Here’s a really simple chord melody arrangement for the nursery rhyme Row, Row, Row your boat. It makes for a nice introduction to the world of chord melodies and should be familiar enough to your ears so that you know if you’re playing it right or not.
The Tab…
The tab is really simple – if you can play a C and a even half of a D on a ukulele then you’re going to have no problems at all. For the first two bars you actually only need to fret a single note (that’s a pretty gentle start).
Playing Tips
As ever, start slowly – it isn’t the fastest song in the world anyway so you can totally take it at your own pace. In terms of how to play it, you can probably get away with only using your thumb to strum and pick the notes although I’d recommend finding your own way here – I seem to play it slightly differently every time I pick up my ukulele.
Lyrics
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
If you see a crocodile,
Don’t forget to scream.
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Throw your teacher overboard
And listen to her scream.