Chords for Ukulele Beatles Lesson “Kansas City”

A one, two, [G] three.
_ _ [C] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [G] _ Hey everybody, thanks for watching.
Today we're gonna learn a great rock and roll riff
and a 12 bar blues rockabilly song
that the Beatles made famous,
Kansas City, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey.
There's a song sheet for this that includes the riff.
It's for free.
It's on my website store.
So please go pick it up,
StuFugues.com slash store,
pick up [Em] your copy, come back,
and we'll get into the lesson.
_ [G] _ _ [Cm] _ _
_ _ _ _ Hey everybody, thanks for watching Ukulele Zen,
the channel that's all about helping you
to learn to play music in a way
that's very fun and relaxing.
If you dig this video,
hope you'll subscribe to the channel,
give this video a thumbs up
and share it with your friends.
Kansas City is a rhythm and blues song
that was written in 1952 by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stroller.
It's been recorded by Little Richard.
It was first recorded by Little Willie Littlefield,
but the most famous version is from 1964.
And that's the one that the Beatles played.
Today, we're gonna learn the riff,
some nuances of how to get that awesome strumming sound
and some tips on how to make it feel easier
for your practice.
So the main riff for Kansas City is played in this way.
You play the melody notes with a thumb,
then you can play triplets by strumming.
And then it's followed by a three chord turnaround
using this dominant seventh [C#] shape.
[D] _ Let me play it for you.
And then I'm gonna break down a few things
you can do with the triplets.
A one, two, [G] three. _
_ [C] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [C#] _ [D] _ So the triplet is breaking the time into three parts.
[D#] Triplet, triplet, triplet, triplet, triplet, triplet,
triplet, triplet.
Recently, I made a video on triplet strumming
that uses this motion for the [G] triplet.
There are many ways to play a triplet.
One of them is to simply continue to strum down and up.
Triplet, triplet, triplet, triplet.
That's what I was just doing.
_ _ _ [C] _ _
If you use this kind of triplet,
then you're gonna notice that the beginning
of each triplet is gonna alternate in direction.
So it'll first begin with a down, triplet,
and then up, triplet.
Triplet, triplet, triplet, triplet.
Another really cool way to play triplets
is to do this pattern.
Now this is a little more challenging,
but ultimately, I think this is a really cool sound.
And it will train your wrist to be very floppy and fast
for other strumming techniques.
It's going tri-pa-let, tri-pa-let.
So it's down, up, down, down, up, down.
[E] The third part of the triplet is just a little touch.
If I use this approach, it has a slightly different [G] sound.
_ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ [N]
When we play through the tune at the very end of the video,
you're gonna notice I do all kinds of triplets.
Down and up, down, up, down, down, up, down, down.
And also this triplet.
All right, so we've gone over the riff,
talked a little bit about triplets.
Let's get into the boogie strum.
This is a 12-bar blues form with a quick four change.
That means [G] we're gonna go from G [Em] to C7
and [G] back to G. _ _ _
_ _ [C] Here's C7, [Gm] _
_ _ [C] back [G] to G.
_ _ _ Here comes [D] D7, _ _ [C] _ C7, _ [G] G. _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ And you can see that I put that little turnaround
of the bar chords [G] at the end.
So what's happening in the boogie woogie line?
Well, what you're doing, as I've said
in a couple of other videos,
is you're adding a movable baseline to your chord.
This creates a lot of interest,
and you can use this in a lot of different styles as well.
When you're playing the G chord,
I recommend that you not angle the fingers too far this way
because then it's very hard to reach this way
with your pinky.
You're gonna want the fingers to be parallel,
and always, always take the zen approach
and make sure your hand is soft.
You don't wanna be squeezing too much. _ _
All right, that's what you do for a G chord.
For the C7 chord, you can [E] put the boogie notes here,
_ [Am] _ _
or you could use these notes on the fourth string.
_ [C] _
_ _ [G#] For the D7 chord, we're gonna add the ring finger
[E] right here to the fourth fret.
_ _ [D] _
_ _ Now that we've gone over some of the details of the riff
and some of the boogie woogie notes
[G] that you can add to the chords,
let's talk about some rhythmic nuances.
What gives this more drive,
and how can you make it a little more exciting?
One thing you can do is you can add chord slides. _
_ _ _ _ _
See how I slid into the chord from one fret below?
I have a whole video of this
on my YouTube channel, Ukulelez Zen.
Let's play the song together.
First thing you wanna do
is establish yourself in steady time.
Use a metronome and practice
staying in time with the metronome,
and make sure that you always, always count in
before you begin.
That sets up the time.
One, two, ready?
One, two, three.
♪ _ [C] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [G] _ Kansas City, [C]
gonna get my baby [G] back home, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ [C] I'm going to Kansas City, gonna get my baby [G] back home ♪ _
♪ [D] It's been a long, long time [C] since my girl [G] been gone ♪
[D] _ [G] ♪ Kansas [C] City, gonna get my baby [G] on time, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ [C] Ah, Kansas City, _ get my baby [G] back on time ♪ _
_ [D] ♪ It's just a one, [C] two, three, four, five, [G] six, seven, eight, nine ♪ _
[D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ [G] _ [A] _ _ _
[G] _ _ [C] _ [E] _ _ [C] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _
I hope you have fun playing this song with your friends.
There's a free song sheet on my website,
StuFuchs.com slash store.
It's on the right-hand side, free tabs and goodies.
Thanks for watching.
Hope you'll subscribe and share this video
with your friends and give it a thumbs up.
I look forward to seeing