Easy and Fun-Songs to play

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Blisters_left

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Hello UUers,

as I found, there are many people asking for easy and funny songs to play for beginners, so I thought I'd share my "playlist" - I bought my first uke in January and started from zero to learn chords and songs...
This is, what I can play so far:

-Tom Dooley
-Achy breaky heart
-Leaving on a Jetplane
-Fireflies (Owl City)
-I'm your's (Jason Mraz)
-Hey Soul Sister (Train)
-Friday I'm in love (The cure)
-Down on the corner (CCR)
-Bubbly (Colbie Caillat)
-Count on me (Bruno Mars)
-B*tch (Meredith Brooks, funny strum pattern...)
-Torn (Natalie Imbruglia)
-The Gambler (Kenny Rogers)
-I will follow you into the dark (Death cab for cutie)
-You and me (in my Pocket) - (Milow)
-Walking on sunshine (Katrina & the waves, learned from Ukulele Mike)
-Marry you (Bruno Mars)
-Just the way you are (Bruno Mars - seems to be uke-friendly *lol*)


These are the songs I can play (and sing) so far, and I can play them whenever I'm asked to play something....

If somebody else wants to share his or her beginner-friendly songs (few, easy chords, no Bb or E, no difficult strum-patterns) maybe we could create a collection of new ideas what to learn just to jam around without having to learn a lot more chords or difficult patterns ???

Hope you enjoy my little collection... :)

Aloha,
B_L
 
Without wishing to spam with my competition - go to the competition boards also and look at the Ukestar strap competition - the list of songs growing in the comments (which enters to the competion) is staggering and should provide masses of inspiration to new ukers also. Very interesting to see what people play!

Great list above btw.

For record - my favourite EASY songs to play

Big Rock Candy Mountain
Ring Of Fire

Both DEAD simple and chords easily found with a quick Google
 
Banana Pancakes is lovely :D

Also, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Scream And Run Away (for those who know Count Olaf), and Somewhere Over The Rainbow :eek:
 
AC/DC
Highway to Hell
Shook Me
A,D,G
What I like about you - Romantics
G,D,G,C
R.O.C.K in the USA - Mellancamp
D,G,C,A
 
Jerry Jeff Walker's "Sangria Wine." Just C, F and G... And the same thing with "Gypsy Songman"
 
Apologize by One Republic- you can do a really cool version that goes Am, F, C, G and if you add in palm mutes and chunking it sounds quite dramatic :D
 
I never played an uke before, i'm wating for mine to arrive. But i watched a lot of tutorials on youtube and i would go for 'somewhere over the rainbow', it's seens to be a very easy song with an awesome sound...
 
Blisters_left said:
Hello UUers,

as I found, there are many people asking for easy and funny songs to play for beginners, so I thought I'd share my "playlist" - I bought my first uke in January and started from zero to learn chords and songs...
This is, what I can play so far:

-Tom Dooley
-Achy breaky heart
-Leaving on a Jetplane
-Fireflies (Owl City)
-I'm your's (Jason Mraz)
-Hey Soul Sister (Train)
-Friday I'm in love (The cure)
-Down on the corner (CCR)
-Bubbly (Colbie Caillat)
-Count on me (Bruno Mars)
-B*tch (Meredith Brooks, funny strum pattern...)
-Torn (Natalie Imbruglia)
-The Gambler (Kenny Rogers)
-I will follow you into the dark (Death cab for cutie)
-You and me (in my Pocket) - (Milow)
-Walking on sunshine (Katrina & the waves, learned from Ukulele Mike)
-Marry you (Bruno Mars)
-Just the way you are (Bruno Mars - seems to be uke-friendly *lol*)


These are the songs I can play (and sing) so far, and I can play them whenever I'm asked to play something....

If somebody else wants to share his or her beginner-friendly songs (few, easy chords, no Bb or E, no difficult strum-patterns) maybe we could create a collection of new ideas what to learn just to jam around without having to learn a lot more chords or difficult patterns ???

Hope you enjoy my little collection... :)

Aloha,
B_L
Click to expand...

Wow. That is an impressive list. Can I ask you if you are just strumming the chords or also fingering the melody? Did you play guitar before?

I took my learning on the uke by a different path mainly because I can't seem to learn complete songs fast enough. That's changing after playing uke for about a year. I also had no string experience.

I only ask these questions as there may be other slow learners like me who I don't want to get discouraged because it sometimes feels like there are rocket ship uke players and people like me, just crawling.
 
I've been playing my uke for around two months now and like yourself I'd say I'm learning slowly (gettting to know chords and then applying these to songs). Sure it's difficult at times, but the main thing is I really enjoy it and everytime I take my uke out of the case and start playing or practicing I end up smiling! It's also a great chill out activity after work!
 
@SuzukHammer (hope I got your Nick right):

I'm not fingerpicking the melodies - There are some songs where I figured out little picking parts in between the verse and the chorus for example, but not the whole melody.

I'm mostly strumming the chords but I love to try out new strum patterns or use different ones through the song - BUT I spent hours per day on practising because I've been off work for a longer time and had lots of time...and: these songs only need a few chords.... ;-)

I never played any instrument before - and I'm sure I'm far away from playing these songs "perfect" but they are recognizable and I've lots of fun singing and playing them....

I'm sure if I took more time I would play not so many songs more "perfect" but I've so much fun just jamming around singing and playing that I go well with not being perfect...

So I think everybody has his/her individual pace to go through learning....

Regards,
B_L
 
@ Blisters,

Thanks.

I too have been off work lately and seen an increase in my ukulele skills and loving it.

I spend lots of my time studying music theory and trying to know the whole instrument. I felt that learning strumming last was going to be ok with me and I'm doing more strumming lately because I know more chords.

I am surprised how much I have to practice new strums - and strumming techniques but on the whole strumming seems the fastest method to learn songs quickly. I Just go to those strumming sessions and its easy to pick up tunes.
 
My new favorite on the uke is "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue". It just screams: ukulele!
 
I have trouble with some of the songs listed. For some reason Ring of Fire doesn't sound right. I can play it and I can sing it but when I put the two together. It doesn't sound right.

I don't have any songs memorized, but there are several I can play as long as the chords are in front of me.

I really get a kick out of Wild Rover (I sing it with an accent).

I'm also big on the ballads because you can strum a chord, then, strum the next, then, strum the next, each only one time, makes it very easy. (I guess you could do this with almost every song, strum each chord only once which would really simplify everything)

Hey Jude, I Can't Help Falling in Love, Edelweis

There are some camp songs that are just one finger songs, The Song that Never Ends, Grand Old Duke of York each have two chords that you only need one finger to fret.
 
I am learning Down on the Corner by CCR. The chords are easy. EASY. But its that bass line that is taking some days to get down. I am using a Low G tuning setup.
 
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