Sunny - Bobby Hebb (Patreon)
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Make sure you download the backing tracks. One is just the bass and drums, the other has the melody to play along with.
Today I am going to teach you how to play "Sunny" by Bobby Hepp. The song changes key 3 times for a total of 4 different keys in the song, each time going up a half step and speeding up the tempo. To make it more approachable for a levels I have done a basic version and theyn show you what that looks like through the two verses. If barre chords are too much for you, the singing gets to high or you are just the kind of person that isn't a big fan of key changes then you can just play the simpler version for all 5 verses. If you are a fan of the original song and you want to learn to play it exactly like Bobby does but on the Ukulele, you are in luck, you can do that, too.
The first verse of this song is just a bass guitar, there is no guitar or any other harmonic instrument for that matter. All of the harmony is implied by the bass and the voice. Because it is such a big part of the song I tabbed out the bass riff for the ukulele. That way you can learn it and sing with it, you can see how it implies the chords, you can jam it with a friend and play it over the chords he is playing. After learning how to play it what you do with it is really up to you. We don't hear a guitar until the second verse and then we finally do it it is just chips, meaning quick staccato stabs on the 2 and the 4. For that reason when it came time to build a strum pattern I decided to do something that would be more fun and easier to play and sing at the same time on the ukulele by listening to the bass again and building the strum pattern around the bass groove.
Will Improve
Strum patterns based on the bass groove
Bass grooves played on Ukulele
Melody in E minor
Barre chords
Key changes
Muted scratch strums
Chromatic melody lines