A Beginner's Ukulele Resource Kit

“The Curse” by Josh Ritter

This song, this video, hits my melancholy / Nick Drake / happy bone — big time. Liam Hurley’s puppet & set designs compliment this sparse, moody work.

Happily, it’s in 3/4 time (waltz) and is easy to play fairly convincingly on the ukulele with a “strum-pluck-pluck” pattern (ONE-two-three). Play that pattern twice per chord. Heck, tt’s only four (basic) chords, too:

F, Dm, Am, C

Josh appeared on Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson — the segment is definitely worth a listen. The video of him playing live demonstrates his strum-pluck pattern nicely. (a big fan of Studio 360, I’d be remiss if I failed to encourage you to subscribe to their podcast — and support WNYC, too). 

Visit Josh Ritter’s site for free music downloads and info on his latest effort — a novel.

(by dougrice)