sounds quite right or not.

That said, I imagine We're Not Going to Take It was a particularly weird one to hear haha.
 
Yes, it was quite weird to hear it on the ukulele. I was imagining the singing in my head, and that combined with my soprano ukulele was pretty weird.

It was also pretty funny. I might make a video of me playing that song later on today. You might enjoy it.

Jared
 
Last edited:
jnicholes said:
So, today, I did an experiment that I honestly thought was weird. I took a rock and roll song, and I played it on the ukulele. It was actually quite funny hearing a rock and roll song played on the ukulele. I texted a video of what I played to my dad.

He wouldn't stop laughing.

The song I played on the ukulele was Twisted Sister "We're not going to take it"

It was very funny in my own opinion.

I hope this puts a smile on everybody's face!

Jared
Click to expand...

There's lots of uke players who play rock. Youtube has lots of it. Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Jake Shimabukuro and others have gotten pretty famous playing rock. You can play any ol' song you want on any instrument. So rock on!
 
ubulele said:
You can, and enjoy doing it, but that doesn't mean it really works.

So often, I'm reminded of this adage: If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Click to expand...

Wow, I think we need to define rock and roll. Someone once told me I couldn't play "I don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats but I got the tabs and love playing that song. Sounds great too. Are the Beatles not rock? The Kinks? Creedence? Dylan? The Band? Van Morrison? Neil Young? I know I'm dating myself but my definition of rock includes all those and lots more. The ukulele doesn't seem well suited to amped up distorted heavy metal (not that someone couldn't) but pretty much everything else seems on the table.
 
BBegall said:
The ukulele doesn't seem well suited to amped up distorted heavy metal (not that someone couldn't) but pretty much everything else seems on the table.
Click to expand...
Right. You're not going to get good distortion on any nylon stringed acoustic instrument, but there's a lot of acoustic rock that translates directly and most everything else can be rearranged to keep the same song with different instrumentation. MTV used to showcase a lot of great acts in Unplugged. Metallica's performed a lot of their works acoustically and they could similarly be done (and have been done - tons of examples on YouTube) on ukulele.

 
Thanks for defining rock and roll. Looks like my definition was wrong. Well, you learn something new everyday!

Give me a couple of hours, because I'm busy right now, and I'll make you guys a video of me playing that song.

Jared
 
Yes! Rock and Roll is played on ukulele. My favorite band for R&R Uke is Kanekoa out of Maui Hawaii. Here is a link to a performance with Jake S. (sound quality is terrible). If you ever get a chance to see them live, you'll be rocking all night long.

Kanekoa website: http://www.kanekoaband.com/videos/
 
BBegall said:
Wow, I think we need to define rock and roll. Someone once told me I couldn't play "I don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats but I got the tabs and love playing that song. Sounds great too. Are the Beatles not rock? The Kinks? Creedence? Dylan? The Band? Van Morrison? Neil Young? I know I'm dating myself but my definition of rock includes all those and lots more. The ukulele doesn't seem well suited to amped up distorted heavy metal (not that someone couldn't) but pretty much everything else seems on the table.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure that with some pedals and distortion, heavy metal would be doable. It's amazing what you can do with those.
 
ubulele said:
It's easy to misconstrue, isn't it, particularly if you just want to jump to offense to argue and dismiss. I never said "All rock sounds crap on ukulele"—I play some myself. I just said that many songs (rock or whatever) that people play on ukulele don't really work, and I particularly had solo uke reductions in mind. There are copious examples of this.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I wasn't trying to misconstrue or argue I just though that we needed some clarification of the terms we were using. "Rock" and "Rock and Roll" contain multitudes.
 


It took awhile because I was so busy, but here you guys go!

Jared
 
Awesome rendition, Jared! I love tinkering with songs that folks normally wouldn't expect to hear with just a uke and a voice; it's a great exercise in finding and trying to stay true to the essence of the song! I had the thrill of seeing Lionel Richie in concert last night, so now I'm thinking of which of his songs might be fun to adapt to the "one-uke-one-voice" approach!
 
It really depends on whether one is attempting to recreate a literal translation of a song, or if they are presenting their own interpretation of it on a ukulele. I know that some people are quite literal and make a concerted effort to recreate a song as it was composed or performed by someone on something other than a ukulele. Some things just don't come out well that way. Others take a more creative approach to the music and present it in a more individual interpretation. I think with enough creative talent and the willingness to change things up a bit one can play anything on the ukulele.
 
@Bill Sheehan, thank you for the compliment! I appreciate it! It was quite fun to play.

@Rllink, I see what you are saying. Sometimes you do need to be creative and adapt the song.

Jared
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

jimdville
Rock n' Roll Songs @ The 3 Chord Club
Replies
0
Views
693
jimdville
jimdville
Ted4
I love rock and roll.. Solo bit
Replies
2
Views
219
Ted4
Ted4
richntacoma
Good, Private online teacher for Rock and Roll and Alternative wanted
Replies
0
Views
292
richntacoma
richntacoma
A
Any German Rock and Roll Fans Out There?
Replies
0
Views
126
Annie Nakki
A
J
Hail hail rock and roll 2.0:
Replies
0
Views
192
JJFN
J
Top Bottom