Chords for Postcards From Italy - Beirut (Ukulele Tutorial)

Hello, it's me, the ukulele teacher, here to teach you how to play Postcards from Italy by Beirut.
So, grab your uke, _ make sure it's in tune, _ [Ab] and get ready to play Postcards from Italy.
Now this is basically a [G] song of two halves.
For about the first two minutes of the song,
this pattern is repeated all the [F] way through. _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Gb] Now that is repeated over and over again for
about the first [G] two minutes of the song until the trumpets kick in towards the end.
It sounds pretty complicated but it's actually very, very simple.
Let me break it down for you and show you exactly how to play it.
It is [N] just two basic chords and once you know them, it'll really help you with the song.
The two chords you'll need are the chords of F and A, and the good news is they're both easy
and very, very similar.
To play the chord of F, put your first finger on the first fret of the
second string and your second finger on the second fret of the fourth string.
F [F] should sound like
this.
_ _ [F] Now to play the chord of A, all you need to do is move your first finger from the first fret
of the second string up to the first fret of the third string and A should sound [A] like this.
_ _ [Db] So it's just a very small change from F to A.
And once you've got those two chords down,
you have got most of the first half of the song.
The first part of the pattern [D] goes like this.
[F] _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] Now all you need to do for this is get the chord of F, lift up your second finger with your left
hand, pluck the fourth string with your thumb and quickly hammer your second finger back [D] on to the
second fret like [A] this.
_ _ _ [Em] So you're plucking the string once but you're getting two notes out [D] of
it like this. _
_ _ So with the F, hammer on [C] and then strum up, down, up with your right hand.
So you've
got [G] the hammer on _ [C]
and then a quick up, down, up strum with your right hand.
_ [Gb] Hammer on, [D] up, down, [F] up.
_ Hammer on, up, down, up.
_ [Em] For the first part of the riff you [A] play that three times.
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [E] Then you've got the bit that goes.
[A] _ _ [G] All you've got to do with your first finger is just push it flat
onto the first [Bbm] string and _ then [Am] lift it off again.
[Eb] Then with your third finger, put it on the third
fret of the [Db] second string and then play the open first [Am] string again like this.
[G] I'm going to take
my fingers off completely and show you exactly what notes you're playing.
You're playing the
first fret of the first string, [Bbm] _ _ the open [A] first string, _ the third fret of the second string
and the open string again of the [F] first string like this.
[A] _ _
_ _ _ _ But the good thing is if you've got the F
down you [N] don't really have to move your fingers that much on the left hand.
You can just roll your
first finger over to the first fret of the [G] first string, _ lift it up [Am] again, put [Db] your third finger
onto the third fret [G] of the second string and then play that open [A] first string again.
_ Let's put it all together.
Hammer on, [F] up, down, up.
_ [A] Hammer on, up, [F] down, up.
Hammer [F] on, up, down, up.
First [C] fret, first [Gm] string, _ [A] open string.
_ Third fret, second string, [G] _ _
first string, open.
_ Let's play the
whole thing through slowly. _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [F] Now you've got that down, that's half of that riff.
The second half is almost
exactly the same except you slide from the F to the A.
So you just move your first finger up one
string.
But the riff is exactly the same.
You've still got [E] the hammer on, _ still got [A] the up, down, up
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Am] _
and you've still got the [F] one, [C] open, three, [Ab] open.
So let's play the riff [G] with the A chord.
Hammer on,
up, [Ab] down, up.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] One, open, three, [A] open. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ Let's put the whole thing together and play the whole riff
slowly.
Start on the [F] F, _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ [A] _ _
move to the A, _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Gm] move back to [F] the F, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ move back to the A. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] Now that might take
you a little bit of time to practice it but once you've got it down that is the first half of the
song.
Now let's move on to the second half.
The second half of the song is a lot easier.
There's
just four chords and it's just strumming.
The four chords you'll need are the chords of Bb, F, Dm and C.
Let me show you them quickly now.
To play Bb, bar the first two strings with your first finger on
the first fret.
Put your second finger on the second fret of the third string and your third
finger on the third fret of the fourth string.
This is the chord of [Bb] Bb.
_ _ [Gb] You should already know
the chord of F from the first half of the song.
To play [Dm] Dm just add your third finger to the second
fret of the third string from F.
[G] So there's just one string difference from F [F] to [Dm] Dm.
[Gb] And the fourth
chord is the chord of C which you should already know.
You just put your third finger on the first
fret of the first string.
[C] _ So those four chords in the second half of the [Bb] song are Bb, [F] F, _ [Dm] Dm, [C] C.
Now the strumming pattern [Gb] does alter a little bit throughout the song but let me give you [C] an
easy-ish version for you to [Bb] play.
_ _ [F] _ _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
Now [F] the strumming pattern that I'm playing there is just down, down,
up, down, down, down, [C] up, down, down, up, down.
[F] So you can break it into three parts.
Down, down, up, down,
down, [D] down, up, down, down, up, down.
Let me show you [Bb] slowly.
Down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down,
down.
_ [F] Down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, [Dm] down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, [C] down, down, up, down.
Down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, down, up, [Bb] down. _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
And you just play the [G] Bb, the F, the Dm,
and the C over and over again.
And that is the second half of the song.
Now you've got the two
halves of the song.
Put them [Ab] together and that's how to play Postcards from Italy by Beirut.
I've
I've been the Ukulele Teacher.
If you have any requests for future lessons, let me know in the comments [Gb] below.