The whole album that this song is from is laden with licks. In fact, it’s brimming with colourful musical language. It’s sublime and one of my favourite albums of all time. Let’s learn to play the signature riff from Paul Simons Graceland 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.
Ukulele Tabs
I have split these tabs into multiple sections in the hope that it will make them easier to understand and learn.
For the majority of this riff, you need to be using your first finger on the bottom two strings. That’s going to leave your other fingers free to hit the higher notes on the fretboard.
A|-7-7----7-7----|---7-11-9-7---|-12-12p7---11-7-|-7-7----|
E|-7-7----7-7----|-7----------7-|---------7------|-7-7----|
C|---------------|--------------|----------------|--------|
G|---------------|--------------|----------------|--------|
A|---7-11---5-9-12-12p7---|-5/7-----------------------------------------|
E|-7------5-------------7-|-5/7--7--5-4-5-7---0-5-7-9----0-9-7-5p0--4p0-|
C|------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
G|------------------------|---------------------------------------------|