Welcome to Day 2 of ukulele doodling and today we’re going to get into the heavy stuff, well as heavy as it gets on the ukulele.
Strumming is so easy, you’re happy and the ukulele’s happy, but sometimes a good riff can bring another dimension to a song or group performance.
There are so many cool guitar riffs to choose from, and they really do sound just as good played on the ukulele! Here is the first of my three favourite ukulele riffs to get you started.
Smoke on the Water
The Riff:
This has got to be one of the most iconic riffs in the world, everyone’s heard it and the good news is that it is very easy to play on ukulele because you only need one string!
Pluck String 1 which is ‘A’ (the string furthest away from you).
‘Smoke on the Water’ ukulele tab.
Play it slowly to start with:
A (open) – C (3rd fret) – D (5th fret)
A (open) – C (3rd fret) – D# (6th fret) – D (5th fret)
A (open) – C (3rd fret) – D (5th fret)
C (3rd fret) – A (open)
Once you’ve got into the rhythm, try speeding it up a bit:
A – C – D
A – C – D# – D
A – C – D – C – A
At this point, if you have an amp, it might be a good idea to get your ukulele plugged in for the full impact 💫
The Chords:
Ukulele chords for the intro to ‘Smoke on the Water’.
We’re using chords: A, C, D and D#
For this riff, the ukulele chord progression is the same as the individual notes:
A → C → D
A → C → D# → D
A → C → D → C → A
TOP TIP: To make it extra quick and cool when I play D# here, I tend to miss that note on the first fret (A#) and just slide the whole D chord as it is, straight up to the third fret.
And Finally….
This is even more fun if you can play it in a group. We start off with the riff, build it up with single chord strums and then full whack double strumming before cooling down again to a single note riff to finish.
Have fun!
Don’t forget to get in touch with any questions and feel free to leave a comment below to share with everyone.
Happy Strumming 😊
Gill x
