I would say the album that this song is from is my favourite Paramore album. It was a gigantic leap from their early punk/emo days but its one I’m happy they made. The songs just seem so much more refined and better crafted. Let’s learn to play Hard Times on the ukulele.
What Are We Learning To Play?
Below is a video of what you will be able to play by the end of this post.Â
Ukulele Tabs
The opening riff is a great opportunity to strengthen our first finger by doing some subtle barre chords. We are placing it across the bottom two strings on the 6th fret. Use your thumb and first finger to pluck both the notes the slide up to the 8th fret to hit the next two notes. The principle is the same through the riff with a small change in which strings to pluck first. When you get to the final notes, you need to barre the 10th fret and then use your middle finger on the 11th fret of the E string.
The next part is a repeat of the first riff but an active higher with some chord strums in-between each riff. If you don’t have a low G, you can play the first riff again and put them chords in-between each riff. Lastly, we have the vocal line for the chorus.
A |---6----8-----8-----6---------6-----8-----8---10----
E |-6----8---------8-----6-----6-----8---------8----11-
C |----------------------------------------------------
G |----------------------------------------------------
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A |----------6-----------3------------6------------3--|--------9-8-|
E |----------3-----------4------------3------------4--|--4-6-8-----|
C |---3---5--3--5---3----3-----3---5--3---5---7----3--|------------|
G |-3---5----3----5---3--5---3---5----3-----5---8--5--|------------|
A |---------------------------------------------------------
E |---6-6-6-3-3-------3-----------6-6-6-3-3-------3-6-6-----
C |-5-----------5-3-5---5-3-6-3-------------5-3-5-------6-5-
G |---------------------------------------------------------
A |-----3-------------------------------
E |-6-6---6-3-3-------3-----------------
C |-------------5-3-5---5-3---6-5---6-3-
G |-------------------------------------
