Laid by James Ukulele Lesson/Tutorial

While I’m on a bit of a Ukulele binge I thought this was a pretty good song for anyone learning to play.

I’ve got a lot of time for this song as it was pretty much part of the soundtrack to my uni days. Oh and here’s a little known Tim Booth (lead singer of James) fact. He was in Batman Begins. Seriously.

The Chords

You’ll only need 3 chords to play through the whole song – C, G and F.

There’s a bit of a variation on the C chord that needs a little working out as it kind of sneaks in on an upstroke but once it’s in your brain it sticks. See if you can work out how to add it in by ear. If you need a little extra help though watch the video below.

The Rhythm

This is pretty difficult to write down with the chord changes mid-strum. But here goes…

DUDU-U-U

This pattern covers the C chord and it’s variation, before switching to the next pattern for the G chord that follows. To play the slight variation on the C take the standard ukulele C chord and add your first finger to fret 1 of the second string for the second up strum only.

-UD-DUDU

That whole sequence repeats 3 times before switching to the F chord for one bar and then G for a bar. Just play pumping 8s for both bars…

DDDDDDDD

That’s it, just keep repeating through both sequences for the whole song!